A new Hyattsville Middle School, as well as a new Adelphi Middle School, have gotten the green light to be included in a plan to build six new schools across Prince George’s County using a public-private partnership to finance the building. According to agenda documents posted Sept. 16, 2019, the Prince George’s County Board of Education will consider a measure this Thursday authorizing the issuance of a request for proposals from private companies to build the schools, which will be leased back to the county after 33 years.
The proposal has been developing for months, with county education officials collecting feedback from communities about the necessity of such plans, and sought suggestions for possible locations to site a new middle school. In Hyattsville, this topic became a hot potato when a wooded portion of Magruder Park was suggested one of two sites suggested by the Hyattsville Educational Facilities Task Force. The other proposed rebuilding on Hyattsville Middle School’s existing site. While that topic was the exhaustive focus of the city’s digital anglosphere, the plan is hoped to benefit Hyattsville’s other middle school, my alma mater: Nicholas Orem, according to District Three Board of Education Member Pamela Boozer-Struther.
“That will relieve overcrowding of Nicholas Orem and Buck Lodge Middle Schools as well as make is possible for sixth graders to depart elementary schools and reduce overcrowding in these schools,” said Struther in a statement. “Combined, these school are overcrowded by 1,200 students.”
In addition to new Hyattsville and Adelphi middle schools, the plan also calls for the construction of a new Drew-Freedman Middle School, Southern Area Middle School, Kenmoor Middle School and Walker Mill Middle School.
If all goes according to plan, the new schools could open in time for the 2023-2024 school year.
This is not the first time Hyattsville Middle School has been rebuilt on-site. The original Hyattsville Middle School once stood much closer to 42nd Avenue, itself built atop the former Hyattsville High School on the same location. The current building dates to the 1970s, and has become dilapidated after years of deferred maintenance.
