FEAC presents recommendations to Board of Education 11/17/09

The FEAC presented their recommendation for school redistricting to the Board of Education during their Business Meeting on 11/17.  They delivered their recommendations with a power point reviewing the process of coming up with the proposal and two very large binders that, among other things, held the proposals as well as all correspondence received from the stakeholders.

The Board thanked the members of the FEAC and presented them with a Golden Apple award for their many hours of volunteer service.

A member of the Board asked the Committee to give them some feedback about the overall process, specifically what worked and what didn't.  Adam Lewis, co chair of FEAC, committed to delivering their comments in writing.  My recommendation would be to get the stakeholders involved much earlier in the process and for the FEAC (and BOE) to answer questions at the forums instead of just allowing stakeholder's statements.    

Here are the next steps in the process.

December 8th School superintendent Dr Elizabeth Morgan will make her recommendations concerning the FEAC's proposal to the Board of Education.  She can accept it as it is or make changes.

December 15th Board of Education will have a public work session regarding redistricting  from 8:30 am to 11:30 am.  This work session will be televised.

December 22nd Second public work session will be held from 8:30 am to 11:30 am.  Also televised.

January 5th Public hearing tentatively scheduled at South High to hear from stakeholders.  This will be the only public hearing unless there are so many stakeholders that the Board of Education cannot hear from all of them during the time allotted.  If not, a second public hearing will be held on January 12th.

January 19th The Board of Education will take a vote on the redistricting proposal and make their final decision.  

As you can see, there are still several steps left before a final decision will be made.  Although the FEAC's decision to not send Keedysville students to Rockland Woods was a small victory, we are not out of the woods yet.  The Board can make a decision to not follow the FEAC's recommendation.  Please continue to communicate to the BOE and plan on attending (and speaking) at the public hearing if they decide during their planning process to send our children to Rockland Woods.