Worcester County Council approves Buckingham Elementary, rejects new BOE building in CIP

SNOW HILL, Md. – The Worcester County Council has approved $50 million in funding for the construction of the Buckingham Elementary School, as part of the 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan.

Commissioners say the next step in the project will be a draft and design phase from the Worcester County Board of Education (WCBOE). However, that cannot move forward until state dollars for the project are confirmed; something they won’t know the answer to until next year.

“The state is being requested to fund about $5.8 million, we don’t know yet if they’re going to approve that and we won’t know probably until the first part of next year, and once we have their decision, we can move forward on the project,” said Commissioner Chip Bertino.

As part of that same CIP, the commissioners also voted to remove an item for a $37 million project for the construction of a new Board of Education building.

Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori says there were more pressing educational capital projects to attend to first. He says the project was unlikely to be built in the next five years, even before it was removed from the CIP.

“We believe that there are so many more pressing issues as far as our teachers being significantly underpaid, as well as their support staff as well. And, you know, to allocate $37 million for a new administration building for a five-year plan, I just have to disagree with it, and I needed that to be struck off the CIP so we can move some of these funds over to getting our teachers that pay they deserve,” Fiori said.

47 ABC WMDT reached out to the WCBOE for comment on the rejection of the project, and did not hear back.