School Issues Newsletter #63

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Subj: Newsletter #63
Date: 01/11/2000 6:05:12 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)

Dear Friends,

Hope you are getting back into the swing of school in the new year. Just to let you know I am still around I wanted to let you know about a few things. There was a very helpful and interesting discussion at BMS organized by the BMS PTA in December about the future of the building program in the Blacksburg strand. The main question at the forum was: why hasn't anything happened? The main answer to that is that things have been happening all along as far as building in Montgomery County: the first two years I was on the board we were building Auburn Elementary School, the next two years we were building Eastern Montgomery High School, which will be completed in July. Since the Board of Supervisors' tradition had been to only build one school at a time (to minimize debt service), we have been building as fast as that tradition allows. As urgent as the needs are at BMS, that just wasn't yet the highest priority in the county. We are now on track to do something in Blacksburg, and we have land and are on the verge of hiring architects to do that. While it is still possibly uncertain what we will do come Spring, that uncertainty has not slowed down our ability to commence work once we have a decision in place. The uncertainty derives from the reduction in enrollment projections that I discussed last year. This issue is on the SB agenda for our meeting on January 18th. The Board of Supervisors, at their meeting last night, expressed interest in having a joint meeting with the SB once we have affirmed a plan. There is a concern that the current plan (to build a new HS in Blacksburg, and then renovate the HS and MS as 2 MS's) just sucks up too much money ($50-55 million) to be fair to all building needs throughout the county, and to other educational non-building needs. We were pushed into that plan by some on the BoS who thought it would be more economical in the long-run to do it this way, in light of large enrollment projections. Now, with different enrollment projections, and different people on the BoS, and a different person on the SB, it is time to look at this a final time so that we are prepared to move forward as the Eastern Montgomery HS is completed. Please attend our meeting on January 18th, at 7:30pm, if this continues to interest you.

On Thursday, January 13, we will have a special work session in which we receive the report of the team that has been evaluating the gifted program this past year. If this topic interests you, I urge you to attend. The report is very interesting.

A week from Wednesday--on January 19th from 6:30-8:30pm--there will be a final information meeting for those interested in textbook adoptions for Algebra and Geometry in the county. The meeting will be in the BHS library. If you missed the earlier meetings, this is another chance to hear about and comment on the process. The SB will be considering this issue in the Spring.

At our first meeting of the year we welcomed new SB member Penny Franklin, who represents District B and replaces Bernie Jortner, who decided not to run for reelection. Penny is very familiar with SB issues, having been part of the Diversity Forum since its inception. She is President of the local NAACP, and she is the first African-American elected to public office in Montgomery County. At that meeting I was reelected chair of the SB for 2000, and Mary North was elected vice-chair. Wish us luck.

At the first BoS meeting of the year, last night, new members Chuck Shorter (District E) and John Muffo (District G) replaced Ira Long and Joe Gorman. Mary Biggs was elected chair, and Nick Rush was elected vice chair. I believe there is a very cooperative spirit on the BoS, and we look forward to working with them in a productive way.

As usual, our calendar is filled in January with extra meetings to work out a budget proposal. I'll keep you informed of issues there as they arise. Thanks for your interest in school issues. If you do not wish to be on this mailing list, let me know and I will delete you. Sincerely,

Jim Klagge
Montgomery County School Board
District F representative, and Chair.

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