MEMORANDUM

TO: City Council

FROM: David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUJBECT: New Bowie Area High School Project

DATE: May 15, 2008

The City has long advocated for a second high school to serve the current and future capacity issues in the Bowie area. The project made its way into the Prince George’s County Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the first time in FY 2007. The original timetable called for the school to begin construction in FY 2008 and be completed by FY 2011. Last year the project was deferred by a year to allow replacement of the Fairmount Heights High School to be added to the CIP. In the Proposed FY 2009 - 2014 CIP now under discussion by the County Council, the project has been pushed out to beyond FY 2014. This week Councilwoman Turner notified the Council that the project was in danger of being removed from the CIP entirely.

A priority list of school construction projects is submitted by each county to the State Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC) which selects the projects to approve for planning and for construction funding, based on the funds allocated by the General Assembly. The new Bowie Area High School was number 20 on the County’s priority list. Only three of the ten projects requested for planning approval were approved. The Bowie High project was not one of them.

The Maryland Board of Public Works receives the IAC recommendations and ultimately decides how school construction funds will be spent. The final meeting of the Board of Public Works on this year’s construction program is on May 21st. If the Board does not modify the IAC recommendations, it will be up to the County Council to find a way to forward fund the construction projects that did not get approved.

City Council will have the opportunity to discuss the current status of the project and how to proceed in our advocacy for this new high school on Monday evening.