A Kent County Public School tradition that now spans several generations is on the budget chopping block. The heart of the school district’s environmental education program, the 6th grade extended overnight experience at Echo Hill Outdoor School, is poised for elimination from the KCPS Board of Education budget.
While discussing possible ways to come up with the $100,000 needed for universal pre-kindergarten at the April 2nd Kent County Board of Education board meeting, the Board proposed that $22,000 of that money could come from cutting funding to the 6th-grade overnight experience at Echo Hill Outdoor School.
“The 6th grade residential experience is the anchor of the 5 -7 grade progression in Outdoor Education curriculum programming that has been carefully crafted in a partnership between Echo Hill Outdoor School and Kent County Public Schools that dates to 1984,” explains Betsy McCown, Associate Director of EHOS. “It is not only an essential component for meeting the new Maryland Environmental Literacy mandates for public schools, it also plays a pivotal role in helping KCPS with its middle school transitional goals, assisting in the merger of students from five elementary schools into one middle school.”
McCown also pointed out, “the irony is that Governor O’Malley of MD had once again proclaimed April as Environmental Education Month. KCPS had that on their website, and it was the same week that during the April 2 meeting the Board proposed cutting the sixth grade outdoor education experience from the upcoming budget.”
EHOS has a long partnership of working with the KCPS, whose students first attended an EHOS residential experience in 1984. Every year since 1984, sixth or fifth graders have attended for either a four or three day overnight experience.
Since 1986, EHOS has been approved as a Maryland State Department of Education State-Aided Institution. EHOS receives a MSDE Estuarine Studies Grant that covers a portion of the instructional cost for this KCPS experience. This year, the allocation for the September 2013 three-day program is $69 per student.
Tuition for the trip has been provided each year by the Maryland State Department of Education, parents & families, the KCPS budget and other grants. The Kent County Board of Education is currently proposing to cut the KCPS budget contribution for the sixth grade residential experience, which would jeopardize the feasibility of the trip.
Ed Silver, the Educational Services Supervisor of the KCPS said that his “personal hope is that this is something we are able to somehow fund, because I think it’s an amazing opportunity for our 6th grade students. [EHOS] has always been a lynchpin of our environmental education program. If we were to cut this, we would be one of the few school systems in the state that doesn’t have a residential environmental education program. We’re waiting for direction from the Board of Education about which programs we’re able to keep and which we are going to lose. It’s truly in their hands now. I know there are many in the community that would want this to continue and truly generations of kids who have benefitted from this.”
McCown stressed that citizens of Kent County can get involved with the Board’s decision, concluding, “the fact is, what will make a difference is for parents, students and citizens who feel passionate about this experience to be talking with the members of the Kent County Board of Education.”
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