By Jeanette Dixon
Challenger
The person who is elected to the At Large seat on the Board of Education should represent all students in MCPS, regardless of which school they attend. It is imperative that the person who is elected on Nov. 8for the four-year term understands the board must change to meet the unique challenges faced by MCPS. Two reasons why a change is needed are because of overcrowding and the unresolved use of the 20-acre Brickyard site.
The Potomac community is blessed to have outstanding schools with supportive parents. However, the schools are overcrowded, which makes it difficult for all students to participate in extracurricular activities. There are so many students vying for a part in the school play, a place on a team, or a student government office. Parents shouldn’t have to choose to send their child to private school because of overcrowding, as some have suggested to me. Despite additional funding from the County Council to lower class size, some classes are still incredibly large. According to an article in the Sept. 28, 2016 issue of the Churchill High School student newspaper “The Observer” titled “Large Class Sizes Hinder MCPS Student Learning” there is an English class containing 40 students. MCPS guidelines call for a maximum of 29 students in English classes.
The Board of Education and Superintendent need to be proactive in personally hearing from and working with the community to come up with a plan that the community can support to address issues of overcrowding.
The second issue that looms over the community that has not been effectively addressed is the Brickyard property owned by MCPS. Since meeting with a group of men who head the Brickyard Coalition, I have made it a point to become more educated on the history of the property. I learned it was leased for 30 years and operated as an organic farm because of the properties of the soil. This farm (which is currently not being utilized) could be a learning laboratory for MCPS students across the county.
The Brickyard site would offer a great opportunity for hands on interdisciplinary lessons for students. They could explore a number of areas on a multi-sensory level, including the fields of health, environmental science, chemical and biological sciences, horticulture, history, art, entrepreneurial skills, food justice and food systems, nature connection and the ethics of environmental stewardship.
Using the site as a learning laboratory would be a noble endeavor and gift to our children, while placing MCPS firmly on the cutting edge by preserving this open space in its organic state for the education of our most important asset — our children.
If I am elected to the board, I will move expeditiously and suggest that we need to engage in “collective visioning” with the Potomac community to ensure these two issues are resolved in order to enhance and enrich the education of our students.