Montgomery County’s School Infrastructure Crisis: Fixing the Basics Before Funding the Buzzwords

On September 8, Montgomery County Public Schools officials Andrea Swiatocha, DJ Connelly, and Julie Morristo led a public briefing on the district’s six-year Capital Improvements Program (CIP), the plan meant to guide upgrades, expansions, and replacements across Maryland’s largest school system.

At first glance, the plan is polished: new data dashboards, the freshly launched Facility Condition Index (FCI), and talk of transparency and “shared ownership.” But underneath the jargon, the story is depressingly familiar. Montgomery County is sitting on a massive backlog of crumbling schools, busted HVAC systems, leaky roofs, mold, and plumbing failures. Parents don’t need another round of buzzwords—they need functioning classrooms.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

• Nearly two-thirds of MCPS schools are more than 25 years old.
• HVAC systems across the district require an estimated $140 million in replacement costs—today’s dollars, not tomorrow’s inflated construction market.
• Roof replacements will demand another $175 million.
• To catch up, the county would need to replace 10 HVAC systems per year—but has only been managing about five.

Meanwhile, parents are left sending their kids to schools with broken air conditioning, portable dehumidifiers humming in classrooms, and mold mitigation orders left to “work orders” rather than immediate action.

The Equity vs. Reality Gap

The CIP presentation was full of the usual Montgomery County buzzwords: “equity,” “sustainability,” and “inclusive learning environments.” But the parents who spoke up during the meeting weren’t asking about “equity frameworks.” They wanted to know when their children’s classrooms would stop leaking, when the heat and AC would work, and when dangerous mold would finally be cleaned up.

Take Damascus Elementary, where electrical problems and failing plumbing are band-aided with temporary fixes. Or Flower Valley Elementary, where kids are learning alongside noisy, inefficient dehumidifiers while officials “study” the humidity problem. Or New Hampshire Estates, where mold concerns keep popping back up despite past mitigation efforts.

Parents deserve straight answers and urgent action—not another 20-year “life-cycle plan” that kicks the can down the road.

The Funding Problem

The county’s primary funding sources are local bonds and state money capped at around $40 million a year. Unsurprisingly, the demand far outpaces what Annapolis will ever send back. Meanwhile, MCPS is “monitoring” Prince George’s County’s experiment with public-private partnerships (P3s), but there’s little appetite for real fiscal innovation.

For a county that prides itself on progressive governance, Montgomery County’s school facilities reveal just how unserious the leadership has been about core responsibilities. New programs and social-justice initiatives have flourished, while basic building maintenance has been deferred for decades.

A Call for Priorities

Taxpayers have every right to ask: why are billions flowing into flashy “Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” programs, while kids still sit in classrooms with failing HVAC? Why is “green space” planning even on the table when roofs are leaking?

Montgomery County’s leaders have a choice. They can continue down the road of PowerPoints, buzzwords, and 20-year promises. Or they can do what parents actually want: put first things first. Fix the HVAC. Fix the roofs. Fix the plumbing.

Until then, the CIP remains less a “Capital Improvements Program” and more a “Capital Ignoring Parents” program.