From Mary Archer:
Dear Editor,
I am writing you because of a letter I got from Harford County Public Schools. The gist of the letter, which is also available on the HCPS website under “Transportation”, is that my magnet school children will no longer be provided the transportation to and from school that they were promised when they applied for and were accepted to these programs. I have one child who is a junior at North Harford HS in the Natural Resources and Ag Science program, and one freshman in the Science and Math Academy at Aberdeen High School. This year, instead of my children being picked up at our home near Churchville, I must transport them to and from their “depot” bus stop at Havre de Grace HS. From there, their magnet school bus will take them to the magnet schools, and, at the end of the school day, will return them to Havre de Grace HS.
My husband and I both work till after 4PM. Schools dismiss at 2PM. My children have no way to get home from their “depot” bus stop that is about 20 minutes from our home. The “depot stop” is also in the opposite direction of both of their magnet schools and my place of employment. If fact, I would be driving past Aberdeen HS to get my child to the bus that will take her back to school! When I read the letter, I was instantly nauseated. We chose to allow our children to apply to these magnet schools, in part, because of the transportation. If I could drive my children to school, I would already be doing so. Like many parents, I have to work outside of the home and rely on the bus to get my children safely to and from school. I pay the same taxes as everybody else and now am being discriminated against because my children are enrolled in magnet schools. This situation will not only anger a bunch of parents (and cause some severe anxiety), but it will discourage students from applying to the magnet schools. Our children are being penalized for being bright and ambitious, wanting more that their home schools could offer them. They are being discriminated against because, at a young age, they already have an idea about what education they want and what career tract they are interested it.
This new policy affects hundreds of Harford County magnet school families, not to mention the bus companies that abruptly had bus routes cut. This impacts a lot of people and may force some children to withdraw from the magnet programs. I honestly don’t know what we are going to do if this doesn’t change. With only a little more than a month till school starts, this kind of drastic change is hard to deal with and took everyone by surprise. The School Board will be getting many complaints. We all want the money in the school budget to be spent wisely, but this is not the way to do it. They need to find another way.
Sincerely,
Mary Archer
I think the wasted money and gas not to mention time of the parents’ part is absurd. Can’t the BOE collect a set amount per kid to offset transportation costs rather than resort to this. Is the host school principal supposed to open up the building doors until parents pick up their children. This one, though it does not affect me, baffles me beyond belief. Maybe someone can start a shuttle service and profit from the BOE’s lack of thought.
I have one child in sma. That program is a STEM program. The regular HS does not offer the same classes. For example, the 10th grade sma offers 3-5 AP classes, NHHS offers 2 in the same grade. Why should smart kids hold be back? Don’t forget they might be your future doctor or scientist who finds your needed medicine when you are sick? There is so much waste in transportation itself. I know many stories from other parents where the bus routes make no sense. The route my kid drove last year could have been 20 miles shorter with more sense. I am driving each day, yes today there was one too, behind two HC school buses pretty much empty till I loose them when those go on the interstate. Why is the money not cut for transportation for after school activities which do not hold educational value? Why is the MAGNET school of Harford Tech not included with over 1000 students, which would return far more savings, but a STEM program? I guess my kid will walk the couple miles home on country roads.
Harford Tech has had their own busses just like all of the other high schools for over 25 years. Why don’t we cut the busses to BHS or NHHS. I detect a bit of superiority on your part when you talk about STEM students.
Not superiority, but smart kids have also the right of education to their abilities under Maryland law. Every time, when it comes to cuts, the enrichment programs are which get cut first. For some kids, regular school day has the effect of sitting 6 hours straight in front TV soaps for 180 days a year. Going back to transportation, why is the transportation office not getting into 21st century and is using the same software UPS uses to run their trucks? The software is paid for and is FREE to use. They are using pretty much paper maps to mark the routes and that is why they refusing to put the school bus routes as maps on the web, but just the cryptic text. UPS saved millions of dollars and HCPS can also cut a lot of mileage. Why is the office refusing to use at least the short school buses for magnet students for the last two years? I have asked the question for the last two years without getting a logical answer. The transportation office refuses to look at the routes as a whole, but adjusting and tweeking them for decades depending of new students or graduaded students. There is so much money to save if the school system would be run as a business without cutting education, we are asking to cut and improve there first than suggesting us to send our kids to private school, home schooling ourselves, educating them when their brains are asleep after being bored for many hours in school or asking us for money because we want our kids be educated to their abilities.
UPS’s software would also make routes that would be much safer for the students, as it shows a severe bias against unprotected left turns.
Like the Pay to Play fee maybe they can add a Pay to Ride or Pay to Attend Fee .
I liked your comment, but now am seriously hoping that it was sarcasm!
This pretty much precludes poor kids from attending magnet schools.
I think its a very bad deal that the magnet buses were discontinued but not the Harford Tech buses.
If the county wanted to do it fairly, they could have all the magnet and Tech students ride the normal buses to their local schools, where they would board buses to their magnet/tech programs for a delayed start. After school, they would be bused back to their local schools to catch the late buses home (IIRC they’re still offered by HCPS). This would present challenges to magnet/tech students who want to participate in athletics vs other schools, I’m not sure how to resolve that conflict, but at the end of the day allowing access to all school programs for every HCPS student is more important than participating in school sports.
