Initiatives > Project Directory > Piney Branch Elementary School Addition and Pool Last updated: March 11, 2024

Piney Branch Elementary School Addition and Pool

Piney Branch Elementary School Expansion and Feasibility Study

Montgomery County Public School officials are discussing ways to address the growing school-aged population in the County in the context of its Capital Improvement Plan for school facilities. MCPS has conducted a feasibility study of Piney Branch Elementary School (PBES) to evaluate space needs and options for addressing those needs, including trade-offs and costs. Community meetings were held in early 2017.

UPDATE:

November 29, 2023

From the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2025 Capital Budget and the FY 2025–2030 Capital Improvements Program

Piney Branch Elementary School Capital Project: Piney Branch Elementary School is located on the smallest site in the county at 1.9 acres and there is little to no room for relocatable classrooms to accommodate overutilization at the school. To address the current and projected overutilization at the school, an addition project was approved at Piney Branch Elementary School. The County Council approved an FY 2017 appropriation for facility planning to conduct a feasibility study to determine the feasibility, scope, and cost of the project. An FY 2020 appropriation was approved to construct this project with a completion date of August 2021. Due to the complexity of the Piney Branch Elementary School addition project, including the need for a comprehensive facility upgrade to address the aging infrastructure, the approved FY 2021–2026 CIP removed the expenditures for the Piney Branch Elementary School addition from the six-year CIP. Instead, the school is identified in the next set of schools in the Major Capital Projects. An FY 2023 appropriation was approved to begin the architectural design for this major capital project; however, no construction funds are included in the adopted FY2023–2028 CIP. Therefore, a TBD completion date will be shown until construction funds are approved in a future CIP. As a result of the current review of the Takoma Park Minor Master Plan Amendment and potential impacts to the community, including the school and site, it is recommended, as part of the 2025–2030 CIP, that planning for a capital project for this school be postponed until the Master Plan Amendment process is complete.

The Board of Education Requested FY 2025 Capital Budget and the FY 2025–2030 Capital Improvements Program
https://gis.mcpsmd.org/cipmasterpdfs/CIP25_Chapter4DCC.pdf

October 28, 2022

From the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2024 Capital Budget and Amendments to the FY 2023-2028 CIP

Piney Branch Elementary School Capital Project: Piney Branch Elementary School is located on the smallest site in the county at 1.9 acres and there is little to no room for relocatable classrooms to accommodate overutilization at the school. To address the current and projected overutilization at the school, an addition project was approved at Piney Branch Elementary School. The County Council approved an FY 2017 appropriation for facility planning to conduct a feasibility study to determine the feasibility, scope, and cost of the project. An FY 2020 appropriation was approved to construct this project with a completion date of August 2021. Due to the complexity of the Piney Branch Elementary School addition project, including the need for a comprehensive facility upgrade to address the aging infrastructure, the approved FY 2021–2026 CIP removed the expenditures for the Piney Branch Elementary School addition from the six-year CIP. Instead, the school is identified in the next set of schools in the Major Capital Projects. An FY 2023 appropriation was approved to begin the architectural design for this major capital project; however, no construction funds are included in the adopted FY2023–2028 CIP. Therefore, a TBD completion date will be shown until construction funds are approved in a future CIP.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/cipmaster.aspx

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October 22, 2021

From the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2023 Capital Budget and the FY 2023–2028 Capital Improvements Program:

Piney Branch Elementary School Capital Project: Piney Branch Elementary School is located on the smallest site in the county at 1.9 acres and there is little to no room for relocatable classrooms to accommodate overutilization at the school. To address the current and projected overutilization at the school, an addition project was approved at Piney Branch Elementary School. The County Council approved an FY 2017 appropriation for facility planning to conduct a feasibility study to determine the feasibility, scope, and cost of the project. An FY 2020 appropriation was approved to construct this project with a completion date of August 2021. Due to the complexity of the Piney Branch Elementary School addition project, including the need for a comprehensive facility upgrade to address the aging infrastructure, the approved FY 2021–2026 CIP removed the expenditures for the Piney Branch Elementary School addition from the six-year CIP. Instead, the school is identified in the next set of schools in the Major Capital Projects. An FY 2023 appropriation is recommended to begin the architectural design for this major capital project; however, no construction funds are included in the FY2023–2028 CIP. Therefore, a TBD completion date will be shown until construction funds are approved in a future CIP.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/cipmaster.aspx

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January 2020
The MCPS FY21 Capital Budget was released in December 2019. The plan for Piney Branch Elementary School states:

A comprehensive capacity study to address overutilization at several elementary schools in the lower section of the Downcounty Consortium was conducted during the 2014-2015 school year. This capacity study included the following schools: East Silver Spring, Forest Knolls, Highland View, Montgomery Knolls, New Hampshire Estates, Oak View, Takoma Park, Pine Crest, Piney Branch, Rolling Terrace, Sligo Creek and Woodlin Elementary schools.

Based on revised enrollment projections, enrollment at Piney Branch Elementary School will exceed 125 seats by the end of the six-year planning period. Piney Branch Elementary School is located on the smallest site in the county at 1.9 acres and there is little to no room for relocatable classrooms to accommodate overutilization at the school. Therefore, the Board of Education’s Requested FY2017-2022 CIP included a five classroom addition for this school to address the space deficit. The County Council’s adopted FY2017-2022 CIP includes funding for this project, with planning to begin in FY 2019. An FY 2019 appropriation was approved to begin planning this addition. An FY 2020 appropriation was approved for construction funds.

During the planning and design phase of this project, it was determined that there were a number of challenges, including site constraints to complete this project. The KFI assessment for this facility also points to the need for a comprehensive facility upgrades. Therefore, the requested FY 2021-2026 CIP removes the approved expenditures for this addition project and, instead, identifies Piney Branch Elementary School as part of the next set of schools in the Major Capital Projects project. The requested FY 2021-2026 CIP does not include any expenditures for this project; however, future expenditures will be considered as part of the next full CIP cycle.

MCPS Board of Education Requested FY21 Budget and the FY 2021–2026 Capital Improvements Program

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The Board of Education has included funds for design and construction in the FY2019 Capital Budget and the FY 2019–2024 Capital Improvements Program:

To address the current and projected over-utilization at the school, an addition project was approved at Piney Branch Elementary School with a completion date of September 2021. An FY 2017 appropriation for facility planning was approved to conduct a feasibility study to determine the feasibility, scope and cost of the project. An FY 2019 appropriation is recommended to begin the architectural design for an addition project. The recommended completion date is September 2021. In order for this project to be completed on this schedule, county and state funding must be provided at the levels recommended in this CIP.

For further information, including links to meeting materials, please visit the PBES Addition Project page on the Montgomery County Puclic Schools website or contact Gary D. Mosesman, Project manager.

Options for a Pool in Takoma Park

One option under consideration as part of the school expansion study is to close the pool at PBES to make way for additional classroom space. While the City recognizes the need for classroom expansion, the Takoma Park City Council has raised concerns that expansion at PBES could mean that the pool might be shut down permanently without a plan for replacement.