St. Mary's County Public Schools presents 10-year facilities master plan emphasizing HVAC, roofs and water systems

St. Mary's County Public Schools officials outlined a 10-year educational facilities master plan on Aug. 11 that prioritizes systemic infrastructure projects — primarily HVAC, roofs and water/sewer systems — as the first step toward state school construction funding.

Kim Howe, director of the Department of Capital Planning for St. Mary's County Public Schools, told the Planning Commission that the master plan is “the first step in our process to obtaining school construction funding for projects.” She described the document as an “identification of needs” that feeds the state and local capital improvement programs and supports grant requests.

The plan, developed from maintenance records, state assessments and 10-year enrollment projections, emphasizes life-cycle replacement work. Howe said the county is focused on replacing short‑lived components first — for example, chillers and rooftop units — while pursuing opportunities to secure state grants and other funding. She noted the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC) conducts periodic assessments and that many systems in district schools are approaching the end of their useful lives.

Howe summarized the school‑system capacity analysis: enrollment has been essentially flat in recent years, with declines in elementary and middle grades since the COVID-19 pandemic and only modest changes at the high school level. She said that, because the state’s school construction program requires half the future student body to be in place (often in relocatable classrooms) before a district can successfully request a new building, current enrollment patterns do not support new major CIP projects at this time.

Howe reviewed a multi‑year schedule of renovation and replacement projects the district is prioritizing. The immediate focus is securing remaining funds for the Choctaw County High School HVAC/roof/multi‑system renovation and advancing an HVAC systemic renovation at Esperanza Middle School into FY27–28. She said the district historically receives about $5 million annually from the state, had been able to allocate $9 million the previous year, and currently holds $13 million from Built to Learn Act funding; an anticipated grant (not yet finalized) could free local CIP dollars for other uses.

Commissioners asked about deferred maintenance and source diversity for capital funding. Planning Commissioner Joe Van Kirk asked whether the district maintains a deferred maintenance list; Howe replied that maintenance and grant opportunit ies are used when state grant cycles do not fund every needed item, and that the district performs both a maintenance‑effectiveness assessment and relies on the state IAC assessments. When asked about federal funding, Howe said the district has had limited success with federal programs and that many federal grant requirements are highly competitive and administratively challenging.

Howe also described how strong maintenance scores can deprioritize a district in the state funding allocation process: “If you do well [on the maintenance assessment], you are compared — all the funding has to go to the schools that are in most need,” she said, noting that funding formulas can create difficult tradeoffs for well‑maintained systems.

The presentation included enrollment trend charts going back to BRAC-era growth in the 1990s, showing that earlier expectations of rapid population growth were reduced as families did not relocate immediately after base realignments. Howe concluded that past investments in renovations and additions were the right strategy and outlined a multi‑year sequencing of systemic projects across middle and high schools as costs and funding permit.

Howe closed by saying the department is finalizing its state CIP presentation and asked the commission for questions. Commissioners thanked her for the report; no formal action by the Planning Commission was recorded beyond the presentation.

The school system provided the master plan material to county staff to support upcoming state and local CIP requests and to inform local officials of system needs.