Herald-Mail Article: Parents eye legal action to halt plans for Eastern Primary

Good article on parents attempt to stop the redistricting and the unnecessary construction of Eastern Primary.  Also attached are some of the comments posted by readers.  Click on the link to go directly to the article and read all of the comments as well as leave your own.

The Herald-Mail

http://www.herald-mail.com/

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(Credit: Chad Trovinger / Graphic Artist)

(Credit: Chad Trovinger / Graphic Artist)

10/03/2009

Parents eye legal action to halt plans for Eastern Primary

By DAN DEARTH 
dan.dearth@herald-mail.com

HAGERSTOWN — A group of parents with children in Washington County Public Schools said they might take the school system to court in an effort to halt construction of the proposed Eastern Primary School on the east end of Hagerstown.

Bill Lang, who has four children at Boonsboro Elementary School, said several parents are considering whether to pool their financial resources to take legal action.

“All options are open,” he said.

The $25 million Eastern Primary School is being considered as part of a redistricting plan to help alleviate overcrowding. If redistricting is approved, it would affect 20 of 26 elementary schools in the county and roughly 1,500 students. Many of those students would be bused to Eastern Primary School, which has a state-rated capacity of 695 students.

The school is slated to open in 2011.

The Washington County Board of Education is scheduled to consider a bid for the construction of Eastern Primary School during a meeting Tuesday.

Deputy Superintendent Boyd Michael said Eastern Primary School is in a location that can accommodate overflow from several schools.

“Eastern Primary is in a flexible area to work with,” Michael said. “You touch a lot of different districts.”

Michael said the construction of Eastern Primary School has been discussed for the past seven years. School officials also talked about building additions to Boonsboro Elementary, he said, but they didn’t think the additions would provide sufficient space to handle students from pending developments in that area.

Michael said officials intend to build a school in the southern part of the county when the time is right to receive maximum funding from the state.

“It just doesn’t justify a new school at this point,” he said.

The state has committed $14 million to build Eastern Primary School, Michael said last week. The remaining $11 million will be provided by the county.

Michael said he felt fortunate that Eastern Primary School was one of 25 proposed schools to receive state funding out of 90 requests.

Dottie Gruhler, who has two children at Old Forge Elementary School, said she believes school officials aren’t considering the best interests of the students.

“That irks me,” Gruhler said. “That is so wrong because they want to bus kids to fill a school ... Parents across the county are very, very mad.”

She said parents have been gathering petitions and took their fight to the public in a newspaper advertisement. On Sept. 27, an advertisement in The Herald-Mail encouraged parents to attend the school board meeting scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday to oppose the construction of Eastern Primary School.

“Eastern Primary represents $25 million of taxpayer money not being utilized where it is needed most,” the advertisement said. “... We would like to request an additional evening meeting be scheduled before the vote takes place to allow all the parents who work during the day to be able to attend this important meeting.”

Several other parents whose children would be affected by redistricting said last week officials should build a school where it is needed instead of busing children halfway across the county. They suggested delaying the redistricting plan until more input can be gathered from the public.

In January, the board directed the Facilities and Enrollment Advisory Committee — an organization with members appointed by the board — to address the redistricting issue. The committee met several times and held three public forums in September to get feedback from the public. Each resident who wanted to speak was given three minutes. Committee members agreed to refrain from engaging in open discussions at the forums, in part to avoid confrontations.

Jennifer Ashbaugh, who has two children at Old Forge Elementary, said she believes the committee should have requested ideas from the public before creating a redistricting plan.

One of Ashbaugh’s concerns about redistricting, she said, is that children and their parents won’t be able to participate together in school activities because they’ll be too far apart.

“I would much rather my children be in (portable classrooms) ... than to be uprooted,” she said.

Lang said school officials should consider building on to overcapacity schools instead of busing kids from their communities.

“This isn’t rocket science,” Lang said. “It’s about doing what’s best for the children.”

He said the board should think long and hard before it approves Eastern Primary School.

“I can’t see how any politician would put themselves in this position,” Lang said. “They’re putting themselves out there.”

Lang said school officials created what he termed a “cloak of secrecy” by failing to notify specific neighborhoods about how they would be affected by redistricting.

Lisa Milligan, who has one child at Old Forge Elementary School, said she believes school officials should have created focus groups long ago to get the public’s input.

