Author: fkbowman

Economic Impact of Cecil County Public Schools

The video above from the Cecil County Public Schools web site discusses a study conducted by Business Economic and Community Outreach Network of Salisbury University titled “Economic Impact Analysis of the Publicly Funded Pre-K-12 Education on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.”

Highlights (FY 2010-2011)

  • Estimated annual economic impact of the Cecil County Public School system over $160 million
  • School system supports over 3,000 jobs.
  • Every dollar spent on public education results in an additional $1.35 spent in the county.
  • Every direct job in the public school system is associated with another .5 jobs in the local economy.
  • Public education and transportation infrastructure are the only spending categories that have such a high return on investment.

Video Transcript

>>Speaker 1: How many headlines have you read about cuts in public education spending because of state and local budget deficits? Probably too many. A new study conducted by BEACON at Salisbury University has basically concluded that public education spending is a necessary investment.

>>Speaker 2: When we look at public investment in education, k-12 education, many a time we make the mistake of concentrating just on the cost of what we spend as a county, as a state, as a nation; but it is more than than that expenditure, it is actually an investment in business, economic, and community development. We just can not have, we can not even mention a good economy, we can not mention a great community without having a great education system in place. Every investment we make in education is actually one of the most infrastructure investments we make in our future. This is easy to understand in a narrative but with this study we were able to prove it quantitatively. We were able to show the dollars and cents of the value of this investment; in fact when you look at the whole gamut of public investments, there are only two investments that return this big a return on investment: one is transportation infrastructure investments, you need the roadways in order to make commerce happen but even more important than transportation investment you need the self infrastructure, the people power that powers our economies and that is education. a trained and trainable workforce, an educated workforce, professionals that make things happen, create wealth, the creative class, this is all coming from that public investment in education and it is a huge return on investment.

>>Devine: in fiscal year 2012 , I had to cut over $7 million from the school system’s budget . We have not recovered and each year we attempt to prioritize the greatest number of needs, the most significant needs but as you continue to have decreasing budgets it erodes our ability to do that. we also have issues with our capital improvement program. We have buildings and our infrastructure that need to be invested in…

>>Speaker 3: In Cecil County the estimated annual economic impact of the Cecil County Public School system in FY 2010-2011 is more than $160 million. The school system also supports over 3,000 jobs. For every dollar spent on public education  there is an additional $1.35 spent in the county. Every direct job in the public school system is associated with another .5 jobs in the local economy

>>Devine: Cecil is the largest employer in Cecil County, Cecil County Public Schools, and we go back and forth with another entity but this year we are the largest. We were named large business of the year in Cecil County but I don’t think people understand what that really entails.

>>Speaker 2: When we compare public investments in areas of our communities. We look at the dollars and how that one dollar goes into that particular expenditure. What we really need to look at is the outcomes iof that dollar investment. Let me give you a very concrete example: in one partiular jurisdiction we looked at a rule they had in place to replace their garbage trucks every 3.5 to 4 years. They had a schedule when that schedule hit they replaced the garbage trucks without any regard to whether that truck was still serviceable, with a little bit of maintenance could have kept it another year or two on the road. On the other hand when you look at education investment, we simply look at that dollar and what we are spending. We should look at what is coming at the other end of that investment. Should we replace that garbage truck every 3.5 years or should we keep it another 2 years and keep that savings to invest more in education? These are the kind of value judgments that decision makers have to make and our study gives them the tool with the dashboard to be able to make those decisions, to be able to see the outcomes of their investments, to be able to compare the relative value of each dollar they spent in different categories. That is one of the clear values of this study.

>>Devine: …hopeful that we can work with the county executive and with the county council to determine areas that we really need to be addressed. As I said our capital improvement program, our small capital projects, and our operating budget. WE also have a need to expand career and technical education and we’re hopoeful that we can make them see as well that that’s an investment. That education is not just an expenditure in a county budget, it’s an investment in the overall community and the community’s future.

>>Speaker 1: When you look at the most obvious benefits of a quality public education, it offers a trainable workforce in your community, it also offers a better quality of life, and then higher earning potential for people who have a good education. That’s the top of the list.

Calvert Park Cecil County

Group urges funding for Calvert Park sports complex

I received the email below on 4/25/14 as a parent of a current Cecil Soccer player. I find this message particularly interesting because while I’ve received emails from parks and rec soliciting funding support from participating families in the past and I even emailed the Cecil County Council last May praising the work of parks and rec programs, the tone of this message is different.

As long as we have existing facilities in dire need of repair or replacement, this project is a luxury Cecil County can’t afford.

“To all Cecil Soccer Families,

The time is near. The final efforts are now the top priority for all of the citizens of Cecil County who want Calvert Regional Park to be built starting this Fall.

Hopefully everyone has been following the news about the Calvert Regional Park project. Calvert Park is to be Cecil County’s first Regional park, located behind the Cecil Arena adjacent to Rising Sun High School

We need your County Council members to believe in the Calvert Park project also and allow it to remain in the budget. We need your Council to support this much needed infrastructure for Cecil County.

