The Board of Education approved a FY 2006 Capital Budget appropriation request totaling $225.2 million and an amended FY 2005-2010 Capital Improvements Program (CIP) request totaling $923.7 million at a public meeting on Nov. 18.
The Board approved a request for an increase in spending of $10.61 million for four amendments.
The Board also approved four supplements recommended by the superintendent, among them the opening of a second Chinese Immersion Program at College Gardens Elementary School in Rockville and the surplussing of a 1.75-acre parcel of land on the property of Tilden Middle School.
Under the approved Chinese Immersion supplement, Potomac Elementary will retain its section of the program and students living in the Potomac Elementary service area will be offered the seats in the Potomac section before the remaining seats are offered to a county-wide lottery. All of the seats at College Gardens will be offered by lottery when the program opens for kindergarten and first grade next year.
Some parents objected at the Nov. 10 CIP hearings that giving Potomac students priority for seats at the Potomac program is unfair. Such a boundary preference does not exist at most other immersion programs in the county.
But protecting the boundary preference is reasonable as long as Potomac Elementary is so overcrowded, said Potomac Chinese Immersion parent Diana Conway. "I think it would be outrageous to protect it if we weren't over capacity," but for now, she said, "there's an anxiety factor for parents in the school who see no relief for capacity at the school."
"Once they fix the crowding we have no business not having the lottery," she said.
The Board of Education did not make a decision on how to deal with out-of-boundary students currently enrolled in the program at Potomac Elementary. Because the College Gardens section of the program will include transportation for out-of-boundary students while the Potomac Elementary section does not, some of the students at Potomac might want to transfer to the new program.
The Board has yet to decide whether those students should be automatically offered a spot at College Gardens or whether they will have to enter the lottery for the College Gardens seats, or whether students wishing to transfer would be able to retain their seats at Potomac Elementary pending the results of a lottery for the College Gardens program. A committee will make recommendations on these issues in the coming weeks, board staff said.
No student currently enrolled at Potomac Elementary would be forced to leave, Board President Sharon Cox (At-large) said.
The Board also declared as surplus a wooded, 1.75-acre parcel of land on the property of Tilden Middle School known as the Edson Lane site. Board members said that the strip of land serves no educational purpose.
At-Large Board member Charles Haughey noted that the only possible use for the land — an entrance connecting the school to Edson lane — was strongly opposed by area residents. However, residents testified at a public hearings Nov. 10 they no longer opposed that use.
If the transfer is approved by the state superintendent, the land will be conveyed to the Montgomery County government, and will likely be the site of affordable housing units.
The County Council and county executive will hold hearings and make recommendations over the next few months. The County Council will hold a hearing in early February, work sessions in March and April, and adopt the Capital Budget and Amendments, along with requests from other county agencies, in late May 2005.