The following was submitted by Morita Bruce:
Do you support a tax increase to pay for recently-built schools? Should Red Pump Elementary School or other school construction projects be stopped?
If your answer is NO to either of these, then oppose Bill 09-29, School Development Impact Fee, because this Bill stops the school impact fees charged on new homes.
New homes bring more kids into the school system. History reveals how many additional kids, on average, will come to school from those houses. Without new homes, we wouldn’t need to build new school capacity. (Renovate, yes, but not increase the total space for more students.)
Now consider BRAC. We’re told that the next few years will bring tens of thousands of new, high-income workers to Harford. For every 1,000 new houses they buy, their impact fees provide over $8,000,000. Even if BRAC just returns us to our normal building levels of 2,000 new homes a year, that’s over $16,000,000 a year in fees.
Harford County has already already made painful cuts in services and personnel. More are on the horizon. Many Harford residents are already struggling to pay taxes. It’s unfair to increase everyone’s taxes to “help” those who can afford to buy themselves brand new houses.
Now is NOT the time to give up this crucial revenue source. Those with a steady job who want and can afford to build new homes won’t change their mind just because Harford charges a 2% or 3% impact fee. But Harford can’t afford to lose that $16,000,000 a year.
Time to decide: Should Harford surrender impact fees that help offset the costs of school construction? If your answer is NO, then ask the County Council to vote NO on Bill 09-29. Make your voice heard at the County Council public hearing Tuesday evening, 6 pm, October 20.
Building a new home is not something that just rich people can do. The house my family is planning to build is 1/3 the price of the average Harford County home. That makes the impact fee 10% of my home price. Add 10% to your home fee and see how you will feel to have to pay that and recieve nothing in return. My children already attend the school they will be attending when we move which is at approx 80% capacity. My lot is located off of water and sewer so I am responsible for all that as well. I have been a Harford County resident for 30 years, paid income taxes for 13 years and paid property taxes for 9 years, I have paid my dues so far. The Impact fee is not making 16,000,000 nor is it even making the 9 million-19.5 million it was estimated that it would make. No it has made roughly@ 2-3 million a year the last 2 years for a total of @ 19 million since its inception, meanwhile approx 350 million has been spent on construction in the same time. Who do you think is going to be picking up the tab when there is left over money to be paid, the bonds come due etc. New schools require more salaries, maintence, energy costs etc. Has it be said where that is going to come from. In a time like now it is not wise to be spending like they have a bottomless wallet, but there is OURS!! Monetary income can not be counted on if it comes from the construction industry. Construction is one of the most variable industries. It is either feast or famine. As far as BRAC goes you can’t count on them moving here. There are plenty of other counties & states that are willing to welcome them with open arms while we greet them with a tax. Harford County doesn’t really need to build new schools, according to my research if all the schools were redistricted we would not be over capacity but that would mean that some students would end up in schools that their parents might not “desire”. So it’s much more intelligent of course to just build more schools to appease them. Now my question is how are they going to pay the teachers and staff for these schools, they had to cut a number of teachers and staff 2 years ago because of budget cuts that we haven’t got back, but we will have a bunch of brand new schools. My school has to rely on volunteers to help educate their students. That’s pretty sad in a school system that is spending the way ours is. The problem is that the county was overbuilt in areas years ago so the plan is to let the “new” people pay for the past.
Lorrie, We are either giving them the option to move soomewhere else or to buy a less expensive house, which gives us less tax money. As far as not redistricting to “Rt. 40” schools, or whatever we are supposed to call them now, think about this. We have been saying since they announced they were rebuilding EHS. Obviously that school needs updating as BAHS did. However, it is way below capacity, and they are increasing the capacity. PMMHS is already over capacity. There was a group of us telling upper management and the BOE they were moving too many kids from FHS to BAHS, causing them to move to many from BAHS to PMMHS, causing it to be over crowded. Then one day it hit me. Of course! That’s what they want! Then they can move some of those PMMHS kids to EHS. They would never be honest and say that up front but let’s just see if that is what happens.
Lorrie don’t waste your time – Ms. Bruce is president of an organization called the Friends of Harford who do not want to see any development in Harford County. The fact that she failed to mention that affilication in her article says volumes.
Ms. Bruce please tell me the year Harford County issued 2,000 building permits for single family homes that would pay the impact fee to generate 16M. We both know the fee varies based upon single family, townhouse and senior housing.
I have no problem with your position on this but at least be truthful.
Thank you fromnj2. I won’t waste my breath, people like that are not interested in hearing the stories from the real people that are affected by things like the impact fee. They would prefer to group those of us against the impact fee as people that are moving in with our 10 children that are going to overcrowd the schools rather than see the real truth such as those of us that are trying to build a house on the family farm. It’s those type of NIMBY people that protest developments yet live in one themselves.