Here is where you can make a difference: Attend the Tuesday, April 29th, 7:00pm, in the Elk Room at the County Building, 200 Chesapeake Blvd, Elkton, MD 21921. Stand in favor of the Regional Park. Consider taking a moment to speak in favor of the park. To quote my fellow board member, Matt Morris, a Cecil Lacrosse parent and coach, to the entire Cecil Lacrosse League:

 ” I’m asking you to consider speaking during the public comment section in support of developing this regional park.  I’m asking you to do this with your son or daughter, and to ask them if they’d like to prepare a statement of support as well.  Comments need not be eloquent, and speakers need not be great public speakers; we just need to be there to support our park.  This vote could go either way, and I’m concerned the funding will be cut without our presence and support.”
I couldn’t have said it better……

Think of it as:
Support Unspoken is Support Unheard!

Please come and support your future park……and please send an email on your own behalf to all of your County Council members and tell to them you support the funding in the County budget. Its just that simple. Please send your email in support as soon as you can, since the public support window will close soon. Emails can be addressed to the following Council and County personnel:

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

The Cecil Soccer League is, and has been, one of the largest, most successful, and most respected youth organizations in Cecil County for over 20 years. Your mission is strong and your voices carry much weight. Please use them to advance the needs of Cecil County by supporting the Calvert Park Regional Park Project.

Thank you,

Don Harmer
Coach, U14 Cecil Fire Girls
Chairman, Cecil County Board of Parks and Recreation

For a Park plan pic visit http://www.ccgov.org/uploads/Calvert%20Regional%20Park%20Concept%20Plan%201%2030%2014.pdf “

Letter to Cecil County Council

My letter to Cecil County elected officials

Thank you for the time you invested in addressing our concerns about the Perryville High School track and the urgency with which you moved to propose a solution. As you can tell from the outpouring of support from our PHS families and community members, we are very proud of the efforts of our student athletes and we want them to have the facilities and support they need and deserve to be successful in both academics and athletics.

I’m thrilled that everyone involved worked to together to find a tentative solution for this issue but the deterioration of our track surface is just a symptom of a long standing problem–the county’s history of failing to adequately fund CCPS–especially in the areas of capital and small capital projects.

In recent years, CCPS has been forced to defer $47 million in needed maintenance projects because they did not receive funding. Buildings and facilities can only be neglected for so long before disrepair becomes dilapidation and refurbishment becomes replacement.

More Examples of Needs

In some cases our children are working and playing in deplorable conditions. The thought of children in a school with the roof failing to the point of students putting out buckets in the classroom to catch water falling from the ceiling is heartbreaking and should be an embarrassment to all citizens of the county. The maintenance team at Conowingo Elementary and CCPS have made extraordinary efforts to remedy the leaks and cleanup after they occur and, while the building has repeatedly been tested and found to be free of mold, we all know that enough water for a long enough period of time will result in mold growth. And mold growth contributes to or exacerbates illnesses like asthma and allergies in both the children who are the school’s students and the adults who are the teachers and support staff, resulting in days lost from learning and teaching. You see, I was that elementary school student with asthma and allergies and I routinely missed time every spring and fall when the weather changed and my symptoms worsened–and I wasn’t in a school where I was exposed to mold growth–I can only imagine how ill I would’ve been if I had been in such an environment for 6 or 8 hours a day.

This is just one example of the many desperately needed projects within the CCPS system. These are not frivolous requests for amenities; in most cases, these projects are to protect the county’s previous investment in a facility built using taxpayer funds and failure to maintain these facilities is a dereliction of the county’s stewardship responsibilities.

Funding for Education

In the last month, I’ve been asked by several people how I expect the county to fund the CCPS budget. I don’t pretend to understand all the complexities of budgets and funding but I do know that there is a segment of the county’s population that understands the need for taxes and believes in the concept of the greater good. As I said when I spoke to the county council in March, my husband and I have always explained taxing to our boys like this: “The Bowmans don’t mind paying taxes because we like to know that police and fire companies will show up if we call 911, we like having our streets and roads maintained, and, especially this winter, we like knowing that our streets will be plowed in the snow. Above all, we don’t want children and senior citizens to do without.” We expect our taxes to be spent wisely but we believe in the necessity of collecting them.

School Athletic Facilities are a Part of Education Too

Many of us agree that the opportunity to participate in school athletics is a key part of the American education experience. Daily practices and games after school encourage students to be physically active while also giving them something constructive to do with that period between dismissal and their parents’ arrival home in the evening; in some cases, this may be all we have to do to keep some of our most at-risk youth from making poor choices that could impact the rest of their lives. But well-maintained facilities are necessary for these athletic activities and many facilities in Cecil County have fallen into disrepair or do not meet the needs of their communities. Right now, our football and soccer fields are more dirt than grass, our softball and baseball fields have large ruts that lead to turned ankles and “bad hops”, and the wooden basketball court at Bo Manor is severely warped. The rundown nature of these facilities detract from the academic success of our schools and, anecdotally, have led families to choose to buy homes in neighboring counties with better high school athletic faculties.

