Older Schools

Armed with an overhead projector and charts, Howard County School Superintendent Michael E. Hickey strongly rebutted last night charges that older schools are being neglected."

A crowd of 250 people listened last night to a litany of complaints about physical plant and educational problems in Howard County's older schools at a meeting called by three County Council members and attended by County Executive James N. Robey.From 30-year-old playground equipment at Running Brook Elementary to lack of Internet access, 10 invited speakers asked the county's political leaders for relief they said they have not been able to get from the school board.County Council Democrats C. Vernon Gray, Guy J. Guzzone and Mary C. Lorsung -- who represent Columbia -- organized the meeting to address the concerns of parents who have children in older schools, mainly in Columbia, and who feel their children are not getting equal treatment.

Thunder Hill Elementary is the type of school that doesn't fit neatly into the emotional debate about differing perceptions of Howard County's public schools.While some older Columbia schools have set off discussions about slipping standards and fleeing parents, 30-year-old Thunder Hill has flourished. Last year, 80 percent of the school's second-graders achieved at least a satisfactory score in reading on the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills -- well above the 70 percent countywide average for second-graders.

As Howard County officials investigate perceived shortcomings in older schools, a new report shows that a decadelong trend of African-American children being concentrated mainly in Columbia's older elementaries is continuing.Since fall last year, even as overall white enrollment rose countywide, it dropped by 203 children in the eight county schools with the highest black enrollments, while blacks increased by 86. Six of those schools are in Columbia.Five older Columbia elementaries -- Bryant Woods, Dasher Green, Phelps Luck, Running Brook and Talbott Springs -- are more than 48 percent black, compared with two last year.

The decision by school administrators to delay countywide redistricting is drawing fire from top elected officials, who say it's costly and doesn't help older Columbia schools repair image problems.County Executive James N. Robey said he was "surprised" by the decision, revealed late Thursday at a school board meeting. He had been expecting countywide redistricting, which would redraw school boundary lines and require many students to be bused out of their commmunities -- some to underused Columbia schools, a controversial idea.

As the Columbia parents looked on protectively through the morning fog, their children clambered onto the yellow school bus. It seemed an ordinary bus, except it took a strange turn - toward a new public school in rural Fulton, away from an older, more diverse Columbia middle school rejected by the kids' parents. This unusual bus ride, repeated daily in Columbia's Clemens Crossing neighborhood, has become a metaphor for discontent in the town's older schools. In recent years, hundreds of families have removed their children from many of the town's elementary and middle schools.

Money follows money. That is the unfortunate crux of the matter as far as school construction and renovation are concerned. In Howard County, the situation is exacerbated because of the county's fast pace of growth and the need for new schools. Similar problems can be found in Anne Arundel, Harford and Carroll counties. The obvious disparity between older schools and newer ones is bound to raise concern among families in older communities and elected officials whose job it is to shepherd the school system forward.

Sure, the $118 million allocated for public school construction by Gov. Parris Glendening and the Board of Public Works is the largest amount in 20 years. And a considerable sum is going to high-growth counties such as Howard and Montgomery for advancing their own funds to accelerate the building of new schools.But the big development out of the Annapolis meeting yesterday was the dramatic shift in emphasis by the state to upgrade aging schools in established communities rather than build new schools in the hinterland that merely encourage unwise population sprawl.

It usually makes more sense to improve what you already have before you replace it with a totally new structure. That applies to schools, too, which are pivotal to any neighborhood. Renovate an aging school and the entire community benefits. Build a brand-new school miles away and existing neighborhoods start to crumble.That trend has been repeated all too often in Baltimore City and in adjoining counties. The time has come to reverse that trend. And what better way than to put our state tax money into modernizing these aging public schools to stabilize older neighborhoods?