Harford County Board of Education President Patrick L. Hess and Interim Superintendent Patricia L. Skebeck said in a letter dated April 27th that school boundaries will be adjusted countywide if an agreement cannot be reached in the debate over which new elementary school will be built to relieve overcrowding in the greater Bel Air area.
The letter also provided an explanation for the school board’s latest decision to stick with Campus Hills Elementary, despite a compromise of sorts that had been reached with County Executive David Craig and the Harford County Council to proceed with Red Pump.
While the letter was addressed to no one in particular, it was written under Hess’ name, signed by both Hess and Skebeck, and emailed to the members of the Harford County Council along with the principals of the overcrowded elementary schools caught in the crossfire. But the letter ends with a statement which may draw other elementary schools into the fray:
“I can assure you that we will continue to work with the County Council and County Executive to bring resolution to this issue and to have a functioning new elementary school in the best location at the earliest possible date. Should we be unable to reach agreement, we will proceed with the comprehensive restricting effort and make the necessary boundary adjustments countywide to reach our goals.”
What’s striking is that the letter also says that the board considers the best location to be Campus Hills, in part because it would minimize redistricting. But the passage above seems to indicate the board is prepared to redistrict countywide and live without either new school, rather than redistrict students to fill Red Pump.
Elsewhere in the letter, arguments in favor of Campus Hills are reiterated which have been countered by a report from the county council in favor of Red Pump. New to the debate is an explanation for the school board’s April 20th decision to transfer funding from the capital account for Red Pump to Campus Hills, after Hess said he would support Red Pump if it was the only school the council would continue to fund. In exchange, the county council was to transfer the deed for Campus Hills to the board for future use. The compromise was expected to break a stalemate that has put plans for either new school on hold for the past 5 months.
To explain why the deal was off, Hess and Skebeck raised questions about the septic service at Red Pump:
“The County Council representative further asserted that the Council would fully fund the construction of a septic system of some type and that there was no legal reason to delay the construction of the required pumping station by the developer in time for the opening of the school. We have determined through further investigation that there are, in fact, legal issues related to the permanent pumping station construction and connection to the school. You can understand our trepidation when information presented as factual was later found to be inaccurate. We do not believe it to be prudent to accept a proposal with so many issues and inconsistencies attached to it.”
That prompted the following rebuttal and request for a retraction from County Council Vice President Richard Slutzky:
One interesting new argument for Campus Hills includes a reference to Maryland state law indicating that local school boards are responsible for determining school locations and that the council “should fulfill its legal responsibility by providing the appropriate funding, if available, to the Board of Education. To do otherwise would set a dangerous precedent in the functions and operations of this local Board of Education and all others in the state of Maryland.”
What is not explained is how it is a usurpation of the school board’s authority for the county council to maintain a funding stream for Red Pump that had been initiated and sustained at the board’s request. County records indicate that local funding has been approved for Red Pump Elementary every year since FY06.
Here is the full text of the letter:
Unaware of the letter from Hess and Skebeck at the time, Prospect Mill Elementary School parents wore green shirts to send a message at the Board of Education meeting Monday. In the words of PTA President Allison Heiderman, “Green is for go – go build a school”.
Seems like the County Council is the only thing holding up a school being built. The BOE gave us a reason as to why they like Campus Hills best. It’s there job to select the site. The County Council should fund it. They claim they do not like it but will not spell out exactly why? Also the Slutzky Report neglects to mention the facts in Background paragraph 2 of the Hess Memo. How Convienent since it does not support his position. Furthermore the Slutzky Report claimed to be commisioned as an investigation but it appears that it was conducted in such a way to support a predetermined conclusion and facts that interferred with that where ommitted while new factors where introduced.
If as some contend the County Council has not changed there original position then let them fund two schools. If they wont and wont budge it looks like some people will be moving to the underoccupied schools eastward and shifting alike.
The Background “facts” in the Hess memo are simply not accurate when it identifies the 2 schools most affected as Prospect Mill and Fountain Green. Youths Benefit, Emmorton, and Forest Lakes are all more greatly affected by overcrowding than Fountain Green according to the HCPS Sept. 30, 2008 enrollments and projections.
The Hess memo states why they don’t think they should consider relief for YBES at this time, but how about showing some concern for the Emmorton and Forest Lakes students (both over 120%) as well?
possibly because both of those schools will be fixed via comprehensive redistricting? for example Abingdon is underenrolled and next door to Emmorton a shift of a neighborhood might solve that or go along way to do so. Not to mention either school would not have helped Emmorton.