It’s not NIMBY anymore its BANANAs – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything!
They have theirs and they want to close the gate behind them. They cloak their arguements in the environment, crowded schools and traffic. If not one more home is built in Harford County where ever BRAC people live they have to use our infrastructure to get to APG. I can see toll booths being the next solution.
Toll booths or tax increases. If the output of money doesn’t match what is coming in it has to come from somewhere. And since I haven’t seen a money tree that leaves the tax payer.
impact fee needs to stay as is. it keeps sprawl from happening, reduces the need for infrastructure, schools, sewer and water. It also reduces the need for other county services such as emt, police, fire and overall county supports.
the fee limits growth to those areas within the development envelope, reduces sprawl and the impact fee funds needed construction. At the same time, it does not overburden those purchasing existing property, homeowners or local business. its what we call a win-win!!!.
Rocco, I would like to know exactly how the impact fee keeps sprawl from happening? I believe that is the responsibility of planning and zoning not the impact fee. The impact fee is charged to anyone who is planning to build a new house reguardless of whether or not they are inside the development envelope. Right now there are still school districts under moratorium, those are all in the development envelope which leaves a lot of the rural areas responsible for paying the impact fee for overcrowding in the development envelope. This fee in no way limits growth to the development area, it limits it to those that can afford another @ 9 grand added to the the building permit fee. The sprawl has aready occured it began when to many people in the planning and zoning department and the permits department saw dollar signs when the “big builders” bought out most of the lots in Harford County. This created the overcrowding and now people are putting the solution onto the people that are “supposed” to be moving to Harford and paying their impact fee. What happens if all these nice new schools are built and staffed and there are not enough income to pay for them. This is the reality. Instead of spending wisely the school board is building like wild and there will come a day that the bills have to be paid. Approx 19 million has been raised through impact fees and 350 million has already be spent. The school board is unable to correctly staff the schools with enough teachers as it is, how are they going to staff the new schools. I can guess more taxes will be requested to pay for the new schools that “we want”.The impact fee impacts all types of people, not just the “new people” and that’s what I don’t think people understand. They want to generalize all payers of the impact fee as new people or big builders. That’s incorrect.
lorrie,
hard to hear your point due to your rambling response. If it cots more to build, less people would build, thus less sprawl. I believe your numbers are off also, and you are surely of your rocker!!!. what does the school board have to do with the impact fee?
Wow, what a way to dispute a person’s opinion by pointing out that it “rambles”. Sorry that my response is not in what you may consider in perfect form but this is an issue that my family and that many others in my situation. If it “cots” more to build then that restricts the people that are lower income, the people with more money will not flinch at 9,000 more and the builders certainly won’t because they are just going to be passing the fee on to the consumer. When there are areas that are under restrictions that can not be built because of school overcrowding that means the available areas are rural areas. Think also about how many people have decided to downsize and have moved into the “active adult” homes, their homes were bought by someone and I can probably assure you that many of those buyer’s were families. But the “active adult” homes do not recieve an impact fee. The most that was ever collected for the impact fee was 4.7 million for fiscal year 2007 with a low of 2.4 million for fiscal year 2009. That is pretty far from the approx 9.5 to 19 million that is was supposed to collect per year. If you don’t believe my numbers you can easily check them out, for example 80 million+ was spent on Bel Air High alone. The school board are the ones deciding where the impact fee is being spent essentually, the decide which schools will be spent and when. Look at the building and renovations of schools at the moment, in the last year do you honestly believe that the impact fee is covering all of the expenses that are being spent? The Harford County School board is also opposed to the impact fee repeal stating that they need to build new schools but believe that until they can properly staff the schools they have they don’t need new ones. It doesn’t take much to figure out who has their hands in the cookie jar per say. And as to your comment that I am off my rocker, I can assure you that I am quite sane and that I am just an informed tax payer that is seeing a quite unfair tax situation and seeing many more taxes ahead that apparently not many others can comprehend. In the near future I can see either more teachers cut in our existing individual schools or a tax raise to pay for the new teachers in the schools that we wanted.
so your arguement against the impact fee is it does not cover the existing costs? maybe we should raise the fee then? The impact fee is not designed to pay for the all the new school construction just help assist with it. BTW do you really think the board of ed had it’s way with school construction when it came to Redpump ES? The council pulls the strings on that.
