Potomac — Potomac. Home to one of the oldest elementary schools in our sprawling 155,000-student MCPS system.
Potomac ES was built in 1949, for a maximum of 415 students — 65 years ago. It now includes five “portables,” down from a high of nine portables when enrollment exceeded 600 a decade ago, when my three children attended.
Montgomery Public Schools are among the most highly rated in the country, and we are rightly proud of our students, and of the teachers, staff and administrators who deliver these results and help our region to thrive.
But we need to ask hard questions: why is MCPS operating 26 high schools plus their feeder elementary and middle schools, with more than 450 portables for our children to sit in day after day? It speaks to a mismatch between new residential growth being approved, and school funding and planning. MCPS is currently taking in over 2,000 more students each year — one high school’s worth. In the past six years MCPS saw an increase of more than 14,000 students.
The county and our PTAs have worked hard to make the case to Annapolis that the state needs to step up with construction funds, to help us keep up with the growth in enrollment. This year’s request is for the county to put up bonds for $500M, to be matched with state bonds of $250M. But even if we get the full amount requested, that would only pay off the “sins of the past” — it would not prevent us from returning to the same pattern going forward, if we continue to draw new families to the county.
We need to change that pattern, and that means the County Council must require closer alignment between approved projects on one hand, and the supporting infrastructure on the other. After all, on top of school crowding and maintenance problems, we have significant road and transit issues festering too, and unresolved and underfunded.
Our County Council has not done the job we need, to keep our county a desirable destination for families and businesses. Our schools and roads are simply overcrowded.
Elections, like the Primary on June 24, are about accountability — that means being held responsible for having done a good job, or a poor job.
And that’s why I am supporting an exciting first-time candidate for County Council At-Large: Beth Daly. On the nine-member council there are four At-Large seats, and the whole county gets to vote June 24, on all four, plus on your individual district member. I urge you to look at Beth’s website, www.bethdaly.org, and consider voting for change. Early voting starts June 12 at nine locations, and absentee voting starts May 10. The Primary (which is the election in our heavily-Democratic county) is June 24.
Please, remember to vote June 24. We deserve a responsive democracy.
Diana E. Conway, Potomac
Diana Conway is campaign chair for Beth Daly, candidate for County Council At-Large.