Harford Tech is a complete high school for grades 9-12. It is the same as all of the other high schools so the HCPS decision is fair.
Tech is not the same as the other HSs in HCPS, it is much more akin to the SMA and IB.
The SMA, IB and Tech all require students apply and be accepted into their program, all three were afforded transportation from their neighborhoods or nearby locations with a minimal amount of walking by the students. So what attributes other than Tech having its own campus makes it more like a traditional high school than the other programs?
It has its own bus system and has had for over 30 years.
The letter should not have been a surprise. It was done a month ago when the budget was flat funded. Take it up with the funding authority.
Legitimate complaint. If there wasn’t a lot of real waste in the system I would say suck it up. But I really think this is just another way to cut some sending without having to address some of the endemic waste that is in HCPS. Let’s start by identifying unnecessary positions – and I don’t mean teachers – and eliminating them.
Hoo boy, I really agree with that. Cut a few very high paid administrative jobs and the transportation problem could be solved. It the administrators had to be evaluated as often and as closely as the Harford County teachers, it would be pretty easy to get rid of a lot of them.
Maybe Mary Archer and all the other people who are suddenly outraged should have heeded all the warnings before and during the Harford County budget hearings that things would look “radically different” in HarCo Public Schools if we didn’t press the County Council to fund HCPS properly. “Bus depots” (or “bus stops” as we called them when I was growing up in Baltimore County) are common place in most other Maryland counties. I have a hard time sympathizing with complaints about the new policy, especially when it’s coming from parents of children privileged to take part in a magnet program. I’d much rather cuts affect things outside the classroom than in. I prefer bus depots over 50 students in a classroom.
Why would anyone assume that the budget cuts would affect transportation to school? We were guaranteed transport that students would be able to walk to from our homes. As a matter of fact that was a huge “selling point” at open houses and information sessions from all the magnet schools. I don’t doubt many parents might even have chosen private schools in place of the magnet, but the home-to-school transport sealed the deal for the magnet.
There will be more cuts if the funding dynamic does not change.
But the waste will continue. Unnecessary staff positions and their retinue of assistants and support people. Travel expenses to attend conferences, consultants to assist them in doing their unnecessary jobs. And on and on and on. Meanwhile the core reason for schools to exist – to educate students – continues to get less and less priority. I’m no big fan of HCEA or the BOE but let’s identify capable teachers and reward them and the few less than capable teachers and replace them. And lets go thru the administrative positions at the individual school level and at the HQ level and cut, cut, cut the waste. If no one can identify unnecessary positions or doesn’t have the fortitude to identify them then get someone who will. The public isn’t anti-education it is anti-WASTE. And as long as there is blatant waste in HCPS the public has no interest in spending more. It knows that the amount spent now is enough if only it were spent correctly.
How much experience do you or the “public” have at running one of the largest (top 200) out of over 13,000 school districts in the US? How about education experience period? It’s easy when you are on the outside to criticize. Go get a teaching certificate, a graduate degree, maybe even a PhD, and get in there and find that waste!
I think that management and administrative experience would be more relevant than teaching experience would for the management and administration of the schools in Harford County. Managing transportation issues wouldn’t be enhanced by a Master’s of Doctorate in history, or even in education. Most of the higher level administrative jobs seem to me to be mainly political and/or public relations rather than anything practical, like budget management.
“Most of the higher level administrative jobs SEEM TO ME to be mainly political and/or public relations rather than anything practical, like budget management” says the person advocating for those in charge of HCPS to have less education experience than management experience. Again, it’s easy when you are on the outside to criticize. Look up those who are in those positions and find out the credentials they have and the responsibilities they are charged. You will see they have all of the necessary credentials, be it education certificates or otherwise, to be in the positions that they are. However, many of them, just like many of the teachers in HCPS, are UNLIKELY to be the best and brightest for their positions, because even the pay for the administrators in HCPS is significantly lower than what they could earn in the private sector for the responsibilities that they have. Just look at the Superintendent’s salary of around $200,000/year. Imagine what a successful administrator of over 5,000 employees (plus the 35,000+ students) and all of the responsibilities that come with it could earn in the private sector. It ain’t no measly $200,000/year. HCPS Assistant principals (in charge of an average of 30+ teachers and 200+ students each, making an average of $90,000/year) and Principals (in charge of an average of 60+ teachers and 800+ students each, making an average of $110,000/year) are also underpaid for the responsibilities that they have.
I don’t need a PhD. All I need to do is look at the million dollar football fields.
Harford County stadiums and rec facilities are great examples of Harford County politics at its best! Capital budget expenditures in Harford County are absolutely disgraceful. However you can be your a## that someone with an advanced degree in economics conducted a cost/benefit analysis of the stadiums (mainly the artificial turf) and was able to convince the politicians and the school board (now 1/3 politicians, soon to be 2/3!) to pay for them.
Turf fields come out of the parks & rec budget (not the school system budget) which is controlled by the County Executive. You should raise your questions about those expenditures with him and the County Council. The school system did not ask for turf to replace grass.
