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Jan. 12, 2012
Emotions ran high at Tuesday's meeting of the Garrett County Board of Education, as concerned citizens, many of whom hail from the Friendsville area, filled the board room to express their opinions and grievances with the recent five-year plan set forth by the board to right the school system's budget woes.
The board was scheduled to take action on a proposal to reconfigure the grade structure of the school system – a move that would place fifth grade students in middle schools – but that action was postponed until Tuesday, Jan. 17, in light of some of the issues addressed in the public comments portion of the meeting.
BOE members heard and took note of the information put forward in that public forum, which was schedule for 4 to 4:30 p.m., but ran well over 2½ hours. A video feed of the meeting was set up in the main lobby area of the Garrett County Board of Education building to accommodate the overflow of participants and onlookers.
Many of the concerns voiced dealt with the issue of young students being emotionally and developmentally unready for the change of venue, the unintended consequences of housing fifth and eighth graders in the same building, the strain placed on elementary students by the extended commute times, and the loss of the more "nurturing and intimate" setting provided by smaller class sizes.
Some of these concerns were addressed by Sue Waggoner, interim superintendent of schools, in a presentation earlier in the meeting. Waggoner expressed that the board had considered and shared the majority of these concerns, laying out a tentative but detailed schedule for students in the event the reconfiguration took place.
According to the presentation, in the larger middle school each grade would have its own "pod" within the school and be kept separate from the other grades. Each grade would have its own lunch shift and every student would also be assigned his/her own home room. Enrichment/remediation periods would also be built into each schedule.
Furthermore, fifth and sixth graders would be heterogeneously grouped and on a different bell schedule than students in the seventh and eighth grades. Classes would last 35 minutes and have four minutes between them.
More here.
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