“All we’re asking for is communication,” she said. “It’s a trust issue.”

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Reader Comments:

Please note: The Herald-Mail does not review every comment posted by our visitors, and we are not responsible for the content of the messages. The postings are the sole responsibility of the poster. We reserve the right to review, edit and/or delete any message for any reason, including but not limited to postings that are commercial in nature, contain profanity , off-topic or offensive. We reserve the right to revoke the posting privileges of any person who violates these rules at any time.

From:bumblebee Sat 03 Oct 2009 06:01:42 PM EDT	What is best for children isn't always just creating a bigger school at the same location. Children benefit from smaller school settings, as opposed to settings where they may be one of 500+ students. Smaller schools create a better sense of community, despite where a child's actual home may be. Additionally, adding portable classrooms doesn't fix overcrowding completely. For example, in a school that is to accomodate a certain number, cafeteria space is created to serve that number of students. Additional students mean that lunch shifts must start earlier, and go even later, meaning that other activities held in that room during the day (PE, and other programs),cannot occur during that time. Often, schools employ one PE, art, music, and media teacher. If numbers increase, additional teachers are needed, but facilities do not exist for these teachers. There are many issues to be considered. Money, space for a school, and parent desires do not always match.
From:whatruthinkin Sat 03 Oct 2009 06:41:14 PM EDT	Small schools are a good thing but Eastern campus will be anything but that, since it will have over 1100 students there! This is an obvious example of people NOT knowing what is going on with this redistricting!! The lunch room and "encore" class situations are valid points but the schools have that are overcrowded have been dealing with it just fine! People aren't saying don't redistrict, the are saying to delay it to get more feedback and more ideas from the general public. There are other, more cost effective ideas that are less disruptive to the children. LET'S REMEMBER THAT OUR NUMBER 1 PRIORITY SHOULD BE THE CONCERN FOR OUR CHILDREN!!!
From: I-question-why Sat 03 Oct 2009 08:51:03 PM EDT	Deputy Superintendent Boyd Michael said it just doesn't justify a new school in the southern part of the county at this point? Does he look at his own data? Boonsboro 121%, Greenbrier 127%, Sharpsburg 127% and even Old Forge on that side of town at 105%. Yet the current Eastern 83%. Seems to me there is more justification to build a school in the southern part of the county AT THIS POINT than there is to build another school at this location. I would like to know what justification Michael's has for this school if ALL students will need to be bused from other areas?
From:wlang10549 Sat 03 Oct 2009 08:52:18 PM EDT	funny that the time is not right to do something for the south county schools, I mean Boonsboro is at 121% of capacity, Greenbrier is at 127%, Sharpburg is at 122% and Pleasant Valley is at 90% but let's ignore those schools and build a primary school by the hospital. Why is it that the BOE can find the money to build new schools, yet they can't find the funding to upgrade the existing schools to a point that they can support their communities.
From: I-question-why Sat 03 Oct 2009 09:00:06 PM EDT	I guess Michael's doen't think that the southern part of the county would be able to handle a new school. After all, it is getting along just fine without electricity in its schools. Do you think Boonsboro will have heat this winter or should the kids add coal to their supply list along with the flashlights?
From:wlang10549 Sat 03 Oct 2009 09:16:19 PM EDT	bumblebee, I would agree smaller schools are better, but if you look at the ratings and the test scores for the south county schools you will find they are thriving even though they are overcrowded. Doing simple math (students divided by teachers) Rockland Woods has an average class size of 26 Boonsboro is 23, Greenbrier is 21 and Sharpsburg is 23 which schools are the students getting a greater sense of community.

Bill Lang's Statement at the FEAC Forum

The following is a statement that Keedysville resident Bill Lang presented to the FEAC during the public forum at Rockland Woods on September 17th.  Unfortunately, due to the 3 minute time limit, Bill was only able to hit the highlights even though another audience member requested to allow Bill to use his 3 minutes.  Here is Bill's statement in it's entirety.

