Students and families crowded into the Howard County Public School System’s Board of Education room at the end of last month, holding signs and wearing school T-shirts to help make their case for renovations at the school to become a priority for funding.

Some held signs stating: “Honor Your Vote, Replace Dunloggin Middle School,” and “Centennial High School 2036 Capital Improvement Too Long to Wait,” others displayed pictures of fallen ceiling tiles in the Bryant Woods Elementary School cafeteria.

Testimony included stories of overcrowding, ceilings falling apart, broken HVAC systems and other issues shared by community members from Bryant Woods Elementary, Patapsco Middle, Centennial High and Oakland Mills middle and high schools.

But most of those present were there to represent Dunloggin Middle School in Ellicott City.

“Dunloggin Middle School is falling apart,” student Alexandra Nellius said at the Sept. 26 Board of Education meeting. She shared stories of finding crickets inside the school, fights happening due to crowded hallways and the distraction of listening to band practice so close to her classroom. Other students and parents shared concerns about walking outside to portable classrooms, the lack of windows in the building, and that bathrooms are serving 54 students per toilet.

“In the end, students need a better education and school, one without rodents and insects,” student Aden Oxenreider said at the meeting. “An education without band classes having to be split apart; an education where students can see the outside environment from their classroom; an education where lots of students can safely move around the classroom during certain activities.”

The push to renovate and replace Dunloggin Middle School, which had its last major renovation and addition in 1999, has been ongoing for years as the project has faced various delays.

“In April of 2023 my older son, who was a seventh grader at Dunloggin at the time, and I left with happy tears because the board voted to replace Dunloggin Middle School. In September, I came back in frustration because Dunloggin was removed from the list, and now I’m back again wondering why I have to beg to get a school that meets the basic needs of our children,” Cheryl Zaron said at the meeting, her third time speaking to the board on the matter.

The Howard County Board of Education voted to fund full replacement buildings for Dunloggin and Oakland Mills middle schools in April 2023, rather than renovations and additions that were previously scheduled. Then in September 2023, the board decided to fund renovations and additions for both schools instead. Three months later, the board pushed renovations for Dunloggin to 2026, while projects for Oakland Mills Middle remained in the fiscal 2025 budget.

The board’s capital budget for fiscal 2026, passed on Sept. 26, includes an estimated $10 million request of Built to Learn funding from the state for renovations and additions to Oakland Mills. The board also included a funding request for Dunloggin Middle, with a renovation and addition project anticipated for fiscal 2027.

With limited funding, there is a “major concern” for how the school board chooses to delegate available fund for capital improvement, Dunloggin Middle School PTA President Karen Biederman said at the meeting. There has been “unexplained switching” in project rank order while Dunloggin is at the top of the deferred maintenance and unfunded capital projects lists, Biederman said.

“The BOE does not earn the capital improvement money, the taxpayers in this room fund it, all of us in this room,” Biederman said. “Request more funding to match the Build to Learn funds. There are 78 schools in this county, we cannot afford to only uplift one community. Spread the resources to support all the kids.”

Others raised concerns about the ranking of projects, calling on the school board to use objective data when deciding which projects receive priority. Daniel Lubeley, executive director of capital planning and construction for HCPSS, said the school system is working on criteria for the prioritization process.

“Clearly we still have the issue, and communities say they are unfairly treated,” at-large board member Linfeng Chen said at the meeting. “I said many times, we really need a fair ranking, objective ranking, a way everybody can accept.”

As board members hashed out concerns and suggestions for the budget, District 1 board member Robyn Scates advocated for funding a private-public partnership study to determine prioritization of school projects, which did not receive support from other board members.

“Our buildings are falling apart and it is not right to try to play communities against each other,” Scates said. “Every child matters, and we want to make sure that every child has a safe space that they can operate and learn in, and also our educators as well. Everybody deserves that.”

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