12 Students Save Monocacy Elementary School

MCPS' Long Term Enrollment Projections for the Poolesville Cluster change once again as Superintendent Weast releases his recommendation for Monocacy Elementary School.  

Superintendent Weast also makes clear he sees no reason to protect an elementary school in the Agricultural Reserve of Montgomery County, Maryland. But this is Superintendent Weast's last school year in MCPS and the next Superintendent may have a different perspective on preserving public schools in rural areas. 

Superintendent Weast says Poolesville Elementary School has "reversed the downward trend" in enrollment. See the chart supplied with Superintendent Weast's memo. Poolesville Elementary went from 387 students last year to 399 students this year, and that was enough to save Monocacy Elementary School! 

Superintendent’s Recommendation for Poolesville and Monocacy Elementary Schools

This fall, the enrollment at Poolesville Elementary School has reversed the downward trend that had been evident in the past at the school....

...As a result of the enrollment growth now projected for Poolesville Elementary School, I am recommending that Monocacy Elementary School remain an operating school for the foreseeable future...

...The Report of the Poolesville-Monocacy Roundtable Discussion Group included a request that the Board of Education institute a policy that specifically would accept lower enrollment levels at schools in the Agricultural Reserve. The only school that is located in the Agricultural Reserve with a service area completely within the Agricultural Reserve is Monocacy Elementary School.

John Poole Middle School, Poolesville Elementary School, and Poolesville High School are located within the incorporated area of the Town of Poolesville, an area that is surrounded by the Agricultural Reserve but is exempt from the development restrictions of the Agricultural Reserve.

Schools that have portions of their service areas in the Agricultural Reserve include Damascus, Laytonsville, Little Bennett, and Poolesville elementary schools; John T. Baker, John Poole, and Rocky Hill middle schools; and Clarksburg, Damascus, and Poolesville high schools.

While I understand the interest in formally exempting Monocacy Elementary School from the minimum desired enrollment standards, I do not support a Board of Education policy to accomplish this special consideration. Such a policy would only apply to Monocacy Elementary School because it is the only school physically located in the Agricultural Reserve. Board of Education policies should not be written for individual cases, such as that of Monocacy Elementary School. In addition, exceptions to preferred enrollment levels already are evident in a number of schools that either are below these desired enrollment levels or above them. The minimum and maximum enrollments are described as “preferred,” not mandatory. (link added to blog post)

Happy Thanksgiving - Monocacy Elementary

Washington Post, Letter to Editor
In Montgomery, the courage to save a small school

...Mr. Weast's proposal was rash and myopic, viewing the closing of a small school in a small community as the only option while depriving residents of any sense of due process...

...It is easy to complain when government does something wrong. It's nice to be able to say "well done."

MCPS Hiring Freeze? Just kidding.

Please see the Superintendent's Budget Savings Plan as presented to the Montgomery County Council on September 17, 2009, for a list of positions that are exempt from the MCPS hiring freeze.

How serious was that Budget Savings Plan?

Here is the ad running on The Washington Post today.  Division of Construction - Civil Engineer - Starting Salary up to $83,415 - Genereous Benefits

Do you see this position on the list of MCPS positions that are exempt from the hiring freeze in the Budget Savings Plan?

It was just 72 hours ago that Superintendent Jerry Weast was pleading with the Board of Education to close Monocacy Elementary School and cut 11 teaching and school based positions because of dire economic times. 

At a starting salary of $48,870 for teachers, the compensation being advertised for the position above could provide about 1.7 teaching positions.

Does the hiring freeze only apply to classrooms? That is, will budget cuts be made FIRST to classrooms and then to administrative positions? 

Barclay, "I see a train wreck"

Board of Education member Christopher Barclay's opening comments at the November 19, 2009, MCPS Board of Education meeting are shown on the video below. 

Board member Barclay refers to the Board's recent revision of the MCPS Core Values as one reason for rejecting Superintendent Jerry Weast's plan to close Monocacy Elementary School. Mr. Barclay does not mention that the revision of the MCPS Core Values was discussed at an off-site Board "retreat" that was found to have violated the Maryland Open Meetings Act. 

The surprise recommendation to close a school based on previously unseen data, and unsubstantiated cost numbers is one very good example of why respect for the Maryland Open Meetings Act is important in a public body. 

