Harford County Public Schools officials have put forward a $28.6 million capital request that would pay for new weapons detectors and long-needed HVAC fixes across the district, while pushing track repairs at two high schools down the priority list. The county Board of Education is scheduled to vote on the request on Nov. 23.
The $28.6 million figure represents roughly half of $55 million in capital needs the district has identified, according to Capital Gazette. As part of the trade-offs built into the proposal, officials said they would defer track projects at Fallston and Edgewood high schools to prioritize other items on the list, including the weapons-detection equipment and HVAC repairs.
A History of Partial Funding
District officials have noted that full capital requests have typically received only about 13% of the funding sought in past years, per the same Capital Gazette report. That tracks with a separate figure from a 2023 county presentation, in which a county facilities planner said Harford County had funded 14% of the capital projects requested over the prior decade — though that earlier figure measured the share of individual projects funded rather than the share of dollars requested, a distinction the current reporting does not fully reconcile.
The gap between what districts ask for and what they receive is not new in Harford County. Back in fall 2023, the school system's fiscal 2025 capital budget proposal topped $70.7 million, with the district requesting $44.5 million of that from the county, according to the Baltimore Sun. The Baltimore Sun also reported a $6.4 million request for HVAC work at Aberdeen Middle School in the fiscal 2025 county request.
Security Spending Has Been Building for Months
The 2023 capital plan also listed outdoor track reconditioning as a project category — the same category of project now being deferred at Fallston and Edgewood under the new proposal.
Weapons detection has been a growing focus for the district well before this month's capital request. Harford County Public Schools had 11 Opengate weapons-detection systems, which officials said would primarily be used for sporting events and other school functions rather than daily screening, according to govtech.com.
That usage plan shifted earlier this fall. In September, the district said it would begin using the weapons-detection technology periodically at different points during the school day, including during student arrival, rather than reserving it solely for events, Capital Gazette reported at the time.
With the Board of Education vote set for Nov. 23, the proposal's fate — and how much of the $55 million in identified needs ultimately gets funded — will hinge on budget decisions still to come.
