School Buildings

Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young is absolutely right that the city's school buildings are badly outdated and that the city is not doing nearly enough to reduce the backlog of maintenance problems, estimated at some $2.8 billion. As children are sent home because their non-air-conditioned schools are too hot to provide a conducive learning environment, he has picked a good time to remind the city that the poor state of school facilities has a real effect on academic achievement.

We share the editorial view that outgoing Baltimore City Schools CEO Andrés Alonso created a strong platform to sustain ongoing improvement in our schools ("School reform 2.0," May 12). But the editorial's call for more standardization around the system is off the mark. Instead, we urge the system to use this moment to engage parents, school leaders and others in a discussion about how we define a high-quality school. What does a good school look like and how do we measure it? In some ways, we know a good school when we see it: children are loved for who they are and challenged to be their very best.

Every Baltimore City school superintendent, mayor and state legislator of the last 50 years should be hanging their heads in shame over the atrocious condition of the city's public school buildings. The more than $2 billion of decay didn't just happen overnight. Where did all the money go? The cost to educate the city's schoolchildren continue to spiral out of control. Will the bottle tax be misused just like all the other well-intended taxes that were supposed to benefit the city's children?

Harford County Public Schools announced last Friday that it will implement a four-day work week schedule for an eight-week period – from mid-June to early August – to save money and to have its facilities open into the early evening for parents who need to meet with school personnel. As a result, all but a handful of school buildings and other facilities will be closed on Fridays this summer, and the school system's 12-month employees will work four 10-hour days from the week of June 17 to 21 through the week of Aug. 5 to 9. "This new cost-saving strategy will save the school system approximately $120,000 by closing buildings for one day each week during an eight-week period throughout the summer," Superintendent Dr. Robert M. Tomback said in a news release announcing the change.

At first glance, it may seem a bit petty for people in any community to complain that it's their turn for a replacement school, as happened earlier this week at a meeting of the advisory Abingdon Community Council. And for that sentiment to become the rallying cry for folks in Havre de Grace seeking a new high school. From a very real perspective, however, just about every community in Harford County can legitimately claim one of its public school buildings needs to be replaced or renovated top to bottom.

The Baltimore County school board voted at a meeting in Towson last night to allow facilities officials to negotiate the cost of a yearlong assessment of the county's 160 school buildings by Perks-Reutter Associates, a Philadelphia consultant.Perks-Reutter will identify and prioritize repair needs and produce cost estimates.The assessment, which is expected to cost about $1 million, is an attempt to comprehensively address chronic structural and environmental problems in the school system's aging buildings.

Baltimore's public school population is decreasing, while many of its school buildings - the oldest in the state - are deteriorating. State officials are pressing the city to close some schools, and that might be inevitable - but city school officials are right to take a systematic approach. They've hired a nationally known consulting firm to help draw up a comprehensive plan to determine which buildings should be shut down, which should be renovated and which neighborhoods warrant new schools.

Elementary schools such as 64-year-old Churchville Elementary top the list of Harford County school buildings needing upgrades and overhauls.The Level Road school has not been renovated or modernized since it was built in 1931.It has a "fair" health and safety rating, but the building's heating, electrical and plumbing systems are in poor condition, according to school system documents. The condition of the school's roof, replaced recently, is rated as good."If nothing else, our age would certainly justify a renovation," said Principal James H. Lewis III. "The boiler is a major problem."

Faced with requests to lower spending, Howard County school officials are looking at new ways to finance education. The latest: private financing of school buildings, where the county would lease facilities instead of buying land and building.The idea comes at a time when the education budget is being attacked again.On the operating side, school officials have to cut $5.3 million from their $208 million budget. This could mean that, among other things, high schools will open 15 minutes earlier next school year, saving $650,000.

A day after Baltimore's school board received a proposal to close five school buildings by fall, school officials unveiled a $2.7 billion, 10-year plan that calls for building 26 schools and shifting thousands of children from middle schools to buildings housing prekindergarten though eighth grade. Under the plan, the system would shut down 11 of its 23 conventional middle schools and convert 45 schools -- 43 elementaries and two middle schools -- to combined elementary/middle schools.

The state agency charged with overseeing Maryland's public school construction projects was found to have lacked proper monitoring of contracts, projects and maintenance inspections, according to a legislative audit. The audit, released Friday, examined the fiscal and managerial operations of the Interagency Committee on School Construction (IAC) primarily in fiscal year 2011, when the agency approved 355 district-level contracts totaling $566 million - $249 million of which was state funding.

The House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved a $1.1 billion plan Friday to rebuild Baltimore's deteriorated school buildings, sending the bill to the Senate. The vote was 107 to 30, with about a dozen Republicans joining all Democrats in supporting the bill. The legislation is a modified version of a plan conceived by city schools chief Andres Alonso and supported by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. In its current form, the bill would allot $20 million a year in state lottery funds to match like amounts from both Baltimore and the city school system.

General Assembly leaders have agreed on a financing plan to allow Baltimore to spend nearly $1 billion on a sweeping program to replace and repair dilapidated school buildings over the next seven years. House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas Mike V. Miller said Monday they fully support and will line up votes for the plan, which would use state lottery revenue and the expertise of the Maryland Stadium Authority to borrow enough to build 15 new city schools and renovate dozens more.

I recently had the privilege of speaking to an enthusiastic and hopeful crowd gathered in Annapolis to urge lawmakers to pass a bill allowing the state of Maryland to renovate or rebuild Baltimore City's school buildings over the next 10 years through an innovative financing arrangement ("Thousands rally for city schools construction plan," Feb. 26). We are not asking for additional funds but a simply a long-term commitment of funds already allocated by the state so that the city's school buildings can be brought on a par with those in the counties and with charter schools.

Supporters of a $2.4 billion plan to rebuild Baltimore's crumbling schools made a show of support in Annapolis on Monday night as thousands of people staged a loud, festive rally outside the State House to urge passage of legislation to launch the program. Teachers, students, parents and others described deplorable conditions in city schools - ranging from disgusting bathrooms and broken windows to stifling classrooms and inadequate computer labs - as they called upon lawmakers to provide the resources to rebuild the state's oldest school buildings.

Over the last 10 years leaders from the private, public and nonprofit sectors have begun to transform Baltimore's approach to its future. Traditional public subsidies have given way to strategic investments and tough decisions, using market-based techniques to reform our schools, rebuild our population, and make our neighborhoods safe, clean, green and vibrant. Now, the General Assembly must do its part to strengthen the city's future by passing legislation to reshape how the city makes improvements to its public school buildings.

THE BALTIMORE COUNTY Council tonight has an opportunity to make sure the quest for money to fix deteriorating school buildings does not devolve into a contest over which communities can yell the loudest.The council is scheduled to vote on whether to use $1 million remaining from cuts it made to this year's budget for a comprehensive, expert survey of the condition of all 160 school buildings in the county.Outside consultants will assess each school's physical problems -- everything from electrical systems to leaky windows.

Activist Kim Trueheart, a vocal critic of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration who was arrested and jailed Wednesday after trying to enter City Hall, said Thursday that she was dismayed that police officers would attempt to keep a citizen from a public building. "I'm upset and disappointed in the police force of Baltimore City," said Trueheart, 55, who was released early Thursday morning. "One of the supervisors said City Hall is a private building and I have trespassed on a private building.