Thank you for responding with factual information. This site is awful with half-truths.
So the County Exec made the decision to short the school system the money requested for education. And the County Exec made the decision to use county funds to install expensive turf fields at schools.
@SEA That is correct. Then the County Council voted to support the County Executives’ budget as presented with a few very minor changes.
SEA:
The problem is that HCPS’s budget is prepared in a vacuum, without guidance from the people that actually control the purse-strings, leading them to ask for the sky and hope to get it.
If the CE and CC told HCPS an estimated maximum percentage increase (or, in trying times, the size of the decrease), it would allow HCPS to work within the budget from the beginning, instead of having to make hard choices after they’ve come up with ideas for how they’re going to spend all the money that they prayed they could get.
HCPS didn’t come up with any new ideas of how to spend money. They are attempting to maintain programs and staff. The priorities of the CE are not in line with this.
HCPS is no longer maintaining the magnets as they were advertised to families. Elimination of transportation makes it very difficult for poor kids and kids whose parents work. They no longer have equal access to the same education. Even if they apply to a program and are accepted, they can’t walk to a bus stop to be picked up and transported.
My kids’ experience in HC schools have been excellent, but in talking with teachers it becomes evident many are frustrated and resentful about how they are treated. It seems to me that Mr. Craig thinks our excellent education here won’t be compromised by cuts because people have invested so much in the system. It may take some time, but his decisions will eventually erode quality. His educational policy can be summed up with “Turf Fields Over Teachers”.
“Why would anyone assume that the budget cuts would affect transportation to school? We were guaranteed transport that students would be able to walk to from our homes. As a matter of fact that was a huge “selling point” at open houses and information sessions from all the magnet schools. I don’t doubt many parents might even have chosen private schools in place of the magnet, but the home-to-school transport sealed the deal for the magnet.” – Aberdeen Parent
Why would anyone assume that anything associated with the education budget might NOT be affected? Laying off teachers in the face of growing enrollment (which they did) seems to make less sense to me.
As far as how you were sold on the magnet school goes…particularly when decisions are made by elected officials, things change. I’m sure it came as an unpleasant surprise, but like I said before…the school budget crisis was well-publicized, as were the warnings that our children’s education was going to change radically if the budget wasn’t fully funded. It wasn’t fully funded, hence change as radical as altering bus strategies.
Theachers where promised step increases and they did not get them!
Unfortuantely, parents are getting a taste of what it is like to be “guaranteed” something by HCPS, but then not actually receive it. Now they know how teachers and support staff have felt for the passed 5 years or so, when their contract has been repeatedly broken by not funding the salary guidelines they were guaranteed when they were hired.
Now we know how colleges feel when they’re forced to provide remedial classes on the basics for kids that supposedly completed 12 years of public school that already costs the taxpayers over $100,000 per student.
It is an absolute triumph that those kids going to college who have to take remedial classes even graduated from high school in the first place. Without the efforts of HCPS, many of those kids would have dropped out in tenth grade. HCPS should be congratulated for the work they have done. Instead, because every student that graduates isn’t college-ready, you do nothing but piss on HCPS. You know nothing about the students that are graduating who still need assistance. You know even less about education. A high school diploma in no way means a student is ready for college. Unfortunately, most people think that it should. If that were the case, fewer than 50% of students IN THE COUNTRY would earn a high school diploma.
And for how colleges feel about the lack of student college-readiness…they love it! It’s money in the bank. However, that money is not due to the ineptness of HCPS, it is due to unqualified students whom foolishly think they have to got to college to be successful.
So in otherwords you think the $100,000+ per student that the taxpayers forks out should bring no expectation of ability per student to be “college ready”? Since we’re compelled as taxpayers to pay into this system doesn’t that seem a bit cavalier. It’s sort of like suggesting we have to buy a Hundai at Rolls Royce prices with no expectation that it run.
“A Hundai at a Rolls Royce price”? You are an absolute douche. A $100,000/student education that lasted 13 years? Please do the simple math ($100,000/13 years/180 days)… $43/day or about $6 an hour. You are an absolute douche…oh, I already said that. Let me say it again. You are an absolute douche. For some students there is an absolute expectation inherent in their high school diploma that they will be college ready. But not for ALL or even MOST students. Not all students are created equal. Not all high school diplomas are created equal…you have to look at the course work behind them. The minimum course work required (with a minimum passing grade of a D!) for a high school diploma in no way shape or form guarantees to make a student college-ready. Nowhere will you see such a statement from HCPS or MSDE. Just like teacher’s salary steps are contingent upon funding, a high school diploma’s value is contingent upon the courses taken and the success a student has within those courses.
Point is Burbey and the union think schools are underfunded – that we ought to raise everyone’s taxes to fund some pretty generous benefits and what I see as waste with no expectation of excellence or minimum standards. You can buy a house for what it costs to educate kids in the current system and yet you want more and make some pretty smug declaration that we have no right to expect much of anything from it.
