I’m with ya!

A recurring theme on ShoreThings is my concern about the state of our schools in Wicomico County. I have included the statement that our teachers our leaving our classrooms on a few occasions. Citizens of the county who do not currently have kids in school might ask, “Are the teachers really leaving?”

I have two children who attended Fruitland Intermediate School (FIS) during the school years from 01-02 to 05-06. The first three off those school years were quite encouraging as the school maintained a challenging curriculum and had a low turnover rate among teachers. During the period from 2004 to 2006, 11 of the 17 regular classroom teachers left the school for other opportunities. Some of these 11 classrooms have seen two different teachers during this period. The vacancies in the school were filled with teachers of varying degrees of experience, and the effect of this turnover along with other factors such as larger class sizes, has caused FIS to become one of the schools with the highest office referral rate in the county. FIS was featured in a Daily Times article before the 06-07 school year along with Bennett Middle because they had decided to enact a behavior incentive program in an effort to curb the increase in disruptive incidents.

An additional problem in our schools is overcrowding. FIS had 139 third grade students during the 05-06 school year divided among 6 classrooms. This results in an average class size of 23 students. A class size of 24-25 students had been typical for above level and some on level classrooms, but students who were working toward level were typically in a class of 15-18 students. With an average class size of 23 students, this distribution is no longer possible, and students who are working toward level are no longer getting the chance to catch up to their peers. The overcrowding of our classrooms will only increase the distance between the levels of academic achievement among these students.

A great deal of residential development has occurred around Fruitland because the schools had a great reputation. Fruitland Primary has retained many of its quality long time teachers, but I know of two excellent teachers that have left that school as well. The uncontrolled growth in many areas of Wicomico County has not been offset with an increase in school capacity, and the students in these schools are losing out on what used to be a great place to learn.

The numbers are somewhat staggering. From 2001 to 2007, Wicomico County issued 2,267 building permits for single family homes, and the City of Salisbury issued 837 building permits for single family construction. Municipalities use the capacity of their wastewater treatment plants to judge whether the city can handle the additional growth brought on by development. Wicomico County does not have the wastewater guideline to use, and it is no longer acceptable for the county to use a cost-benefit analysis that does not adequately estimate the impact of residential development on school enrollment.

I believe that Wicomico County should begin to use the State Rated Capacity of our schools as an additional guideline to judge whether the county can sustain any future development. As of 12/15/2006, the State Rated Capacity of the total of Wicomico County’s 24 schools was 14,105 students. As of 9/30/2006, the Enrollment Headcount of Wicomico County schools was 14,390. This means that our schools are operating at 102% of their State Rated Capacity. Wicomico County high schools are at 114% of capacity. Elementary schools are slightly above 100% of capacity. Our middle schools are operating at 93% of capacity thanks to the addition of Salisbury Middle School eight years ago. I would suggest that based on this measure, Wicomico County is not able to sustain future residential growth until the capacity of our schools is increased to an acceptable level. I would further suggest that the overcrowding of our schools should require that Wicomico County initiate a moratorium on the issuance of any future residential building permits until the issue of school capacity is resolved.

According to Brian Foret, Director of Facility Services for the Wicomico County Board of Education, the completion date of the new Bennett High School project has been delayed until 2011 due to cash flow restrictions in the budget. The Bennett High School project was originally scheduled for completion in 2010. The result of this delay is that there will be no significant changes to school capacity in the near future. The residential growth in Wicomico County has not created enough of a financial benefit to allow the funding of an increase in school capacity. The education of our children is the biggest investment made by the citizens of Wicomico County, and growth needs to be controlled so that the quality of this education does not continue to decline.

According to Brian Foret, Director of Facility Services for the Wicomico County Board of Education, the completion date of the new Bennett High School project has been delayed until 2011 due to cash flow restrictions in the budget. The original completion date was planned for 2010. Mr. Foret’s comments can be seen in the current episode of Working Together For Children showing on PAC 14.

Mr. Foret stated that the JMB High School is still in the design phase, and his department still needs to complete logistics, design review and bid preparations. The project should go to bid in March 2008, with a project delivery date of December 2011. Mr. Foret said that the project had “originally targeted a much more agressive delivery date, but “due to constraints in availability of funding”, they “have had to adjust the schedule in order to accommodate the cash flow.”

