The Montgomery County school board will decide Thursday night whether to support a nearly $3 billion plan to bring much-needed fixes to the district’s aging schools and other facilities.

Their vote doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a done deal; the county executive and County Council must consider whether they can afford to sign off.

But the school board’s decision could set in motion several major changes, including the rebuilding of Damascus High School, the closure of Silver Spring International Middle School and systemwide projects to replace faulty HVAC, roofs and fire safety systems.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s plan includes funding for several major projects over a six-year period, including:

• Damascus High School (August 2031)
• Eastern Middle School (August 2030)
• Sligo Middle School (August 2031)
• Burning Tree Elementary School (August 2031)
• Cold Spring Elementary School (August 2031)
• Highland View Elementary School (August 2031)
• Piney Branch Elementary School (August 2031)

The plan will disappoint some who had hoped to see their school included in the plan. Taylor recommended that several buildings should be removed from the project list: Damascus Elementary School, Twinbrook Elementary School, Whetstone Elementary School and the new Bethesda-Chevy Chase/Walter Johnson Clusters Elementary School.

Taylor also pitched closing Silver Spring International Middle School, with the goal of converting the building into a “holding school” that can house students while their own campuses are under construction.

An official decision on the school’s fate could come in a future vote.

Many Silver Spring families plan to speak out against that idea at Thursday’s meeting. Hundreds of people signed a petition urging the board to instead invest in their local campuses.

Families in other school communities also lamented their buildings were once again left off the list for major investments.

The Thomas S. Wootton High School PTSA held a town hall ahead of Thursday’s meeting, urging the board to prioritize their building, which they say is plagued by mold, power outages and toilets that routinely backup.

Taylor has been upfront that his massive plan still only covers about half of the district’s actual facility needs. He has floated other ideas to pay for needed upgrades, including private-public partnerships.

“Candidly, we have not kept pace with major system replacement and school replacements, renewals, and renovations,” he wrote to the board. “This has led to a significant backlog in projects that will take decades for us to catch up.”