It was during a meeting in mid-December with Baltimore County school officials on Towson's crowded elementary schools that Cathi Forbes realized she needed to do more than sit across the table and hope they'd do the right thing.
The passion in her voice rose last week as she recalled the moment when school officials told her and a handful of other community members at the meeting that they were banking on a plan to build a school in Mays Chapel to alleviate the crowding that was forcing more students into portable classrooms each year.
She knew that the plan was opposed by County Executive James T. Smith Jr. and a growing number of Mays Chapel residents, and was unlikely to win approval. She left the meeting determined to take action herself.
The next day, Forbes and a few others formed Towson Families United. By mid-January, the group had launched a Web site, towsonfamiliesunited.com, to rally community support to pressure school and county officials to either build a school or reopen one of the three that had closed in the late 1970s.
Their efforts paid off Tuesday when the school board voted to build a new school, expected to open in fall 2010, on the campus of the Ridge Ruxton School on Charles Street. The Ridge Ruxton School, which serves special education students, will remain in operation.
"I got involved because I didn't think anything was going to happen if I didn't," said a tearful Forbes.
County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said he respected Forbes' leadership. "What impressed me most about the Rodgers Forge parents, and in particular Cathi Forbes, was that they were very tolerant and very patient throughout this process," Hairston said. "They've done their homework. They were looking for a genuine solution. They weren't looking for a quick fix."
State Sen. James Brochin, who represents the Towson area and was an ally of Forbes in her efforts, said, "A lot of people have a lot of great ideas, but they don't follow through. Cathi always follows through."
Forbes, 42, was raised in Cleveland and graduated in 1987 with a bachelor's degree in English and art history from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. She worked in Washington as an editorial assistant at a magazine and as an administrative assistant with an advertising agency, where she met her husband, John Patterson.
In 1990, they moved to Baltimore, where Patterson, 44, took a job with an ad agency and Forbes went to work for five years for a company that makes greeting cards.
