By Andrea Shiell, County Times
HOLLYWOOD, Md.—The St. Mary’s County Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the expansion plans of Chesapeake Public Charter School on Wednesday, which involve renovations to the school site that will include the addition of five new classrooms, more offices, a multipurpose room and a gymnasium as the school revises their curriculum for incoming 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in the next two years.
Education Director Angela Funya wrote in a memo to parents and community members that the school’s current enrollment is 214 students, but projections for the 2009-2010 school year place enrollment at 254 with the addition of 7th grade, and the school will push to continue offering two classes per grade level with 20 students per class. The proposed expansion will allow for an additional 100 students, as well as another 17,983 square feet of space.
SMCPS Chief Operating Officer Brad Clements said that the current expansion plan will include ramps going into each classroom on the second floor, as well as a gymnasium and a multi-purpose room that may be converted into a cafeteria for middle school students.
Clements said that the next step in the expansion process will be to submit the expansion plans to the state for review and comment while they work on construction documents, “which will go back to the board for approval sometime in February.”
Clements declined to quote a figure when asked how much the proposed renovations would cost, but he explained that the owner of the property would be developing it and leasing the building back to the school.
“We don’t own the facility,” said Clements when talking to the board members, “but we have a responsibility to the state and to ourselves to have them review our planning documents at the state level…we have to be in compliance,” he said.
The Board of Education will consider curriculum plans for incoming middle school students in upcoming months as the construction plans are reviewed.