On Tuesday evening a citizen speaker addressing the council offered three positive suggestions relating to the schools. She is from Havre de Grace and works with children and 4-H and her suggestions made a great deal of sense. She first suggested re-districting the schools to keep the numbers manageable. If not able to redistrict, then re- scheduling the classes into shifts, either M-W-F – T-Th- Sat. classes, or am/pm shifts to alleviate over crowding, She offered ideas that would help parents w/ jobs for day care – evening shift and day shift classes. The lady was very clear that the funding of new schools is going to put a burden on taxpayers, and for right now, the next few years, options exist and should be substituted for everyone’s benefit…students and taxpayers. I apologize that I don’t remember her name. She and her family run a Horse farm in HdG.
If the costs of the schools are going to be borne by only county funds, some other areas must be cut to compensate. The costs to build a new school where ever it is decided are gargantuan and the county is over budget already. What are we as taxpayers, employers of the council and BOE, willing to allow them to spend? In addition, this problem is that the redistricting will work
, but the long term tax burden will be pushed onto the children that will be in the new schools when they are living here and working and paying taxes, too.
FYI, my son attends night classes at HCC and he was rear ended – not hurt badly, thank God, but his car was totaled by a 16 yr. old uninsured driver who also was not hurt. The accident was in front of Wawa’s on 22 and the boys waited for almost an hour for an officer to arrive. Finally, the dispatcher told them there would not be an officer reporting due to the fact no one was hurt seriously. This was between 5pm and 6pm on a Tuesday night…right before my husband and I went to the budget hearing…when we got to CMWright the lots were full of parents and kids were playing on the fields all over the place. The facilities at Joppa on Thursday night were vacant except for a few skateboarders. All of the fields were empty. Is this because of overcrowding or because of lack of interest? I don’t know, just thinking out loud. God bless!
Pat .. I too was hit in front of the Wawa on 22 going to Harford Community College at 8:00 in the morning. Very similar experience as your son … it took the police 1/2 hour to come to the scene and my car was totalled. I have heard from residents in that area that accidents occur there all of the time and I believe it. I even asked one of my representatives if they could get a report to see how many accidents there are. Is that part of what makes a failing intersection? Kids would be coming from there to go to Schucks Road.
I agree with you about our taxes and all of this building. Edgewood HIgh is going to be at 50% capacity in the next few years and 400 students get turned away from Harford Tech. I don’t trust the BOE on their decisions and building schools, because they have made some serious blunders over the past few years. All of this new capacity in the high schools and ZERO for technical education. I think it is THEIR job to prove to the taxpayers in this county why it is so important to build that first elementary school outside the development envelope in an area that has major traffic problems. They keep saying it is for the kids but they have demonstrated too many times over the years that assertion just isn’t true. How is Campus Hills more cost effective and who says the state isn’t paying for it? The state of Maryland isn’t paying for a lot of things in Harford County so isn’t then up to the Council who has to answer to taxpayers?
Just remember it was always their INTENTION to build Red Pump first as Larry keeps pointing out…
Accident reported at K Bittners yesterday after noon. thursday april 30th I bet the traffic was backed up for miles. put a nother school there. were going to need a police station to monitor the accident’s. and another hospital to handle the injured.
Campus hills has a green light for state funding. Red Pump only had a green light for state funding contingent on sewer being there by 2010. That is not happening at all. That is not the BOE’s fault that is the Council’s fault. Additionally the extra cost is building a temporary septic system which would be money that goes to waste when it is replaced by the sewer latter. Campus Hills was going to get a permenant septic system which it would need either run. If we did a direct price tag on the two schools assuming we only build one of them ever Red Pump would be cheaper. The reality is we will need BOTH schools eventually and a price comparrison of both school with Red Pump first is more expensive then Campus Hills first. Traffic may be a problem but as you indicate the traffic issue was going to have to be fixed anyway.
From letter above: “…in a letter dated April 27th that school boundaries will be adjusted countywide if an agreement cannot be reached…”
If school overcrowding can be accomplished by redistricting, why is this discussion even happening in this economy?
It can be but not to the satisfaction of everybody and some cases the solution just brings a school down from let’s say 121 to 110 to provide some relief. plus the solution you get may not afford some people considerations that had been promised before. You might get kids driving past one school to get to another and such. Alot of space in some of the schools in Aberdeen!
To the satisfaction of everybody? That does not ever happen and will not ever happen. The politicians made the threat of redistricting. My point is only that if, in fact, redistricting would solve (or at least ease) overcrowding, the politicians should bite the bullet and redistrict.
Amen,Sinne Cal. The reality of course is that no one wants to leave their school, but will expect others to get redistricted. Right now I drive past BAMS (5 mintes away) to take my kids to PMMS (15 minutes away). That’s an old arguement, and it’s already happening. Is it a pain, yes. Did it cause the end of the earth? No.