The Board of Education has been found in violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act twice in the last 10 months. Those violations point out the public business that is not being conducted in public, thereby depriving the public of their right to observe, monitor, learn, understand and participate in the work of the Board of Education. 

Failure to respect the Maryland Open Meetings Act by the governing body, the Board of Education, contributes to a culture of disrespect for the public in general that permeates how MCPS conducts business. Hear Mr. Barclay discuss how failure to include the public in the decision making process erodes the public trust in the Board.

 

Breaking News: Monocacy Parents Save School

This evening, a unanimous MCPS Board of Education rejected Superintendent Jerry Weast's sudden announcement to close Monocacy Elementary School.

Superintendent Weast's recommendation to close the school had been based on surprise enrollment data and a timeline that would have closed the school by next summer.

Board members rejected Superintendent Weast's proposal based on its violation of MCPS' Core Values and its failure to follow the Baldridge process for community involvement.  The proposal was seen as "disrespectful" to the community and creating an "awkward" situation for Board members. 

Board member Berthiaume made the point that long term decisions should not be made in order to support short term operating budget savings.

Board member Barclay said that these types of decisions "erode the trust the community has in us" and alluded to the surprise announcement made a few years ago to close programs. (That would have been Weast's surprise announcement to close the Secondary Learning Centers and the Kingsley Wilderness Center.)

UPDATE:  Video - Barclay: "I see a train wreck"

Knapp; "...community is being slowly pulled apart..."

Dear President Brandman:

As you are no doubt aware, the Superintendent, as part of his FY2010 proposal in the capital budget request which you will be considering in the coming weeks has recommended the closure of Monocacy Elementary School in the Poolesville and Barnesville regions of the Upcounty. As the County Councilmember representing the Monocacy Elementary School community, I wanted to bring their concerns and mine to your attention, especially as the Board will be discussing this matter this week.

Monocacy Elementary serves a small, close knit community in the Agricultural Reserve a community with spectacular views of Sugarloaf mountain, and where traffic is more likely to get backed up behind a combine than a FedEx truck. I held a meeting in the community several weeks ago to discuss the Board's recommendation and as you can imagine, the news of this recommended closure has rocked the area, which fears its sense of community is being slowly pulled apart in the name of economy.

I know, and appreciate, that the Board of Education is properly following all its formal procedures for a school closing. This is, however, more than a school closure. In a very real sense, this is the equivalent of a boundary change for students and families at Monocacy Elementary and boundary changes rightly take time. I believe we need to ensure the community is given the time it needs to discuss its options with the Board of Education, determine the impact of the closure on its community, and determine what options, if any, are available. I strongly encourage the Board to work with the Monocacy community to this end.

As part of its consideration, I would also appreciate the Superintendent providing a more detailed explanation of the cost analysis that was done to determine the savings generated by Monocacy s closure. Because cost is the driving factor in the decision to close the school, I believe both the Board and the Council would be better served by more information.

I understand that this is a recommendation that the Superintendent has not made lightly.

It is obvious that we continue to face many challenges when it comes to the county's budget, especially as our revenues drop and student enrollment continues to climb. There are many tough decisions to be made but I want to ensure that these decisions are made on the best available information, and with the fullest input from the affected communities.

If I can provide you with further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Mike Knapp

Councilmember, District 2

Closing a strong, vibrant, academically successful school

Testimony to Montgomery County Board of Education
November 12, 2009

I have to believe that sitting here two consecutive nights listening to a litany of everything you’re doing wrong is like giving yourself a papercut and pouring lemon juice on it. This is brutal on my end, I can't imagine what it's like on yours.

I figure you are on the School Board for one of three reasons. Either you are Power Hungry, or you are Altruistic and have integrity, or you are simply a glutton for punishment. If you are here for the power trip, you haven’t and won’t hear a darn thing that has been said thus far. If you are here because you are noble and altruistic, then you have to consider the wishes of the people who’s money you take for the purpose of teaching their kids. And if you are here because you are a glutton for punishment, you should be having a ball right now.

*******Reject the proposed procedures to consolidate Monocacy and Poolesville. The timeline will not allow the Advisory Committee to fully investigate the impacts, nor will it give them adequate time to develop alternatives. A decision of this magnitude – closing down a strong, vibrant, academically successful school like Monocacy – and in the process – pushing children into a facility that is certain to become overcrowded in a few short years – is not a decision to be taken lightly.

