Varney Statement at FEAC Forum 9/17/09

This statement was delivered to the FEAC during the forum held at Rockland Woods on September 17th.

To: FEAC Committee

From: Samuel and Kayce Varney

Date: 9/27/2009

Re: Proposed Redistricting of Keedysville students

We are Keedysville residents with two children currently attending Boonesboro Elementary and with two additional children who will be attending in the near future. We are strongly against the proposed redistricting of Keedysville which would split our community in two and is not a viable long term solution to the current issue of student distribution in Washington County.

The negative impact on the close knit community of Keedysville is significant. Some of the negative impact to our community includes requiring our young children to get on the school bus at a much earlier time to get to school, more travel time spent on the school bus, and creating an undue hardship on families who would have students attending school at different locations and would have to arrange for after school care. Many Keedysville residents work towards the DC area and students attending Rockland Woods would be further away causing hardship on them and negatively impacting the ability of the students to participate in after school activities. During one of your meetings, it was commented that it is “the obligation of communities to lobby churches and other daycare providers to purchase vans to transport students to schools.” This places undue pressure on our community resources in a challenging economic environment.

Rockland Woods was built for the community of Westfield which is still not complete. If you send the students from Keedysville to Rockland Woods, the school would be overcrowded once the development is complete. This would require once again for the students of Keedysville to be moved back to Boonesboro causing further disruption to our students. A better solution would be to not break up the town of Keedysville but rather take the students from the subdivisions of Black Rock and Beaver Creek and send them to Rockland Woods. It makes more sense geographically and would not break up a community since those subdivisions are in the County but are not incorporated as part of a city. In addition, once the community of Westfield is complete, Rockland Woods would be at capacity. Another option would be to place our fifth graders in the sixth grade wing of Boonesboro Middle School.

The decision to have the students of Keedysville pass two other elementary schools to attend school at Rockland Woods is not logical. It is an arbitrary decision that puts the need of filling Rockland Woods above the more important needs of a community and what is right for our children. It is a short sighted decision that lacks clear explanation.

The format of these public forums is very disappointing. The decision of the Committee to not answer questions from the audience stifles an open and transparent discussion with the stakeholders. The redistricting of Keedysville was attempted a year ago and did not pass. I would recommend the Committee open their floor to discussion with those of us who are being impacted in order to better explain their methodology of approaching the redistricting problem and defend the validity of their findings. In doing so, they may be able to work with the community in more of a collaborative effort and come up with a better solution that would be more palatable to all.