I am sad for the lack of the family farm itself, I am the future heir to a beautiful 118 acre farm that I treasure and it would be over my dead body that it is developed but I do know that particular family and the majority of them are money hungry. They still have their hands in the development from what I can tell. The LLC owners are the two brothers. They upped the amount of the pumping station that they were going to lay out I believe. I think the original number was 1 million and it was changed to an outlay of 2 million. From what I understand the council is not allowed to alter the school board budget, but that is coming from members of the council. Red pump has developers lined up to help pay for some of the expenses that’s why Red Pump will be first. The new elementary in Churchville will come. What I am concerned about is that alot of people believe that the impact fee does pay for all the moneys already spent there will be additional outputs from all tax payers to pay for the schools that we “wanted”. I believe that too much money is being laid out with no clear plan of how to pay it off in the end. The state has decided to pay for less of the schools so who does that leave to pay for it, you and I the taxpayers of Harford County.
The school board no longer gets to indicate where the schools go as obvious by the recent building of an elementary school which is going to cost more money for the county then the one they wanted! Convienently this is opening up the building of more new houses!
I guess that you are talking about Red Pump? Money talks and the Blake family is ready to pony up a couple million to get their project going and if that couple million happen to be the pumping station thats neede then it’s works out for all right? That’s been the way it is in Harford County for decades money has greased the way for many projects that shouldn’t have occured. It makes me glad though I don’t live in that area, I can’t imagine how many new homes they are going to wedge into that area. It is really sad to see a family farm end up that way.
First off they are required to pay for that second they are not even paying for the whole thing!
BTW don’t lement the family farm. They sold to a developer. If they did not want that to happen they should have sold to a prospective farmer!
I am sad for the lack of the family farm itself, I am the future heir to a beautiful 118 acre farm that I treasure and it would be over my dead body that it is developed but I do know that particular family and the majority of them are money hungry. They still have their hands in the development from what I can tell. The LLC owners are the two brothers. They upped the amount of the pumping station that they were going to lay out I believe. I think the original number was 1 million and it was changed to an outlay of 2 million.
sorry I double posted, still getting the hang of this forum and the replies
John Becker, Switching to the Pa type of taxation is not a good solution for anyone, ask anyone living in Southeastern school district. School taxation by district allows the school board to decide without a checks and balances system what they want to buy or build that year and just raise taxes on everyone. Everyone pays the school tax in Pa, every year. On a 2000 square ft house you can estimate @ 6-7 grand in just school taxes then add to it your property taxes which are pretty close to md’s property tax then all the misc taxes that come along with it such as head tax. In one year they were able to raise school taxes 70+ percent, imagine that tax bill!
CDEV, your assumptions about everyone that is building a new house being rich and being able to afford granite countertops is false. What about the family that is going to install formica countertops and linoleum floors? The impact fee to me is almost 10% of the cost of my home, imagine paying a tax that equals 10% of your home to live on your family farm and allow your children to attend the school they already attend. That’s why I believe it is unfair to me. Also if schools are being underfunded now how is going to help to build more that are going to be underfunded. The impact fee can’t pay for staffing and the BOE can’t keep schools funded correctly as it is.
Rocco, the impact fee is not stopping the builders, look in the Aegis at the building permits section, they are still building. Its your average family that is struggling to pay it. The builders would not make any money off the repeal of the impact fee, it would be something they wouldn’t be able to charge. If you think the impact fee has scared the big builders off look who are building all the active adults houses. They found the loophole to continue to make the money.
Fine some people build small houses. Yes Impact fee must be used for capital projects. Sometimes those projects are not to build a new building but to update or renovate an existing one such as North Harford, William Paca Old Post Road, Joppatowne ES, Joppatowne HS. Sometimes it adds facilties that a school neglected to get like Harford Tech’s Fields. Or various other things. Some times it replaces a building that is about to fall down. This does not require new staff but existing staff. I think we did waste on the Patterson Mill capital project and will be wasting money on a more expensive Red Pump when Campus Hills was cheaper and achieved the stated goal of eleviating overcrowding in the current schools. Those houses near Red Pump will over crowd a new school before it opens.
The pumping station is to cost 4 million dollars or there about if I remember correctly.
Look I see your point but what do you propose would be fair and replace the income?
While obviously I would not like to see any type of tax increase that is not pratical. I personally would rather see an increase in the transfer tax as an possible option. That is based upon the value of the house and is split between buyer and seller. You are probably talking about an difference of between a couple hundred dollars and a thousand total but obviously the number would depend on the house value. I think budgets should be closely evaluated and the fluff items should be cut. New homes even without the impact fee will bring in new property taxes and income tax. The BRAC influx is expected in 2012 and the average income for a BRAC employee is 86,000. That is income methods that we don’t currently have but could go towards schools as well. Believe me I have no problems whatsoever improving schools,but I believe there are alot of expenses that should not be undertaken in the construction of schools. The focus in schools should be on schooling. We don’t need a Taj Mahal in which to teach our children in. I just believe that the impact fee is just the tip of the iceberg as far as taxation goes. There are going to be other methods of taxation on the horizon to help pay for the schools even with the impact fee. I just believe we should have a system in place that actually lives up to its expectations. In the future there will be no more lots left in which to build upon and the impact fee will be obsolete anyways.