FEAC Redistricting Response

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Bill Lang and I live in the Cannon Ridge subdivision, in Keedysville, Maryland.  First, thank you for giving me the time to respond to the redistricting proposal that has been put forth, as the parent of 4 children in Boonsboro Elementary, if I am not the single largest consumer of teaching services at Boonsboro I am sure I am in the top 5.  I would like to focus my comments on the section of the proposal of moving the children of Cannon Ridge and Rockingham to Rockland Woods Elementary.  I am sorely disappointed that in the 9 months that the committee has been looking at the redistricting that the best that you can come up with is a modified version of a proposal that was rejected 2 years ago.  Let’s review some of the factors that were supposed to be taken into account in this redistricting:

·      The geographic location of each school in relationship to the surrounding population area.

o      There are 5 elementary schools that are closer to Cannon Ridge and Rockingham than Rockland Woods; they are in order Boonsboro, Sharpsburg, Greenbrier, Fountain Rock and Pleasant Valley.  None of the other redistricting candidates are forced to go to a school that far out of their natural area.

o      There is no geographic connection between Keedysville and the current Rockland Woods district.  The proposed district has been drawn so that at one point it is as wide as the 2-lane road it is on so that there can be a connection created thus allowing the committee to not violate county transportation edicts that do not allow transportation across school districts.  If we were talking about election districts what you have done would be called gerrymandering

·      Assigning students to schools so that the LRC of each school is not exceeded.

o      The 2012 percentage of SRC projected for Rockland Woods is 100%.  The 2012 projected percentage of SRC for Boonsboro is 103%, so even with disenfranchising these 75 students you have failed to meet the objectives of school capacity.

·      The cost associated with the various options.

o      I am not going to focus on the cost to the BOE; I want to focus on the cost to the community.  First is the cost to the parents, especially those who require before and after school care.  Parents will be forced to change their child care providers as the county will not allow buses to transport children outside of their school district.  To put it simply children from Cannon Ridge or Rockingham would not be able to have afterschool care at the Keedysville community center which is less than a mile from their house under this proposal.  Parents who work to the east in places like Frederick, Loudoun or Montgomery Counties would be forced to drive to Hagerstown to pick up their children.  Adding time to their commute and costing them money.  Second, let’s talk about the cost to the children, Rockland Woods starts their school day at 7:25am, which means that when you factor in the time to pick up the students our children will be getting on the bus between 6:15 and 6:30am, and traveling 30 minutes on a bus, and depending on the route passing within 1 mile of Sharpsburg Elementary and 2 miles of Fountain Rock.  Children getting on the busses that early will be forced to get up at about 5:30am, and since the American Association of Pediatrics recommends 10 to 12 hours of sleep for elementary age children, those children would be going to bed between 5:30 and 7:30pm on school nights which would not allow them to participate in activities such as scouting, sports or music programs.  These times would also reduce the ability of parents to be active participants in school venues such as the PTA.

·      Here are some other areas of contention are.

o      You are moving 35 students from Rockland Woods, back to Fountain Rock so that you can accommodate the number of incoming students.  These students were just moved to Rockland Woods when it opened.  Wouldn’t it be better to keep those students in place?

o      The local activity area.  These children have no connections with the Westfields or Hagerstown.  They play sports in Boonsboro, Pleasant Valley, or Sharpsburg.  They attend Church in Boonsboro, Keedysville or Sharpsburg.  They are members of Scout troops in Keedysville or Boonsboro. 

The definition of arbitrary and capricious is: Absence of a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made, and the decision to include these 75 children is a classic case of an arbitrary and capricious decision. 

I don’t want the members of the committee to think that I am only here to denigrate your work, instead I would like to offer some suggestions that I believe make more sense moving forward. 

• Move the 5^th grade from Boonsboro Elementary to Boonsboro Middle.  There is historic precedent for this and based on the current number of 4^th graders it would provide and instant relief of almost 100 students, pushing Boonsboro Elementary below SRC, while not pushing Boonsboro Middle above the SRC.  There would be no need to move the children from Cannon Ridge and Rockingham to Rockland Woods, or from Rockland Woods to Fountain Rock.   The projected enrollment for Rockland Woods in 2012 would be 700 leaving room for expansion.
• Draw a line in the map, at either Reno Monument Road or Marble Quarry Road and send children south of that line to Pleasant Valley.
• If you want to send the children from Rockland Woods back to Fountain Rock, then make up the difference by sending the children in the Beaver Creek area who are not being redistricted to Eastern, to Rockland Woods or include them in the redistricting to Eastern.  This would relieve the stress on Greenbrier and both Rockland Woods and Eastern have the projected capacity.

