Parents in the Towson area are hot under the collar after Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. decided yesterday that $12 million that had been budgeted for the expansion of Loch Raven High School will instead go toward other projects after the county school board unanimously voted to rescind its approval of the proposed addition (as reported in my story today).

Some have questioned why the money wouldn't instead be put toward adding air condition to the many schools that lack it. On Monday, Baltimore County closed all its schools three hours early because of the heat. While other counties closed a school here or there, Baltimore County closed all its schools because so many --- about half of them --- lack air conditioning that it made little sense to keep any of them open.

One community activist, Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, whose son attends Ridgely Middle School (which recently completed a $13 million renovation, but still lacks air conditioning), drove home this point in a WBAL radio interview this week:

"They need just $900,000 to add air conditioning," she said. "They now have windows that don't open at all or that open only six inches. The temperatures are 10 degrees hotter than it is outside."

On Smith's role, she added that his decision to put the $12 million into other projects without seeing whether the school board might support adding air conditioning to some of these school, "creates resentment."

"There's a feeling he is not thinking about the people in these schools, about the students and the teachers that are suffering much more with the lack of air conditioning, which is a health issue as well as an education issue, rather than repaving parking lots, loading dock replacements and footbridge replacements," Taylor-Mitchell said on the WBAL radio show.

In an interview yesterday, Smith said he is directing the $12 million toward these "site improvement" projects because the school board wants them done. He said the projects, part of a list that totals $20 million, were requested early in the budget process and only $2 million was able to be allocated for them. Scrapping the Loch Raven addition frees up that money, he said.

I have a call into the school system officials to find out if it would have been an option for the school board --- had they been consulted yesterday before Smith's decision --- to suggest using that freed up $12 million toward air conditioning projects in the coming year. Are there logistical or technical constraints? Is it as simple as, If only he had first asked the board what they wanted to do with the "found" money?

I'll update this post later with whatever response the school system is able to offer.

UPDATE:

5:56 pm. Thursday --- I just finished talking to Kara Calder, spokeswoman for the school system. She confirmed that, to her knowledge, the county executive did not contact school system officials before announcing his decision yesterday.

As for whether the money could've instead been targeted at adding air condition to schools, Calder explained that before any changes (such as adding projects not previously equested) could be made to the school system's capital improvements program list of projects for the fiscal year that starts July 1, all parties --- meaning the school board, county executive and county council --- would have to agree.

About the projects that Smith has recommended, Calder said, "The site improvements are much-needed projects. Some have been carried over for two or three years. There are definitely some significant needs there."

Posted by Gina Davis at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Today's article about growing opposition to a proposed 400-seat addition at Loch Raven High School mentions a study conducted five years ago that recommends building a school to alleviate crowding in the county's northeast and central areas -- namely at Perry Hall and Towson high schools.

Here's a link to that study, called the Comprehensive High School Facility Utilization Study/DeJong Report  (which is in PDF form and is posted online at the school system's Web site, bcps.org).

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This morning, I spotted this note from Cathi Forbes, whom I profiled in yesterday's paper, pledging the group's continued vigilance. After last week's victory convincing the Baltimore County school board to build an elementary school in Towson to help ease crowding, Forbes said the group will continue to keep a close eye throughout the process.

Read Cathi's note, which I came across on The Forge Flyer blog:

Continue reading "Towson group vows to keep close eye on school construction" »

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"Investing in education," is how Wilson Parran put it. He's the president of the Calvert County commissioners. Parran was at Western School of Technology and Environmental Science in Catonsville to hear Gov. Martin O'Malley talk about the proposal to spend $333 million on school renovation and construction projects in the coming year. Other education, state and county leaders, including Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. and Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston, also joined the governor for a tour of the school, which is slated to receive nearly $900,000 in the coming school year for a new roof.

"If we expect a lot of our children, they should expect a lot of us," Parran told me. "We have to invest in the infrastructure of schools. We have to put our money where our mouth is."

An independent audit last year of Baltimore County school system's education plan unexpectedly pointed out the effect of aging buildings. The auditors said they were shocked to find some of the schools in as bad of a condition as they did. County and school officials routinely stress that the system has the 2nd oldest stock of school buildings in the state.

Without realizing it, Brittany Cole, a 17-year-old senior at Western Tech, echoed the audit's rationale on deteriorating school buildings --- it's hard to concentrate when you're too hot or too cold.

"I think a new roof will give the school better insulation," she said hopefully.

So, teachers, parents, students ... what needs fixing at your school?

Posted by Gina Davis at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Good news is a welcome respite at Woodlawn High School, where this week's news coverage of student violence on campus has once again brought unwanted attention to the school.

So here's something good to report --- an extremely reliable source has told me that a couple days ago the air conditioning was finally restored to the school's computer lab. Apparently, students had been unable to use the computer lab, which houses about 30 fairly new computers, since the beginning of the school year because of that air conditioning problem.

Now for a bit of bad news --- at least for those of you who have applauded Miko Baldwin's efforts as a parent to get more attention paid to needed repairs and other concerns at the school. According to Miko, during Tuesday night's meeting of the school's Parent-Teacher-Student Association, Miko was stripped of her role on the group's executive board. With only 11 members present, the board decided to cast votes on "reaffirming" the positions of the group's officers. Some time ago, Miko had been asked to serve as the group's treasurer. Last night, however, she wasn't even listed among the officers being considered when the members took a vote, which essentially left Miko without a role.