The impact fee unfairly targets those who build a new home, just because they build a new home. What about the young families that move in and buy an existing home, bring kids w/ them. They replace the older sellers who then move to a condo or away. They have just as much impact. Seems an increase in the transfer tax would be more equitable or they could just run the government more efficiently and easily save that much.
Should they be exempted if the seller had kids. Or given a credit if the seller had more kids then them?
It doesn’t make sense for someone who has kids in the system and wants to move into a new house, in a different community to not get credit for that. Exactly where would their “impact” occur?
Essentailly we ask all residents to support the schools, whether they have kids in it or not. I just think that it unfairly targets one part of the “impact”. Just because it is new doesn’t necessarily increase the “impact”. Plus the weaknesses have been exposed w/ the reduction in new home construction. Where do the funds come from now?
their impact comes because althought they got counted in their old house their new house was not counted and they sold to someone, most likely with kids adding new kids to the system. The fee is not exobanent compared to the cost of new construction. it costs less then their granite counter tops! I would be fine if we eliminated the first time home buyer credits and asessed an impact fee on all who move in. Or we could raise everyones property tax? Wait $50 a year was bankrupting people.
Should probably just be carved out of the existing property tax revenue, bypassing the general fund, and maybe it means additional taxes. I’d glady pay that because it wouldn’t go into the general fund and we want good schools which helps everyone.
Similar to what So. Pa. does.
Pa funds schools via a school tax which the BOE imposes. That is above and beyond your property tax which is lower. Each district has different school taxes. Are you in favor of giving our new BOE that is elected taxing authority?
No way! Especially considering we will only have a partially elected school board. They can’t figure out our SAT scores have dropped because they added another elective with the block schedule giving the kids less time in math and english. I certain don’t want them to have the ability to tax us. Have you been through the new schools and looked at all the wasted space and thought about how many more classrooms could have fit in that space? How we have added administrators at the same time we are losing students? How we (as very involved PTSA members) have been begging for more teachers but they hire administrators and administrators’ assistants instead? Yes, it’s great when we can get mobile laptop labs, but they rarely work and we need teachers!!
What if it was all elected?
Yes been in the new schools. Some things are wasted and some make plenty of sense. I think the big waste in all of them is cheaper materials that will not last as long. Fat chance any of them gets the life time of the old Bel Air High.
Also it would be intersting to note we have less administrators then the two most comparable school districts in the state. The reason you can’t have more teachers is we can’t afford them since we pay so little and we invest so little.
You want results we need to pony up to the plate and pay what it costs. Not ask for 5% back and find ways to get around giving the minimum amount for schools.
Even if the school board was entirely elected, people that are running for office tend to say what the people want and then fail to follow through. CDEV, I agree with you that the schools should be built with materials to be longer lasting.
Cdev, I don’t know. I’ve never lived anywhere with an entirely elected school board so I don’t feel like I have the knowledge to answer that. I do know enough from dealings with our upper management that we are wasting money there. Lots of money, lots and lots of money. AHS and BAHS are beautiful with their open spaces and skylights. Great. Build more classrooms. How many teachers can you buy with the price of a giant skylight? How much does a mobile computer lab costs? The only ones that work are the ones at the Science and Math Academy and that is because they have a technology teacher who knows how to keep them running. How many teachers can we get for assistant directors of elementary and secondary education? Or how about combining and just having one Director of Elementary and Secondary Education? Maybe they can do less harm if they are too busy to run off to Vegas giving speeches on how to get around what parents want. Maybe they will be too busy to come up with crazy ideas like the block schedule when our math and science grades are falling. Maybe they will be too busy to implement Everyday Math. How many more teachers would that give us? Maybe they wouldn’t have time for LICW and FOT. More time for FOT teachers to teach something else. And who knows who might be teaching LICW? How many other positions have assistants we could get rid of in favor of having more teachers? I don’t know about the other counties, don’t really care. Do they have enough teachers? That’s the real point. AHS has the largest population of special needs students in the county. Special needs for many different reasons. Yet, AHS has the largest class sizes in the county. These kids need smaller classes, not larger. They need help. The principal, Tom Szerensits, has done a phenomenal job with what he has, but he can only do so much. The teachers are the ones who actually teach our kids. I would much rather have upper management work harder, even get less done and have the students have all the teachers they need!
