I believe the best way forward for the long-term health of our school system is for KCMS to be replaced at the Chestertown Site and to accommodate grades 5-8 (Option 1).
Many of the problems that plague our schools are due to a lack of resources: not enough manpower (teachers, social workers, support staff, tutors, volunteers, fundraisers, organizers, coaches, etc) and not enough money (it’s difficult to fill these positions without adequate funding). Both are long-term problems that can’t be solved without our community getting involved, without us all recognizing that we share the responsibility of educating our kids—if for nothing else, then for our own best interests. These kids are going to be the ones who decide to make their lives here, become our family doctors, run our local shops, become our EMTs and firefighters, supply our farmer’s market and maintain and expand on all of the systems that make our lives what they are here in Chestertown.
Our schools currently suffer from a lack of community involvement and support. In the short term, this means the school budget keeps shrinking and no one notices or cares. In the short term it means we don’t have money for enough counselors to deal with the many traumatic effects of having a school population with such high levels of poverty (88% for Garnet and 60% for Kent County Middle). (For the record, Galena stands at 58% and Rock Hall at 94%). It also means we don’t have enough money for robust after-school programming to keep kids involved and excited about learning. It means our teachers are buying school supplies out of their own pockets and often working second jobs to help pay for them. It means our kids aren’t getting the best opportunities to thrive in school and beyond school.
Creating a new dynamic physical space for our middle school is a great first step. A great second step would be for the remarkable people of our community is to step up, get involved, and start creating new dynamic opportunities for our students to expand on that physical space. If the Middle School moves out to Worton, it will be even further out of sight and out of mind.
There is value in seeing kids walk the sidewalks on their way to school. There is value in knowing that just down the street are young minds that might benefit from an extra spark of some kind to really light up their potential. There is value in seeing the seeds of our future in the heart of our community. My dream is that Chestertown will become known for collaborative education, respected for creatively fostering its most important resource, and seen as a place to build an exciting future.
Please go to https://www.kent.k12.md.us/KCMSProject.aspx and vote for Option 1 before Sept 10 to keep our middle school in Chestertown. And please email your comments to the Board of Education at [email protected] .The long term effects could be profound, not just for our kids, but for all of us.
Robbi Behr,
Chestertown
Elizabeth Hill says
Community members can get involved in the middle school as a Character Coach. You can make a difference in the lives of our middle schoolers navigating adolescence. It is just a fulfilling for you as a coach as it is to the students you support. We are always short of coaches at the KCMS. If you are interested, contact director Deeann Jones at [email protected]
Sincerely,
Beth Hill, Kent County 4-H Educator and 6th grade Character Counts Coach
Maria Wood says
There doesn’t seem to be a way to vote for a KCMS option on the linked page, but comments can still go to the BoE at the email address provided. Thank you Robbi Behr for this excellent letter and for always being a caring and forward-thinking Chestertonian!
Mike Waal says
Robbi Behr, you need to do more investigation into KCPS funding.
Historically, KCPS always ranks very high on a per-pupil-funding basis for the entire state, that’s 23 counties and 1 county equivalent-Baltimore City. Speaking of Baltimore City, KCPS per-pupil-funding is more than Baltimore City, more than any of the Big 6 counties. According to the latest numbers I can find on-line, KCPS is ranked 3rd highest for per-pupil-funding in the state, a very robust $18,791/pupil. Money is not the issue.
With Maryland’s structural deficit, KCPS can pretty much forget about obtaining significant state aid, spelled taxpayer dollars, for construction of a new middle school, even though Dr. Couch and our District 36 Delegation are going to ask for 98% State funding. Annapolis is going to say No.
Kent County is already at the highest income tax rate, and has one of the highest real estate tax rates in the state, ranked 5th I believe.
We may see income tax rates increased by as much as 15% to off set Maryland’s structural deficit, from 3.2% to 3.7%. Add to this the funding of Kirwan, which has the potential to impact Kent County with a doubling of the real estate tax rate over Kirwan’s implementation period.
And now, tax increases to offset Maryland’s structural deficit financial issues means Maryland, and Kent County, become even more expensive to live in, as compared to, say, Delaware, or North and South Carolina for examples.
Automatic gas tax increases (MD ranks in the top 5 highest gas tax states), 6% sales tax, real estate taxes twice the real estate tax rates of the states mentioned above.
Young families cannot afford to live in Maryland now, and it is going to get worse. A new KCPS middle school at a $60,000,000.00 price tag, I’m sorry to have to write, to house approximately 650 middle school students, is not going to fix the problem.
