by Jordan Costolo ‘25

Every six years, MCPS sets a CIP (Capital Investment Plan) for how money will be spent to improve school buildings and facilities within the county. In the latest one spanning from 2025-2030, Sherwood is nowhere to be found. This, along with the increased number of maintenance problems the school building is experiencing, has raised concerns about the quality of Sherwood’s infrastructure, and if there will continue to be problems with the building as time goes on.

MCPS has two different budgets: the capital budget and the operating budget. The operating budget is used to pay teachers and staff, cover programming costs, and for everything else that keeps the school running. The capital budget is used to renovate school buildings, along with supporting infrastructure and improvements a school’s faculty wants to be done. The CIP works as the county’s plan on how they want to spend the capital budget. This year’s requested capital budget, along with the requested CIP for 2026-2030, totals $1.999 billion dollars, which is $93.6 million more than the previous CIP. The new superintendent Thomas Taylor has also asked for an additional $4.5 million to look into a backlog of problems schools have had with their heating and air conditioning.

This summer, one of three Sherwood HVAC systems were replaced, but the other two still seem to be in disrepair, with maintenance people coming frequently to fix broken heating and cooling. Wootton has many of the same problems that Sherwood’s building has, such as broken bathrooms and malfunctioning HVAC systems. Eastern Middle School, Cold Spring Elementary, and Magruder High

School are also among the schools that are due for maintenance, but have also not received much help. In an interview with MoCo360, MCPS Board Member Julie Yang recommended the students and staff of Magruder, which has had frequent problems with mold and plumbing, go around the school and see what they would be able to fix themselves to improve their environment.

“Sherwood is in need of a complete renovation,” said Principal Tim Britton. “We have a serious need for piping and ventilation in the school to be looked at, but unfortunately that is difficult to get to without tearing down parts of this building.” Britton stated that while the maintenance team is coming in frequently, and doing as much as they can, “They [MCPS] are putting a Band-Aid on our maintenance problems but taking it off before they have enough time to fully heal.”

Britton commented that at a recent meeting with other principals, many of them shared concerns with the superintendent similar to his own about the state of their buildings. “It’s important to know that we are NOT the only school with issues.”