September 18, 2009
Facilities & Enrollment Advisory Committee
Washington County Public Schools
Via email: FEAC@wcboe.k12.md.us
Committee Members,
I attended the FEAC Public Forum at Rockland Woods Elementary School Thursday night (September 17). I elected to provide my feedback in written form rather than speak at the Forum.
Each member of the FEAC is to be commended for being involved on the committee. Your charge from the WCBOE is difficult, at best. Each of you has sacrificed many hours of your life to contribute to the committee, a fact most parents involved in this process recognize.
My wife and I just moved into the Cannon Ridge subdivision in July 09 and were not involved in the proposed redistricting last year. We are looking at this with a “fresh” view. We have a daughter who will begin kindergarten in September 2010.
There was a great deal of information available at the Forum, both written (from the FEAC) and verbal (from the speakers). The most striking information is the list of considerations in the FEAC Charge from the Board of Education (page six of the PowerPoint handout). There is no consideration listed regarding the well-being of students impacted by the proposed redistricting. Some 1500 students and their families would be affected by this plan, a fact the Board of Education has, seemingly, deemed not worthy of consideration. The Board’s Charge reduces the children involved to a commodity to be moved in order to reach a projected number at each school. I think the FEAC realizes the numbers being looked at represent kids. Not percentages, not projections…kids. I hope the FEAC will be able to help the Board of Education realize this, as well.
My concern is sending kids from Keedysville to Rockland Woods. Keedysville is connected to Boonsboro, figuratively (children’s activities and community events) and literally (our water line comes from Boonsboro). When we moved to Keedysville (from Middletown) the calls for local civic services went to Boonsboro. The kids in our neighborhood play soccer, learn gymnastics and go to cheerleader classes in Boonsboro. This is part of the fabric of the community.
Moving kids from Keedysville to Rockland Woods is counter to several of the guidelines put forth by the Maryland State Department of Education:
1. The MSDE Division of Early Childhood Development tells parents “…most five-year-olds need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day.” Kids who have to catch a school bus at 6:30AM will likely not reach this goal.
2. The Maryland Early Childhood Advisory Council writes in What Success Looks Like that “A child…exposed to stress is not in a good position to learn.” Five-year-old kids boarding a bus at 6:30AM for a minimum 30-minute ride to kindergarten will be exposed to stress.
3. The MSDE has instituted an award for parental involvement in education, the JoAnne L. Carter Memorial Award. This is the second award the MSDE has for parental involvement in education (the Comcast Parental Involvement Matters award is the other). You heard at your Forum that parents from Keedysville will struggle just to make certain their kids get to after-school care. There are scores of parents in Keedysville who will want to contribute time to their kids’ school who will be unable to do so because of the geography involved in this proposal.
A number of options were presented at the Forum as well as a number of concerns. Many were valid and there’s no reason to repeat them here.
What I did not hear at the Forum, either from the presentation or any of the speakers, is mention of a ten or twenty year plan from the Board regarding growth in Washington County. Without such plans, which project population distribution and growth, these redistricting plans will become an annual event.
I suggest this committee add a recommendation putting a cap on the number of times a kid can be moved to a different school. This cap should be once for grades K-6 and once for grades 7-10. High School juniors and seniors should not be moved.
Has there been any consideration of moving to year-round schools? This will immediately ease the overcrowding without moving kids to different schools. I recall one committee member saying the FEAC was told to “think outside the box” and year-round schools in Washington County would fit that description.
My “fresh” look at this redistricting issue includes the comments made about the Eastern Primary School. From what I’ve read, heard and researched that school is clearly not being planned for optimal use in Washington County. Anyone can see, based on the Summary from the FEAC proposal that a new school needs to be located in the southern part of the county. It was stated at the Forum that because the state has approved funding for the proposed Eastern location that the plans cannot change. That’s incorrect. A review of Title 23, Board of Public Works, Subtitle 03, Public School Construction will provide information about how to change the location of the new school.
I left the Forum with the sense that the FEAC is making an honest effort to create a fair and effective redistricting plan. My concern is that the Board will ultimately do what is politically expedient for the Board and not what is best for the kids of Washington County.
Thank you again for your efforts. I would be happy to discuss this letter and/or contribute in any way to the committee.
Sincerely,
Craig Whetstine
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