It's Not Just About A Principal

I’ve been waiting to write about the Edgewood Middle School Alternative Governance Board meeting on Feb. 7 in the blog because I’ve been considering writing a letter to the newspaper or contacting someone to try to get what’s happening into the mainstream media. I still may do that, because I can’t believe that nothing’s been written about the actions being taken at this school. I know they have a small staff, and failure’s not as exciting as contaminated well water in a more well-heeled neighborhood, but I can’t believe that the items written by The Aegis gloss over the fact of why the school is looking for a new principal.

The Aegis’ coverage of a search for a new principal at Edgewood Middle School misses an important aspect of the process. Because of the school’s failure to meet testing standards for several years in a row, it is required by the state to choose among four different actions; one choice is hiring a distinguished principal. The state is required to supply candidates, but had only three available to the entire state. None were available with middle school experience.

One impossible choice presented by the state was making EMS a charter school – a two-year process that no probationary school can make because of its short time frame. EMS must have a plan approved by the spring. Another choice was to hire an outside agency to run the school. However, no agencies available have any middle school experience. The last option available was dismissing inadequate staff and hiring new staff.

These somewhat false choices shine a light on the institutional failure of the state to provide options for really improving failing schools. The group working on improving the situation at EMS, while well-intentioned, was never presented with a chance to make the real changes needed. This is not an attack on the group working to rectify the situation or EMS students. If EMS qualified for Title 1 status, which it is close to doing, students would then be presented with school vouchers and Harford County Public Schools would have to let them attend another school in the county. Faced with students heading to Patterson Mill, with its state-of-the art equipment or a school with broken water fountains – what would happen? The school system, because of overcrowding issues, would have to act and really improve the schools.