The Monocacy and Poolesville communities are legally entitled to the opportunity to respond to this proposal without an artificially constrained schedule that short-circuits Due Process. Monocacy is an example of what MCPS should be striving to attain – not demolish. There is literally nothing undesirable about Monocacy and certainly no reason to consider closing it.

Why would you close down an academically thriving school that is at 86% capacity? It’s counterintuitive in a school system that is struggling to keep up with an ever-growing student population, with facilities that are stretched well beyond their desired capacities.

…Instead,… consider alternatives
• like opening enrollment, allowing interested parents to enroll their children from surrounding school districts.
• The Clarksburg cluster coordinator told you last night that they would fully support a liberal transfer policy to re-populate the Poolesville Cluster. Its that easy.
• Or you could re-instate the Spanish Emersion program that had increased Monocacy’s numbers just a few years ago.
• Or, Instead of spending $200,000.00 on a Consultant for the Promethean Boards, save it and choose to keep a school open. (By the way, I’ve seen the Promethean Boards. They are cool tools, but they sure as heck aren’t more important than saving a school.)

Use our resources more wisely. Prioritize differently. Closing Monocacy will only add to the inventory of overcrowded schools requiring further capital expenditures. Instead, find another way, and capitalize on this gem of a school that you already have.

Thank you.

Pamela Boe

Video: Closing Monocacy

Board urged to assert authority

Testimony of: Peter F. Gimbrere
Father of a third grader enrolled at Monocacy

PROCEDURAL ISSUES RELATED TO THE PROPOSAL TO CLOSE MONOCACY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

A. The Board Should Ensure That a Fair, Equitable, and Timely Process That Fully Involves the Community is Followed While Any Decisions Regarding the Closure of Monocacy Elementary School Are Made

1) No one can logically disagree that the proposed closure of Monocacy Elementary School constitutes a significant boundary change. The Board has traditionally handled any proposed boundary changes with full due process, fair time frames, and transparency on decision making.

2) The Superintendent’s proposed procedural timeline contained within his October 23, 2009 recommendation regarding the proposed closure of MES is inconsistent with the process and timeframes afforded to other school communities, past and present. His proposed time frame affords the community less than ten months between his recommendation and the closure of the school in August of 2010. This is less than half the amount of time afforded to all other communities.

3) Example #1: Woodward High School was the last school closed within Montgomery County. The input, discussion, and decision process on that closure started in January of 1985 and the school was ultimately closed in June of 1987. That is a time period of over two and one-half years. The timeframe suggested by the Superintendent for the closure of MES is under ten months, leaving little to no time for appropriate input and discussion from the community, PTAs, advisory committees, and other stakeholders. Ten months is significantly shorter than two and one-half years.

4) Example #2: The Carl Sandburg Learning Center is proposed to be consolidated in 2011 or 2012, over two years from now. However, this years CIP budget appropriates funds for a workgroup to form and begin working the consolidation issue close to two years prior to the Superintendent even making a final recommendation on the proposed consolidation in the fall of 2011. With Monocacy, there is no evidence that the Superintendent created any sort of workgroup, advisory committee, or any other vehicle for any input prior to making his recommendation. Again, ten months is significantly shorter than two years.

5) Example #3: The Germantown Elementary Schools. Both the Superintendent’s recommended 2011 Capital Budget and the 2011-2016 CIP appropriate facility planning funds in order to conduct capacity studies during the 2010-2011 school year which will be used to determine how to proceed with any changes to those schools in the 2011-2012 school year. To our knowledge, no such capacity studies were conducted prior to the Superintendent proposing to close Monocacy. And, again, the citizens of Germantown were afforded two years of process time as compared to ten months for the Monocacy community.

6) Example #4: Takoma Park Boundary Changes: Here is the timeline for this proposed change: Boundary study authorized in November of 2008. Advisory Committee meets from March 2009 through June 2009. Board review and action in November 2009. Implementation of changes in August of 2010. Again, a period of over two years between the proposal and the change. Why is Monocacy not receiving this same level of due process?