Sandy the 2 mobile labs at my wife’s school both work. They are used almost everyday and they have had them for 4 years. I agree there may be some waste but even in the things you named you are still not going to get anywhere close to the number of teachers we need. People do not want to come or stay here because we pay very little compared to surronding jurisdictions and the great benifits in PA! You know why PA gets 15 applicants per job? They pay well and it is a great enviornment to work in. The BOE gets the budget they want because they raise the school taxes to meet the budget they need. Our BOE has to dance for the county council and still gets the same amount as last year so they cut teacher salaries to keep up with the cost of doing buisness and they also freeze the hiring at the central office level.
CDEV, I got a copy of the 2008 BOE budget. There is alot of waste there that could be used better for teachers. There was an overspending of over 9 million in just transportation. There are also over 100 people that have AE cards that they can use with no prior authorization. That was apparently the first year the audit has been done by an outside source. I haven’t yet seen the 2009 budget but if all the mistakes that occured in 2008 had occured in other years there was a lot of money lost. PA teachers have their own problems, usually crooked school boards that don’t care about the children they care about the size of their buildings. The retention time of a teacher in Southeastern School district is very low. Alot of people might want to work there at first but many don’t want to stay long. From what I gathered the council may look at the budget and raise it but can not cut it.
Cdev, Most every year they have gotten huge increases. Not last year. The economy is bad so we all have to do without. The BOE chooses where to spend the money. I’ve looked at the budget and sat through the meetings. They could make more teachers more of a priority, they choose not to. There are a lot of teachers who choose Harford county because it is close to home and they get phenomenal parental support. I hire teachers for a Rec. Council program I chair in the summer, most are very happy with HCPS in general, they just need more teachers. It is not just PA, although that might be part of the problem. The waste is terrible. Personally I think it’s great that we have so many computer labs. But I would rather trade them in for a few more teachers. We aren’t talking hundreds of teachers. At AHS 5 more teachers would just be amazing. 4 would be great. There is no question that we are upper management heavy.
The county must keep the amount of money the same. That is MOE. The transportation over run probably has something to do with gas being so expensive!
The information straight from the 2008 audit reguarding transportation states “Based on our comparison of the rate paid by HCPS and the market rate, HCPS may end up paying $9 million more then necessary over a certain 12 year period because it did not periodically adjust that rate to market conditions”. Such errors as these lead one to wonder how much money that should have gone to education was spent in other ways that do not benefit our children. There are many such errors in the 2008 audit that may have created unnecessary expenses to but I have been told that in 2009 that many errors or oversights have been corrected or are in the process of being corrected, but still the fact remains that this was allowed to go on for many years before 2008 when HCPS was first audited by an outside source. Also one really interesting point on the very first page of the budget states that between 1997 and 2007 that school enrollment only increased 4.9%. That’s alot less than many would have us believe.
john,
you can say all taxes are inherently unfair. that’s the way this tax has been set up. what’s unfair about it? you know that if you build a home an impact fee will be imposed!!!. If you really can’t find a home to your liking, then you pay a tax for the privilege of having it your way.
i don’t think increasing taxes on everyone that purchases a home is the best, or more equitable way of coming up with a different tax scheme. is not as if there isn’t enough inventory out there to find a home to purchase, just pay the fee or don’t buy new.
Spoken like someone who won’t need to worry about it. If I want to move to another community, can afford it, have kids in the system, why should I pay? I’m not creating any additional “impact”. If the family who buys the house I’m selling has kids and are not from this area, THAT is the additionl impact. So why don’t they pay?
They. do they pay a transfer tax also had you bought an existing house there would not have been any additional impact.
Unless I move to the area and bring kids that aren’t in the system already. Your arguments are based on the assumption that you must lose your “grandfathered” status just necause you want a bigger home, and choose new. Doesn’t seem right to me.
Look I see your point but a couple things to bear in mind.
a)The fee is not that grandeous in the scheme of things. The Granite counter tops will cost more then the fee
b)Short of charging a tax to move here, which would detere people from doing so, you will never totally only tax those who have an impact.
c)If we get rid of the tax then what are we going to replace it with? Schools cost money and we are already underfunding our schools, the county exec wants to take the law away mandating he at least funds the schools. We are 21 out of 23 in funding schools.
repealing the tax would only really help line the pockets of builders, the tax has already been built in the cost of producing housing. the buyers won’t see a reduction in their cost. Property taxes and the constant yield would increase over time to pay for the infrastructure needs of the future.
in fact, i think moving to a pay of service tax would be a better name that “impact fee” so that those that move within county don’t assume that it is not fair to tax them because they were already here. the tax pays for the cummulative effect that new housing brings to the county and its existing needs.
CDEV maybe you should do a graph and show the percentage of money that has gone towards instructional salaries as compared to the overall budget? I know in other counties they have demonstrated that the percentage of money for instructional salaries has decreased substantially since 2001. I bet the same is true in Harford County. The trend in “good times” has been to pad with administrative positions embedded in the school. All of the new school construction included offices for Teacher Mentors and Instructional Assistants.
