A new elementary school could be coming to the Fort Meade area within three years, school officials say.
The Anne Arundel school board on Wednesday approved a feasibility study that would start the process of planning for a new school that would replace Pershing Hill and West Meade elementary schools.
“This [would be] a state-of-the-art, unbelievable facility,” said board member Tricia Johnson. “I expect the community will be very happy about it.”
Both schools need major renovations. Both, for example, need more room for their special-education, music and media-center departments, according to architectural documents.
Superintendent Kevin Maxwell said a major reason behind the idea is significant cost savings.
“It would give us a savings of about $7 million to $8 million for building this replacement school as opposed to replacing [each of] the other schools,” said Alex Szachnowicz, the school system?s chief facility officer. It would cost approximately $42 million to replace both schools, as opposedto a $34 million price tag for the new Fort Meade elementary school, he said.
Exact details are yet to be determined, but the project would take about 21 months to complete, Szachnowicz said. The new building?s proposed location is on current Pershing Hill Elementary property, adjacent to Rockenback Road.
Board members, including Eugene Peterson and Enrique Melendez, generally were in favor of the project, but had concerns the proposed 733-student capacity school would be underused. There are about 200 students at Pershing and 375 at West Meade elementaries, Szachnowicz said.
School officials, though, said they took into account an anticipated rise in population from the military?s Base Realignment and Closure.
“We?re expecting 360 families on post soon,” said Chuck Yocum, a school system specialist in demographic planning. “Now, will we get 150 [students] to fill the building -? I don?t know.”
