Prince George's County Board of Education holds public hearing on Brandywine boundary plan; new K–8 campus to open in 2027

Prince George's County Board of Education members held a special virtual public hearing Thursday, April 17, 2025, to gather input on a superintendent-led boundary proposal for the Brandywine attendance area that would reconfigure grade assignments and school facilities ahead of a planned board vote on April 24.

The proposal, presented by boundary supervisor Rhianna McCarter and planning staff, would keep the current Brandywine Elementary building as a prekindergarten through second-grade campus and open a new Brandywine third-through-eighth-grade academy on the Gwen Park Middle School site in fall 2027. Superintendent House and operations staff said the plan was designed to respond to rapid local housing growth, constrained Blueprint 2 program funding and projected enrollment increases in the Brandywine area.

School officials said Brandywine Elementary experienced a recent surge in enrollment that prompted a temporary move of kindergarten students to Baden Elementary; staff said kindergarten will continue to be housed at Baden for the 2025–26 and 2026–27 school years. The district projects combined enrollment for the three affected attendance areas at about 1,650 students when the new academy opens, but said the reduced square footage in the Blueprint 2 package lowered the planned academy capacity to roughly 1,500 seats, leaving an estimated 300-seat deficit on day one of opening.

Rhianna McCarter, supervisor of the boundary department, summarized housing and enrollment trends for the Brandywine area, saying about 1,600 single-family homes and townhouses and a 270-unit apartment building have been built in the past decade, and the district anticipates another roughly 1,400 single-family/townhome units and 1,300 multifamily units over the next seven to ten years. McCarter noted that multifamily units historically produced a lower yield of school-age children in this area.

"In order to ameliorate the overcrowding at Brandywine, a decision was made to relocate the kindergarten classes from Brandywine Elementary to Baden Elementary," McCarter said. She described the district's review of multiple configurations after budget-driven reductions in the Blueprint 2 program led planners to adopt a lower/upper school concept rather than consolidating three buildings into a single 2,000-seat K–8 facility as originally envisioned.

Dr. Sharaska Coleman, the district's chief operating officer, told the board the new third-through-eighth building will be sited at Gwen Park Middle School and that Gwen Park will be demolished to accommodate the new facility. She said Baden Elementary's future use remains under determination but that the district expects to surplus the Baden building back to county government while the adjoining public library would likely remain in service.

Transportation staff told the board the reconfiguration could allow route consolidation—reducing the number of stops as the district moves from three schools to two—but said there is no anticipated instructional change because curriculum offerings will remain the same at the receiving schools. The presentation and boundary maps were posted on the district's Boundary webpage, and the district provided an email contact for comments.

Board member Walker thanked district staff for their outreach, saying the team had provided extensive communications and both in-person and virtual meetings for affected residents in District 9. "I just wanted to thank the team for their continued communications by way of this program," Walker said, adding that she looked forward to continued community participation in design meetings.

There were no public commenters during the hearing; the meeting was adjourned at 5:49 p.m. The board is scheduled to vote on the boundary proposal at its April 24 meeting. The district posted the presentation and additional materials on the Boundary webpage and invited written comments by email ahead of the vote.