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ELC options discussed include renovation, possibly moving students

2/27/2015

By Tom Marshall
Senior Advocate writer
The future of the Early Learning Center was up for discussion last Thursday by the Montgomery County Board of Education.

The question at hand is whether to renovate the building on Maysville Street or move preschool and possibly Head Start students to Mt. Sterling and Mapleton elementary schools.

Camargo preschoolers are already at their home school.
Assistant Superintendent Phil Rison said a previous assessment by an engineer placed the cost of renovating the ELC at $4 million.

Rison reported that the roof to the building is in good shape, but the boiler could go at any moment. He said the district had taken “a band-aid” approach to the building in the past and would have to invest in the building if it planned to continue using it.

“We have to decide as a group where we are going,” he told the board.
Board chair Alice Anderson expressed fear that the boiler would go out in the winter, forcing the district to shut down temporarily to move students to their home school.

She said she is also concerned about the asbestos in the building, which would have to be removed if the district were to keep the ELC.
The ELC currently houses 86 preschool students and 70 in the Head Start program. Fifty-two from the preschool program are slated to go to Mapleton next year, district curriculum specialist Melody Claypoole said.
Some of the students in the two programs will be in kindergarten next year and will count as elementary students and not preschoolers for enrollment purposes, she noted.

Rison said there would be transportation issues associated with moving preschool students to the elementaries. He said it would require 18 additional bus monitors at an estimated cost of $140,000.
Head Start director Martina Roe said she is open to moving participants to the elementaries with the preschoolers and providing financial support to the district for transportation.

Board member Sharon Smith-Breiner said she would prefer to move both programs to the elementaries rather than just the preschool.
Roe agreed, saying it would be wrong to exclude one group regardless of how their services are funded.

Rison expressed reservations.
“Feasibly, I don’t know if we can do it,” he said.
Roe said the Head Start program will need to know by May as far as reaching a lease agreement for space.

Principals at the two schools—Brandy Holley at Mt. Sterling and Stephanie Harris at Mapleton—were asked for their input on a potential move of the preschool students to their home schools.

Holley said Mt. Sterling could probably accommodate the extra students. That was before mention of Head Start moving as well.
The pros of such a move would be easing the transition period for preschool students into an elementary environment and in evaluating them.

On the downside, she said, are concerns about greater regulations involving the students, such as providing separate playground equipment, and scheduling.

Overall, she told the board that there were more downside than upside to such a move.

Harris said classrooms currently designated for computer labs, arts and music would have to be moved to accommodate the extra students, which could affect those programs.

There would also be an issue of what to do with the Sterling School, an alternative school that currently serves 91 students in trailers to the rear of the ELC.

School principal Rocky Franz said the classroom situation at the school is already unacceptable with students using rest rooms “no bigger than port-a-potties.”

“It needs to change,” he told the board.

Rison said the long term plan is to convert the intermediate school into an elementary and open a wing at McNabb Middle School for fifth and sixth grade students.

Anderson asked Harris, Holley and Claypoole to meet with Roe from Head Start to begin discussing logistics issues should a move be deemed necessary.

In other action, the board:
• Discussed a change in the district phone policy.
The board is considering providing a stipend to “key personnel” for phone service. The state, the board was told, provides $39 per month for phones.

Rison and Jacqui Johnston, the district’s chief financial officer, were asked to identify those key personnel who would be offered the stipend.
The district currently provides phones to many district employees. With a stipend, affected employees could purchase the phone plan of their choice.

• Voted to participate in the Safe Schools Program, which provides safety training to school district employees.
Rison said the program could potentially help the district with its worker’s compensation insurance.

The commitment is for one year.
• Amended the school calender to include Friday, March 20 (KEA Day), as an instructional day. The board was expected to discuss the entire calender when it met Tuesday night.

• Discussed an agenda policy dealing with public comment.
Board members discussed clarifying the policy to meet current procedures that include two public comment periods.
No action was taken.