State gives St. Mary’s school construction sticker shock

Leonardtown, MD — St. Mary’s County could be a victim of its own success. The county is one of the state’s wealthiest, although county residents who don’t fit into that category would be hard pressed to applaud. Because of the county’s wealth, the state’s share of school construction projects is shrinking drastically, since the state uses a wealth-based formula to dole out the money.

The state share of construction costs in the county was 74 percent not too long ago. For the current fiscal year the percentage had shrunk to 64 percent. Recently the St. Mary’s County Board of Education was informed that the future fiscal news was even worse than anticipated: for Fiscal Year 2016 the state will pay five percentage points less, or 59 percent.

With the state pushdown that means the county will have to pay a whopping $4.7 million more local share for projects in the Fiscal Year 2016 Capital Improvement Program (CIP), which includes the fiscal years 2016-2024.

But that’s not all. The county has been informed that based on state construction costs, there’s been a four-percent escalation. That adds $2.7 million to the CIP.

But that’s not all. In addition, the CIP has a $1.6 million price tag for what is called scope change, or a revision in what’s being proposed in the CIP.

The net cost to the county is almost $10 million than previously reported for the CIP program length.

The biggest project in the CIP< a new high school, is still a few years away. Funding will be needed in Fiscal Year 2019, with the bulk in fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

The FY’ 2016 CIP includes:

Completion of the Captain Walter Francis Duke Elementary School (opening in August 2015)
A new central county elementary school
A new transitional school that would be used initially as a middle school and then transition to a high school
Acquisition of land for future schools
Renovations, included HVAC, roof and athletic field projects
The FY ’16 CIP was presented to and approved by the school board at their Sept. 10 meeting and will be presented to the county commissioners next Tuesday.