Reserve’s Schools: Time for a County policy!
MCA has been serving on the “Poolesville-Monocacy Roundtable“ which has finished a several month period of meeting and conferring to address Mr. Weast’s determination that Monocacy Elementary School be closed because, though at 86% capacity, it fell under a newish criteria that no school have less than 300 pupils. Moreover, Mr. Weast indicated that both Poolesville Elementary and John Poole Middle School could follow suit under his enrollment guidelines. Poolesville, Clarksburg, Northwest, Darnestown clusters, the Ag Reserve and others schools were represented during this collegial process. In the end, their was consensus (unanimous) that the BOE and the County should issue a policy that Montgomery County’s rural schools be afforded a special status due to the fact that they are wholly located in and serve community within the Ag Reserve, which is by design low in population. The group felt that it would be discriminatory to hold Reserve community schools to the same standards as those schools located in densely developed portions of the County. Such a policy would support the existing legislation, zoning and policies that seek to protect the Reserve and promote continued, and expanding, local farming. Mr. Weast’s notion that there is a problem was disputed. It seems, with this closure proposal, as if the Reserve, a nationally recognized model for farmland/openspace preservation, is being penalized for its success!
Follow the links for MCA’s Letter to the Montgomery County Board of Ed, and Position Paper written for the Monocacy Roundtable (both pdf).
Update: The 15th District Representatives have shown solidarity for this policy by sending this letter to the Board of Ed.