Chris Rigaux wants to be in the loop. As the PTA president of Seven Locks Elementary, he thinks he should be informed when the school system changes its plans to construct a new building to serve the students and parents he represents.
The school system had initially planned to perform several renovations to Seven Locks school, but then determined that it would be more cost effective to build a new school at a different site, on Kendale Road.
Rigaux thought that the plan all along had been to build the new school to accommodate the student body of Seven Locks and about 150 student from Potomac Elementary, a total of approximately 500 students. However, the school system submitted a plan to the county council for budget approval for a school with a core capacity of 740 students.
“Even now, MCPS has not notified Seven Locks,” Rigaux said. He heard about the plan from other PTA officials. “That’s not the way I should hear about it,” Rigaux said.
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION amended its Capital Improvements Program to reflect the change, and the amendment appeared before the County Council’s Education Committee on May 6.
Each year the Board of Education presents the Council with a funding request. The Council then decides how much money it will be able to give the school system.
The Committee unanimously approved the construction of the school at Kendale Road, the school system expects to cost $3 million less than the renovations of Seven Locks. This is a revision from the original estimate of $6 million in savings.
Although the committee approved the plan in general, Committee Member Howard Denis (R-1) who represents the area admonished the Board of Education for the process by which they decided to build the new school.
“The community has not been as sufficiently involved in the process as they should have been,” Denis said.
While the idea of building the new school on Kendale came from members of the community, they did not think that it would be a school of the size being proposed.
Denis said he would hope that, “there be some form of a public hearing and an opportunity for the community to express itself on this matter.”
Sharon Cox, (At Large) president of the Board of Education defended the Board’s methods. “I think that our Capital Improvements Program process is comprehensive enough to allow that [public input] to happen,” she said.