Letter to the Editor from Chan Cosans, Principal Sheaffer

Letter to the Editor

No doubt Principal Sheaffer is well-loved and respected. Quoting Supt. Roberts, "Sheaffer thought he would end his career at Bo (Manor)." Though dedicated, would anyone leave a school called "home", final year, and go to a stressful new school restructuring, and leave in a year? To supporters, and school board, here's a 20 year old story. North East Elementary - equally dedicated principal was to be transferred; infuriated that he'd been moved before from Rising Sun to North East where he had established great rapport with students, parents, faculty with successful learning, communication, good will throughout the community - both schools - huge time and effort. In a private moment, unrevealed till now, faced with moving he said the only reason he was still in North East was because he loved the people - students, parents, faculty, overall. He'd had a position for years that w as quite lucrative with a company in Pennsylvania, and this move would compromise his retirement funds and job, because of the new distance to be travelled, plus new school stress.. He, too, waited for the announcement, and then retired one year earlier than expected.

So, nothing new! There are new school board members, learning, and do not want to rock a boat they are not yet comfortable in, and sometimes uncertainty comes off as arrogance or rudeness. And yes the entire goal for an elected school board was that people would have a say, and we as voters will have a say. The school board is the final say on school policies. The superintendent gives recommendations, though it does not always seem to work that way. I believe ultimately that the decisions were made because of money/budget, and certain actions were expected - by some. Just a thought!

Sincerely,

Chan Cosans And here is the rest of it.

School Budget and County Commissioners

In the Whig this pass Friday, Commissioner Lockhart complained about being bullied by Dr Roberts of the School Board. What Dr. Roberts did was nothing unusual, he mobilized support for the proposed school budget. This is what a free society does when the voters see a need for action. He better get used to it, he see it many times throughout his term in office when the citizens see a need for a change. It is also getting tiresome about hearing that the Cecil County Delegation is responsible for the budget problems because they did not support the impact fee. If I remember correctly, they finally decided to react to the impact fee and all that was needed was for the county commissioners to get on the same page and decide what approach was needed. The commissioners were unable to agree on the impact fee and the deadline passed without their united input. The county commissioners are the ones that failed on the impact fees.

School board’s budget is enough

Taxpayers seem to sleep as school officials push the county commissioners to increase the property tax.

The schools have been more than fully funded for a number of years. The college built a facility in Elkton that they do not use to capacity. The public school Booth Street administration office is being renovated and the conference facility reportedly is simply luxurious. I went to Booth Street to pick up a copy of the proposed spending, but evidently the school administrators can plan for the apathy of county taxpayers; copies of the proposed budget were not readily available.

The Chesapeake City library has been closed for quite some time, and the county library system has been underfunded. At the courthouse, understand that judges in conference may be disrupted by the noise of people using microfiche readers in the property records department.

Yet the school superintendent told the Whig that increased funding for other departments is fine, as long as the proportion of funding going to the school system does not decrease; that is arrogance of greed beyond the pale.

A minimum 10 percent property tax increase seems likely. In mid-April, the Whig reported a shortfall of projected revenues from requested expenditures. The commissioners will not adjust the property tax rate from $0.96 to the constant yield equivalent of $0.87. Taxpayers must protest at the budget hearing on May 8; the spending has been out of control too long.

From: Gaylord Moody, Chesapeake City

Allocate additional money to schools

I have read the Cecil County commissioners’ proposed budget for F.Y. ’08 and wonder about their thought process.

For the first time in 10 years, the county has funded the bare minimum for public education required by Maryland law. This minimum is actually $300,000 less than what was allocated for this year, F.Y. ’07.

The premise of Thornton, passed by the state five years ago, was to ensure an equal partnership between the state and local government to provide adequate funding as determined by the Thornton Commission.

For the past four years, the county has shown the state that it is an equal partner by significantly exceeding the minimum funding requirements. This year the county has proposed no additional funds which will require the Board of Education to rely solely on the state, which violates the philosophy and intent of Thornton funding. With 85 pecent of the school budget related to personnel, this lack of funding will have an impact on the employees of the school system as well as the citizens of Cecil County.

The business community in Cecil County depends on the public education system to provide qualified individuals who can successfully enter the work force to ensure our competitiveness in the region.

What is the priority that the commissioners hold for public education? Is there a plan that explains their priority exhibited by this year’s budget proposal? I respectfully ask the county commissioners to re-evaluate their budget proposal and provide additional funding for the Cecil County Public Schools.

James Brady is president of the Business Education Partnership Advisory Council (BEPAC) for the Cecil County Public Schools.

From: James Brady, Elkton