The future of a longstanding Montgomery County Public Schools program that has students construct and sell a home remains undetermined for the 2026-2027 school year, according to MCPS, following a report by MyMCMedia that the Construction Trades Foundation program at Thomas Edison High School of Technology appeared to have ended after budget cuts.
MyMCMedia reported Thursday that a visit to Thomas Edison found empty parking spaces reserved for Foundations Office staff and no equipment or activity at the construction site where students have built homes for decades. According to the report, a staff member at Thomas Edison also said MCPS had cut the program. The report followed months of questions about the future of the program after positions associated with the Foundations Office were targeted as part of MCPS budget reductions.
According to MyMCMedia, Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposed budget called for eliminating four positions connected to the program, including the Foundations Office supervisor, instructional specialists and a fiscal assistant, for approximately $460,000 in savings. The Board of Education ultimately adopted a $3.72 billion Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget in June that eliminated hundreds of positions across the school system.
The Construction Trades Foundation recently marked 50 years. Students from Thomas Edison and Seneca Valley high schools spent two years constructing the program’s 44th home, a three-level, four-bedroom house on O’Fallon Street in Silver Spring that sold for $799,000.
Following the report, MCPS issued a statement emphasizing a distinction between its Career and Technical Education programs and the independent nonprofit foundations that support students and programs. MCPS said its CTE programs remain operational and teachers continue to provide instruction. The school system also said the independent 501(c)(3) foundations continue to operate and remain partners of MCPS.
The school system is currently working with the foundations to establish formal Memoranda of Understanding, or MOUs, intended to clarify their relationships with MCPS and how the organizations can support schools, programs and students.
Historically, the Construction Trades Foundation has provided an additional hands-on component to construction education. MCPS documents have described the foundation as operating a design/build business through which students construct a single-family home using skills learned in areas including architecture, carpentry, electricity, plumbing, masonry and HVAC.
The MoCoShow reached out to MCPS seeking clarification specifically about whether that portion of the program will continue during the current school year. “To clarify, will MCPS students continue to construct and sell homes through the Construction Trades Foundation during the 2026-2027 school year as they have in previous years?” we asked.
MCPS spokesperson Liliana Lopez said that has not yet been determined. “We are still working with the supporting foundations to establish the MOUs of the programs,” Lopez told The MoCoShow. “Part of those MOUs will be the construction and selling – so the building and selling of the house for this year still needs to be determined.”
The response means that while MCPS says construction-related CTE instruction continues and the independent foundations remain in operation, whether students will participate in the longstanding process of constructing and selling a home during the 2026-2027 school year remains unresolved.
MCPS said it and the foundations are working together while the agreements are finalized to identify appropriate projects and opportunities for students.