By the way, I personally know of teachers who have left the system and it wasn’t the money and/or the benefits. It was because of the Administration and the fact that they don’t listen to teachers. As soon as they implemented the block schedule because he saw the writing on the wall. Bet there are many more stories like that.
Instructional assistants are people who are in classrooms and help the teacher. They are usually found in special ed classrooms! In some classes they are required by law! I personally know lots of teachers who came to harford to get some experience and left for PA. My wife has co-workers who are doing that. I also know some who chose Baltimore county because it paid more and even some who put up with city schools for the same reason.
I know there is waste but some of the things you all cite as waste are not. Items such as mobile labs and instructional assistants are not waste. Teacher Mentors are vital in some schools (not all) But at a school where most of the faculty is new to the profession they make sense.
So to understand some of you want more teachers and better schools for less money? Doesn’t make sense. Is there waste? Sure like any buisness public or private! Is it just oozing out of the schools system like some want us to believe? NO. But when the only two counties that have a lower per pupil spending amount then us are examples of poverty gone wrong it begs to ask the question; Are we doing enough? Look I think low bid contracts are a waste you get a school built with cheap materials and you will do more work keeping the school together for a shorter life. For those of you who went to Bel Air think what the materials the cabinets in the science rooms are made of then? Now look at the ones in the new Bel Air. They will not make it out of the first few years. I have been in PPM and they are the same I will bet the ones in ABE and EDG are/will be the same! I give them 10 years, 15 if taken care of and handled delicately, before the doors fall off them! Waste however is not in hireing people who directly impact students or support them or even a mobile lab for kids who come out of the womb with a blue tooth in their ear and a cell phone better then the Apple IIE I played Oregon Trail on in 5th grade! This generation of kids is technology dependent and computers are vital to instruction. I work with kids who physiologically can’t learn as well and working computers are vital!
Cdev,I think it’s great that the mobile laptop labs in your wife’s school work great, but I can tell you at FMS and FHS they rarely use them because they generally aren’t reliable. Same with the old BAHS. I haven’t asked my son about the new BAHS. Did you know the walls in the hallways at the new AHS are make of drywall? Wow, wonder who made that decision?
Lorrie is right that the outside auditing showed we were paying way too much for gas for our busses and I can understand mistakes happen and they are fixing it, fine. But we need more teachers every single year. The fixed computer labs at AHS are wonderful. They are staged seating and the kids sit facing away from the teacher so the teacher can see every single computer screen. Then when the teacher needs to work with them he can either have his computer flash on their screen or they can turn around and use the table that was behind them as a desk. Great idea! And it works. I know some things are hard to cut because of NCLB but we can do better.
OR how about our middle schoolers who get pulled out of an academic class once a week for lessons? These kids are missing valuable time in classes, some classwork just can’t be made up. Things like reading discussions, science labs, etc. The only thing they are permitted to miss a lesson for is a test. My son had a teacher who wouldn’t even let him miss for a quiz. And one day they were having an important discussion and his English teacher wrote him a note and the music teacher STILL gave him a zero for missing the lesson. They’re putting 11 and 12 year olds in the middle of which teacher to listen to. I went to the principal and got the zero changed but it’s a ridiculous policy. Anyway, why in the world are they pulling middle schoolers out of academic lessons for instrumental music lessons? To keep more music teachers employed. They have band or orchestra in their schedule every other day. We could hire more academic teachers and the kids could actually stay in their classes! And it makes no difference if your kids take private lessons on their instruments. My daughter takes lessons from a world famous oboist and we were told he may not know how to teach correctly. Her middle school band teacher was a trombonist and her private teacher teachers at UMBC and festivals all over the world. It is just nonsense.
I can tell you my wife took a workshop at FMS and they pulled out the carts and they had missing keys and all sorts of things as if the students abused them. That is not a school system issue but lack of appreciation for things and proper parenting!
The lesson issue is a school thing and not a budget thing to be fixed!
I disagree. It is a school policy, schoolwide, not an individual school policy. A school policy made by upper management.
NOt the lack of communication between teachers. That is a unique school thing. You do not think that is micromanaged and orchestrated do you?
Absolutely, I had a principal try to get around it once by allowing students who took private lessons to skip the lessons in school. As soon as Mr. Board heard about it he was at the school making sure everyone understood that wasn’t allowed. The private lesson teachers would even have a paper to sign that said they worked on what the school teacher wanted them to work on. Not good enough. For my daughter who excelled in most everything, it wasn’t too bad. For my son who excelled at cello and struggled in english it was ridiculous.
We did a little unofficial study of why most kids drop out of band and orchestra in 6th-7th grade. It’s because of the pull out lessons. It’s great to have band and orchestra available, but not at the expense of academics.
