As it readies to surplus school land, County orders more portable classrooms

The Montgomery County Council intends to add more portable classrooms to overcrowded schools, even as it pushes ahead with County Executive Doug Duncan's plan to tear down an existing school, sell the land to developers, and build a much larger school on a smaller piece of property.

WTOP radio reports that the council's Education Committee recommends approving the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) request "for $5 million to replace, repair or add more mobile classrooms."

County leaders would have parents believe that adding portable classrooms is not an admission of overcrowding.

Councilman Michael Knapp, a member of the Education Committee, told WTOP, "To have a relocatable classroom in your school does not necessarily mean the school is overcrowded because one of the very important initiatives that the county has been supportive of is reducing class size."

Presently, 175 county public schools use at least 730 trailers for 17,000 students.