I think that county wide redistricting is a great idea, but is actually an idle treat. The BOE doesn’t have the nerve (or other anatomical parts) to actually do it. It’s easier to build a school than move a bunch of kids to the other side of 40 to attend school. Let’s be real, why do you think they built Patterson Mill?
I think a county wide redistrict should be done for ALL the schools. That way each elementary school would feed only 1 middle school. Right now HWES goes to 3 middle schools, BAES goes to 2, Hickory goes to 3. But I dream…
Perhaps if the governor signs the elected BOE bill, the current BOE can make some of the tough decisons and move on. Speaking of dreaming.
Let’s be real if they did that all the people who live close to sending their kids to a rt 40 school but do not would flip out and the rest would complain about inconvienences such as PMS Mom has to undergo. Add to that my favorite arguement with the HS situation “My kid will be leaving their friends” There would be a great deal of whinning and it would not be on the rt 40 corridor! No matter what they do they will get criticized by the same people.
In listening to the comments by Mark Wolkow at tonight’s BOE meeting, I am encouraged that some redistricting options are currently being prepared by staff based on the various possibilities of having only Red Pump, only Campus Hills, or perhaps having no new elementary school at all.
I understood by Mr. Wolkow’s comments that the BOE would still prefer two new schools opening in a reasonably close timeframe, so that a single redistricting plan could be enacted to attempt to alleviate all elementary overcrowding in the one single plan (phased in over 2 years perhaps), as originally presented last fall.
Mr. Wolkow expressed concerns that if Red Pump were the one and only new school solution in the near future, and overcrowding at Youths Benefit were addressed using Red Pump, then Prospect Mill would probably not receive sufficient relief to bring that school below 100% of capacity, and future redistricting for Prospect Mill students would be likely.
It will be interesting to see the redistricting “options” developed.
CORRECTION — “redistricting options” are are not being created. Maps showing where students are, and where they are not, are being created, which will hopefully help identify possible moves. Thanks Mark for the clarification.
Another accident this a.m. in front of WAWA near the college.
My point about redistricting was that IF the school board is on its way out through elections, it can make the tough choices and let people whine.
Yes of course the new elected board can turn around and change it as people whine. Making the problem worse!
As long as the redistricting to address elementary overcrowding:
1. Is done promptly
2. Balances enrollments in all affected schools (brings enrollments and projected enrollments below 100% of capacity)
3. Is accomplished by moving the smallest number of students possible to achieve the goal
4. Does not turn students who currently walk to school into students who must ride a bus to attend the new school
Then there should be little to whine about.
Since an obvious goal is to have no students pass any other schools on the way to theirs, a first step should be to identify every elementary student and which school is the nearest to each. I would be very interested in what the projected enrollments would be as a result of this.
How do whining people make the problem worse? The problem is solved–overcrowding. After the dust settles–kids leaving their friends, kids having to move to schools that will ruin their lives (in their and their parents’ minds), yada, yada, yada–in two or three years, people will be taking about how it wasn’t as bad as they thought. Kids are very adaptable; it’s the adults who think the sky is falling.
They have been talking about redistricting in Abingdon for more than twenty years and people still buy houses there. If you don’t want your kids in certain schools, don’t buy a house anywhere near those schools.
I’m with Phil Dirt in figuring out how and if redistricting could solve overcrowding. If it could, why are we building new schools–and aren’t we still forward-funding these schools?
I agree with you all that it ould be easy but look at the HS redistricting. The adults which you all acuratley point out whine the most, put their kids up to whining for them and whine and moan thinking they should not have to move someone else should. If we stuck with an elected board and they continued to demonstrate the cohonejes they have so far we are fine. Unfortunatley elected people need to get reelected and to do that tthey need to keep people happy with them and that is where the trouble starts. The whining also hurts feelings of people and communities and rips apart school moral at the school they are going to. Consider the crowd who did not want to leave Fallston for Bel Air and started dengrating the community and school to try to stay. They not only engaged in a campaign against the school they where going to they also felt the need to denegrate the new students redistricted to Fallston. This made those kids fell unwelcome. Imagine this with less mature elementary kids. It should not be an issue but the people who arer asked to move and are unhappy with the move will grasp at anything from I am 5 miles from school x and 7 from the school you are sending me to; to school a is horrible and the people do not share my values I want to be at school b.
BOE meeting Agenda for May 11 includes another decision on the new elementary schools. Read about the latest here:
http://www.hcps.org/boe/docs/exhibits/2008-2009/5-11-2009/Item%20B%20-%20Decision%20on%20Capital%20Budget%20Reconciliation.pdf