02-01-2010 Insider Forum: Public Schools and the APFO Countywide School Test

The Friends of Frederick County’s February 2010 Insiders’ Forum covered the topic of the recent expansion of the schools portion of the county’s  Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance to cover municipalities as well as the county area outside these municipalities. The change has generated considerable controversy, and the county’s municipalities have filed suit to prevent the action.

Guest speakers were County Commissioner John  “Lennie” Thompson, who developed the proposal, and Frederick County Public Schools Facilities Services Division Executive Director Ray Barnes.

Mr. Barnes began by saying that enactment of the original APFO, as well as subsequent amendments to it, had been a significant factor in slowing growth in critically overcrowded locales so construction of the County’s school infrastructure could catch up with needs. He noted that there are still 20 schools in the county that exceed state rated capacity. However, he also explained that since the passage of the original APFO, the state has significantly dropped its capacity requirements per classroom.

The Frederick County Public School System serves the entire county, including the municipalities. So municipalities without an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance similar to the county’s can put a more severe stress on the system through unrestrained growth, which costs county taxpayers more in taxes for school construction.

While current pressures from this imbalance are low, Mr. Barnes said, the county birth rate is experiencing a significant upward trend, which means there will be more pressure for additional infrastructure in the coming years. “The APFO contributes to reducing the operating budget of the new schools, which helps with recurring and non recurring expenses when you open a new school as well as the reducing the operating expenses for that school and others in the system,” Mr. Barnes stated.

Commissioner Thompson explained that his proposal, now law, was aimed at requiring municipalities to operate under the same Adequate Public Facilities standards as the county. “ The municipalities are complaining that we are intruding on their sovereignty by requiring them to operate under the county’s Adequate Public Facilities standards for schools,” Thompson said. He