State approves $46.3M for school building aid

County officials ‘disappointed,’ say they expected millions more

Montgomery County’s total was followed by those of Prince George’s and Baltimore counties and Baltimore city, with $41 million each.

Montgomery County’s take will allow the school system to tackle 15 construction projects and a number of upgrades to roofs and heating and cooling systems.

Atop the county’s construction priorities for state aid are paying off the balance on renovations to Arcola Elementary, which reopened this school year in Silver Spring, completing a replacement of College Gardens Elementary in Rockville and an addition to Weller Road Elementary in Silver Spring.

Receiving less than expected means that the state aid will have to be supplemented with county dollars, Joe Lavorgna, acting director of facilities management for Montgomery County schools, told the state panel.

It will likely delay some roofing projects, elementary school gymnasiums and a modernization of Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville that would have begun next school year, he said.

An increase in the number of children from low-income families and the need to keep class sizes small has contributed to Montgomery’s need for new school facilities, Montgomery County school board member Judith R. Docca said.

‘‘Most of the state has a feeling that we have a lot of here,” said Docca (Dist. 1) of Montgomery Village. ‘‘But what they don’t take into consideration are the needy who are coming in.”

Some members of Montgomery County’s delegation in Annapolis have said they were disappointed with what the county received in O’Malley’s budget.

They were hoping for $55 million for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, saying that was the offer O’Malley made during negotiations over a tax package and the slot machine gambling referendum that the governor pushed during last fall’s special session.

‘‘For some members this was a consideration, a component of why they ended up voting how they did,” said Del. Brian J. Feldman, who on Thursday was reelected as chairman of the Montgomery County delegation to the House of Delegates.

‘‘Yes we’d like to have more and yes, we thought we’d get more,” said Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown, a former Montgomery County school board member. ‘‘But with the economy where it is, it is pretty good to get that much.”

O’Malley defended the funding at an appearance in Montgomery County two weeks ago.

‘‘That [$55 million] was definitely a number that we talked about and a number that I would’ve liked to be able to get,” he said. ‘‘We’re making as much progress as we can, as fast as we can. The declining revenue estimates hampered us. We had to make a lot of cuts, even after that difficult special session. And it was definitely a number we talked about in the context of the special session as I was asking for the delegation’s help pulling our package, a package that was not approved and that many of them were not in to support.”

O’Malley used the BPW meeting to highlight the $98.6 million that Montgomery has received in the first two years of his administration was more than not only the $19.6 million the county received during Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s first two years, but exceeded the total funding the county received in all four years under Ehrlich (R).

It was also the largest allocation to any of Maryland’s 24 school systems, a point O’Malley asked Lavorgna to make with Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast.

‘‘I’d like to share it with Dr. Weast,” O’Malley said testily. ‘‘He’s welcome to come here so we can have these engaging conversations as we have once already on the phone.”

Lavorgna appeared caught off guard by the governor’s comments.

‘‘I’m not here to complain about the state aid,” he said. ‘‘We greatly appreciate the state aid.”

The $46.3 million ‘‘is not all bad news,” said Feldman D-Dist. 15) of Potomac.

But members of the county delegation will remember their disappointment with the aid if difficult fiscal times continue and legislators are forced to make tough votes on budget issues, he said.

‘‘We have to work with this governor for two years, perhaps another six years. It’s not helpful. It has political implications for future votes. ... The governor needs to be mindful of that in terms of dealing with our delegation and our County Executive,” Feldman said.