Conclusion: These examples make crystal clear the disparate and rushed manner in which the Monocacy closure decision is being fast-tracked. It is incumbent on this Board to ensure that the Superintendent’s misplaced zeal is reigned in and that he is forced to move forward in a consistent and fair manner on the Monocacy closure issue. A two year time frame would allow for appropriate community input and discussion and would have Monocacy closing at the earliest in August of 2011. Any time frame shorter than the two years afforded to all other communities within Montgomery County can only be characterized as arbitrary and unreasonable, and will be argued as such should the members of the Monocacy community be forced to appeal a premature closure decision to the State Board of Education. I urge the Board to utilize all means available to you to ensure that the closure process and time frames are established in a non-arbitrary and reasonable fashion.

B. The Board is Responsible for Establishing School Closure Procedures, Not the Superintendent

1) It is a fact that due to the length of time between the last school closure and now, there are currently no detailed procedures in place for the Board to follow in school closure situations.

2) To fill that gap, the Superintendent has unilaterally created proposed procedures and timelines for the Board to utilize in the Monocacy situation. His suggested course of action is contained within his October 23rd recommendation. However, as previously established, his proposed timeline and process is arbitrary as well as inconsistent with previous practice.

3) More significantly, Title 13A, Subtitle 2, Chapter 9 of COMAR clearly requires that the Board, not the Superintendent, establish the procedures to be used in making decisions on school closings.

4) In doing so, the Board is required to follow Board Policy Regulations related to policymaking that require, amongst other things, a thirty day comment period between the promulgation of any policy and the adoption of the policy.

5) To date, the Board has not proposed closure procedure policies or otherwise tentatively adopted any closure procedures. Once you do, by the provisions of your own policy setting regulations (Section C.1.e.4), the public will have a minimum of thirty days to comment on the proposed policy. Only then can the Board vote on the policy.

6) Accordingly, as no proposed school closure policy is currently in front of you, the Board is clearly precluded from voting on school closure procedures on November 19th. To move forward with the vote at that time would illegally limit the public’s ability to comment in direct violation of your own Board regulations.

Conclusion: In closing, the Board has the responsibility and the authority to establish procedures, including timeframes, to be utilized in school closure decisions. The Superintendent has no such authority. I urge the Board to assert the authority given to you over this issue and to make sure that due process is afforded the Monocacy community.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Dist. 15 Legislators to Board: "constituents' legitimate concerns"

The following letter was sent on November 3, 2009 from the District 15 legislators in the Maryland General Assembly to the Montgomery County Board of Education.

The Maryland General Assembly
Annapolis, Md


To: The Honorable Shirley Brandman, President
Montgomery County Board of Education
Carver Educational Services Center, Room 123
850 Hungerford Drive
Rockville, Maryland 20850
November 3, 2009


Dear Madame President,


We are writing to bring to the Board's attention the strong opposition of a large number of our constituents to the proposed closure of Monocacy Elementary School.


During our years in office, we have visited with students, parents, and teachers at Monocacy Elementary and have come to appreciate the strong support of parents and others of the school over the years. As you know, Monocacy Elementary is in good physical condition and has a strong academic record. It has received capital improvements totaling $500,000.00 for a new roof just this past summer, which lead some parents to question the wisdom of closing the school now.


In addition, many have raised concerns that summer enroollment estimates indicated a leveling off of enrollment for the next couple of years followed by steady enrollment growth at Monocacy Elementary; many are now puzzled with the revised enrollment estimates that suggest a significant drop off in student population at the school. When juxtaposed with the fact that there is new planned develpment in Poolesville, parents are justifited in raising concerns about future over-crowding at Pooleville Elementary, particularly if the schools are merged under the proposal now before the School Board. As you can understand, parents have also expressed their fear that the personalized attention and tightly knit, family-oriented atmosphere that has proved so beneficial for its students will be lost in a larger school.


As State Legislators, we are keenly aware that due to the global recession, the Maryland State Government has had to pare back hundreds of millions of dollars in spending, and that many of the spending reductions recently authorized by the Governor, Comptroller, and Treasurer include reductions to local governments. We are aware that our County Council has asked the School Board to find savings, because some spending reductions (or reductions in growth in spending) to K - 12 may occur in the near future.


We understand the challenges before you, but respectfully request that you take into consideration our constituents' legitimate concerns and seek to identify other budget savings as opposed to closing this community school. Thank you in advance for your consideration as you deliberate on this matter.


