Prince George’s County school officials cite falling kindergarten numbers, aging buildings and maintenance backlog

Prince George’s County Public Schools officials told the Plan Prince George’s 2035 Implementation Infrastructure Task Force on June 16 that overall enrollment stood at 132,152 students as of the official Sept. 30, 2024 census, but kindergarten enrollment fell to 8,850 — the lowest since about 2009 — and declining birth rates plus lower international arrivals are expected to push K–12 enrollment down slightly over the next few years.

The presentation by Rhianna McCarter, supervisor of school boundaries, framed the enrollment outlook and why it matters for capacity and planning. McCarter said the district added about 800 K–12 students since the previous Sept. 30 and noted, “about 20% of the students in our system are foreign born versus 4% nationally,” an enrollment source the district has tracked separately.

The district showed maps comparing official building capacity (excluding portables) to enrollment and reported approximately 11,000 portable seats countywide. The maps and discussion underscored long-running overcrowding in the northern part of the county despite recent replacement and new schools built through the Blueprint and P3 programs. Rhianna McCarter said that many Phase 2 P3 schools are replacement projects and that some new schools are being placed in growth areas such as Fairwood and Brandywine where residential development is expected to sustain demand.

School maintenance and the capital backlog drew sustained questioning from task force members. Sam Stefanelli, director of building services for Prince George’s County Public Schools, said more than half the district’s buildings are older than 40 years and described a widening maintenance gap: “We need to do eight roofs a year in order to keep pace with a 25, 30 year replacement plan. Over the past few years, we’ve done two, three.” He also said the district carries roughly 11,000 open work orders that will roll into fiscal 2026.

Sharaska Coleman, chief operating officer for Prince George’s County Public Schools, outlined that the district’s 2016 master plan estimated a $5.5 billion backlog and that later attempts to model inflation produced estimates up to about $8.5 billion. Coleman said the district is beginning a new master plan update this summer and will run fresh condition assessments.

Officials described two factors that are changing the long-term maintenance picture. First, many mechanical systems installed for energy efficiency (water-source heat pumps, geothermal systems, high-efficiency heat pumps) have shorter component lifespans (roughly 15–20 years) than older boilers, producing earlier replacement needs. Second, widespread aging of mid-century school buildings means multiple large systems are reaching the end of their useful lives at once. Dorothy Morrison, director of sustainability and resiliency, and Shayla Jackson, director of capital programs, joined the discussion on funding and project priorities.

Funding and the use of development-related fees were a recurring topic. County officials explained that school surcharge (impact fee) proceeds are placed in a dedicated fund and used to pay school construction bonds, but the funds do not necessarily get spent in the immediate area where the development occurred. A representative of the Maryland building industry urged clearer public reporting on how surcharge dollars are spent.

Task force members discussed boundary adjustments and seat allocation as levers for addressing overcrowding. McCarter said prior boundary work affected 63 schools across Phase 1 and Phase 2 of recent changes and that the district will conduct boundary studies around many replacement schools even when a replacement is simply meant to match prior capacity.

On surplus property and reuse, the district clarified it does not itself sell property; when a site is determined surplus the district pursues a state surplus/transfer process that can lead to the county taking title. As an example, the district said Potomac Landing Elementary School was not surplused and will host John Hanson Montessori beginning in the 2026–27 school year; the Potomac Landing student body was absorbed into Colin Powell Academy.

Procedural items and task force follow-ups: members requested the school system circulate the more detailed utilization maps (elementary, middle and high) by email after the meeting; staff said they would. The task force set a deadline for final comments on the draft recommendation report of July 7 and agreed to review a clean version with resolved tracked changes at the next scheduled meeting in July.

Minutes of the April 14 meeting were approved by voice vote (motion by Mr. Feld; second by Mr. Weiss). Other policy steps — including a possible county-level reexamination of Adequate Public Facilities (APF) rules or whether impact fees should be applied differently — were discussed but no formal motions on those items were taken.

Officials emphasized the interplay among enrollment trends, capital construction, preventive maintenance and limited operating and capital resources. School leaders said they will update the task force as the new master plan and the EFMP condition assessment proceed.