Fifth graders helped cut the ribbon Monday on a brand-new elementary school in New Carrollton, marking the opening of an 850-student campus built to replace aging infrastructure in Prince George's County. The new building is Margaret Brent Elementary School at 5816 Lamont Terrace, and it now serves as the consolidated home for students and staff who previously attended Glenridge Elementary School.
The ceremony, covered by WUSA9, brought together students, staff and officials to mark the school's debut in the Washington suburb. The two-story, 101,586-square-foot building sits on a 12.93-acre campus and was constructed at a cost of $81 million, according to Prince George's County Public Schools, which also confirms the school's Pre-K through 5th-grade enrollment capacity.
Built Green, From Geothermal to a Compostable Kitchen
The campus was designed with sustainability as a priority, featuring geothermal heating and cooling, rain gardens and a compostable kitchen. According to the district, the building is designed to achieve Net Zero Energy performance once solar panels are installed, placing it among PGCPS's more ambitious environmental builds. Official groundbreaking for the new campus took place in September 2024, the district notes.
Margaret Brent Elementary isn't opening alone. Templeton Elementary School in Riverdale Park is another 850-student campus delivered under the same Phase II delivery group, according to a quarterly capital programs report posted by the district. Both buildings were bundled together as part of what the county calls Group A of its ongoing school construction push.
A Countywide Building Boom Funded by Private Partners
Margaret Brent Elementary was constructed under PGCPS's $800 million Blueprint Schools Phase II program, an initiative set to deliver eight new public school buildings across the county by 2028, per JLL. That phase is designed to replace 14 existing schools across the district. The program runs through a public-private partnership with Progressive Education Partners, a team led by developer Plenary Americas and contractor MCN Build, which according to Plenary Americas handles design, financing and construction, along with 30 years of facility maintenance once the doors open.
The P3 arrangement puts construction and long-term upkeep in private partners' hands. In 2021, PGCPS became the first public school district in the United States to use a public-private partnership model for K-12 schools. JLL reports that Phase I of the Blueprint Schools initiative delivered six new schools in under three years, while Phase II is expected to benefit more than 8,000 students.
A Response to an $8 Billion Maintenance Backlog
The urgency behind the building spree traces back to the district's staggering infrastructure deficit. PGCPS serves more than 133,000 students across 200 facilities as Maryland's second-largest school district, operating under an estimated $8 billion backlog in deferred facility maintenance, Hoodline has previously reported. That backlog has had real consequences for students elsewhere in the county, including early dismissals tied to failing air conditioning.
Against that backdrop, new buildings like Margaret Brent Elementary represent one of the district's clearest wins in its race to modernize an aging system. With solar panels still pending and the Glenridge community now settled into its new building, the school stands as one piece of a much larger construction effort still playing out across Prince George's County through 2028.
