For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 20, 2006
“The Council will take the task force information into account as we proceed on the issue of the Seven Locks School. We have another public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, May 2 at 7:30 PM.
“The Education Committee will take up the $3.3 million supplemental appropriation for Kendale and the Capital Improvement Program amendment calling for a solution on the existing Seven Locks School site on May 4.
“The full Council will then take action on the Montgomery County Public Schools operating and capital budgets on May 11.
“In early March, I communicated to School Board president Charles Haughey and Superintendent Jerry Weast that there were not sufficient votes on the Council to approve the supplemental appropriation needed for a new school at Kendale. By the end of our second public hearing, we had heard from more than 60 members of the public and not a single one supported the Kendale option, for a variety of reasons. The Potomac Elementary School PTA, significantly, changed its position to support a solution on the Seven Locks site.
“On March 28, the Council unanimously voted to endorse the sense of the Council’s Education Committee that there was not Council support for the Kendale option at that time.
“The position of the Council remains the same. Given the total lack of community support for Kendale and the full range of problems with the Kendale site, the Council will not support a Kendale solution.
“I believe there also are not sufficient votes on the Council to approve the closure of Seven Locks Elementary School and the dispersal of all its students to other schools.”
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Release ID: 06-043