ONLY ON NEWSCHANNEL 8

CALVERT COUNTY, Md. - Schools in Calvert County could be in for a sweeping change with three spots open on the Board of Education and six candidates vying for a spot. Not a single candidate has served before, guaranteeing three fresh faces on Calvert's school board.

Most of the candidates seemed to be singing the same tune when it came to the major issues facing Calvert County schools. "Budget, budget, budget," said District One candidate Patrick Flaherty.

Flaherty says the Board of Education needs to look closely at how money is being spent. "The thing that upsets me the most is that parents have to spend about an average of $50 dollars to supply their child, and others, and the classroom, and on top of that we've got schools which are trying to fund raise to build playgrounds at each school, which puts more pressure on the students and parents to provide more money," said Flaherty.

Flaherty's opponent, Bill Chambers, says as the federal and state budget deficits trickle down to the local level, the board needs get creative in finding more revenue sources. "To look at developing a grants department within the school system so that we can start to aggressively pursue private and federal grants which could fill some of these budget gaps, but also using some of these grant monies for gifted and talented programs, increase our honors programs, science and technology and also look at transportation issues in the system," said Chambers.

Being a rural county, Calvert County buses almost all of its students. District 2 candidate Tracy McGuire says she has energy savings plans to bring to the table. "I'd like to look at things like extending the school day in middle and high school, but reducing the number of days so that we're busing children fewer days per year and save money that way," said McGuire.

Calvert's school system saw revenue grow by 6% from 2006 to 2007, thanks to state and county money. But now there's a $1.3 million decrease in federal money and other funds. District 2 candidate Rane Franklin says she wants to make sure there is enough money for students to receive a high quality education. "It all comes down to money and the most important thing is spending the money properly and knowing that we have money for the books that we need and we have the money for paying our teachers and making sure that we have the best staff that we can possibly have," said Franklin.

District 3 candidate Rose Crunkleton says teachers need to have those resources to make sure students pass standardized tests. "Another issue is the high school assessments. In 2009 our graduates will have to have passed four tests in order to earn their diploma and some of these kids are not going to make it and we're going to have to be dealing with that aftermath," said Crunkleton.
Calvert high schools report a nearly 90% graduation rate and 19-year-old District 3 candidate Matt Swanson is one of those recent graduates. He recognizes that the local Board of Education cannot override state requirements, but he says more needs to be done to repeal high school assessment exams. "I do believe that school board members should be there and working with the state board to tell them this what our citizens want. They do not want to have the high school assessments and so I think it comes to the point where board members need to be a nag and try to go up there and try to get that decision repealed," said Swanson.

 Email To Friend