The Montgomery County Board of Education’s decision to hire an architect to design the new Kendale Road elementary school has been appealed to the State Board of Education.
The State Board has the authority to overturn the County Board’s decision or to force it to take further action.
A coalition of citizens associations filed an appeal on Aug. 2. A separate appeal was filed on Aug. 4 by Janis Sartucci, cluster co-coordinator for the Churchill Cluster PTAs.
An appeal to the State Board of Education is the last step in the administrative appeal process. If this appeal is not granted, the next step would be to begin legal proceedings, should the parties desire to try to stop the process.
In her appeal, Sartucci said that the board did not follow its own policy with regard to the level of community involvement in selecting an architect for a school project. “The PTA and community have been excluded from the Site Selection process, the Feasibility Study and from the Architect Selection process,” she said in the appeal.
The neighbor’s appeal operated along similar lines. “No community input had been requested in the development of the ‘Feasibility Study,’“ stated the neighbor’s appeal.
A feasibility study was done, but it only assessed the possibility of putting a school on the piece of land.
“No feasibility study was done that considered traffic or stormwater management,” said Cryil Draffin, president of the Deerfield-Weathered Oaks Civic Association.
Draffin’s group is one of the citizen’s associations involved. He estimated that 5,000 households are represented in the appeal.
Board of Education Policy FAA (board policies have three-letter designations, but the letters are not abbreviations) states: “PTA or other parent and student representatives along with appropriate facility and program staff should be involved in the facility planning process for site selection … and aspects of facility design including modernization planning, new school planning and architect selection.”
The Kendale Road school construction grew out of what had initially been planned as a modernization of the Seven Locks Elementary School.
There was no parent involvement in the selection of the architect for the Kendale Road site. However, there was parent representation on the architect selection committee for the Seven Locks modernization in July 2001. The same architect is being used.
Board of Education staff have said that the new project is simply a modification of the original project and does not necessitate a new selection committee.
The county will have an opportunity to respond to the appeal, and the State Board will likely rule on the appeal sometime this fall.
If the appeal is granted, the Board of Education would likely have to begin the process of selecting an architect and studying the site again. “It would be reconsidering the options that are available,” Draffin said.