An obviously disgusted Miko called me after the meeting to tell me about this latest development. She believes the group's leaders are trying to send her a message that they weren't happy about her contacting a reporter from The Sun (me) to talk about issues at the school. But she said she is vowing to be unmoved. With or without the PTSA's support, she said she will continue to advocate for the school's needs.

However, she did add this troubling thought ---

"This kind of mess is part of the reason some parents don't get involved. They don't want to deal with this."

It's sad to think that some people might be turning something as seemingly wholesome as the local PTA into petty power struggles. And I wonder how many parents have been turned off by the politics of their school's PTA.

Any advice for Miko???

Check out earlier discussions about Miko's efforts at Woodlawn.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2007/10/what_people_are_saying_about_w.html

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2007/10/water_woes.html#comments

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bal-md.co.water22oct22,0,1273872.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout

Posted by Gina Davis at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

On The Sun's discussion forum, lots of people have been weighing in on today's story about the Woodlawn High School mother who has been taking the school to task about the building's maintenance.

Click the link below to check out what they're saying. (Also, here's a link to my blog post this morning about the story, including parts of the story that were cut because of space limitations in the paper).

Continue reading "What people are saying about Woodlawn" »

Posted by Gina Davis at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

In my story, "Parent decries school neglect at Woodlawn," that appears in today's Maryland section, I wrote about a Woodlawn High School parent, Miko Baldwin, who says she was jolted into action when she discovered the school had been without hot water in the gym area for years --- depending on who you ask, anywhere from 2 years to 8 years (Miko's daughter who was a freshman there in 2000-2001 said they didn't have hot water then, but the school system said it can only confirm the lack of hot water for the past two years).

Miko, who has been a member of the school's Parent-Teacher-Student Association since 2001, has several initiatives on her plate. Not all of them could fit into today's story, so here are some of the others:

With an eye toward increasing parent and community involvement, Miko has been recruiting local community leaders to help create a mentoring program for students.

She is asking for more textbooks, enough to assign each student a book for each class. (The school's principal, Edward D. Weglein, said he approves of the school's textbook arrangements --- each classroom has enough books for students to use during school, and students may request to check out books overnight.)

And last week, Miko requested the state PTA to conduct an evaluation of Woodlawn's PTSA because she questions the way it is being run. (Sue Katz, president of the Baltimore County Council of PTAs, said it is the group's policy not to comment on PTAs for individual schools, but that she plans to review Baldwin's concerns.)

Miko said she wants Woodlawn --- which is one of the county's largest high schools with about 2,000 students and has struggled to meet statewide assessment standards --- to be a place where teachers and administrators want to stay. (During the past 12 years, the school has had five principals.)

Miko said she knows she is making some people uncomfortable, but she said she firmly believes that improving the school's physical condition can improve attitudes, especially among students.

The old saying goes, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Well, Miko decided to squeak.
I wonder how many other schools out there have similar maintenance issues that are being ignored, waiting for someone to squeak.

Does your school have similar maintenance issues? Please tell us about them here on the blog. Or, if you need to remain anonymous, you can email me directly at gina.davis@baltsun.com or call me at 410-494-2938.    

Posted by Gina Davis at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Baltimore County school officials were short on answers, and the obviously unhappy --- and at least mildly hostile --- crowd of about 250 Mays Chapel residents who packed the auditorium last night at Dulaney High School in Timonium had an ample supply of frustration.

I'm working on a story for tomorrow's paper about the residents who came to the meeting hoping to get answers to concerns they have about an idea to build a school for special-education students on a parcel of land the school system has long owned, but which is home to a park that many in the community say they don't want to lose.

In addition to losing the park space, residents said they worry about the increased traffic from school buses and staff members for the new school in an area that they say is already congested. Many seemed downright indignant that the school system --- which has owned the land since 1972 --- would suddenly want to use it.

With each response that amounted to a "we don't know" from school officials, residents grew openly irritated, and about 45 minutes into the meeting several began leaving.

"We're leaving because they're not giving us any answers," said Cynthia Brown, who lives in the Roundwood Ridge condos.

School officials acknowledged that they had few answers, in part because they have yet to do a feasibility study.

"They had this meeting way too soon, they don't know anything," complained Sid Caplan, as he walked out of the auditorium.

Many figured that the hastily planned meeting had been scheduled because school officials were learning about the mounting opposition. In recent days, petitions had been circulating throughout the community.

School officials say building a school in Mays Chapel could help them alleviate crowding at other schools, particularly in the central area of the county. Residents insist that surely the school system has other properties they haven't considered that wouldn't disrupt their community.

"We're not opposed to the school, we just don't have space for it here," was a commonly heard refrain.

These kinds of "community needs" vs. "school system needs" scenarios play out in neighborhoods across the region and the country all the time. Is there a middle ground?

Posted by Gina Davis at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Posted by Sara Neufeld at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Tonight, Howard County Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin is expected to unveil the 2009 capital budget plan that exceeds $118 million for various construction projects.
If you were Superintendent of your school system, what capital needs would receive top priority?

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 6:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)