Sincerely,
Rob Garagiola
Kathleen M. Dumais
Brian J.Feldman
Craig L. Rice

Weast to cut 11 positions

According to a posting on the Keep Monocacy Open Facebook page, MCPS has now stated to a reporter that the "savings" in closing Monocacy Elementary School will actually be achieved by the elimination of 11 teaching and staff positions countywide. 

The $1 million "savings" attributed to closing the Monocacy Elementary School facility is actually being achieved, not by closing that facility, but by eliminating 11 positions in the MCPS Operating Budget. The elimination of 11 MCPS staff positions could obviously be achieved without the shuttering of an elementary school.

Rock star Weast sings, Board swoons - no facts needed

In Superintendent Jerry Weast's October 23, 2009 "surprise" recommendation to close Monocacy Elementary School in Dickerson, Maryland he states:

...the net annual cost savings of one million dollars-that will result from the closure of Monocacy Elementary School- is a major benefit as well.  In this difficult budget environment we must take actions that reduce costs...

But according to MCPS's OWN DATA, it doesn't cost $1 million annually to run the Monocacy Elementary building.  How much does it cost to run Monocacy's building?  The last time MCPS made this information public was in 2007 (the information is no longer released to the public - none of your business anymore) the annual cost to run the Monocacy Elementary School building was...

$158,566

Even assuming at the high end that the cost of running the school doubled in two years since that number was released, there is no way there is a $1 million savings to be found in closing Monocacy Elementary School. Yet, at last evenings Board work session most Board members discussed the $1 million savings as if it was a verifiable fact, instead of just puffing.

Superintendent Weast has already said that the students and teachers would simply transfer to another facility.  There is no cost savings in staff movement. Their salaries and benefits move with them. Students still need instructional supplies no matter where they go to school. 

In 2007, the TOTAL cost to run Monocacy Elementary School including staff and benefits was $3,026,572. Unless staff are going to be fired and students are going to move to New Jersey, there isn't $1 million in savings to be had.  But, please, check out the numbers for yourself. It would be nice if Board members did some research, too.

MCPS says; Monocacy closing to save $50,000, not $1 million

Upcounty residents vow to keep Monocacy Elementary open
Parents say decision to consolidate schools is not being given enough time
by Meghan Tierney
Staff Writer

..."Bigger isn't better, we all know that," said Barnesville Mayor Pete Menke, whose four children graduated from Monocacy. "I've never heard a school board person run for election and say ‘I'm for increasing class size.' You don't have to be big to do it right and do it well."

Weast's memo states that small schools may not be able to offer as many programs and can have trouble balancing class sizes, though schools spokesman Dana Tofig could not name specific educational benefits that would come from consolidation...

...All but $50,000 of the projected cost savings would result from eliminating 11 staff positions, Tofig said. Staff will have the opportunity to transfer, he said.

More than 100 people, including representatives of the cluster's four PTAs, attended a community meeting in Poolesville last week to discuss the proposed consolidation. The community is "greatly concerned," said Cluster Coordinator Sarah Defnet, who said parents have been lobbying the school system to increase enrollment in the cluster for years. She said MCPS is rushing a decision that should be considered on a similar timeframe as a boundary change, which requires an advisory committee of stakeholders to meet in the spring to provide input in advance of a recommendation by the superintendant in mid-October.

Weast has also proposed opening a new elementary school in Clarksburg by 2013. Shifting some Clarksburg students to Monocacy was not considered because it would create long travel distances, Tofig said. The westernmost part of Clarksburg closest to Dickerson is about 10 miles from the school, the same distance as Poolesville Elementary for some Monocacy students...

...The preferred enrollment range for elementary schools is between 300 and 750 students, though departures may occur, according to a four-year-old MCPS administrative regulation for long-range educational facilities planning, which is not a Board of Education policy....

...Tofig did not provide information on how the future enrollment projections were determined by The Gazette's deadline. He said no decisions have been made about the school's site in the county's Agricultural Reserve, where development is restricted to protect farming. MCPS spent $510,000 on a new roof at Monocacy this summer.

Commentary:  The real "savings" in closing Monocacy Elementary is $50,000. The children will transfer to a new school and will need teachers. That means the teachers can walk right over to another school and keep teaching the same kids. No cost savings there. So the only real "savings" will be $50,000.  Thanks to the Gazette reporter Meghan Tierney for making that clear. 

