The location of Prince George’s County government has long been in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, though many county agencies have long left the sleepy town behind. Now, its school system could be on its way out, too.
State lawmakers in Annapolis have filed legislation on behalf of the county that would direct the school system to begin studying the idea of relocating its headquarters, which is currently an aging building outside of the downtown core of Upper Marlboro.
Two of the main criteria the school system would be directed to look at include central location in the county, as well as access to public transportation and mass transit. That would seem to rule Upper Marlboro out and bring another county agency to Largo. School leaders don’t deny it.
“I think ideally, the Largo area would be great because we’re looking for a center point in the county and I think that’s why you see a lot of other agencies that represent the county that are in that Largo area,” said Superintendent Millard House II.
But PGCPS chief operating officer Charoscar Coleman said the county is also considering as many as three different spaces, or hubs, “with one satellite in the northern part of the county, a satellite in the southern portion of the district, as well as that main hub in the center in Largo area,” he told WTOP.
But three main hubs would still be a major consolidation from the current state of things for school system employees.
“We have actually 17 offices that operate across our entire jurisdiction that encompasses about 3,300 of our central office staff members,” Coleman said. “Out of these 17 office locations, the average age is 64 years old. The youngest of the facilities is actually our maintenance facility service base that was brought online in 1982. And our oldest facility is in Cheverly, Maryland, and it was built in 1922. … So each of these facilities … for the most part, [are] no longer utilized for educational purposes.”
Coleman argues it costs about $5 million per year to maintain those facilities, which otherwise need hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades.
“On cold mornings, my office [is] in the 50s,” House said. “You can only run your space heater for so long before it blows a breaker and you have to flip the switch.
“These were decommissioned schools,” House added. “So thousands of our employees are in facilities that we felt were not … good enough, for whatever reason, we wanted students out.”
The school system would not be the first county agency to leave Upper Marlboro, and town council president and Mayor Sarah Franklin isn’t necessarily eager to see the school system become the next agency to head to Largo either. But she also suggested the town is preparing to reconfigure its economic strategy in the coming years.
“We’re looking at investing in economic development and tourism, walking trails, paths and sidewalks,” Franklin said. “So I think we’re still a good option for them to consider.”
She acknowledged the future might be more closely tied with events being held at the Showplace Arena, which sits just south of Route 4 while the county courthouse and downtown Upper Marlboro are just north of there.
And in the years to come, the look of downtown Upper Marlboro might be changing.
“Upper Marlboro is going to be up and coming,” she vowed. “Keep an eye on it and it will be a good place to work.”
Franklin said the town council is looking at expanding its downtown core and annexing more land, moving out further along Marlboro Pike/Route 725, which runs from Route 301 to the downtown core as it turns into Main Street. If the expansion happens, that would lead to a bigger and more walkable, central business district.
“That’s really where this current Board of Commissioners for the town of Upper Marlboro is focusing,” Franklin said. “How to make our economic development tied around the local economy and make it resilient to loss of employers, while also trying to attract employers, because we are a good place to locate. I think we’re just probably looking at smaller scale.”
I think we’re going to be a good place for employers to locate and I don’t know how that’s going to look with county jobs,” she added.
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