Why build a combined school in Maugansville? Maugansville Elementary is another old school that has many inadequacies. However, the Maugansville site has the advantage of being on city water and sewage. In addition, reasonably flat land suitable for buildings and/or recreational facilities can be acquired at the Maugansville site. A consolidated school can be built for less than the cost of building or renovating two smaller schools and would have one large library, a separate gymnasium and a modern cafeteria. In addition, a combined school will have its own specialized teachers, such as art and music, with their own specialized rooms rather than traveling resource teachers who must wander from school to school and from class to class in order to teach their respective subjects.
The decision was not an easy one for the board to make. The packet of information researched and gathered over several years was extensive. In addition, the board listened to presentations from teachers, students, staff, parents and administrators with many points of view. We thought, we read, we discussed, and eventually we unanimously decided that, of the available possibilities, the best course of action was to build a consolidated school in the Maugansville area.
Russell Williams
Washington County
School Board member
Hagerstown
Big brother comes to Md.
To the editor:
The AFT-Healthcare-Maryland, the union that represents over 2,100 state health-care professionals, came out against Gov. Robert Ehrlich's executive order requiring state employees to report corruption and, in addition will force state employees to report any arrest, any legal proceeding, or other legal process that the employee is involved.
As president of the union, I support the governor for addressing criminal or unethical conduct but feel the executive order went "beyond the pale" and infringes on individual rights and protections.
The executive order requires state employees to report separations, divorces, births, deaths, bankruptcies, legal suits for/against state employees. These actions have no bearing on the job duties or responsibilities of the employees and abrogates the employee's civil and individual privacy protections.
There are notices posted for legal proceedings and they are already a matter of record with the state. Where is the criminal corruption or misconduct in the matter of a divorce, bankruptcy or the right to file lawsuits? These tend to be private matters that should remain that way and not be brought unnecessarily into the workplace. This executive order is intrusive.
This executive order will have a chilling effect on those who seek treatment due to mental illness or addiction. Those individuals with these problems will not seek treatment for fear of having to report this information to their boss if there is a criminal charge levied against them. The executive order also requires reporting of any arrest, even if there is no conviction.
This order smacks of Big Brother government watching over your shoulder and having your supervisor know about intimate details about your personal life. I don't feel this is in the best traditions of civil liberties in which Maryland has been a frontrunner. The governor should amend the executive order to remove any sections regarding individual and privacy concerns.
Paul Gentile
Annapolis, Md.
A citywide experiment
To the editor:
By per capita count. the Dutch and the Swiss do far better than we in this country addressing drug crimes and related social ills. Why do we not undertake the same measures to reduce our negative, violent and deadly statistics?