Point is you should read the post above your last post again and again until you realize that your last statement, “You can buy a house for what it costs to educate kids in the current system and yet you want more and make some pretty smug declaration that we have no right to expect much of anything from it.”, is total bs. A child’s k-12 education should cost SIGNIFICANTLY more than a house does, but it Harford County, it doesn’t even come close. There are expectations inherent in a high school diploma, but a student’s college-readiness upon graduation is CONTINGENT upon their abilities and efforts. If you go to a doctor when your sick and she tells you that you must take medication X for 3 weeks and stop smoking, and you only take the medication for 1 week and keep smoking, are you going to complain that the doctor is being paid too much for their services because you didn’t get better? I’ll say it again…you are an absolute douche.
If a kid goes through 12 years of school and comes out unable to add basic fractions and has atrocious spelling I doubt you’ll see much by way of public support for your idea that a childs education ought cost more than a house – the biggest single investment most people will ever make. By the way do you kiss your mom with that mouth?
I was one of those students that had to take remedial courses. It was not the school’s fault; I just have difficulty with math. I struggled through math in elementary school, middle school, took algebra 2 twice in high school and that was with the help of private tutors. Other than math I did not need to take any other remedial classes in college. While at college I had to take my required math three times to get anything above a “D”. If not for the quality education I received from HCPS in other areas I would not have excelled in my other studies. I graduated from college with a B.S. and from law school with a J.D. HCPS does a fantastic job, some kids just aren’t able to grasp a certain subject.
Yes, if even one kid graduates and is retarded, then the whole system is useless and funding should be slashed. And the biggest investment anyone should ever make is in their education. Just because you didn’t, don’t hold others back. Unfortunately the cost of you education was far more than the cost of your house and taxpayers like me paid for most of it. Add it up. You are a douche.
And by the way, I suck on your mom’s titties with that mouth while she plays with my balls.
My mom died several years ago.
And she was a douche just like you. The only difference was she gave out great hand jobs.
Do you have an ability to make your point without being foul?
Your mom never minded me being foul, especially when I would take dumps on her chest.
The tests that HCC gives students is not a true indicator of a student’s readiness for college. My co-workers child failed the math test because they didn’t test things they had learned in high school and had to take remedial algebra. Then it turns out the remedial class is a basic repeat of the high school math class already taken so a few weeks into the semester with a 104% average with the extra credit assignments the instructor told her child they didn’t belong in that class and to test out. Failed the test again. Why? because it turns out the remedial class isn’t teaching what they test on either. It’s just a straight out money maker for HCC.
This entire thing is nothing but a bunch of bull shit. The bus drivers are paid the exact same regardless of routes or hours worked, morons. The gasoline is provided by the MD DOT at prices far below consumer prices, assholes. The bottom line is this is a trick to send children participating in this “Magnet” program back to the schools that are local to the areas they are live. Bottom line, no guess work here. If people keep believing the Republican Agenda of Harford County then Harford County will never advance or change with the times. They want your children in impoverished areas to fail regardless of their potential so that their own offspring will be far ahead due to a better education. Harford County wake up, its all happening right before your eyes.
I don’t disagree with you that the agenda must change but it is neither Republican nor Democrat. It needs to be a pro-public education agenda which allows our schools to grow. The reason magnet schools came to be was to make providing expanded program cheaper. It would cost millions more to have every magnet program at every high school.
You’re glossing over the real origin of magnet programs: To boost test scores at inner-city schools by busing in suburban students after desegregation. The goal was to influence parents to volunteer their children to attend a school they would have strenuously objected to under an involuntary busing plan.
Kharn, I know you believe that but it is not true. There is a significant body of research that shows having advanced programs in at-risk schools improves climate and achievement for all students. Similarly, Harford County does not have inner-city schools.
Sorry, this isn’t Orwell’s 1984, history is quite clear on magnet programs. I would have thought as a social studies teacher, you would have knowledge of the civil rights movement, desegregation, the games states played to nullify Brown v BoE necessitating Brown 2 and Brown 3, etc.
Edgewood and Aberdeen are Harford’s version of the inner-city.
I was not a social studies teacher, except when I taught all subjects as an elementary teacher. However, I am very familiar with Brown. I will let you do your own research on impact of advanced programs in at-risk schools. Edgewood and Aberdeen bear really no resemblance to inner city neighborhoods or schools.
If you think that Aberdeen and Edgewood have no resemblance to the inner-city, I’m going to assume you’ve been working-to-rule for your entire tenure at AMS, never talking to parents who did not contact you first and never leaving the building after dusk.
Maybe you should call the Sheriff’s office and ask for a Friday night ride-along with the Southern Precinct.
Maybe you should call the Baltimore City PD and ask for a Friday night-along on the West side of Baltimore. Hopefully you do and and it doesn’t go so well for you. You comparing crime in Aberdeen and Edgewood to crime in the inner city is like you comparing having sex with and without a condom. Your opinions in both comparisons are clearly based only on your imagination instead of experience.
I work in the “inner city”. No comparison.
