April 5th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

In November 2017, the school board contracted with Facility Engineering Associates (FEA) for consultant services for facility utilization and analysis of elementary schools in ACPS. FEA was charged with assessing the physical condition and educational adequacy of the schools as well as bus routing scenarios prior to giving a recommendation to the Blue Ribbon Commission, which was formed to serve as a resource to the school board to work collaboratively with FEA.

The Blue Ribbon Commission in ACPS consists of community leaders, including those outside of education, and provides FEA with relative and important information and perspectives regarding the task of adjusting attendance boundaries for more efficient and effective utilization of school capacity.

After much review by FEA of enrollment and geographic data, conducting a facility condition and needs assessment, and educational adequacy appraisal, FEA updated the members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the progress of their preliminary work so far. Their research found that while there are some buildings that are operating at or near capacity, each of the three Allegany County regions (eastern, central, western) has additional capacity at the elementary school level. The additional capacity is the equivalent of one additional school per region.

Future work of FEA over the next several weeks will look at building capacity, age, and the cost of operating and ongoing maintenance and repairs of specific schools in an effort to make recommendations to the school board on how to best utilize the existing capacity and what effect that may have on transportation and school attendance areas.

“This study is a realization of one of the board’s goals to study ways to become more efficient in our operations,” said Dr. David Cox, Superintendent of Schools. “The board will receive FEA’s recommendations and consider them with ample opportunity for community input from the public and the Blue Ribbon Commission.”

“The school board has commissioned an outside firm to study our elementary school buildings and attendance boundaries to make an objective recommendation based on careful analysis,” said school board member, Nicholas Hadley. “The study will be used as a guide of what needs to be done, but ultimately, at the end of the day, we as the board need to decide what is best for the communities being impacted by these suggestions and most importantly what is best for the students of that community." Mr. Hadley went on to say, “Community input will be an integral part of the process. We love our community schools and will rely on community input to ensure academic quality for all students across the county.”

FEA’s next meeting with the Blue Ribbon Commission is scheduled for April 25th at which time their discussions will focus on specific recommendations for more effective and efficient attendance and staffing balance in ACPS. The Blue Ribbon Commission will also host a public meeting to share FEA’s report at a future date.