Bids approved for addition to Stephen Decatur Middle School, school leaders excited to move forward

WORCESTER COUNTY, Md.- 20 plus years later, the Stephen Decatur Middle School is finally getting some upgrades, which the Worcester County Superintendent says he’s excited to see.

“The number one thing I think you have to have an environment that’s conducive for learning and it starts with your facilities,” Worcester County Superintendent Louis Taylor said.

This comes after Worcester County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the bids for the upcoming addition to the middle school.

“The education of our students is one of the main objectives of the Worcester County Commissioners, so we want to allow our students small class sizes, our teachers to be able to teach small class sizes,” Joe Mitrecic, a Worcester County Commissioner, said.

We’re told in 1997 there was a petition to take off a wing of the school because of costs. The petition went through taking off an entire wing and moving portable units in to accommodate enrollment, which is still in use today, but is causing some issues.

“The enrollment has continued to rise, we’ve reached a little bit of a plateau now, so spacing and enrollment you know they kind of go hand in hand,” Superintendent Taylor said. “You know we talk about school safety, well in portable units kids have to go in and out of the building that in itself is a safety issue, it’s also a weather issue.”

But, with the approval of the bids, we’re told the district can solve these problems by replacing the portable classrooms with a first-class wing.

“We are trying to eliminate that outside learning,” Mitrecic said.

“It’s going to be classrooms and some storage areas and we’re also going to have a vestibule in that school that’s built around the school safety,” Superintendent Taylor said.

And, while there is still work to be done in this process school leaders are hopeful things will continue to look up.

“It’s a team effort, it takes a lot of people on the same page,” Superintendent Taylor said.

“The marketplace for labor everybody is short of employees so we’ll have to hope that everything will move forward as scheduled,” Mitrecic said.