For Baltimore (2010):
4,000+ property crime incidents per 100,000 people
1,400+ violent crime incidents per 100,000 people
2010 Crime (Actual Data)
Aggravated Assault 5,492
Arson 321
Burglary 7,573
Forcible Rape 265
Larceny and Theft 16,298
Motor Vehicle Theft 4,409
Murder and Manslaughter 223
Robbery 3,336
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 44,283
Property Crime 28,280
Violent Crime 9,316
For Aberdeen (2010):
4,000+ property crime incidents per 100,000 people
500+ violent crime incidents per 100,000 people
2010 Crime (Actual Data)
Aggravated Assault 46
Arson 3
Burglary 69
Forcible Rape 5
Larceny and Theft 527
Motor Vehicle Theft 31
Murder and Manslaughter 0
Robbery 35
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 696
Property Crime 627
Violent Crime 86
For Bel Air (2010):
4,000+ property crime per 100,000 people
400+ violent crime per 100,000 people
2010 Crime (Actual Data)
Aggravated Assault 33
Arson 3
Burglary 34
Forcible Rape 0
Larceny and Theft 407
Motor Vehicle Theft 12
Murder and Manslaughter 1
Robbery 11
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 548
Property Crime 453
Violent Crime 45
For Harve de Grace (2010):
3,500+ property crime per 100,000 people
500+ violent crime per 100,000 people
2010 Crime (Actual Data)
Aggravated Assault 60
Arson 2
Burglary 62
Forcible Rape 4
Larceny and Theft 398
Motor Vehicle Theft 21
Murder and Manslaughter 0
Robbery 14
Crime Rate (Total Incidents) 559
Property Crime 481
Violent Crime 78
Edgewood is too small to have data reported, at least I couldn’t find the details as above for the larger cities in Harford County.
Kharn, I don’t need to take a ride along. I live in Aberdeen and I taught in West Baltimore.
@Kharn, Your comparison is completely out of line and simply not true. Your bigotry is clearly in plain sight. Kharn is free to say what he wants as even he has free speech rights. However, I would suggest that from this point forward Kharn be shunned and his comments no longer receive any response from the readers.
wow:
I think its funny you think I’m bigoted.
I lived in the Rt 40 corridor for years, the straw that broke the camels back was the behavior of a group of teenagers who looked exactly like me.
Kharn,
You left Joppatowne when it became too ghetto and moved to Bel Air.
I don’t fault you for that, but you don’t carte blanche to spew BS.
Edgewood and surrounding areas don’t even come close to the Baltimore slums.
Yes some of the Edgewood problem came from the city and has leaked into Joppatowne but not nearly to the extent you imply.
Kharn, you are getting ahead of yourself with that comment. That is not the origin of magnet schools in Harford or most, if not all, of the counties.
You might want to read Section 3501, Magnet Schools Assistance Program, 1965 the federal law that lays out the monetary assistance provided to schools to implement magnet programs.
The first line of Section 3501? “Magnet schools are a significant part of the Nation’s effort to achieve voluntary desegregation in our Nation’s schools.”
Correction: “the 1965 federal law”
The reason they’re targeting the magnet programs is because they’re attended by mainly children of moderately affluent and caring households, who have the ability to get to/from the depots using private transportation and HCPS knows parents of those students will do whatever it takes to give their students the best in education. The County wants the programs to continue at AHS and EHS because those schools need the boost they provide to the test scores (I think magnet programs’ scores should be reported separately from the host school’s scores, but that would cause a lot of drama in those communities when the disparity is realized), they just do not want to pay all the costs associated with the programs.
I don’t think magnet school attendance equals privileged or affluent. Aren’t they just kids who are driven and have specific interests? They work really hard to get into the programs.
They are, but those characteristics are most common among students from two-parent households with above-average income, where the parents are both able and willing to invest time in their childrens’ education and push them to succeed.
With transportation, any kid who is a competitive applicant can get in and go to a magnet school. I think we’ll see a shift from this point forward, if transportation is eliminated, to magnets only drawing students from families who are “affluent and caring”. If no transportation was offered when magnets were created, there would have been a huge outcry of disparity in educational access. I wonder how many freshman kids who planned to attend magnets this fall are thinking of changing back to their “home” high school to eliminate all this headache of arranging carpools and finding ways to get to and from school in the morning and afternoon. Their families are signing up for 4 years of riding them to and from school every day.
You really do not understand what magnet programs are about. But sticking to the topic, the reason for changing transportation for magnet school students is to use less buses and gas which saves money. These are all things that are a direct result of the lack of funding for our schools.
Would you mind educating the class on what you believe the magnet programs are about instead of my claim that they are specifically designed to increase test scores and draw suburban students to schools their parents would never allow them to regularly attend?
Why are they located at the two of the worst schools in the district, which are at the extreme edge of the landmass, rather than at Bel Air, PMMHS (whose construction would have been a perfect time to consolidate the programs in one location if it were due to facilities), or CMW, which are in centralized locations that would make student transportation easier?
Really? Can you explain why Baltimore County has magnet programs in some of the best locations in the county?
Not to mention, one of the best magnet comprehensive high schools in Eastern Technical High School. Get a new song.
Baltimore County labels diesel mechanic, cosmetology and carpentry as individual magnet programs, along with programs such as vocal performance and instrumental music that HCPS would never dream of offering, thus they have over 40 magnets.
