On Monday, September 19, 2022 Prince George’s County Public Schools held an Official Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the new Cherokee Lane Elementary School on Buck Lodge Road in Adelphi, MD.

Maryland State Senators Malcom Augustine and Jim Rosapepe were among several guest speakers, along with school district administration. Thomas W. Gilbert, AIA, President of Gilbert Architects presented the golden key to learning plaque to Asst. Principal Tiesha Burgess. Self-guided tours of grades Pre-K to 5 followed the ceremony, with teachers greeting new students in their classrooms.

Cherokee Lane is the first of 10 PGCPS schools that will open over the next four years and is the first public school in Maryland to be constructed using a hybrid off-site/on-site construction model.

Despite a pandemic and staffing and supply shortages, the school was built well ahead of schedule. “Normal construction would have been probably 16-18 months, but with the permanent off-site construction, we can almost cut that time in half,” said PGCPS project manager Joseph Howell.