This October, Montgomery County lost $39 million dollars in aid for the renovation of Woodward High School, an ongoing infrastructure project aiming to relieve overpopulation in MCPS public schools in the Bethesda area.
The renovation of what was once Woodward High School has been a long and strenuous project. The three years of construction have been filled with controversy over a lack of parking and missing components like a football field and auditorium.
According to Moco Show, phase I of the project is focused on basic educational needs. Phase I of construction was completed at the beginning of this school year.
“Currently, phase 1 of construction is progressing and will include all spaces necessary for Montgomery County high school students to graduate from the new Woodward High School,” the Moco Show wrote.
The loss of this substantial aid package may limit the budget for what can be constructed and how quickly the project can be completed. To curb the damage afflicted by the budget cut, administrators have attempted to reallocate funding from other county programs, such as $1 million from the Parkland Middle School addition, $7 million from the Building Modifications for Program Improvements Project, $1.3 million from the Takoma Park Middle School addition, and $5 million from the William Tyler Page Elementary School addition.
Superintendent Thomas Taylor addressed the problems that come with this budget deficit and recommended possible solutions in his “2026 Capital Budget and Amendments to the FY 2025-2030 Capital Improvements Program” letter.
“By transferring the $17.7 million from these prior projects, we are able to reduce the funding gap from $39.3 million to $21.6 million,” Taylor said.
Taylor and affiliated representatives don’t go into specifics regarding how the state aid was lost. In his CIP Letter, he briefly states that the money was lost due to a calculation error.
“MCPS has been informed that we will not be receiving $39.3 million in State-Aid that was expected due to errors in calculating prevailing wage and bid award across the multiple phases of the project,” Taylor said.
Council member Will Jawando mentioned in an interview with the WTOP News organization that the error was caught late in the process and took the board by surprise.
Despite being denied the $39 million dollars originally promised to Montgomery County, Taylor assures that the board of directors are working with the Interagency Commission and Maryland Stadium Authority to determine whether a portion of the $39 million is recoverable. Taylor promises that if any state aid is recovered, it will be distributed among the Woodward project and other projects that were taken from.
These losses will not only have a resounding effect on the Woodward project, but also on infrastructure projects across MCPS. Losing this critical state aid from a seemingly minute calculating error is a disappointing step backward in the county’s development.
All that is left to determine is what damage caused by the rescinded funds can be mitigated and to what extent the remaining deficit will affect the county.
