After months of warnings that budget cuts could shut it down, the Montgomery County Public Schools Construction Trades Foundation program at Thomas Edison High School of Technology appears to have ended this school year.
A visit to the school turned up empty parking spaces reserved for Foundations Office staff. The construction zone where students have built homes for decades sat bare, with no equipment or activity visible.
A staff member who answered the phone at Thomas Edison confirmed MCPS had cut the program.
A program 50 years in the making
The program marked its 50th year in operation this past spring. Students from Thomas Edison and Seneca Valley high schools spent two years building the program’s 44th home, a three level, four-bedroom house on O’Fallon Street in Silver Spring. The home sold for $799,000.
Cuts flagged months ago
MCM reported in May that Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposed budget targeted four positions tied to the program. Those included the Foundations Office supervisor, instructional specialists, and a fiscal assistant. Eliminating the positions was expected to save MCPS about $460,000.
At the time, people gathered at the finished home said losing those four positions would likely end the program.
The Montgomery County Board of Education adopted its final Fiscal Year 2027 budget on June 4. As a result, the $3.72 billion budget cut 415 positions across the district after the County Council approved $36 million less than MCPS requested.
Days after staff confirmed the Construction Trades Foundation program had been cut, the Foundations Office parking spaces at Thomas Edison sat empty when MCM visited this week.
