Officials report construction progress at Carroll County Career and Technology Center

Progress has been made on several Carroll County public school construction projects, according to a report presented to the Board of Education last week.

A $74 million project at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center is in its final stages, which includes fencing the construction yard and installing a storage facility. The four-year project to add 108,205 square feet of space to the center was scheduled to be completed in August.

Instruction at the center continued during construction . The facility, which opened in 1971, was designed for 380 students in 19 programs and currently educates about 800 students in 24 programs per semester. About $34 million of the project’s cost was paid for by Carroll County, while the state contributed nearly $40 million, according to the system’s capital budget for fiscal 2024. The project was not included in the capital budget for fiscal 2025.

The delayed bus loop at the new Westminster East Middle School building is complete, according to the Oct. 10 report. In the project’s final stages, additional fencing will be installed near a bio-retention pond adjacent to the school’s electronic sign.

The new school building opened last fall in Westminster, but completion of the school’s bus loop was delayed about one year after a large obstructive rock mass was discovered. A temporary traffic pattern was in place during the last school year, and the school board approved up to $600,000 in additional funds to remove the rock in December. Construction on the East Middle School replacement project began in November 2021.

The school board approved the construction of the new middle school campus on Longwell Avenue in December 2019; the project had a $60 million budget at that time. Costs increased to $65.9 million by the time the new building was completed. The former 120,400-square-foot school, constructed in 1936 and renovated in 1976, was replaced by a three-level 126,000-square-foot building. East Middle School has a capacity of about 750 students, including 40 students in the Behavioral Educational Support Team program, according to the report.

The Carroll County school system continues construction on the Career and Technology Center. As construction nears a conclusion the fencing surrounding the Construction Yard is mostly complete. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Staff photo)

The Freedom Elementary Planning Committee has not yet determined where the new addition will be erected. Supervisor of Construction James Marks told the board that new ideas will come before the committee, as there are advantages and disadvantages to several options deemed feasible. Plans to add five classrooms to Freedom Elementary were approved by the Carroll County Board of Education in August, and construction for each project is slated to begin in June 2026. One of Freedom Elementary’s new classrooms will be designated for pre-kindergarten.

“We have a couple more options that we’re reviewing right now on the same site,” Marks said. “We’re just looking at either trying to keep it as one addition, or we divide them.”

One option is to divide the addition so that keeping kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classrooms together is prioritized. Marks said more details about the project’s options will be presented to the board soon.

“We’re trying to make it work within the budget no matter what,” Marks said, “and we’re also trying to figure out how to work with the proximity to the playground they just bought not long ago, too. So, we’re trying not to disrupt that. We’re trying to make it work in the most efficient way, and for me to build it, I’m always thinking about, how I’m going to build it. I don’t want to take up the whole site, so we’re trying to figure out a way to best isolate our contractors for safety, and to be able to build it at the same time that we have operating schools.”

The $7.2 million Freedom Elementary project is intended to be part of a first step in addressing overcrowding in the southern Carroll County schools caused by growing enrollment and based on recommendations from the Southern Area Redistricting Committee. The county will pay for about $4.3 million of the project with the state paying the rest.

A $20.2 million project that would add 10 classrooms to Sykesville Middle School, of which the county will pay $9.9 million, is also intended to address southern area overcrowding.

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