Additionally, there is no Board Policy on minimum school size as Superintendent Weast stated in his October 23, 2009 memorandum.  Again, thanks to the Gazette reporter for pointing that out.

Finally, there is no MCPS data to support the radically new enrollment figures that came out for Monocacy Elementary School on October 23, 2009.

And Superintendent Jerry Weast wants to close the school because of... a dart board?

Public has 84 days to comment on policies, but not at Monocacy ES

MCPS has announced that the public has 84 days to comment on changes to three Board of Education policies. See the announcement below.

However, an 84 day public comment period does not apply to the Monocacy Elementary School community.  For the Monocacy ES community, Superintendent Weast has commanded the Board of Education that a new MCPS school closing policy will be set in 14 days. Sorry, Monocacy community.

The Board of Education has requested community comment regarding three Board of Education policies that were tentatively approved on October 26, 2009. They are:

· Policy JHF, Bullying, Harassment, or Intimidation, which demonstrates the school system’s commitment to addressing this issue. The policy is based on a model policy drafted by the Maryland State Department of Education and complies with requirements of state law.

· Policy GFC, Reassignment of Personnel after 25 Years of Service or Age 50, which would be renamed to Reassignment of Employees within Two Years of Normal Retirement Eligibility. The policy would revise criteria for maintaining salary and retirement benefit levels for certain employees who are transferred or assigned to positions with a lower salary classification.


· Policy ECK, Use of Smith Center for Non-MCPS Groups, which has been revised to reflect that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) reserves the right to schedule use of the Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Center by nonprofit groups to ensure appropriate use of this unique facility and to maximize flexibility in scheduling its use by MCPS students and staff.


Copies of the draft policy are available through the Public Information Office by calling 301-279-3853 or on the MCPS website at www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy.

Individuals who wish to provide comments on any or all of these three policies should respond in writing by Monday, January 18, 2010. All responses should be sent to the Office of the Superintendent of Schools, 850 Hungerford Drive, Room 122, Rockville, Maryland 20850. The responses will be shared with the members of the Board of Education. 

Weast spent $509,135 on roof for Monocacy ES

In a previous posting the amount of tax dollars spent on the Monocacy Elementary School roof this summer was quoted according to what was reported in a State of Maryland document. However, that was only the State contribution to the new roof at Monocacy Elementary. 

From Board of Education minutes (see page 14) we learn that the total cost of the new roof at Monocacy Elementary School this summer was $509,135.

9672.1 Re-roofing at Monocacy Elementary School**

Awardee

J.E. Wood & Sons $509,135

And now Superintendent Weast wants to close the school.  What kind of "long range" planning is that?

Weast "...wasn't controversial enough..."

Jerry Weast doesn't want to tiptoe around serious issues. 
He wants all stakeholders at the table.  (That is the unions,
no mention of parents.)

Watch Weast's presentation in the video below at the October 1, 2009 CED press conference on the release of their new report.

If Superintendent Weast craves "controversy" why doesn't he set up a meeting with the Monocacy Elementary School* community and have a face to face conversation about why he wants to close their school?



*Monocacy Elementary School is a school in the actual school system that Superintendent Weast is being paid $489,763 to run. Real students, real community, real controversy, right in his own backyard. Is Jerry Weast "fixin" to meet with this community or is he "fixin" to just travel to Arizona and ignore this community?

MCPS Math and the Monocacy Madness

Our friends in the Gifted and Talented Association have agonized about Montgomery County School Superintendent Dr. Weast and math for years, stating that MCPS math is shallow on teaching arithmetic concepts needed to prepare our children to take their place in society.

Here is another demonstration of Dr. Weast's failure in math.

Dr. Weast announced he plans to close Monocacy Elementary School at the end of this school year because of declining enrollment.  

Wait - don't we have over 400 portables next to schools across the county?   Three portables are currently sited at Monocacy.  Are we hearing that the school population is rising?

So why close Monocacy now?  According to Dr. Weast, this will save $1 million dollars.  How?  He doesn't say.  Won't the kids still need to be in a classroom somewhere in the county?  Won't the teachers and staff  be placed elsewhere and paid?  And school buses?  What about that new roof?  Don't forget, we still need to keep a vacant building heated, so the pipes don't freeze.

