Published: November 21, 2009 11:50 pm      

Group to study city’s middle, high schools

CRESAPTOWN — It’s going to require research — lots of research — for a committee of community members to figure out how Allegany County’s secondary schools should be configured in the decades ahead.

More than that, it’s going to require everyone to have an open mind, Superintendent David Cox said.

“We should not have come to this table already having decided what we’re going to do, or recommend,” Cox said Thursday night during an organizational meeting of the Community Resource Committee for the Utilization Study of Cumberland Secondary Schools.

Appointed by Cox earlier this month, the committee of 15 — including five school principals — is charged with helping determine the future of Allegany and Fort Hill high schools, the Center for Career and Technical Education, and Braddock and Washington middle schools.

Faced with declining enrollment and aging buildings, the Allegany County Board of Education has to consider a variety of options, including consolidation.

“There are absolutely no predetermined conclusions or outcomes,” Cox said. “... I’m going to ask you not to abandon the values you bring to the table, not to abandon any strong feelings that you have, but to be open-minded. Come willing to listen to what everyone has to say, to what the community has to say.”

With video cameras rolling, Cox led a 40-minute meeting meant to set the tone for what’s in store between now and April, when the committee will make a recommendation to Cox and the board.

“There are people — I will acknowledge this up-front — who believe that it is a foregone conclusion, the outcome of this,” Cox said. “It’s not true. But in the interest of honesty and openness, our meetings will be in public. We will make them available to the public through streaming video.”

Committee members include students from Allegany, Fort Hill and the Career Center; the principals of the five schools involved; community and business representatives who live in the attendance areas; and parents of children enrolled in the schools and feeder schools. Cox and members of his staff will serve in a nonvoting capacity.

Allegany High School student Leah Wormack is glad to have a voice.

“I’m here to help make recommendations about what’s going to happen to my school and all the schools in the county,” Wormack said during introductions Thursday night.

Parent Kimi-Scott McGreevy has three children in Allegany County public schools.

“I hope I get to participate in making sure that the facilities in the Cumberland school district are adequate in terms of supporting the educational needs of all the kids,” McGreevy said.

The board has hired Eperitus, a Richmond, Va., educational planning company, to conduct the study. An Eperitus representative will facilitate committee meetings, starting Dec. 7. Cox anticipates meetings will last about 90 minutes and take place at least once a month. Public hearings will be scheduled later this winter, as the committee begins to develop a direction, Cox said.

“I think we need to treat this more as a research project than a political campaign,” the superintendent said. “It’s not a matter of saying, ‘All right, we have the answer to this,’ and then we’re going to try to convince people to come to our way of thinking through a political process. I think that’s an important distinction to make.”

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kharty@times-news.com.