If we wanted to play that game, we could declare every high school a magnet for “college-bound B+ students” and individually magnetize every curriculum at Harford Tech.
Kharn, that is more like it currently.
You forget the first few years all the IB kids at Edgewood came from Edgewood and Joppatowne! It was only in the last year or so that IB kids really started coming from outside of those areas!
We got a major problem if bus drivers are filling their busses up with gasoline.
No wonder transportation costs are so high, new diesel engines are not cheap.
Dear Mary Archer-
I feel your pain I don’t have children in a magnet school nor do I have children in any Harford county public school yet we both pay the same taxes. You are complaining the government isn’t giving you enough of my money and I’m complaining they have already given you too much.
Perspective is a funny thing isn’t it.
Sack up and show the county your indignation…. take those kids out of public school and send them to a private one, or better yet take the bull by the horns and home school them. Proove to us all you don’t need no government welfare.
I moved to Bel Air last year in preparation for my children to attend high school in this county, and now realistically, they will not have the option to go to a magnet school? I feel like I have made a huge mistake coming to Harford County.
You did!
A massively huge mistake! Move out now!
you made a mistake, go back to where you came
This is an outrage. No one will even go to magnet schools if this is the case. What the hell are they thinking? This is just to piss off the parents. Get rid of some of the high paid “executives” that should of been fired, like the former archer principal. UNREAL to take it out on the county’s brightest children and penalize them. Transportion is one of the main and reasons people can attend magnet schools in the first place. What kind of morons are running this county. Sad state of affairs for all.
Bottom line, HCPS should provide the transportation….or possibly, as suggested, charge an additional fee.
Kharn is correct. There wasn’t a chance in hell that the Math and Science Academy would be in a place like Bel Air High School. Also, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I would send my child to Aberdeen. So I took him out of seventh grade and enrolled him in Harford Community College. He had his AA before he was 18. Think that is surprising? Not really, HCPS curriculum is a joke….every kid is an honor student.
I look at HCC as the only decent private school to send your kids in Harford County. It’s the easy payment plan for college and they have a leg up going off to a four year institution. Of course they don’t have buses, but I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure something out. Get involved in your child’s education and stop acting like sheep.
How can you offer a program, gain participants, and then change the rules? Hardly seems fair. If the programs don’t fly, because the participants can’t get to the programs, what happens then? Disbanded? Moved? Any contingency plans for any of this?
Now you know how teachers feel. Apparently you need to read the contract that you signed when sending your child to the magnet program. Just as teacher’s salary steps are, as stated in the negotiated agreement between HCEA and HCPS, “contingent upon funding”, I’m guessing nowhere does it say in the contract (if you even have one) between you and HCPS that free, public transportation from and back to your residence (or its “close” proximity) is guaranteed for your child. The county is only required to provide free, public transportation to and from the home school. Your child made a choice to attend the magnet and that, unfortunately because of county budget decisions, now impacts you, the parent.
But they are NOT providing transportation even to the home school where the deport bus stop to the magnet programs will be.
Yes they are providing transportation to the new school from one central location. You are getting the better end of the deal. They could transport the kid to school X and then you have to get them to the magnet school but that does you no good!
Why the need for “magnet” programs? More jobs? To attract people to a competitive area to live?
We never had this when I was in school, except a school nicknamed ‘vo tech’ that also taught trade skills. Obviously I’m not retarded, I know it still exist.
We need magnet programs for the kids who would otherwise be taking senior level classes as sophomores.
The rules change when there is a lack of funding.
They have been doing things like this with teachers for 5 years and no one cared… Promise you a certain thing and than cry broke and take it away! Finally parents see the criminal behavior of the CE, CC and BOE
With my second child in a magnet now, I have been involved with the program for 7 years now. I have heard during this time many rumblings from “higher ups” about the unfairness of the magnets-how they take the students who test high out of the home school,etc. When Bel Air opened their medical science program but only offered it to students who would already attend Bel Air, I saw the writing on the wall. I am sure this is a way to phase out students who normally wouldn’t attend Aberdeen, Edgewood or North Harford.
To the user who uses insults and obscenities to get their point through, at least get the nomenclature correct. Gasoline engine school busses were most likely retired in the 70s, so what is Harford county doing with its huge surplus of gasoline that you claim MD DOT is discounting them? LOL
Oh my mistake, LOL. Diesel is the same thing asshole, it gets refined just like gasoline. Go pick after some one else cock sucker…..
It’s not the same thing, or else you could run both fuels equally.
Where is your proof of evidence MD DOT is supplying any fuel for Harford county busses? Harford county runs its own busses, and privately owned contractors run busses too.
LOL, all lies and you know it! Everything is subsidized and you know it. Show the county citizens the proof that the county pays for its own gasoline dick.
Nice language, jerk. Excuse me, stupid jerk.
Lick my chocolate salty balls
I believe you meant to say, “suck on my chocolate salty balls, just put ’em in your mouth and suck ’em.”
“I Pay the Same Taxes as Everybody Else and Now Am Being Discriminated Against Because I have no children in HCPS schools.”
