Join The Campaign

From the desk of MES PTA -

Join Monocacy PTA's “KEEP MONOCACY OPEN” CAMPAIGN!

Stay in Touch –

• Join the “Keep Monocacy Open” Facebook page
• Join the KMO Task Force – we all need to pull together and help each other
• Bookmark www.KeepMonocacyOpen.com and visit often!

Write letters to the Board of Education members – incorporate attached talking points from the task force PLUS your own story

• Encourage your children to write letters. Mail them yourself, or deliver to SGA President Mackenzie Gross in backpack mail and she will send them in together.
• Encourage your neighbors and friends to write letters.
• Host a letter writing gathering and help them complete their letters.
  • Do you know someone who had their transfer request denied?
  • Do you know someone who transferred into the school from other clusters providing their own transportation?
  • Do you know someone who would have their children attend MES if they could?
  • How was your family positively influenced by Monocacy that shows the special and unique qualities of its environment?

Mail your letters to: Montgomery County Public Schools

Carver Educational Services Center
850 Hungerford Drive, Room 123
Rockville, Maryland 20850
Email your letters to: gro.dmspcm|eob#gro.dmspcm|eob, then also send by regular mail

Make phone calls – emphasis your points & tell your story

• Call the Board of Education 301-279-3617 (main #, website has each member)
• Call State delegates – Brian Feldman 301-858-3186; Kathleen Dumais 301-858-3052 and Craig Rice 301-858-3090
• Call County Executive Ike Leggett 240-777-2500
• Call County Council Education Committee - Chair Valerie Ervin 240-777-7960; Phil Andrews 240-777-7906; Mike Knapp 240-777-7955

Join us next week at the Board of Ed for testimony - November 12^th

• Meet at Selby’s parking lot at 6:00 for carpools and caravans
• Wear your spirit shirts, support buttons and carry your signs
• Bring your neighbors & friends

Sign up to testify at hearings

• Sign up and testify at during open comments at any regular BOE Business meeting – see website or ask how

Show your support!

• Put a KMO sign in your yard (contact moc.yrehctitseroma|assiar#moc.yrehctitseroma|assiar),
• Wear your spirit shirt
• Make your own signs and buttons to wear at hearings
• Decorate your car
• Most importantly - talk about this issue with ALL of your friends and neighbors at all of our cluster schools as well as down county – this affects everyone and they should understand the issues clearly

“Keep Monocacy Open” TALKING POINTS

1. Timeline –
   1. improper and unreasonably short amount of time to consider a recommendation of this magnitude
   2. this is really a boundary change for PES and should be considered as such with a decision made in the fall of 2010 and no changes until the following school year;
   3. inadequate time to assess PES's needs and whether it can support 549 students - if something is needed, it won't be in the CIP;
   4. the timeline as presented straddles the winter break and holidays - MCPS employees are on a payroll, the community is not and needs adequate time to devote attention to this proposal and to prepare an appropriate and well-thought out response
   5. this timeline robs the community of the last year of a school if, indeed it is to close
      
      Monocacy should have the EXACT SAME TIMELINE that was used to close Woodward HS in the 1980's.That process started in January of 1985 and the school closed in June of 1987 according to Board minutes. That was a 2 and a half years from start to finish.
      
      The Takoma Park area is just finishing up a year long boundary change process. A year for the people of Takoma Park to think, read, learn, discuss and decide how to advocate. A year for the people who eat organic food. But for the people that grow the organic food? 5 months to have their school closed.
      
      
2. Enrollment –
   1. MES is NOT under-enrolled - 86% utilization, well within the desired level of 80-100%. Other schools are at less utilization and NOT being recommended to close.
   2. The school was built in the Agricultural Reserve to be small and rural and it still is.
   3. At a capacity of 205 students MES cannot meet that 'preferred value' of 300 students without having portables and being terribly over-crowded.
   4. Rather than close an academically excellent school, the Board should explore options to increase numbers – e.g. open enrollment at MES and JPMS and a boundary adjustment would help over-crowded Clarksburg and Germantown schools, some of which are closer to Monocacy than Monocacy is to Poolesville ES.
   5. Rate of growth in the Ag Reserve is controlled. New development is limited by design to ensure the preservation of green spaces and the agrarian tradition, and not the least to ensure continued agricultural production. These green spaces and opportunities for outdoor recreation bring people from all over the county and region.
   6. Growth is limited, therefore population, and of course the number of children in the area. Clearly there is a 'collision' of values here.
   7. Dr. Weast’s proposal is an attack on the Ag Reserve
   8. Closing MES does not result in additional enrollment in the cluster, and may in fact limit growth and options for increasing middle school population.
   9. One decision cannot be made without considering the whole picture – that’s the type of thinking that lets a $500,000 roof be replaced on a school you plan to close at the end of the year.
      
3. Alleged Cost savings –
   1. How is $1million “saved” when an addition on PES will cost upwards of $14 million?
   2. The cost of new schools in Clarksburg, Damascus and Germantown dwarf the $1mill allegedly saved by closing MES. New elementary is $27 mill, new middle is $44 mill
   3. The savings of $1million dollars seems like a big number, but when compared to the $1.49BILLION dollar plan for improvements to other MCPS schools, it is equivalent to saving a *dime* on a $149 grocery bill.
   4. The actual amount saved appears to be $50,000 – the rest coming from “alleged” staff cuts

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