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| Sardines |
4 acres? When did Montgomery County citizens decide that the 12 acre standard that they prefer should be trashed in favor of 4 acres? They didn't. The decision to smash our school children into the smallest sized lots possible is being made by our Apple Ballot elected officials without public input.
County Executive Ike Leggett lives in a single family house on 5 acres. Can we invite 700-1,000 elementary school kids over to his house one day so that he can get a feel for what that many kids on 4 acres would feel like? (We can rope off the tennis courts to make the site smaller.)
Back in 1986, Montgomery County citizens actually participated in the formation of a Long Range Planning Policy for Montgomery County Public Schools. In that Policy, the size of elementary school sites was to be 12 usable acres of land.
In 2005, the Montgomery County Board of Education shredded that Policy without input from the public.
Montgomery County parents and guardians are now left without a Policy that sets minimum school site sizes. The size of our school sites is being set by elected officials and developers that seek to put as many children as possible on the tiniest parcel of land, smashing them in like they are sardines.
You can read the lost Long Range Planning Policy at this link and learn about what parents, guardians and citizens in Montgomery County wanted for a long range public school planning policy.
I'd like to learn more before dismissing this plan entirely. Perhaps if there is a park nearby or if there is some way it's been done in an innovative manner in other jurisdictions, I'm open to ideas. They are so far behind with kids in trailers, that they need to try something new. I do appreciate you staying on top of MCPS - they won't be able to slip anything past the community!
ReplyDeleteA "park nearby" means nothing. That's just open land that can be handed over to developers. The only way to guarantee the size of the elementary school site is to set aside the entire amount of land that is dedicated to public school children. In addition, park land is not school land. Different owner, different maintenance, and different schedules means that the land is not always available for public school students. The County can and will pave over parkland or they will turn it over to private interests that will close it off to public school students.
DeleteWith regard to trailers, you understand there is no plan to get rid of them. MCPS has been using them for 30 years. They aren't "behind" at all. They use them as permanent classrooms and they will keep using them forever.
In addition, you might be under the impression that MCPS hasn't had enough land for public schools. That would be completely false. Over the last 15 years the Board of Education and County Council have given away over 100 ACRES of public school land to private interests. Much of that land was given away in closed door meetings without any public notice or opportunity for input.
Public School land is seen as a free perk that our elected officials can hand off to their developer friends. It's free land and the kids are too young to notice when they are being robbed.
Some school property has been given away to special interests in plain sight too... Robert E Peary High School in Rockville was sold in the 2010-2011 timeframe to a special interest for pennies on the dollar. A prime 19.5 acre site (with High School buildings), (if zoned residential would have appraised for $16M to $18M) was sold for less than $1.5M and after all adjustments were made, may have sold for almost ZERO. Those 19.5 acres are gone forever... And now in 2015, Montgomery County is in desperate need for school properties. There have been many such examples over the last couple of decades. Thank the Montgomery County Council and their corrupt actions for hurting kids and taxpayers in one underhanded deal.
DeleteWhy, would want to live with noisy neighbors around.
ReplyDelete