My daughter is in instrumental music and she has no problems going to lessons, combuined rehersal and staying on top of her work that she misses with us bringing her early and picking her up late from school to make it all work. So if it is orchestrated her school missed the memo!
Be sure not to bring it to anyone’s attention! Mr. Board is completely inflexible on this subject. He has to be or he would lose music teachers. Say your daughter is reading a novel in class and the class is going to discuss a chapter or even the whole book for the exam the next day. There is no way to make that up, even if you happen to have an english teacher who is willing to stay after. Or, what if she is missing a lab in science class? If she is the only one who plays that instrument like my daughter is, they are not going to repeat a lab for one student. It’s a terrible policy. Why don’t we pull students out of english for math classes? I have begged them to change it in middle school reform.
Occasionally her class room teacher has the felxibility to hold her for items which can not be made up (tests can be made up) the Music teacher is fine as long as they bring a note to music class next time.
Again, don’t spread the word. The only thing they can hold them back for are tests. I agree, that’s something they can make up. It should be left to the academic teacher’s discression, but that would make too much sense.
Sorry to hear about your son’s issues w/music lessons. The process doesn’t work if one side is inflexible. I taught band for 9 years in a HCPS middle school. One reason for the lessons is that it enables the teacher to see the students in a smaller group setting. There is a need for that smaller teacher-student ratio. My large classes generally met in groups of 50-80 at a time – the smaller lesson groups were vital for meeting students’ needs. There are large ensemble objectives and individual player’s goals in the curriculum. That said, we had a rotating schedule so no student missed a subject more than 2 times a quarter (2 times out of 45 days is not enough to affect the students’ coursework). Plus, we had a makeup lesson time for those students who were unable to miss their core subject area (impt test, lab, etc). This schedule seemed to work for everyone, and it definitely avoided putting the student in an awkward position. As far as retention, there were usually only a few students who quit during middle school band (most students I lost due to moving – either military or moving to the other side of 95) and the lesson schedule was never a reason for quitting.
Yes, at BAMS instead of the lessons rotating the rest of the student’s schedule rotated, it was strange. And often they would be expected to miss more than one academic class a week, 1 for lessons, 1 for joint rehearsals. Sometimes these would fall on the same class for some students. My son’s lessons were always on Thursday’s, always putting him at a disadvantage because the rest of the class would study as a group for tests on Fridays. He needed that study time. It wouldn’t always be for the same class, but in middle school Friday is often test day. He still plays in high school, but he really lost interest because of this. And he has many friends who quit over this policy. It’s a shame, he plays the cello and is one of those kids who just has that natural talent. He started playing because when he was in 2nd grade he would just hold his ears when his sister would play her oboe and say doesn’t she know that isn’t in tune. He said that once at Judy Famous’ house and she asked me if she could start him on cello. She said he was ready. Sure, nobody said no to Judy.
That’s a funny story about your son! Judy was such a wonderful person and amazing teacher. Obviously she knew talent when she saw it. Glad to hear that your son is still playing. It will be something he could continue well into adulthood and perhaps will grow more interested. There are alot of opportunities to continue, such as the SSO, if he isn’t already in that orchestra.
Oh,and they didn’t have make up times either. I did force that issue, but the make up time would be the next week and if that didn’t work, there were no more options. Shortened school weeks, lessens got crammed in whenever and if it was the same day as the lesson was last week, it made no difference. It was a nightmare.
Judi was amazing, we still miss her so much. She started my daughter on oboe in 4th grade with no front teeth because she really wanted to play. I still remember the time my son was about 6 years old and one of the cows got out and she told him to go get the cow and put it back. He had never even seen a cow up close but he went out and tried. No one said no to Judi. What a treasure HCPS lost, not to mention everyone who knew her. She was truly the most giving person I have ever known and I know she would have put an end to this nonsense if she were still here.
In our headlong rush to cut taxes and starve government we are overlooking the fact that some taxes have merit.
Unfortunately the Impact Fee has been become politicized and demonized and made the “bad tax” by the use of erroneous statements, voodoo math and misleading diatribes. All for no other reason but that it is politically expedient. People are emotional about it and this lends itself nicely to political rhetoric. Political expedience, not good sense is driving the repeal agenda. What I am suggesting is that it is wiser to REFORM the Impact Fee not eliminate or reduce it. If we do either, the missing revenue will need to be picked up by the existing Harford County Tax Payers…..
The view that the County Government is in an adversarial relationship with it’s constituents is totally off base and needs to be corrected. Sound, sensible Government does not come from fighting with your local Government, especially one that has made strides to be collaborative….
