Montgomery County Public Schools is sitting on a $3 billion deferred maintenance backlog across its more than 200 buildings, district officials told the Board of Education on Thursday evening, Aug. 20, just days before students return to class.

Andrea Swiatocha, MCPS deputy chief of facilities management, said the backlog is growing every day, describing the gap between what the district's aging infrastructure needs and what it can afford to fix.

The system's footprint spans more than 26 million square feet. The average MCPS campus is 30 years old. In fiscal year 2026, the district fielded roughly 700 emergency work orders and had to close buildings 11 times because of infrastructure failures, according to The Banner.

District documents note that many additional incidents disrupted teaching and learning without triggering full closures.

Data centers outbid MCPS for workers

Filling maintenance vacancies has become its own crisis. James Duffy, director of the MCPS facility maintenance department, told the board that data centers are outbidding the school system for skilled tradespeople.

"Our biggest competitor for trades right now is data centers," Duffy said. "They are paying way, way over scale."

MCPS has not received enough capital funding from the county to keep pace with facility needs, officials said. Superintendent Thomas Taylor framed the challenge in blunt terms, telling board members that even a $1 billion windfall would cover only one-third of the backlog and that the district needs incremental planning over more than a decade to close the gap.

Potomac schools among the worst-rated

The backlog briefing follows a July 31 assessment that ranked Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville (facility condition index score of 0.625) and Stone Mill Elementary in North Potomac (0.696) among the five worst-rated buildings in their respective categories. Swiatocha told the board at its July 16 meeting that facility condition scores would factor into upcoming school closure and boundary decisions, as Bethesda Magazine reported.

Winston Churchill High School, meanwhile, is flagged as Tier 1 under the FY2027 Annual School Test, meaning it is projected to be overutilized by the 2030-31 school year, according to the Montgomery County Planning Board.

Teachers showed up with signs

Teachers from Charles R. Drew Elementary attended the Thursday evening meeting carrying signs that read, "Would you go to work without bathrooms in full working order?" They described their campus as an active construction zone with water leaking from the ceiling. After the meeting, Superintendent Taylor approached the Drew teachers and pledged more support. Fifth-grade teacher Jess Bain replied: "We need more than words."

The first day of school for all MCPS students is Tuesday, Aug. 25. MCPS is also accepting applications for its Facility Advisory Committee for the 2026-2027 school year; the deadline is Friday, Sept. 4.