From Harford County Public Schools:
February 23, 2015
The Board of Education of Harford County met for an open business meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Room of the A. A. Roberty Building and took the following actions and received the following presentations:
Recognition: 2014 Harford County Public Schools National Board Certified Teachers
Board Comments
Public Comments
– Ms. Amy Buddemeier, teacher at John Archer School- spoke about salary
Old Business:
– Consent Agenda:
– Monthly Report on Personnel
– Affirmation of Monthly Contracts
– Minutes of previous Board Meeting
New Business:
– Action Item:
– Approved decision on Transfer of Funds Between Capital Projects, by Mr. Cornell Brown and Mr. Chris Morton
Presentations:
– Quarterly Financial Report for the Period Ending December 31, 2014, by Mr. Jim Jewell and Mr. Jay Staab
– Financial Management Practices Audit, by Mr. Jim Jewell and Ms. Jennifer Birkelien
Superintendent’s Report
– General Counsel, Patrick P. Spicer, will be speaking on the desegration of Harford County Public Schools at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Havre de Grace
– Thanked Ms. Beard and the facilities department for all the work that has been done to open schools during inclement weather season; it’s not just snow removal, but plumbing, heating, construction, and other departments that come together to open our facilities and schools as the weather can cause other issues in our buildings that must be fixed before students and staff can come to school.
The next Board of Education business meeting will be held Monday, March 9, 2015 at 6:30pm. All Board meetings are held in the A. A. Roberty Building. To access all future meeting dates and agendas, log onto the school system website at www.hcps.org.
What a jar of turds that is. $16,442,920 to fix the air conditioning at Fallston but the students in Joppatowne and Havre de Grace get the shaft.
Sixteen
Million
Dollars
I guess we know who gets the goldmine…
Asbestos work isn’t cheap, especially when the building must remain in use.
Desegregation of Harford County Public Schools? What are we back in the 1960’s?
So what’s the unspoken problem with the autism program?
How does a move to Fallston help the students? If it’s a facilities problem, why move only the high school students? If it’s a staff program, why not reassign staff? And, isn’t John Archer supposed to cater to the students that can’t succeed in a normal classroom?
I think the public should realize that a wonderful principal and assistant principal at Hickory Elementary School (including the Autism program) have been placed on administrative leave. Dr. Austin has ruined the careers of many individuals recently. Moving the autism program is not a solution, nor is a change of leadership. Wake up HCPS. The implementation of this program has been flawed since the beginning.
Maybe the citizens of the county are getting the shaft. Check HCPS.org / enrollment. Havre de Grace 68%, Joppatowne 62%, Fallston 70%. Over all the Highschools are 83% capacity and declining, and some of you think we need more new schools. Citizen taxpayers should grap the phrase, “It’s our turn.”
When Patterson Mill Middle/High School was built, an area of the school was designated for the Autism students. Now we are moving the program to Fallston. That move requires money to provide the needed space for these special needs children. What a waste of monies? This is a prime example of waste. It must be Dr. Austin’s vision that is costing teachers salary increases due to this type of waste. Shame on you Dr. Austin. Why don’t you and Mrs. Romano get the Hickory Autism program remediated before you tackle this venture? The elementary program has 4 classes; two teachers have resigned and one is on leave. This program is in shambles and the kids are losing greatly. Fix one problem at a time. Will you place this acting principal and assistant principal on leave for the failure of the program this year???? I doubt it. I hope Mrs. Canavan starts listening to others beside Dr. Austin.