Cutting Montgomery County Public Schools’ construction budget could mean forgoing much-needed renovations and allowing already overcrowded schools to become more crowded, the system’s new superintendent says. County Executive Ike Leggett last month asked the heads of MCPS, Montgomery College and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to prepare for large cuts to their capital budgets, totaling $150 million over a six-year period starting July 1, 2012. The school system’s contribution would be $34 million of its $887 million capital budget over the next four years.

But in a letter responding to Leggett’s request, Superintendent Joshua Starr warned that the proposed cuts would burden a school system faced with overcrowded schools badly in need of repairs and expansion.