Homestead Wakefield School Rebuilding Project Delayed By Bel Air: HCPS

BEL AIR, MD — The Homestead Wakefield Elementary School rebuilding project has been delayed by a request from the town of Bel Air, school system officials said.

“We’ve hit a stumbling block,” Homestead Wakefield Principal Chris Cook said at a recent community meeting.

Months ago, Cook said he organized the meeting to update everyone on the construction project, before the school board and the town of Bel Air became embroiled in a dispute over the town's request that the school system provide right of way to MacPhail Road.

Related:

• Harford County School Board Overrules Town Of Bel Air On Road Decision
• Bel Air Supports Construction Of Homestead Wakefield Elementary
• Homestead Wakefield School Moves Ahead With MacPhail Road Requirement

The Harford County Board of Education voted against transferring MacPhail Road to the town of Bel Air during its April 25 meeting.

Unanimously, school board members agreed with the school system's superintendent that the Bel Air Planning Commission overstepped its authority.

Although the Bel Air Planning Commission approved of the site and landscape plans April 7 and state construction documents were approved in March, the town's planning commission provided contingencies, including dedication of a 50-foot right of way so MacPhail Road could extend. The road must be transferred before the town would issue a use-and-occupancy permit, according to the approval letter.

"They did not approve our plans, and they set some conditions," Assistant Superintendent of Operations Cornell Brown said at the April 27 Homestead Wakefield community rebuild meeting.

"The town of Bel Air gave comments that were technical in nature," Brown said. "We're obligated to do that; that's standard business."

But other comments, he said, were outside the town's purview.

For example, before the town will issue a grading permit, Harford County Public Schools must submit a forest conservation plan "depicting the proposed connecting road across the site," according to the planning commission's April 8 letter outlining conditions.

"If we do not transfer the [MacPhail Road] property before construction is completed, they would not issue use and occupancy," Brown said.

"We're moving forward through our legal office," Brown said. "The town of Bel Air is not authorized to do what it has done, and we would like to resolve that as quickly as we can. And if we cannot resolve that ... the worst case is that it becomes a court issue."

Below is the letter from the Bel Air Planning Commission:

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Through its attorney, the school system requested in an April 26 letter that Bel Air's Planning Commission reissue its approval letter "with the removal of the conditions related to the right-of-way and public road."

In the worst-case scenario, Brown said the new school could open in 2025 rather than 2024.

"We're going to do the technical work to get all the information together so we can resubmit our plans to the town for reconsideration in hopes they will rescind those conditions, and then we'll go [through] the normal course of business" to address the technical feedback, Brown said.

In June, Brown said: "We're hoping we can get approvals" from the Bel Air Planning Commission.

To be on the agenda for the June meeting, the school system would have had to make a request.

"They are not on the agenda. They have not asked to be on the agenda," Bel Air Community and Public Relations Manager Patti Parker told Patch on Thursday, May 5, which she said was the deadline to request to be heard by the Bel Air Planning Commission.

Bids were set to open April 21 for the Homestead Wakefield rebuild project, but officials said they delayed that by a month due to the conditions set by the Bel Air Planning Commission.

"We pushed it out because we're continually working through this process," said Chris Morton, supervisor of facilities management for Harford County Public Schools

"It's probably going to get pushed again, and if there's no resolution at the [June] planning meeting, then we'll probably pull it altogether," Morton said of putting the project out to bid.

Two Schools Become One

The plan was for Wakefield to be demolished while the new Homestead Wakefield Elementary School is built. Students at Wakefield would be in modular classrooms.

"When I made this PowerPoint, we were on schedule," Cook said during the April 27 community meeting, held in the gym at the Wakefield building.

Rather than two buildings, the new school would be consolidated into one structure that is two stories.

After demolishing Wakefield, the new school would be built on that site, which is about 40 feet higher than the Homestead campus, where students would remain in their building during construction.

Meanwhile, Wakefield students would be in relocatable classrooms that the school system has already leased and partially installed.

The modular classrooms are designed to feel like a real school building, according to project organizers. Cook shared pictures of the 66-foot long modular classrooms that are being installed.

"As we speak, these are on target," Cook said, to be "ready for us to move in" this summer.

"It's not like the old trailers," Cook said. Instead, the modular spaces are 43 trailers put side-by-side and bolted together. "There are three long modular structures that I think are going to serve our needs well for a temporary" period of about two years.

The school system first used this kind of modular classroom space during the construction project at Joppatowne High School, according to Brown.

There’s a two-year lease on the portables, according to Supervisor of Facilities Management at Harford County Public Schools Chris Morton.

The Homestead building would be converted into ball fields, which may also be used for a future project to expand Bel Air Middle School in the next decade. Officials said the need for this space also precluded dedication of the MacPhail Road right of way to the town.

"We're going to try to get back on track," Morton said, after the June Planning Commission meeting. If not, then the project would get postponed, possibly by a year.

Traffic A Concern With Combining Schools

Because two schools will be on a single site rather than two, the principal reported pickup and drop-off could get overwhelming.

"We're now merging campuses to accommodate both schools," Cook said of what will happen once construction starts. "We cannot accommodate cars and buses" from the same place.

Instead, a shuttle service will take students to Bel Air Middle School, where they can be picked up. The idea came from Youths Benefit Elementary School.

Fluid Timeline For Construction

Given the shifting timeline because of the disagreement between the Bel Air Planning Commission and Harford County Public Schools, some community members asked for updates on the progress.

Morton said he would return for an update once the construction timeline is revised.

The PTA is also mobilizing around the issue.

“We will be as a PTA coming up with a formal statement that we are going to make in opposition of the road,” PTA President Alicia Rabak said of MacPhail Road connecting.

The PTA will state the reasons why it is against connecting East MacPhail and West MacPhail in its statement, she said, and in the meantime would be updating an advocacy page on the Homestead Wakefield PTA website for those who want to stay informed about the latest developments.