Mr. Foret also gave an update on the current Prince Street renovation and construction. The original school encompassed about 55,000 square feet in a conglomeration of buildings. The new school will contain about 77,000 square feet with many more amenities including a fully wireless capable computer network. The building will reach “substantial completion” in November of 2007, but the WCBOE has decided not to relocate to the school until after the completion of testing in April 2008.

The revenue cap in Wicomico County seemed like a simple concept to the voters when it was approved. Let’s keep our property tax rate from going up. The citizens responded to a vocal minority led by an organization named VOICE. Unfortunately, the citizens were not shown the big picture, and it would have been difficult to predict the explosion of growth that would follow the vote to enforce a revenue cap. There has been a domino effect caused by the restrictions of the cap that has tipped to our roads and our schools and ultimately our quality of life here in Wicomico County. Another effect that was not advertised by VOICE during its campaign is the effect of the revenue cap on Personal Property taxes. The revenue cap has kept the income from the existing base of property growing at 2% per year. This growth rate means that the Real Property tax rate must go down. The Personal Property tax rate is 2.5 times the Real Property rate according to state law. The decrease in the Real Property tax rate has resulted in a decrease in revenue from Personal Property taxes of almost $1 million over the past two years. Some citizens will look at that decrease and say ‘Great!!’, but the teachers who are leaving our classrooms for other opportunities will tell us that we need to look at the big picture. The Real Property tax rate has been reduced from .993 in 2005 to .881 in 2007. That decrease means that the taxes on a $200,000 house have gone down by $224 in two years. Shouldn’t we be willing to pay $18.66 more per month for better schools, roads and public safety. I am looking at the big picture, and for the first time in my 20 years as a citizen of Wicomico County, I don’t like what I see.

Delmarva Dealings is one of the local blogs that I click to on a regular basis. I usually look past the posts about dealings outside of Delmarva for news of local interest. A recent post concerning local government budgets bemoans The Demise of the Fiscal Conservative . I would like to take issue on the points that were made about the Wicomico County budget, since I am not a city resident.

I find DD’s statement that, “I will be the first to admit that I have spent very little time reading the proposed Wicomico County budget,” but we must cut something, to be just as arbitrary as any Salisbury city councilperson’s argument that they haven’t read the budget, but let’s raise taxes anyway.

DD suggests that the Public Information Officer of the executive’s office should be cut. According to the Wicomico County budget, the total cost of the Administration/Executive function is $545,739 or .41% of the budget. The removal of the PIO would have a negligible impact on the numbers. This is nickel and dime rhetoric that sounds good in theory, but does nothing to meaningfully improve the budget.

DD then suggests that the bureaucracy of the Wicomico County Board of Education should be the next to go. The WCBOE proposed budget is $168,176,000 with the county contributing $49,443,053 to that amount. The county’s portion of the cost of the Administrative function of the WCBOE is $1,386,568 or 2.8% of the county’s total contribution. Even if the entire administative function were cut from the budget, this $1.3 million would pay for only 7% of the Prince Street School project. Once again, nickels and dimes.

We have 66,000 square feet of portable classrooms in Wicomico County schools. That is the equivalent of the new Prince Street School. We have 24 portables acting as an annex to the main office of the BOE. We have overcrowded classrooms. We have a high turnover rate among teachers. We are replacing teachers with less qualified applicants because the WCBOE salaries are not competetive with other districts. Wicomico County schools are in decline because of budget restrictions. I have witnessed the decline first hand as an active volunteer in my childrens’ schools for the past nine years. The education of our children is the single biggest investment made by the people of Wicomico County, but the explosion of growth in the area has overwhelmed our resources. Doing away with a Public Information Officer or the theoretical BOE bureaucracy are not substantive arguments against the Wicomico County budget. This nickel and dime rhetoric is irrelevant compared to the bigger problems facing our schools.

In order to keep the attention of teens studying for the SAT, author Justin Heimberg has created what he hopes to be the next big thing in SAT review. The Yo Momma Vocabulary Builder promises to make learning bearable. Here is a sample of the put downs to learn by.

Yo momma’s so corpulent, when her beeper goes off, people think she is backing up.

Yo momma’s so emaciated, she can hula hoop in a fruit loop.

What will they think of next?

