By Brian Marron
Capital News Service
BALTIMORE — Comptroller Peter Franchot assured staff and students at Graceland Park-O’Donnell Heights Elementary School and the city’s school board that he will push for the funding of a replacement school as he toured the building Friday morning.
Planning for the 78,000-square-foot replacement school, which would be built next to its current location on O’Donnell Street in Baltimore, has already been approved. The new building would also become a Net Zero Energy school, which combines energy efficiency with on-site renewable systems to meet the building’s needs.
At the Board of Public Works meeting Wednesday, Franchot and Gov. Larry Hogan criticized state school districts for asking for new schools instead of better maintaining their current ones.
But Franchot praised the staff of the school, which opened in 1950 and is showing its age on the exterior, for the learning environment the careful maintenance of the building.
He also went into classrooms and spoke with students, explaining to them that their parents were part of the 1,061,267 people who voted for him, “not that I’m counting or anything.”