Fiscal Restraint Isn’t Always the Best Answer

While we all understand the need for fiscal restraint, restrictions that are too tight or in place too long can be detrimental to a community. The physical state of the school facilities in our county has deteriorated because the county has repeatedly denied the school system the resources needed to maintain the infrastructure.

Seeing is Believing

In the past few weeks, it’s become clear to me that the members of the council and the executive are not as familiar with the good work as well as the needs of the individual schools in our county as you could be and I encourage you to change that. To show your support of the students in our schools I encourage you to develop a plan that allows a council member or the executive to visit every school in the CCPS system every calendar year–visit the schools when there are students and teachers in the buildings or stop by the athletic fields in the afternoons to experience our community spirit as we cheer on our student athletes–and I guarantee that you will see the positive results and potential of our investment in education.
Respectfully,

Frances K Bowman

Emailed 4/15/14 to:

Tari Moore–County Executive–[email protected]
Alan McCarthy–Vice President–[email protected]
Joyce Bowlsbey–[email protected]
Michael Dunn–[email protected]
Diana Broomell–[email protected]
Robert Hodge–President–[email protected]

(In the interest of full disclosure: the email actually included the line “I encourage you to strategic plan yada yada.” I was in a hurry to leave for Disneyworld that day, what else can I say.)

Perryville High School athletic facilities

Got money for 5 fields? Great! Let’s start with the high schools

At a time when there are such glaring needs at our high school athletic facilities, it’s difficult to justify a luxury like Calvert Park. Let’s see–the county is considering investing in 4 playing fields and 1 turf field there this year. That’s 5 fields–hmmm, how many high schools are there in Cecil County? Bo Manor, Elkton, North East, Perryville, Rising Sun–that’s 5. If this $2.6 million investment was spent on improving one field at each high school this year, imagine the impact it would have on our communities. And I’m not suggesting turf fields at any school–turf might be out of reach of Cecil County at this time.

This tweet from Rising Sun High School pretty much sums up this spring. Yes, it was a difficult winter and a wet spring but most high school fields were bare before that.

Very doubtful we will have any home games tomorrow. Currently looking for fields elsewhere. Thank you for your patience.
— Rising Sun Athletics (@RSTigerSports) March 25, 2014

 

Part of the plan for Calvert Regional Park is to possibly use the existing three fields at Rising Sun High School to allow tournaments up to 12 total fields. I’m guessing no one has looked closely at those fields at Rising Sun. The playing surfaces can barely handle the use they get now let alone the additional abuse from tournaments.

Yes, we would be thrilled with 5 fields in Cecil County, but let’s make improvements at fields we already use before investing in new ones.

Contact our Cecil County Council and Executive and let them know you support full funding of CCPS.

Tari Moore–County Executive–[email protected]
Alan McCarthy–Vice President–[email protected]
Joyce Bowlsbey–[email protected]
Michael Dunn–[email protected]
Diana Broomell–[email protected]
Robert Hodge–President–[email protected]

It shouldn't rain in the classroom

Calvert Regional Park: a Want or a Need?

“I know we need a new roof on the house but I really want that condo at the beach.”

Sounds crazy, right?

Our wannabe condo owner might defend his choice, “But I can make money off the condo by renting it when I’m not using it.”

Uh huh. “So when will you replace the roof on the house that you live in year round?” I ask.

Our wannabe owner shrugs and casts his eyes to the ground.

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Let’s talk about needs versus wants. In a time when money is tight, we have to make hard choices. It looks like our Cecil County government is struggling to determine what projects need to be funded versus those that they want to fund.

Need: Sufficient funding of small capital and capital projects of CCPS

Our county school facilities are in dire need of maintenance or replacement. We have an elementary school where students put out buckets in the classroom on rainy days and the gym floor is covered in 20 year old carpet that smells despite the valiant efforts of the maintenance team, a high school with a gym floor that is warped and must be replaced, and several of the athletic fields at our high schools are barely playable because they are not maintained.

Want: A new recreational park

$2,587,000 is included in the proposed FY 2015 Cecil County Budget for the creation of Calvert Regional Park in Rising Sun on the site that was known as the MacMillan Farm. That amount includes the creation of 4 multi-purpose playing fields and the installation of one turf field.

Hypothesis: A new park would bring revenue

Cecil County Parks and Recreation officials project that Calvert Regional Park would be a sports marketing hub in the area, attracting multi-day tournaments whose participants would stay at local hotels and eat at local restaurants.  But I doubt that our current tourism infrastructure of only 3 modest hotels within 5 miles of the fields and a handful of restaurants, could truly support a tournament large enough to make a financial difference to the county.

Before spending county funds because we want a regional park, we should make sure the needs of our schools and communities are met.

Contact our Cecil County Council and Executive and let them know you support full funding of CCPS.

Tari Moore–County Executive–[email protected]
Alan McCarthy–Vice President–[email protected]
Joyce Bowlsbey–[email protected]
Michael Dunn–[email protected]
Diana Broomell–[email protected]
Robert Hodge–President–[email protected]