I will start by saying that I voted against the revenue cap in Wicomico County. The county should be considered a business, and a business can’t reinvest in itself and support growth with a revenue cap. I have never been one to complain about paying taxes. Taxes are the price of admission to this county or any other. I voted for the people who are responsible for spending my tax dollars, and I trust that they have the best interests of the county in mind while they make their decisions.

I also don’t think that many of the people who voted for the revenue cap knew what they were voting for. Most voters for the revenue cap thought that they were simply keeping their property tax rate from going up. Even the smartest among us would have trouble explaining the 2% or CPI rule and its effect on the future of our county. And if you asked most people today, they would not be able to tell you that their county property tax rate will be going down by about 6 cents per $100 of value in the next budget. They still think that taxes are too high, even though the reality is quite the opposite considering the crisis that Wicomico County Schools are approaching.

I have one number that should be enough to make people realize what a problem the revenue cap has created in our school system. That number is 66,000 square feet. This number is close to the size of the new Prince Street School, but that number is 67,000. My number, 66,000 square feet, is the total size of the portable classrooms in use by Wicomico County schools. That’s right. We have the equivalent of an entire school in portable classrooms. And that is just classrooms. This does not include the 24 portables in use as a BOE annex at the main office or the temporary location for Prince Street while their school is renovated.

Former Councilman Taylor was the first person who tried to express the problems created by the revenue cap. He compiled data on lost revenues that could have been invested in our schools before he left office. I applaud County Executive Pollitt for his efforts to bring awareness to the restrictions on our county caused by the revenue cap. Even Councilwoman Prettyman, who I have observed to be quite diligent in her efforts to make informed decisions has been quoted as saying that it is difficult to govern under a revenue cap.

Any member of the Wicomico County Council who believes that the county and our schools are suffering under the revenue cap, should stand up for the repeal of the revenue cap and risk losing their next election in an effort to do the right thing. They will not have any trouble finding areas that have been neglected due to the restrictions of the revenue cap. They can start with the school buildings and move on to the high turnover rate of teachers due to the problems created by overcrowded schools. We are replacing teachers with less qualified candidates, because the salaries in Wicomico County are not competetive with other districts. The list will be long, and if the council members can communicate their vision for a thriving Wicomico County, they will be successful in saving us from the approaching crisis. The revenue cap was put into place before the explosion of growth our county has seen in the last few years. The revenue cap is causing a crisis for our schools, and the education of our children is this county’s most important responsibility.

Following the events on the VT campus last week, my thoughts went to the safety of our kids in school. Cell phones have become commonplace among many students age 12 and up. Most school districts have policies against having cell phones in school. I can understand the distraction the phones may cause, but my daughter will always have her cell phone with her in school. Middle school seems to be the first level where student on student violence begins to enter the picture. I feel that the ability to instantly communicate with her in case of an emergency outweighs the possible distractions. My child’s safety requires me to ignore the school’s policy against cell phones.

A Parkside High School Varsity Lacrosse player is in intensive care at Johns Hopkins with what is reported to be meningitis. The entire varsity and JV lacrosse teams have been administered antibiotics as a preventative measure due to shared facilites and equipment. Parents of students who could have been exposed to the illness should be watching for any symptoms. The Meningitis Research Foundation has a web site with information on this deadly illness.

Bennett Middle School (BMS) will be relocated sometime in the future according to the plan to redevelop the property surrounding Bennett High School. When this plan was announced, the Board of Education asked for input, and one possible idea was to divide BMS into two schools. BMS has a current enrollment of 904 students as of 12/1/06.

Dunbar’s number is a result of the work of Robin Dunbar, who used anthropological studies of ancient civilizations along with other information to develop a number which Dunbar suggests is the ideal maximum for a successful social group.

From Wikipedia:
Dunbar’s number, which is 150, represents a theoretical maximum number of individuals with whom a set of people can maintain a social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who each person is and how each person relates socially to every other person. Group sizes larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced policies and regulations to maintain a stable cohesion.

If we were to apply Dunbar’s number to a school population, it could be suggested that each grade should have approximately 150 students. In the case of BMS, that would be 450 students total for the three grades. Since the current population of BMS is 904 students, the idea to divide the school into two entities of about 450 students could provide a much more successful educational environment. BMS has resorted to a behavioral incentive program along with other efforts to improve the school’s climate. I would suggest that a smaller school population would result in a more stable social environment. The improved school climate would enable a higher level of academic achievement. I support the idea of creating two schools to replace the current Bennett Middle School.