When the first reports were posted in the Herald Mail regarding the new Rockland Woods School being built in the back of the Westfields subdivision by land donated by the developer, many Keedysville residents voiced opinions of it not being a very wise choice of the Board. To assume that an entire development and close surrounding areas would fill a school of that size would bring disappointment and failure from a housing bubble that was nationally coming to a halt.
Seeing communities throughout the County grow at such rapid rates, while existing schools were left untouched, other than the additions of mobile units to house the growing number of students and teachers was extremely frustrating. Knowing that the Board approached the State for $11 million dollars to go into building this new "pet" project was a basic slap in the face to our over-crowded schools that are located nowhere near Westfields.
We do not want our children to be sent to a Hagerstown school...and potentially to a city middle or high school...this is not why we chose to live in Keedysville. We feel that if we are redistricted we will never be able to be assured that our children won’t attend a city school. Had we wanted our children to attend a city school we would have chose to live in the city.
With that said this proposal would actually add additional students to Rockland Woods than what is preferred. What will happen to these students, when the economy and home sales in Westfields increases? Ship them BACK to Boonsboro? Are these children? Or pieces to a mathematical equation that you just add and subtract at will to fit the numbers that are needed at any given time to fill Rockland Woods ES so that their allotted state funding remains intact?
Before the FEAC and/or Board of Ed approve this move, we would like to see that each of the concerns from the Keedysville Residents are heard and will be addressed to the public.
Now on to our concerns for once again choosing Keedysville children to help fill the empty seats at Rockland Woods ES... First and foremost, Keedysville has been part of both Sharpsburg and Boonsboro community and school districts upon the closing of Keedysville Elementary School decades ago. This proposal is allowing our children to be pulled from their schools, communities and classmates to attend, for all intensive purposes, a "city school". Is it really fair to split a town up and single out parts of us because we happen to hold the “magic number” you are looking for? We don’t feel that our children are being thought about at all in this process and that should be the FEAC and the BOE’s top priority considering you are interfering with our children’s education. If the thought of the FEAC and Board is this will not affect our kids in anyway then why is it continually stressed at school orientations to let the school know of any change in our children’s lives because “CHANGE AFFECTS KIDS”? This change will affect our kids. We are talking about small children that are trying to adjust to the first years of school in the first place which makes the bonds and relationships with teachers and other students that much more important.
Second, the proposal states that travel time will only increase by no more than 5 minutes. Which route would the buses be traveling? I have personally timed the trip verses the route to Boonsboro Elementary and the travel time increased 17 minutes, along with adding almost 12 miles. This was completed by traveling Keedysville Road. A route along Sharpsburg Pike through Sharpsburg, which would be the safest route, would only increase the travel time and mileage even more.
Third, another concern with the proposal is obviously an important one to many of the working parents – daycare. The main daycare facility for many of the BES students in the Keedysville area is Beginnings Day Care. The daycare has children from both the Keedysville and Boonsboro districts. It is our understanding through the last proposal, that the only bus that will be traveling to the daycare will be the one for the Boonsboro Students. Why will a bus from Rockland Woods Elem not travel there also?
If families are forced to change daycare providers, or attend the Before/After School Care at Rockland Woods, this would potentially add an additional 30 miles to a parents commute one way..for a total daily commute of 60 miles. This added to many parents already commuting 30 – 60 miles per day to work from there homes. In addition to a longer commute, this will more than likely result in hardship for any families who have children that participate in Boonsboro area sports such as BAAA or AYSO as making practice and game times are much more manageable when the location of the daycare and school is close to practice and game fields.
Forth, what happens to the 5th graders as they leave Rockland Woods ES? It was made clear in a handout we received at our the last CAC meeting that Rockland Woods ES would be fed into NO MORE than 2 feeder schools, yet at the same CAC meeting we were told Rockland Woods already feeds into 2 middle schools so where does that leave our children???
Boonsboro Middle School is under capacity right now so why not move the 5th graders over to the middle school? They could still start the same time as BES and maybe even confine them to one area. This has worked in the past so why not now??? To us this move makes more sense because we will not be splitting the community up or encountering all the other concerns we have with move to Rockland Woods ES.
Sixth, Rockland Woods was built for Westfields and once that subdivision is complete it will put Rockland Woods at about 112% over capacity (with Keedysville there). Where as if Beaver Creek and Black Rock move between Eastern and Rockland Woods, it will put Rockland Woods right at capacity. Black Rock and Beaver Creek are not towns and they just pay county taxes. They are not a town and therefore it would have less of an impact breaking them up. Where as Keedysville is a town paying town and county taxes BOTH and splitting a town is hard on the community. Increasing some boundaries and decreasing others would be a logical solution as opposed to pulling towns and communities out of the middle as you are proposing with Keedysville.
Lastly, As we are sure you are aware, Boonsboro is a magnet school that has children from other districts attend. Although we are very proud of our school’s status, would it not make better sense to move the magnet program to Rockland Woods, which can offer smaller classroom sizes, newer facilities while increasing enrollment for Rockland and decreasing for Boonsboro.
We hope you take the time to read all of our concerns we have sent and we further more hope you and the FEAC and the BOE take them into consideration and remember that there are children being affected by this and our children are NOT just “magic numbers” to be thrown around.
All parents and attendees in agreement with what has been read, please stand.
Thank you for allowing us to voice our concerns. We welcome any response on the situation.Misty Roosa/Representing many Keedysville Residents
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