We are now in week four of our letter- and email-writing campaign. Third graders it is your turn to speak your minds. Tell them your desire to learn and demand that they put kids first with safe and healthy learning environments. 

Progress report: We’ve met with Beverly Coleman, BCPS southwest area advisory council member. She is an excellent contact for us to have and she summarized our meeting at the board meeting last night (May 7). There was very little new information received from BCPS but we Beverly to ask the following questions: 

1) What is our CAGE score? CAGE (cost, age, geography, enrollment) is the metric that the BCPS facilities department uses to determine how to allocate improvement funds. We don’t know where we sit in the priority pile, or if we have a priority spot at all. 

2) Who handles applications for the Aging School Funds, a state-run program that supplies alternative funding for school construction projects? Catonsville Elementary is receiving some of its air conditioning upgrade funds from the state’s Aging School program. According to the website, schools within a federal empowerment zone, with 35% or more of the student body receiving free or reduced lunch, are eligible to apply. Westowne qualifies under that criterion. We wanted to know how we could apply for funds under this program.

3) What assessment and improvement proposals and plans exist for our school? In the fall of 2013, architects visited Westowne and submitted project proposals. This is all we know. We don’t know any outcomes, findings, proposals, costs, etc. We would like to know.

4) How can we submit interim solutions that would improve the air ventilation system at our school? Allegedly our school lacks the electrical supply necessary to support window units or central air conditioning. So if we ever qualify for an upgrade, the possibility of air conditioning is a long way away. But what about fall 2013? We still can not properly vent our school. Surely there is a simple and affordable way to remove the humidity that makes our school an unsafe environment. Just because it might be expensive or cumbersome doesn’t mean that the school system gets to do nothing. These are children, not field hands. 

We’re still waiting on the answers to these questions.