Sorry, but the capacity is needed elsewhere - down the road in Clarksburg, where Dr. Weast plans on building two new elementary schools.  And yes, MCPS can always add on to Poolesville, with more portables in the short term and an addition at an estimated cost of $14 million - oops, that's not in the current plan.

Are Dr. Weast's projections all that accurate?  You need to look no further than Matsunaga ES, an overcapacity school that was supposed to be relieved by the opening of Little Bennett.  Matsunaga still has portables - so what happened there?

And Wootton High School with its mega additions a few years back is still over capacity.  Wootton manages by running College Institute classes in cooperation with Montgomery College and sending a signficant portion of its kids out on internships, so they get the staffing allocations without having the kids in the building.   Don't forget the monster development called Science City coming to the Wootton cluster with no new schools on the table.

I would be remiss to not mention the White Flint buildup.  Again, more building without more school capacity.

Dr. Weast doesn't get the math or the big picture.  Saving $1 million dollars in operating budget costs by closing Monocacy and then spending $14 million in capital costs for an addition to Poolesville ES does not make sense.  Given the Balkanization of our county by individual clusters, the budget makes even less sense - robbing from Poolesville cluster to satisfy new MoCo residents in Clarskburg doesn't make sense,  especially when the rest of the county has unmet needs too.

Closing any school in MoCo doesn't make sense, especially when we can't accomodate the students we currently have without the extensive use of portable learning cottages.  Dr. Weast's proposal is more than foolish  - it is almost unconscionable to continue to look at the cluster model as individual units without even considering the movement of programs or boundaries.

To repeat the mantra from the elementary school teachers across the county, its time to reteach and relearn the budget math.

Portables for Poolesville

Montgomery County Public Schools utilizes a long term planning process for determing school facilities needs.  The timeline for the long term planning process is shown here. Each spring, MCPS releases the Educational Master Plan that is used for long term planning.

Using the June 2009 MCPS Educational Master Plan, the image below shows what Superintendent Weast's surprise announcement to close Monocacy Elementary School and move those students to Poolesville Elementary, would look like for Poolesville Elementary.

Maybe this is why Superintendent Weast came out with "new long term enrollment projections" for Monocacy Elementary on October 23, 2009.  According to the MCPS June 2009 long term projections, Poolesville Elementary will be overcapacity by 2014. 

The new October 23, 2009, Monocacy Elementary long term projections greatly soften the blow on the overcrowding that would come to Poolesville Elementary School if the June Educational Master Plan projections were used.

Most important is that the 6 year MCPS FY 2011-2016 Capital Improvement Program released by Superintendent Weast does not include any funding for a capital project at Poolesville Elementary. 

Any overcrowding that results from the closing of Monocacy Elementary will be handled by the placement of portable classrooms at Poolesville Elementary. 

There's a lot riding on Superintendent Weast's brand new enrollment projections for Monocacy Elementary School. Let's hope they are accurate.

Wash Post: "...it is being done very hastily...we were blindsided."

Washington Post:  Opposition to school closing gets organized

..."We have a lot of concerns that if it is being consolidated, it is being done very hastily," said Sarah Defnet, who coordinates parent activity for the Poolesville area's four schools. "In a sense, we were blindsided."
Several parents wondered what use would be made of the property, which is in the county's agricultural reserve. School system spokesman Dana Tofig said there weren't any plans.


"We can't make plans for the building until the board takes action," Tofig wrote in an e-mail Thursday. "It could be used for another purpose in the district or it could be used by an external group."...

Welcome to Montgomery County, MCPS's new spokesperson Mr. Tofig!

A little bit of history: Back in 2003, Superintendent Jerry Weast already had plans for school sites that he wanted to remove from the Board inventory way before the Board of Education took action.  The sites were the Kendale Elementary School site, Brickyard Middle School site and a parcel at Tilden Middle School. The sites were to be used for housing. You can read all about those plans in a November 21, 2003 Gazette article. Four of the parcels discussed in this article as "surplus county property" were actually Board of Education dedicated school land. Two of the parcels had not even been disclosed to the public, and yet, Superintendent Weast was ready to hand them over to the county for housing with no public discussion. One of the parcels had been surplused in a closed Board of Education meeting without notice to the public.

Superintendent Weast doesn't repair roofs on the buildings that have children IN them, so repairing a roof is a big deal. What are the plans for the Monocacy Elementary school building after the children are gone?