Apr 26

Apr 26 This Is The Time

Schools and Students Prepare to Grow With Successes Of 2019 Maryland Legislative Session

Story And Photography By Raoul Dennis

Normally, the Friday before the start of Spring break has students staring at the clock behind the teacher. Three o’clock can’t arrive soon enough.

But by the time the contingent of state delegates, county councilmembers and Prince George’s County Public Schools leaders led by County Executive Angela Alsobrooks were 30 minutes into their reason for coming to Beacon Heights Elementary School April 12, some students were not so anxious to leave.

Beacon Heights Elementary School Student Khadija Moumouni. PHOTO RAOUL DENNIS //PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Upon hearing that these adults had brought $1.5 billion back to be used in their schools, to make changes which included the passage of The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, education legislation that brought $53 million in Kirwan funding to help increase teacher pay and expand Pre-K offerings, they became interested in hearing more.

They began to ask questions.

Beacon Heights student Alci Medina wanted to know if the new funding would allow students to be able to learn outside the classroom.

“Will we be able to go on [trips to visit places] with different schools?” she asked.

“Yes,” Dr. Goldson responded. The adopt a school program provides mentorships and opportunities to go outside the school house, go to local businesses and for students to make the connection between school and work.

Given the constriction signs and all the adults and media cameras in the building, fourth grader Khadija Moumouni had a more fundamental question:

“Is our school going to change?”

“The school won’t go away. It will just be upgraded and even better,” Goldson reassured young Khadija.

“We will continue to make upgrades in the physical structure of the school,” Goldson replied. “But through the support of everyone [here] , we will be able to provide additional funding so that you will be able to get some additional support during school, after school or on weekends. You will also have the opportunity to have a community resource advocate who will be here to help bridge the gap between what you are doing here at school and the support your family may need. So, it’s more of a community school environment that you will experience.”

Beacon Heights Student Katheryn Vasquez Cortez. PHOTO: RAOUL DENNIS // PRINCE GEORGE’S SUITE MAGAZINE & MEDIA

Prince George’s County Public Schools Interim CEO Dr. Monica Goldson

In fact, school infrastructure improvements are high on the Alsobrooks Administration agenda. For years, many county schools that are decades old have begun deteriorating and become hindered by outdated wiring and systems for today’s technology-driven academic necessities. Upgrades and renovations will be part of the plan for schools like Beacon Heights across the county.

Student Katheryn Vasquez Cortez questioned more programming.

“Will we get more after school programs?” Katheryn wanted to know.

Yes.

“We now have the ability through the assistance of your principal to identify areas that she believes that you need additional support. So if that’s an after school program that focuses on mathematics or reading language arts, she will have additional funds to be able to do that,” Dr. Goldson said.

As pleased as county leaders are with the developments derived from the legislative session, all recognize that although it has been a long road to reach this point of opportunity, the timing was right for the effort to crystallize.

“In my opinion this was the right time,” Dr. Goldson says. “We continued to talk about the changes that we would make in education but this time we acted on it. I had the opportunity to meet with many of the people [here] when I came into the position in September. We had a conversation about making sure that we created a path to make sure our children had academic excellence and achievement. The best way to do that was to focus this legislative session on getting funds that we could help to begin to close that achievement gap and to make sure that it did not matter where you live. I know that this was our opportunity to get it right and this was our time to do it.”