SSIMS building perpetuates health and safety concerns

By Zoë Kaiser and Caleb Plank Staff Writers

Since the beginning of the 2022–2023 school year, Silver Spring International Middle School (SSIMS) has seen a rise in trespassers, violence, and drug use, in addition to previous concerns about infrastructure and local construction. Parents, students, and staff have repeatedly expressed concerns about SSIMS security and infrastructure to the BOE through testimonies and email campaigns.

The current SSIMS building used to be home to Blair, but in 1998, the county decided to move Blair into a new building and transition both SSIMS and Sligo Creek Elementary School into the space. This resulted in the division of the building to fit the needs of both an elementary and middle school. AtLarge member of the Montgomery County Board of Education Lynne Harris believes this decision ended up limiting accessibility and making it a challenge for students to move around. “[The school] was not built to serve the sheer volume of students that are there,” she said.

As a school that was built in 1939 and sees thousands of students every year, the layout of the SSIMS building itself has started to face challenges. “The hallways are too narrow. There’s a bunch of choke points in the hallways, the doorways in the staircases are too narrow, and that all leads to safety issues,” sixth grade teacher Gretchen Winch said.

Sixth-grade student Maggie Carey often experiences difficulties navigating the layout of the school. “There are some [staircases] that lead to the third floor from the first floor. But when you have a class on the third floor, [and] you need to get down to the second floor, you’re not allowed to go down [the staircase] that has access to the second floor, you are only allowed to go [all the way] down, then back up to the second floor.”

SSIMS’s population has also impacted student behavior inside the classroom. “[Overcrowding] is very difficult for teachers. Students have gotten away with literally smoking in class [and] vaping in class,” Kelsey said. “The only reason is because there’s too many students for one teacher to pay attention to everyone.”

In some cases, overfilled classes go beyond the capacity of classrooms themselves. “One of my colleagues last year taught a class of 29 students in a room where only 28 desks would fit. If all students were present, somebody would have to stand for class,” Winch wrote in a follow-up email to Silver Chips.

In addition to overcrowding issues, students have expressed concerns about the persistent lack of safety in the school’s separated gymnasium and track. The physical education facilities outside of SSIMS are officially meant for students and staff; however, many in the community use them as well. “The fields and the track that we use are public,” Gray said. “We do see strangers, people, adults on the track when we’re having gym [class].”

If somebody tried to build this school building today, it would be illegal. And yet people are still having to use it.

SSIMS’ assignment of just two security guards to serve its 1,250 students and 132 staff members has also exacerbated the school’s safety shortfalls, according to SSIMS seventh-grader Eve Gray. “We have two security assistance for 1,200 students. That is nowhere near enough people to protect our school and to give it security. We don’t have enough security to cover all of the exits,” Gray said.

Potential intruders or gun violence have repeatedly threatened the school, according to sixthgrade student Favienne Kelsey. “We’ve had multiple gun threats. We have had a break-in into our school twice due to faulty locks,” Kelsey said.

Furthermore, the SSIMS building itself has been a health concern for some students and staff. Winch experiences health difficulties at work as a result of the building’s poor air quality and other safety issues. She submitted testimonies to the BOE and encouraged their students to do the same. “I actually thought that I had some sort of allergy to some environmental substances [at SSIMS], and I got allergy tested and the doctor told me, ‘No, you just work in a building with really bad air quality,’” Winch explained.

Students have also noticed environmental hazards throughout the school day. “We have asbestos in our ceilings, mold in our ceilings, [and] leaks,” Kelsey said. Additionally, Winch describes high temperatures that have affected their classroom at SSIMS. “The temperatures become unsafe in the summer on the third floor. I literally got heat exhaustion working in my classroom [because] it was 94 degrees.”

Many of SSIMS’ security issues have been attributed to the age of the school, according to Winch. “If somebody tried to build this school building today, it would be illegal. And yet people are still having to use it.”

On top of the concerns about air quality, overcrowding, and security coverage reported from within the SSIMS building, the school has also been dealing with challenges right outside its doors.

Along the front of the school on Wayne Avenue, the construction of the Purple Line has been underway for nearly six years. After a brief halt of the project in 2020, a new company Maryland Transit Solutions (MTS) took over in 2021 and resumed construction.

A site full of large construction vehicles and materials now lines the school’s property, causing parts of the street and sidewalk to be blocked off by construction zones.

The renewal of this project also came with impacts on the school and community. The leading issue was communication between the BOE and MTS about the original rite of entry agreement that laid out all of the scheduling and safety precautions. “A new firm came in didn’t have that [experience and] wanted to jump in and just get started,” Seth Adams, Director of MCPS’ Department of Facilities Management, said. “That’s where we’ve been working with them to hit the brakes and make sure we revisit all the things that we talked about previously.”

Harris also believes that reestablishing a plan for safety and successful construction is key to alleviating SSIMS’ Purple Line safety issue. “Get all the relevant players together and just come up with a solution that’s gonna make this site safer, a little more attractive, and won’t delay [construction],” she said.

Adams and the BOE hope that a safer environment would be the outcome of a new construction site agreement. “That would include all pedestrian flow, what supports would be in place for crossing guards, [and] bicycle access,” Adams said.

We have asbestos in our ceilings, mold in our ceilings, [and] leaks.

To further combat the SSIMS’ accessibility issues, MCPS has also approved a new gym that will begin construction this summer. “A big part of this project is to create circulation at the front of the building.” Adams said. “So the first step is to start building the gym. As part of that gym, you’re going to have everything from science labs to new stairwells to security provisions.”

The implementation of these new plans will help SSIMS start a process that will modernize and catch up to other schools in the county, according to Adams. “I feel confident [that] we can create and transform that building into [a] 21st century school environment,” he said.

However, the lack of county movement toward a large-scale renovation at SSIMS stands in contrast to the resources allocated to schools like B-CC. “[B-CC] received a $42 million addition in 2018 for the capacity of 400 extra students. Our school opened with around 800 [extra students, and] we have since increased our capacity by 400. We have lost space during that time,” Winch said. “We are overcrowded, overutilized. And yet every single time they say we really need a new school building, they say it’s too expensive. But it’s not too expensive when Bethesda asks.”