The Montgomery County Board of Education voted to approve a more than $2.7 billion in upgrades to school facilities under the superintendent’s Capital Improvements Program and budget.
The plan will go to the county executive and County Council for consideration.
A “significant and very emotional part” of this year’s recommendation, according to MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor, Ed.D., is the proposed closure of Silver Spring International Middle School and the relocation of Sligo Creek Elementary School.
“This is a big deal,” Taylor said during a Thursday school board meeting.
But, the fate of Silver Spring International Middle School is not finalized by Thursday’s vote.
School Board Member Karla Silvestre introduced an amendment, which was approved, to clarify that projects related to the closure of Silver Spring International — including plans for Sligo Creek Elementary and Eastern and Sligo middle schools — are “tentative until the board takes a vote” on whether to close the school or not. There will be a community engagement process that starts in December, after which the school board will vote on whether to close Silver Spring International.
Part of Taylor’s fiscal year 2027-32 plan includes eventually closing Silver Spring International Middle School — a nearly 100-year-old campus on Wayne Avenue that is in need of repairs located next to the new Purple Line construction project. Instead, Taylor proposes using it as a holding school, where students could go if their own school is under construction. There are currently no secondary holding schools, noted Taylor. Silver Spring International would close around the year 2030 and students would be absorbed into Eastern and Sligo middle schools, both of which Taylor recommends be renovated.
“The idea that this school should be closed or become a holding school, makes no sense to us,” said Darian Unger during a rally last month in support of keeping the school open. Unger’s children attended SSIMS and are now in high school.
More parents, and even students, have spoken out about their concerns about closing down Silver Spring International. Community members are also concerned for Sligo Creek Elementary School, which is co-located right behind Silver Spring International. While Sligo Creek Elementary is set to get a new building, it is supposed to be in a different location. According to MCPS, a final site recommendation for Sligo Creek Elementary will be brought to the school board in spring 2026 after a site selection process.
Taylor said that in upcoming months, he will present a recommended scope for a countywide elementary boundary study.
“With enrollment projections trending negatively, I am sure that the recommendation of Silver Spring International Middle School closure will be the first of many hard decisions that we will be confronted with in the near future,” he said.
Taylor has also proposed that the new Crown High School open as a holding school.
Taylor noted MCPS secured a lease for a “state-of-the-art” warehouse that will consolidate operations under one roof. He previously said the worst-condition school in the district “pales in comparison” to the warehouse, which was built using materials recycled from the World War II era.
