Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Re: SP Middle School Options

Square,
A pretty large crowd of mostly teachers, CAC-members, AACo school board and AA County Council members were on hand last night to force the $58 million Severna Park Middle School replacement down the throats of homeowners like me.

School board member Vic Bernson did his best to summarize the pros and cons of each capital improvement option for befuddled voters like me. One of the "options," he said, really is not an option because his colleagues have pretty much ruled out the modernization plans. Instead, the choice is really between the Revitalization Plan and the Replacement Plan.

Councilwoman Cathy Vitale called for the meeting to help county officials make up their minds as to how to spend capital improvement funds that have been budgeted for the school. So much for the need to have "qualified" experts sitting on the school board. At the end of the presentation she asked for a show of hands. I was the only one voting against the Replacement Plan.

If this thing passes, I am going to buy a bullhorn and stand 100 feet from people's houses and read from the Kapital news article about how "everyone enthusiastically supported" the replacement option. Then ask them if they want to buy my house. "But, Mike, new schools means real estate," bubbled one of my enthusiastic neighbors, whose house is deep enough into Chartridge that she'll never hear a single power-tool.

Yet another reason for an "elected" school board.

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