As a Citizen, I strongly support working in a collaborative, not adversarial relationship with our County Government. To do otherwise is to fly in the face of sound government and invariably preclude satisfactory results.
I have read that we “will no longer build Schools”, “Cecil County does not have it”, “it is unfair”, “home building is being stopped”, “it does not generate enough revenue to matter”, and the like.
What the Impact Fee does is cause the “New People” moving into our community, not the ones already here to pay their fair share of new School Construction. This is based on the assumption that new people into a community UNFAIRLY burden the existing tax payers by needing additional new schools. What the Impact Fee does is place part of the cost of this new building on the new people who need it, not the ones already living there who have paid for their existing schools.
What the Impact Fee does for the Tax Payers: It pays for the construction of the best new schools that money can buy. With both the existing Tax Payers and the New Tax Payers bearing part of the burden. The Fee itself will only cover part of the new school construction costs…..the existing tax payers are still bearing some of that cost..
BRAC is, if you believe the reports, is bringing 20,000 new jobs into the County. Let’s discount that to 5,000 additional children. These will require the construction of 2 to 3 new schools, each with a price tag of 80 to 90 million dollars. Without the Impact tax, the entire cost of these new schools will fall on the existing tax payers and I do not think it is fair. With the Impact Fee $43,000,000 falls on the new households. Without the Impact Fee, that $43,000,000 would fall on the shoulders of the existing tax payers. Now, what is so fair about that??
CECIL County utilizes an Excise Tax to help cover its new construction costs.
This tax affects every tax payer in Cecil County, new and existing alike. They wish they had an Impact Fee and are working to get one.
What is worse, The EXCISE TAX is not tax deductible on your Federal Tax Return while the Impact Fee, as part of the cost of a home is.
My hope is that Our Reform Measure serves as a model for the rest of the counties in the state that are struggling to make the Impact Fee work for them…..
As for the Builders, they are out of sorts because they are forced to pay the Impact Fee before they start building. This ties up scarce funds, for as long as 18 months. In a cash tight market not very desirable.
We can readily solve this issue by moving the payment of the Impact Fee back to when the home is sold. That will get the builders off the hook by freeing up their funds so they can get back to building again. Every builder I interviewed said as much. The challenge to the Council is to figure out how to delay the payment of the Fee, not to eliminate it…….
So, now what are we left with…the Impact Fee is ALSO being used to pay down the Forward Funding Bonds that were sold when our existing schools were built. You can cut off the revenue stream that the Impact Fee creates, but the Bonds must still be paid for. Also there are some in our leadership (DG said so in an Aegis article) who desire to raise the NON-DEDUCTIBLE TRANSFER TAX (which affects existing taxpayers and new tax payers alike) to make up for the shortfall of no Impact Fee…So What is the wisdom to that???
Next, what happens if the Impact Fee is repealed?? The County is forced to raise taxes on the existing tax payers so the Bond obligations can be meet. So now where are you?? That is correct, you end up paying more taxes on top of what you are already paying. Does not sound too smart does it???? On top of that, try to get any funds from the State right after you eliminate a revenue stream from your income statement…….
As to the question of providing farmers with some type of exception. Under current subdivision regulations, farmers who subdivide often wish to include family conveyances. i.e. lots for family members.
If, for instance, a farm exists in an area where 10 acre lots are required; with a 100 acre farm that would equate to 10- ten acre lots. However, if the farmer has three children he could be granted three extra lots making the farm sub-dividable into 13 lots. This type of exception could also be applied to the Impact Fee. If the farmer wishes to subdivide his lot to cut out family conveyances, why not allow those lots to also be exempt from the impact fee? You can argue that these children are grand fathered into the tax structure since Dad, the farmer, has already been paying his fair share of taxes that went toward the schools funded by the impact fee. They really are not NEW residents coming to the area developing new houses. They are simply children of a taxpaying farmer living under his roof and tax structure who have now become grown up and relocating to another portion of the same farm in a separate structure.
In summary, Reforming the Impact Fee:
1. preserves a stream of revenue that is sorely needed for the new schools we will need to build in the near future and to service the existing Bond debt.
2. takes an unreasonable cash burden off of the builder.
3.suits the farmer wishing to deed a home to his children.
And why does an avid and active member of the Tea Party Movement support REFORMING not ELIMINATING the Impact Fee???
Because the Impact FEE reduces the tax burden on existing Tax Payers and those Tax Payers are in the constituency of the Tea Party Movement.
Respectfully submitted,
Tony Passaro
Bel Air Tea Party Patriots
Alliance of American Patriots
That makes total sense but some of the above comments from TEA Party folks seem to be exactly the opposite and filled with the political retoric. The family farm I do have a problem with. Do we make the same exception for the Lawyers Kids in Bel Air who build a new house here? After all he too has been paying taxes!