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PGCPS presents Educational Facilities Master Plan update, commits to broad community engagement
Summary
PGCPS staff outlined the Educational Facilities Master Plan and prototypical educational specifications (Ed Specs), said roughly half of the district's ~200 facilities are over 45 years old, reported completing 51 elementary assessments so far, and described a schedule of focus groups, a summer website launch and a county listening tour in fall 2026.
Prince George's County Public Schools officials presented a status update on the district's Educational Facilities Master Plan (EFMP) and prototype educational specifications during the Operations, Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting on April 22, framing the work as the primary tool to prioritize renovations and modernizations across a 200-facility portfolio.
"The capital improvement program or CIP is a multiyear spending plan focused on the long range vision of modernizing our portfolio of school buildings," said Dr. Coleman, the district's chief operations officer, who introduced the EFMP context and turned the presentation to the Department of Capital Programs.
Shayla Taylor Jackson, director of capital programs, told the committee the district uses Ed Specs as a consistent benchmark to set building size, programmatic elements and adjacency requirements. "Ed Specs are really... our guiding standards... They help make sure that our facilities have equity and consistency in how they are planned and designed," Jackson said, and she noted the district manages roughly 200 facilities, about half of which are over 45 years old.
Kaylee Anthony, planning supervisor, walked board members through the two main initiatives under way: finalizing the prototype educational specifications and carrying out a larger master plan support project. Anthony said staff have completed pilot assessments and have assessed 51 elementary schools so far; the work includes facility condition assessments (plumbing, HVAC, roofing, windows, electrical) and educational-suitability reviews (classroom sizes, resource rooms, technology, natural light and air quality) that feed into a dashboard for prioritization.
Anthony described the public-engagement timeline: focused interviews and internal departmental consultations are underway now, focused external sessions (students, PTAs, disability advisory board and program-specific groups) will take place this spring, the district anticipates a website launch in the summer, a county listening tour in fall 2026 to visit board districts, and scenario planning in 2027 once all data are collected. Staff emphasized they will not make final recommendations until data and community feedback are compiled.
Board members pressed staff about how the district will report back to stakeholders about what it heard and whether teachers and principals will have direct channels to raise instructional facility needs; staff said the website and public reports will summarize input and explain how feedback influenced planning, and that principals and teachers will be included via targeted focus groups, surveys and facility-advisory processes.
The update did not propose immediate capital appropriations; rather, staff framed the EFMP and Ed Specs as tools to inform future CIP prioritization and to support a disciplined, data-driven approach to address long-term maintenance and modernization needs.