The state of Maryland’s population is declining, overall, due to the high cost of living here. Kent County’s overall student population is declining, and will continue to do so, for the same reason.
Robbi Behr says
Hi Mike —
Thanks for your comment. I understand the KCPS funding situation and have been fighting for years for our teachers and students to be treated as assets rather than liabilities.
I recognize that we cannot solve the high tax rate by opening a middle school, but what a delightfully simple solution to a very complex problem that would be!
While I am examining taxes and budgets and finding meaningful solutions (which I have done and will continue to do) I might earnestly suggest you spend some time examining our schools, not from the outside, but from the inside. See for yourself the teachers who are burning the candle at both ends to meet the needs of their students; see the students who are struggling with all of the issues that come from living in a small, rural community—the majority of whom come from families living in poverty; see the buildings that are falling apart, the programs that are getting cut, and the support systems that are being neglected. Spend some time with these people who are struggling every day to advance a future worth fighting for.
I understand that the “realistic” future that you are positing looks bleak, but the one thing I have learned in my time fighting for schools is that if you don’t have a dream to fight for, then nobody joins the fight.
There are many ways to solve our tax problems. I know this because I’ve heard a lot of ideas. But I’m not an expert. There are definitely smarter people out there who I want to be working on it (maybe you?).
Part of what I’m interested in doing is convincing folks like you that you can’t encourage people to come here if you don’t have anything to live for when you get here. My dream is to create a community that rallies around and fights for our kids, that does the hard work to find solutions to the complex problems, and that arms them with the skills to find the solutions to the complex problems they will face when the future is in their hands.
It looks like you are interested in solutions. I am heartened by that. I hope that you can continue to dedicate some of your time and energy to finding how we CAN serve our kids, rather than how we can’t. I hope to see you in the halls of the middle school someday. Thank you for caring.
Mike Waal says
The issue and challenge of keeping and recruiting young families is at the state level and the county level.
The population of the state is declining, unfortunately, and will continue to do so.
KC population is pretty much stagnant, but aging.
The issue is, at the very core, economic development based; recruiting businesses to move here, so young families have a job to look forward to. Econ Dev is an all encompassing umbrella which includes education.
KC is one of 23 counties and a county equivalent in MD all competing for business recruitment state wide.
MD is one of 9 states and a state equivalent competing for business recruitment region wide; MD, DE, NJ, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC, and Wash, DC. I include NC and SC for a specific reason … their minimum wage.
If we take half the number of counties in each of the states surrounding MD, but all of NC and SC counties because of their minimum wage, KC has, round number, 300 counties to compete with for business recruitment.
On a national level, KC competes with, round number, 3,000 counties in the 48 contiguous states. All of which are looking for the same clean, green, and environmentally friendly businesses to recruit to move into their county.
Please, don’t bring up working from home. That ship has sailed and businesses now want employees back in the office.
I include NC and SC because of their minimum wage, like it or not, depending on what side of the business desk you are sitting. NC and SC are magnets for business recruitment in our region. NC state legislated minimum wage is $7.25/hr. SC does not have a legislated minimum wage, they go by the Fed min wage of $7.25/hr. MD is soon to be $15.00/hr.
If you are on the employee side of the business desk $15/hr min wage is great. If you are on the business owner/decision making manager side of the desk $15/hr min wage is not. If you have ever been P&L responsible you know why. And it is the business owner/decision making manager that decide where businesses are built.
A recent CEO survey ranked MD 41st worst state for business.
Forbes ranks DE 10th best state to do business in.
So, 2 questions:
1] if you were a business owner/decision making manager that was going to start a business making left-handed widgets, employing 50 people for manufacturing and office positions on the DELMARVA, selling and distributing from say I-95 to Pocomoke City, where would you put your facility?
With an acute sense for the obvious, probably near Harrington, DE.
2] if you were a business owner/decision making manager that was going to start a business making left-handed widgets, employing 250 people for manufacturing and office positions on the east coast along the I-95 corridor, selling and distributing from say Maine to Miami, where would you put your facility?
With an acute sense for the obvious, probably near Florence, SC.
MD is one of the very highest cost-of-doing-business states. And therein lays the problem. While education is a metric business owners/decision making managers look at, it is further down the check-off list.
B-t-w, I know what the inside of our KCPS buildings look like, I volunteered to be a substitute teacher some years ago. I helped create the Academy of Finance curriculum, which sadly no longer exists, and educated students on financial matters, like creating home budgets, etc., and taught a few other subjects as well, in all of our KCPS facilities.
Robbi Behr says
Sorry! The poll is found on the Town of CHESTERTOWN’S home page. Please go there to vote!
https://townofchestertown.com/