At the Board of Education meeting hosted on October 22nd, Brunswick High School (BHS) and its community was a hot topic during the meeting. Regarding BHS, the Board of Education (BOE) discussed our staffing changes and updates on the plan for rebuilding the physical school. 

First, the BOE officially announced administrative changes that will be effective on November 1st, 2025. BHS will receive a permanent athletic director to take over for Mr. Spiezio, the acting athletic director (AD), in place. BHS is excited to welcome Mr. Keller as our new AD. Mr. Keller is the current Assistant Principal at Walkersville High School and has experience with administration and FCPS athletics as he is also a former FCPS athletic coach. The gazette had a chance to ask Mr. Spiezio to share any advice for the new athletic director, “Have humor, and it is a stressful job so make sure you roll with the punches and stay fluid. You can plan your day to do one thing and end up doing something different.” Spiezio said. Additionally, BHS will be receiving a new Assistant Principal Ms. Nicklas. Ms. Nicklas is coming from Crestwood Middle School and also has experience with high school. However, this means that the current Assistant Principal, Mrs. Fisher will be heading to Walkersville High School and become their Assistant Principal. Additionally, Mr. Spezio will return to teaching physical education at BHS.

The BOE announced their plan on the rebuilding of BHS. Construction will begin in 2028 and is estimated to be finished in 2030. For this rebuild of BHS, it is expected to cost around $160M. These costs would come from the demolition of the current building, paying the construction workers, and all of the materials needed. The new school is expected to be 998 Student Representative Council (SRC) or population. The building is planned to be 129, 255 net square which would include 50 Teaching Spaces:

• 19 General Education Classrooms
• 6 Science Labs
• 10 CTE programs 
• 1 Technology Education Lab 
• 2 Special Education Classrooms
• 5 Physical Education
• 6 Visual & Performing Arts
• 1 Digital Learning Lab

Now the talks of BHS receiving a new building has been occurring for various years with plans being made but then paused. The current school building is begging to not maintain the growing population of students; but due to state laws, new school buildings can’t be built to hold more students than the current number. Furthermore, this rebuild will not help the upcoming issue of redistricting and overcrowding in BHS schools; but it will combat the issue of better school infrastructure. BHS now is filled with small classrooms, low functioning AC/Heating, rats run through the school, and in recent years there has been sightings of mold and other issues. BHS’s current Principal, Mr. Schwarzenegger commented on the new updates for BHS’s rebuilding, “I was very pleased to see the Board of Education approve the specifications for the new BHS on Wednesday.  It was a critical step in what has been a very long process of advocacy by the community.  One big piece of news that came out of that meeting is that the anticipated opening date is August 2030, which is sooner than I anticipated.  Unfortunately, that still means that none of our current students will be able to experience the new building” Schwarzenegger said. The Brunswick community, as well as BHS only hopes that these plans get approved and find the funding to provide their students with an improved school building.