It is beyond belief that the Board of Education would consider depot stops and disruptions to the transportation schedules for academic programs in order to save transportation funds. Far lower fruit to be picked for the saving of transportation funds would be the Interscholastic Athletic Programs. After all, these programs are not required, a child can be CUT from a team and not guaranteed to participate, and worst of all the transportation requirements pull students and coaches who are teacher out of their classes to meet these responsibilities. If the coach is pulled out the remaining students are left with a substitute. If the student is pulled out they miss valuable instructional time. The county executive has complained about the duplication of services, and in this instance he is correct. Why not turn over all of the athletics, transportation costs, etc. to the Harford County Parks and Rec. Department where I am sure there are capable adults who would gladly volunteer to keep these cherished program active. It is immoral for a freshman at a magnet program to have to wait at a depot stop for an extended amount of time for his or her parent becuase the bus was transporting students across the county just so they could play soccer! My money says that if the BOE had given this ultamatem to the county executive sometime in March or April he would have changed his tune quick!
I couldn’t agree more. Please email the County Council and BOE. This has got to be fixed.
You and TP are mistaken. Mr. Craig and the Council always say they have no control over how the school system spends their budget. They believe this gives them plausible deny-ability when the BOE is forced into these kinds of decisions because of county government gave them insufficient funding. This fig leaf defense simply doesn’t work for Mr. Craig or the Council. Things could get worse next year.
Like I said before: “Turf Fields Over Teachers”
The issue of transporting atheletes to games is not a part of the daily transportation of students to the magnet schools. “Pay to Play” is going to probably be a part of the funding of that transportation. As a parent of a former magnet school student, I know that those buses were never full and went all over the county. By having the students get the bus at their home school, the HCPS utilizes buses more efficiently.
Perhaps now that the so called “affluent” parents are aware that we are one of the wealthiest counties with the lowest paid teachers and they will speak up and urge the council to support the budget we need. Its the parents and communities that will change this disparity as we lose more talented educators to counties who support their schools. I have two students also in the magnet programs.
Just because students go to a magnet school does not mean that their parents are affluent. And, for this poster called Kharn, your definition and interpretation of magnets is moronic. Have you forgotten about the NHHS magnet? Not exactly urban, eh?
How many farms are on Rt 40?
Yes and the principal at that school also told her to walk she would need a note.
A few. Huber farms being one
It is truly amazing the amount of expertise Kharn possesses about such a limitless number of topics!
I am master…so screw you all.
Thankfully, my children are grown and out of the house. However, being a rather new HarCo resident, it appears to me that the funding cuts are being made in a political manner – and not in the best interest of the schools and children.
Cutting teachers as opposed to administrative personnel?
Cutting Bus Routes to certain schools, as opposed to those living less than a mile or so? Or, is that coming as well?
What a joke! Here is an idea for the teachers, to save some money – stop paying those HUGE union dues. They are obviously not protecting you from jack!
Exemptions (from the policy of no bus service within walking distance) for those who live less than a mile from their school have already been canceled.
there are lovely and supportive families at ALL of our public schools…the kind of discrimination Kharn ascribes to makes me ill. It is appalling that the system has first taken the salary step from our hardworking teachers for 3 years, and now the parents and community feel the squeeze, and our dedicated teachers show up anyway…and that the judgement by zip code is so relevant to presumptions from people who have no clue. Shame on you. Really.
We are getting all this expensive new technology in our schools that costs HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars, yet we can’t bus our students to school.
I’m sorry, but I’d much rather give up my interactive white board and teach the old fashion way knowing that I won’t have to worry about my young ones crossing busy intersections every day.
Thumbs up if you were able to learn WITHOUT all of these new “devices” which are only great for learning GAMES.
Before the more current arraignment of picking up students in front of virtually every driveway students of all ages used to walk greater distances to the bus stop or to the school building.
My child cannot walk the 10 miles along Route 155 to her new “depot stop”.
No child in Harford Co. ever walked 10 miles to a bus stop or school.
My grandfather did. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways.
Or at least that’s what he said whenever he saw high school kids waiting in minivans at bus stops barely 100 yards from their houses.
Just as an historical aside. There was a time in Harford when students acted as car pool drivers and were given a small stipend to pick up other students along the way. There were ag classes taught at the old Bel Air Normal School that were offered almost nowhere else so if you wanted to learn ag you found a way to get there. I bet things used to mean much more to folks when you actually had to make an effort. In some way it was like a magnet school. It sits unused now and boarded up. Kinda sad that such a significant building to the counties educational history is left to turn to ruin.
If I understand correctly and students that attend a magnet program will have to get a bus ride from there home school would mean that students may potentially walk over 10 miles in the North Harford area.
Since we are still not in the horse and wagon era, students driving other students in a car pool situation would not only illegal for most young drivers, but also extremely dangerous. The chance of an accident increases with every occupant in a vehicle due to distractions in the vehicle.
Timmay, did you quote that right out of the MVA drivers handbook?
Elementary Teacher,
Please give us some examples of how white boards have made significant improvements to your skills and effectiveness as a teacher. If you can.
