More cost overruns seen for Kendale

Costs overruns for the Kendale Road school, which have ballooned by more than $3 million as soon as the architects' plans were done, are almost certain to increase.

Montgomery County Public Schools, and Superintendent Weast personally, still say the new school will take just over a year to build. Weast says in a recent memorandum that the school is still scheduled for completion by the Fall 2007 semester.

That schedule presumes construction at a record pace. Construction probably will take considerably longer, incurring further cost overruns.

And the budget does not include the costs of widening the very narrow Kendale Road, which is too narrow for school buses to navigate safely, and does not permit parking for families to attend school events. MCPS will not include those and other safety items in the construction budget, and has refused repeatedly to tell PTA members how such deficiencies would be funded.