In closing I would like to say that the Board of Education has failed the citizens twice leading up to this process.  The first failure was being seduced by the thought of free land, which leads to the building of a school that was positioned not to support the greater good of the county but to support a single subdivision.  The second failure was by not following their own policies in attendance projects and expanding Boonsboro Elementary to be able to handle the increased load put on it by all of these subdivisions, some of which have been on the books for over 10 years.  It is not the children of Cannon Ridge or Rockingham’s fault that the adults who are in charge failed to act for the greater good, nor should they have to pay for those failures.  It is my duty as a parent to look out for the best interests of my children and my family, and I can promise this committee and the members of the Board of Education who are here, if this redistricting is approved as proposed I will use any and all means at my disposal to fight it.

Thank you for your time.

Redistricting Panel Won't Recommend School Building Delay

Article in the Herald-Mail today about the FEAC meeting last night.  I also posted some of the comments that have already been put up although the article was just posted.  Click on the link above to go directly to the article and scroll down to read additional comments as they are posted or leave your own.

The Herald-Mail

http://www.herald-mail.com/

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09/29/2009

Redistricting panel won’t recommend school building delay

By DAN DEARTH
dan.dearth@herald-mail.com

HAGERSTOWN — A committee responsible for making redistricting recommendations for 20 of 26 elementary schools in Washington County will not suggest delaying the construction of the proposed Eastern Primary School.

Redistricting is being considered to alleviate overcrowding. If it is approved, about 1,500 elementary students could be affected, and many of them would be sent from their current schools to Eastern Primary School.

The Facilities Enrollment and Advisory Committee met Tuesday to review redistricting recommendations that were made by the public during three forums held this month. One of the most popular proposals from the public was to delay building Eastern Primary School on the east end of Hagerstown.

Many people who spoke at the forums said South County would be a better spot for a new school.

Committee co-chair Adam Lewis said the group needed to decide at its Tuesday meeting whether to recommend delaying the construction of Eastern Primary School because the Washington County Board of Education is to vote on awarding contracts for the $25 million project next week.

The committee voted 5-3 against recommending to the board that the project be delayed.

Lewis, Darin Lewis and Dirk DeVault were the committee members who voted to delay construction. John Bellistri, James Micco, Bert Iseminger, Gwynne Cavey and Kira Hamman voted against recommending a delay.

Adam Lewis said he believed the board would approve the contracts for Eastern Primary School regardless of the committee’s vote. He said the board acquired the land for the school without consulting the committee.

“The board never asked for the committee’s or public’s input on the site,” Adam Lewis said.

Iseminger said Eastern Primary School needs to go forward because that area of the county will need a school when development resumes.

He said he didn’t have enough expertise to doubt the professionals who determined that Eastern Primary School would be among the best solutions for redistricting.

“What justification do I have to say that?” Iseminger asked. “I don’t have that ability.”

Iseminger said he also supported Eastern Primary School because the funding was in place.

About $14 million of the project would be provided by the state, Deputy Superintendent Boyd Michael said. The remaining $11 million would come from the county.

Rob Rollins, executive director of school operations, told the committee the school system already received approval from the state to proceed with Eastern Primary School.

“Eastern Primary was picked because we thought it would help the most kids,” Rollins said. “We felt that would be the best place to put a school to meet the greatest need.”

He said additions to overcrowded schools would cost more than building a new one.

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Reader Comments:

Please note: The Herald-Mail does not review every comment posted by our visitors, and we are not responsible for the content of the messages. The postings are the sole responsibility of the poster. We reserve the right to review, edit and/or delete any message for any reason, including but not limited to postings that are commercial in nature, contain profanity , off-topic or offensive. We reserve the right to revoke the posting privileges of any person who violates these rules at any time.

