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Board examines closing White Marsh Elementary after consultant maps show steep renovation and capacity tradeoffs

St. Mary's County Public Schools Board Work Session · December 11, 2025
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Summary

Board members reviewed Canon Group options that include closing White Marsh Elementary (about 230 students), which staff said would save roughly $1.2 million annually but would require redistribution of students and faces state sufficiency and site constraints that make renovation costly.

Board members spent substantial time examining a Canon Group option that would close White Marsh Elementary School and redistribute its roughly 230 students across nearby schools.

Staff presented the arithmetic: "Last year's operating costs were a little over $3,700,000. If we are to close that school, we will save $1,200,000," Speaker 2 said, and added that most savings would come from staffing reductions (about $866,000), with roughly $289,000 in benefits and a little over $100,000 in recurring operations savings. Constructing or renovating the small White Marsh facility to current standards would be expensive: Speaker 2 said the minimum required work (roof, HVAC, remove relocatables) is about $8,800,000 and a full renovation to meet ADA and other standards is roughly $16,800,000.

State rules and facility sufficiency: Staff and trustees discussed state funding and sufficiency criteria. White Marsh has a high facility condition index (about 72%), which Speaker 5 said places it in the state's "worn and dilapidated" category and means the site lacks key educational and safety spaces (fine‑arts room, adequate cafeteria, nurse station, administrative suite). Staff warned the state likely would prefer closure when adjacent school capacity can solve the problem and that the site cannot easily meet separation requirements for bus and parent drop‑off.

Capacity consequences and tradeoffs: Multiple board members noted that redistributing 230 students among several northern elementary schools would push several schools to or over 100% utilization, requiring the maps to extend farther south to avoid overloading a small number of schools. Trustees said the board wants an option that minimizes moving existing students and asked Canon to model scenarios that close White Marsh while impacting as few additional students as possible.

Next steps: Trustees asked Canon and staff to model both ‘with closure’ and ‘without closure’ options, including granular, street‑level impacts, transportation implications and development assumptions. No formal decision was made; Canon will return with detailed options in January and present a recommendation to the board on Feb. 4 ahead of public hearings.