Prince George's County Public Schools To Open 6 New Schools In 2023-2024

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Six new schools will be opening for the 2023-2024 school year within the Prince George's County Public Schools. The schools are being built in just 2.5 years through the Alternative Construction Finance program, also known as the Blueprint Schools Program, an innovative public-private partnership being used to accelerate new school construction in Prince George’s County.

PGCPS is the first public kindergarten through 12th grade school system in the nation to utilize the approach to design, build, finance and maintain a school construction program in an effort to address its aging school infrastructure, school officials noted.

"Under the normal school construction process, it would take at least 12 years to build six new school buildings, but we knew that our children could not wait that long. In fact, I visited the old Drew-Freeman Middle School in 2020 to emphasize what the ACF plan would mean for our children. We stood in the cafeteria of a crumbling, deteriorating building and the urgency of providing new school buildings for our children was made clear. We promised that we would push through and get this done for them. Today, I was extremely proud to stand in the cafeteria of the new Drew-Freeman Middle School and say that we have delivered six new schools this year, just as we promised we would," Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said Monday.

Alsobrooks toured the new Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland with Prince George’s County Public Schools Superintendent Millard House II and members of his team.

"This day has been a long time coming. We know that greatness grows in this county and we have shown our support for our children in many ways. However, when it came to our school buildings, for too long our words didn’t lead to results. For years, our children have had to attend school in some of the oldest buildings in the state of Maryland," Alsobrooks added.

The first phase of the ACF program includes the design, construction, financing and maintenance of five middle schools and one pre-kindergarten through 8th grade school in the county. The six schools include: Drew-Freeman Middle School in Suitland; Hyattsville Middle School; Kenmoor Middle School in Landover; Sonia Sotomayor Middle School in Adelphi; Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights; and Colin L. Powell Academy in Fort Washington. These six schools total 8,000 new seats for PGCPS students.

“We are excited to open six new schools this fall, providing state-of-the-art buildings conducive to learning for our students and staff,” Alsobrooks said. “When I took office, we had to find an innovative approach to address our school construction backlog. We’re proud that the first phase of this program has proven successful and delivered six new schools at record speed. We’re also proud that this school construction program is creating generational wealth by supporting our local and minority-owned businesses and our local unions. Overall, we’ve broken ground on 10 new schools in the past three years and look forward to breaking ground on even more new schools through the second phase of the ACF program.”

The total funding for the first phase of the ACF program was $395.1 million with a 30 percent minority business enterprise participation requirement. Of the total funding, $128.3 million, or 32.5 percent, went to MBEs, exceeding the MBE requirement. The school system also was able to incorporate labor union participation through multiple contracts as part of the ACF program.

“This building should be the standard for every school in Prince George’s County,” said House. “Our students cannot afford to wait for fully modernized buildings. The learning costs and opportunity costs are incalculable. The Blueprint Schools program is a model for other states and school districts across the country.”

Under the ACF program, in addition to designing, building and financing the new schools, the developer must also maintain them for 30 years. The service/maintenance period also includes a 30 percent MBE requirement. The requirements during this 30-year maintenance period include meeting 48 key performance indicators, joint technical reviews, performance failure deductions, developer-retained responsibilities, handback inspections and a full system refresh.

“We’re grateful to have helped Prince George’s County Public Schools realize its transformative vision in delivering a bundle of six schools through this first-of-its-kind public-private partnership,” said Mac Bell, managing director, infrastructure investments, with Fengate. “We’re proud to have helped create a lasting legacy not only with the physical school buildings but through the impact of building relationships and working with such a strong bench of local and minority businesses.”

Each of the new schools under the ACF program are equipped with science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) labs (3-D printers, etchers, robotics); a video production studio; smart boards in every classroom; voice amplification systems; parent resource rooms; community clinics; media centers; state-of-the-art dance, choral, orchestra, drama, and band rooms; state-of-the-art kitchens; art studios; a gymnatorium (stage in gym); multipurpose fields, and more. Each new school is also solar and electric vehicle (EV) charging ready, with solar installation anticipated by fall 2024.

Hyattsville Middle School also will be equipped with a black box theater to support its Creative and Performing Arts Program and Colin Powell Academy will feature an elementary library, four pre-kindergarten classrooms, an auxiliary gym and innovation lab.