If the Commissioners want a study, let them pay for it. Supt. Guthrie is standing in front of them saying he has no Excess funds, and these clowns want him to spend money for a study to explain why he should have more money. Just get out of the way and let the man do his job! And don't be bringing in some "Jim Simpson" to do the study. If you feel that you must have one, go to those other countries and find out who they used. Meanwhile, just keep wasting our time and spending our tax dollars instead of doing any meaningful work.

Other counties, not countries.

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth....it seems that there are a lot of public service human beings that are not sure of their direction regarding one of the most important elements of society...the education system has been failed by the people that are paid very well to insure that all is well and functioning properly.
Education is not a political token that can be volleyed back and forth in attempts to shift blame or cover asses...

Commissioner Haven Shoemaker was a major contributor to the problems associated with excessive school space in Carroll. Why do we not hear from him in these tit for tat conversations..? The chief obstacle to the progress of education in Carroll is the leadership...or shall I say perceived leadership in Carroll...The system is broken by such fools..

Hmmm, the facilities study sounds like an unfunded mandate to me. I thought the commissioners weren't too fond of those?

For clarity's sake, in the 2.5 hour discussion yesterday, Superintendent Guthrie said that he is in favor of having the study done, although not necessarily to hear specifically about closing schools, but more to get an expert opinion on facilities usage and efficiencies for upcoming years. Commissioner Howard was suggesting that it may be unnecessary to pay an outside consultant to conduct the study. You can watch the meeting here to get a clearer understanding of the conversation: http://carrollcountymd.iqm2.com/citizens/SplitView.aspx?Mode=Video&MeetingID=1772&AgendaID=1635&FileFormat=pdf&Format=Agenda&MediaFileFormat=wmv

Having viewed 47 minutes of this meeting I must pause in light of having to view the tie that Doug Howard is wearing...
" Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein...

At 1 hr. and 12 minutes into this meeting (see video) Commissioner Howard is saying...I'm saying that I don't know what I want to say...while sporting the Einstein tie...you have to see and hear this jumble to believe it.....still not a peep out of Shoemaker...was he sleeping at this point?

Just do the study. Maybe it will shut some people up that closing a school is not going to be a magic cure-all.

Finally...Shoemaker squeaks at 1:27.49 into the video...this is the man in action.
To use his own word..."cockamamie" ...gotta see it to believe it !

Good job Kym! So let me see if I get this...Rothschild & Frazier, who are openly hostile to funding the schools, now claim that they aren't predisposed to rejecting a study that might not recommend closing schools. How's that? Are we to believe that Frazier didn't ask to participate in the joint BOE/County committee just to ensure the result she wants? I hope at least Guthrie gave Roush's idea of buying smaller buses adequate vetting :) Please, it's almost a year later and they are just now realizing that they are not even speaking the same language or using the same terminology with respect to schools capacity? Why do we really even need a consultant, when we have a resident numbers whiz in Rich Rothschild, who rewrote the entire budget over a weekend? I'm sure Rich can boil this budget stuff down to a graph that will demonstrate how schools capacity is influenced by the same UN Marxist plot that is taking away our property rights. Here's a news flash: any study like this will take far longer than they have to make a decision on the budget, so they need to either decide to fund schools at the BOE requested amount or not. And sorry Dave Roush, if you vote against the schools, it will indeed be blamed on you! That's how this Commissioner thing works, you being accountable for your actions!

Again, if the commissioners want a study, let them pay for it. And hire a qualified expert to do it, not a "Lord Monkton" or a "Jim Simpson".

Right now, the system is at 87% capacity. This does not take into account programs that will take additional classroom space out of circulation.... autism (elementary, middle and high schools) programs, special ed, additional computer labs, pre-K etc. All of these which will be coming on line in the next few years.

The process for closing a school takes 5-7-10 years. It is a state run process that typically occurs when schools are running at 30-40% capacity. Baltimore City has been trying to close schools for almost a decade now.

Closing a school will not solve the budget problem or is it going to happen.
Stephen Guthrie stated that "we could close a school every year for the next five years and still not close solve the funding problem".

The big issue is the state and federal gov't is systematically reducing their funding for education and forcing the local counties to pick up the slack. We must find ways to increase funding moving forward at the County level. A flat budget (at the county level) for the next 5 years will decimate the school system.

This is not really a problem created by the County. This is a federal and state problem that the County will have to step up and solve. Failing schools is not an option.

I paraphrased Mr. Guthrie's statement.... i should have removed the quotes. my apologies.

I don't think the idea of a joint task force is a bad thing. It may help both the Commissioners and the Bd. of Ed work from the same numbers. Currently, both are cherry picking those that show their position best. I do have a problem with Frazier saying as I read in the CCT this morning that she wanted to be a part of that task force. She is a Commissioner and is predisposed to cutting public school funding and to closing a school (or two). She intimidates county employees so they would not be able to objectively work with the representatives from the Board of Education. She (and Commissioner Rothschild) sits in on every Planning Board meeting being confrontational toward Board members if discussion is not going the way she is predisposed to.

I am not sure why anyone would find her intimidating. She can barely speak a complete sentence. The only reason she was elected is she listed her middle name on the ballet "Bartlett" and enough people believed she was related to US Representative Roscoe Bartlett and voted for her. She is an embarrassment to the County and needs to be ejected from office at the next election.

She is intimidating because county employees fear for their jobs and cannot speak frankly to her if they do not agree with her. She is confrontational with Board members (I did not say confrontational with them), but could influence their continued membership on the Board. I agree that she is a poor County Commissioner but she won the Republican Primary Election which makes her a shoo-in for the General Election.