From: niverd Tue 29 Sep 2009 11:56:53 PM EDT	So much for listening to the public. I think Mr. Lewis' observation is quite telling: “The board never asked for the committee’s or public’s input on the site,” Adam Lewis said. Also regarding Mr Rollins' comment "He said additions to overcrowded schools would cost more than building a new one." So when were these estimates done and who had a chance to review them? This whole process was a joke from the start. The BOE will do whatever it wants to in spite of the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of its past (ie Rockland Woods). Incompetence lives on in Washington County.
From:never_trust_u Wed 30 Sep 2009 12:15:05 AM EDT	Lets take account of the ones who voted against the delay: (1) one is a WCPS bus driver (2) one is a neighbor of Dr. Morgan (3) one is a former county commissioner who is close friends with BOE President Wayne Ridenour, sits on the zoning appeals committee and who publicly stated it is okay to change schools multiple times because he did himself as the child of the military. Even Mr Iseminger said it may take many years, but the area near Eastern will eventually be developed. Eventually....how about addressing South County NOW!!!! Thank you to the FEAC members who had the courage to at least consider the recommendation of suggesting to the BOE to delay the acceptance of the bids for Eastern.
From: SafeTfirst Wed 30 Sep 2009 06:09:12 AM EDT	The public forums seem to be held at the wrong time in the process. Perhaps public input should be sought prior to funds being applied for and contract bids initiated and the members of the FEAC should not be stakeholders... I would think all of the relationships mentioned by never_trust_u above would make each of the FEAC members ineligible - sort of like jury selection. How sad for the children and families who will be affected. Does anyone know who owned the property for the new Eastern Primary? There's more than likely a link back to someone in position as well. Children do better in smaller neighborhood schools not the larger ones. Schools add to community and are the center focus. Remove the school from the community where the attendees family lives and you've created additional stress and headaches for the families. Add Pres. Obama's extra time to the school day and families will only see their children in time for a bath and bath. Schools will be raising our kids as the only ones who see them
From:AConcernedMom Wed 30 Sep 2009 06:13:57 AM EDT	I too want to thank those that stodd up for the right thing, and not the political thing. Yes, seeing who voted against stopping Eastern.... It is exactly for these reasons we as parents filed a formal complaint with the State Ethics Department. We do not need another shiny new school in Hagerstown (sorry Art Callaham), we need to address South County without disrupting 1500 kids. ANYONE who says that ripping 1500 kids out of their schools is the best thing for the kids, is not thinking of the kids at all, are they. They are hoping they will just push this through, and over time parents will forgive and forget. With elections right around the corner, they are committing political suicide. There are parents working in groups on stopping this, and parents working on plans for the upcoming elections, to make sure the public knows how any of these elected officials do NOT care for the citizens, nor the children of our district.
From: brihunt Wed 30 Sep 2009 07:02:46 AM EDT	I think the FEAC just held the forums for show. They new from the beginning that there was no way of stopping or delaying the process. I am glad to see that at least three had some sense. I guess they will be the only three who will be re-elected to their post. I know I will not re-elect and I will make sure my friends and family will not re-elect the four who clearly do not care about the little ones. When you are selfish you do not deserve to work in a county of non-selfish people who care about their kids. My daughter will not being moving to this school. I will do everything I can to make sure this does not happen. If the school is in the east then the children to attend it need to come out of the east. My daughters elementary, middle and high school are all within 3 to 5 blocks from my house and I refuse to send her 10 miles out of her way because the four on the FEAC and the board do not have anything else to do but to interrupt little kids lives!!!!!!!!!!

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Washington County Schools Plan Redistricting

Washington County Schools Plan Redistricting

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Craig Whetstine Letter to the FEAC

The following is a letter sent to the FEAC by Keedysville resident  Craig Whetstine via email

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

Misty Roosa Statement at FEAC Forum

Statement read at the FEAC forum on September 17th in Rockland Woods by Misty Roosa on behalf of Keedysville residents Kim Arnold and Kendra Jenkins


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 5^th 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 5^th 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. 

Fifth, the proposal also mentioned that leaving the students who live in Fletcher’s Grove IN Boonsboro Elementary because they could walk to school. The distance from this development to the school is 1.25 miles. What is the cut off for safe walking distance? Not to mention that Rt. 40 into Town is a busy roadway. Why not propose to send the students from Fletcher’s Gove to Rockland Woods? The distance then would be seven miles as opposed to twelve miles for Keedysville students.  Why not take a look at those students closer to Rockland Woods? Taking students from Sharpsburg Pike, Fletcher’s Grove and possibly along Roxbury Road would eliminate some of the overcrowding at Sharpsburg, Greenbrier and Boonsboro while increasing enrollment at Rockland Woods. It may not be that magical number you are looking for, but it’s a start. And a logical one at that.