I don’t agree with you; I use my whiteboard for board plans, EPR, transitions, modeling, just about everything I do. I can use it to connect to school websites and it also is a behaviorial tool as well. It is a very engaging tool in any classroom. The main part is that it is so interactive that it helps the kids to engage. Can I teach without it; yes. Do I think that it is necessary, yes and no. Technology is our childrens world, and they have to be able to manipulate that world, so in that way, I feel it is important. What are we going to do now; take them out of every classroom to try to save money? If they are already there, then they should stay. I think that people forget HCPS has already spent last years money. It is a hard time!
The next Board of Education meeting is Monday night at 5:25.
Please attend if you can and bring your magnet students!
Oops. I am still on the way home from work then, oh well, I guess I go on wellfare so I can pick up my kids from the bus depot next month.
I am leaving work an hour early on Monday to attend the meeting. I hope others will do the same if they can.
Please note: The school board’s regular business meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Monday – not at 5:25 (the board has a brief open session at 5:25 , prior to a session that is not open to the public). The public meeting, which includes the public comment period, begins at 6:30.
From one extreme to the other. Last year the principal of the school where my niece attends was insisting that she ride the bus. Absolutely demanding it. My niece lives 2 1/2 blocks from the school in a nice residential neighborhood with lovely sidewalks.
Yes and the principal at that school also told her to walk she would need a note.
Good thing it wasn’t me that had to write the note.
I am sure you would also be the first to sue if the child had no note and got hit crossing Fort Hoyle Rd!
No, I take responsibility for my decisions. If others take the decision from my hands they inherit the accountability along with it. What we have too much of today is people/organizations who want to make decisions but wash their hands of any accountability.
CDEV,
What we ask from our school system is pretty simple really, or should be. (1) Educate our children including an ability to do simple math and write intelligently including the use of correct spelling and proper grammar. Etc. (2) Not waste money. (3) Use common sense.
They have failed miserably in all 3 areas and I can think of at least 2 groups of people who suffer. First, our children who believe they are educated and aren’t. Second, the teachers who aren’t rewarded according to ability. HCPS and HCEA wants more money poured down the rat hole but it isn’t going to happen until something changes.
As a true conservative, I feel no need to base any of my opinions on empirical evidence. In fact, even if evidence is proposed to contradict my opinion, I know that it must be fabricated. My opinions are based solely on how I or the leaders of my party feel about a particular issue and I will change my opinion only when it suits my needs.
Clearly HCPS is horrible and wastes a ridiculous amount of money. I have no empirical evidence to support that, but god dammit it has to be true. So much money is taken out of my paycheck in the form of taxes that HCPS can never reach my expectations. If I had the evidence to support how bad HCPS is I would provide it. But really? Do we really need evidence? Let’s just get back to the basics of the 18th century when this country was great.
No Need For Evidence,
Mr. O’Malley and his minions thank you for your support.
And if you really like the job HCPS is doing why not send them a check to help with their expenses?
So if your kid tells the principal they have your permission to walk home and it turns out your kid was less than truthful and something bad happened? What then?
CDev,
I understand what you are saying and I wouldn’t suggest that kids are always truthful. My point is that any principal that demands that your child walk further to the bus stop than it is to walk to the school . . . . . . Well, if I have to say more I am casting pearls before swine.
Except the principal isn’t demanding that….she wants a note! That’s it.
One of the main reasons I allowed my child to apply for the magnet program at North Harford was because I was told that transportation would be provided for her. I was told that the most she would need to walk would be a mile we are more than 5 miles from the depot stop for her and I will not have my child walking in the dark before school 5 miles with no sidewalks. So who would like to tell my child that there is a possibility that she cannot go to the school of her choice that she worked very hard to get into? I don’t!
Unfortunately, as a parent, telling your child is your responsibility. I know you will do the best job you can do.
I believe this policy will be reversed when enough uproar is heard and/or the enrollment in magnet drops off as a result of situations where parents can’t meet the transportation obligations that the school system has suddenly decided to transfer from HCPS to parents. Meanwhile there is a lot of uproar. Maybe, just maybe, this is all part of a grand scheme to sabotage the magnet program or it could be part of a grand scheme to shift the negative focus from HCPS/BOE to the Harford County CE and Council.
I know I need to tell her, however I should not have to since I was told that transportation would be provided. If I was informed that it would not be then I would not have allowed her to even apply.
Unfortunately what they say is not enforceable.
I think that we need to go against the board members that approved such a ridiculous proposal. They are Nancy Reynolds, Cassandra Beverly, Joseph Hau, James Thorton, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Aurthur Kaff. Casandra Beverly is an elected member.
I think you left out Grambo!
Has anyone of these people taken into consideration that they are asking students to walk longer and be left unattended in a county where there is currently 222 sex offenders registered. How many additional students will now be left walking past the homes of these offenders daily. How many students from magnet programs will be left to wait in front of a school that is closed. Do these people really care about their students.
Fresh meat. Mmmmm.
You are an ass.
I have candy.
You are what you eat.
Will alternative education students be required to report to depot stops or will they be picked up in neighborhoods. Lets be fair
I was thinking the same thing and why is Haford Tech not part of this? Seems like if it is going to magnet programs then it should be all. I still can’t believe that they would just cut transportation to hundreds of kids. I will be at the next BOE meeting.