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

Misty Roosa Letter to the FEAC

The following is a letter sent to the FEAC from Keedysville resident Misty Roosa.


I am writing to express my thoughts and concerns about the possible recommendations the FEAC are considering in regards to Redistricting Keedysville to Rockland Woods ES.

It is very unfortunate that this is a fight that we Keedysville residents have encountered yet again and it seems we will continue to have, however our concerns and issues remain the same the last time we stood together and fought this...and as of last year, still have yet to be addressed or resolved.

It just seems to me that Keedysville has the so called magic number that the FEAC Committee seems to be looking for so we are obviously an easy target. Which leads to my question of…WHY? Why do we have to go through this once again if none of the issues or concerns we had last year have been addressed or fixed and it makes me wonder if they have even been taken into consideration at all?

Below were my concerns last year, and continue to be my concerns.

1. Moving Keedysville, will put the enrollment at Rockland Woods over capacity and not allow for growth from the surrounding neighborhoods. What will be the proposal when those surrounding communities continue to grow and the enrollment of Rockland Woods continues to go up...will our children be shipped back to BES, so this is yet another move they will need to make?

I was reading the minutes from the June 9th meeting and it sounds like it is even a possibility that Keedysville could be SHIPPED to Fountain Rock first. I could be misinterpreting this and maybe the reason could be because Keedysville residents haven’t been told anything about the possibilities that will affect our children we have just been hearing the “hear say”.


2. After a little research it looks to me, the start time for Rockland Woods is 7:30, where BES is 7:50. My children catch the bus now at 7:08, what would be the time my children would have to catch the bus in order to travel farther to a school that starts 20 minutes earlier then their current school?

I did read that a solution to this would be to eliminate some bus stops. Is this really in the best interest of our children? This could potentially put them walking further to bus stops, and in harm’s way of vehicles which to me shouldn’t even
require thought to know that is not the right decision.

3. Isn’t it taken into consideration that these kids are still in elementary school and start at the age of 5 and at some point they will need required amounts of sleep? Yes, we could take our children out of all sports and after school activities to ensure they get more of the required sleep but is that really good for our children to take them away from activities that they enjoy and help them learn and bond with other children???
4. This leads me to yet another concern that our children won’t be able to participate in afterschool activities because they will be so far from their communities.



5. With the above concern, the travel time to get to Rockland Woods and routes will be the longest and most dangerous for our children.


6. Has anyone given any thought or estimate to the number of kids that will be leaving BES over the next year or two, in comparison to the students coming in? It has been brought to my attention that the number of 5th graders leaving BES this year was higher than the number of students registered to start Kindergarten in Aug 2009.


7. I have also heard, that if a student is going into 5th grade they will get to stay in BES, what happens to those families where they have multiple children, and one goes to BES and the other is over 12 miles away at Rockland Woods. Would special permission be granted to those families to keep all their children at BES?



8. Before and after care will be a major hardship on families. There are a number of families that use the Before/After care at BES, if they were required to do this at Rockland Woods, this could potentially add 30 miles (to and from) to their commute one way. So total additional daily commute would be 60 miles...over an hour of travel time which takes away from family time and homework time.

When those of us moved to the area, we chose this area specifically for the schools, and the location of the schools. Having the schools so close to home is very convenient especially when those of us with multiple children at a given time (like myself) could have a child in each ES, MS and HS....with the location of each of these in Boonsboro it makes it most convenient.

Personally, I do not want my children to get sent to a Hagerstown school...and potentially be sent to a city school...this is not why I moved to Keedysville. And I don’t think that if we are redistricted we will never be sure our kids won’t attend a city school. Had I wanted my children to attend a city school I would have moved to the city.

I know I am not the only Keedysville resident with these concerns and issues. Before the FEAC and/or Board of Ed approve this move, I would like to see that each of the concerns from the Keedysville Residents are heard and will be addressed to the public. After all it is OUR children that are being affected.
I hope you have taken the time to read my concerns and I further more hope you and the FEAC take them into consideration and remember that there is children being affected by this and our children are NOT just “numbers” to be thrown around.

Thanks.

Sincerely,
Misty Roosa