The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

'Walk in our moccasins'
* Little Orleans woman leading crusade against Board of Education's plan to make eastern Allegany County students attend Cumberland schools beginning the 2011-12 school year

* School board intends for about 44 students who attend Hancock Middle-Senior High School in neighboring Washington County

A letter from resident and mother Linda Martin
LITTLE ORLEANS, May 10 -- My name is Linda Martin. I am a resident of Little Orleans and my son Jamie is a junior currently attending Hancock Middle Senior High School. This is Jamie’s third year in the National Honors Society he is an avid member of the marching band, indoor percussion team, concert band and plays football and basketball. He plans to attend Frostburg University to study to be a history teacher. His father and I are very proud of him.

As you are aware the Allegany County School Board recently informed the parents of Little Orleans they are considering terminating our contract with Washington County that allows us the choice to send our children to Hancock to school. I should like to make clear to our fellow Allegany County residents all the reasons we are opposed to this action. It is simple geography, nothing more. If Fort Hill High and Washington Middle were close by that would be great! But they aren’t and Hancock is. We were perfectly happy with our little Flintstone School. But they took it from us! We currently have no middle or high school on the eastern side of Allegany County. And now they want to take from us again.

Ten years ago the Board of Education decided to close down our rural Flintstone Middle-High School and after much debate and discussion the parents accepted the Hancock compromise.

Afterwards, as I understand it, the board admitted closing Flintstone School was a mistake. Now they are seriously close to making another one. This arrangement has worked out beautifully for our community. Our children are thriving in Hancock School which is so very close to home. They bloomed where they were planted. And Washington County has done an excellent job of educating them. But they did not do it alone. As any educator will tell you, parent involvement is paramount to a child’s success in life and we in Little Orleans take our jobs as parents most seriously. But we are only able to be a huge part of their school lives because of the proximity of their school. Now the board is threatening to sacrifice the needs of our community once again in an attempt to balance their budget. We feel victimized all over again!

A recent survey found that 83 percent of the parents of Little Orleans work east of Flintstone. Some work as far as two hours away as you can imagine after-school activities would be impossible for most of our children if they are forced to go further west. Who wants to look our children in the eyes and tell them this? No sports? No music? How on earth WILL we motivate them? These programs teach vital lessons in teamwork, personal responsibility, leadership and citizenship and are all very important on any college application. How can they deny our children these opportunities? As a mother of four boys I can tell you that these programs are an invaluable incentive tool as well as emotional outlet. And if the price of fuel continues to rise as we are well aware it may will they then change their minds and want us to go back to Hancock in order to save money?

The journey that the Board of Education is proposing our children take is simply unsafe. Have they bothered to take our children’s safety into consideration? My own son now has a one mile walk to his bus stop which starts at 7:15 a.m. The sun is up my neighbors are out walking their dogs and I feel he is safe but at 5:40 a.m. ,which is what time he would have to walk to meet the Fort Hill bus, it is a dangerous world out there. And if you don’t believe that …I have a nice fresh set of big muddy paw prints on my truck to show you.

Please understand as we who live in and near the forest do that with nocturnal animals like bears, bobcats, cougars and coyotes we use common sense and don’t let our children out in the dark alone. The board will be forcing many of these children to walk to their bus stops in the dark with often foggy conditions on mostly dirt and gravel roads with no street lights or sidewalks, no police patrols, and nocturnal predators posing a real threat. They are then expected to ride a bus an average of three hours a day over three of the areas highest mountains in our area most of that commute being on a busy highway with commercial traffic. Our weather conditions can be very different here on the east side of the county. If weather conditions get dangerous here is the Board of Education planning to let all the Allegany County students out early so our kids can get home safely, especially in the winter? As it stands right now and has for the last 10 years when Allegany calls off school due to bad weather we make the decision as to the road conditions and WE TAKE OUR CHILDREN TO SCHOOL!!! That’s right WE provide our children’s transportation to school (even though our buses are garaged right here in Little Orleans) and have been doing so for the last 10 years.

We haven’t complained and we don’t mind it as this does save the county money. We simple do what we need to do. After graduation many of our children typically attend our local Allegany College of Maryland and Frostburg University and then find jobs, start their families, plant their roots and live right here in Little Orleans. That is unheard of in most communities these days. The population of children in Little Orleans has remained constant in the past 10 years. The rest of the county cannot boast that. Well, why then would anyone want to destroy that? Many families are considering other options like moving to Washington County or nearby Pennsylvania or West Virginia. That would negatively impact our village and our county.

I have recently invited board members to literally “walk a mile in our children’s moccasins” and take the route that they are recommending our children take. I feel this is important for them to do so that they have a complete understanding of our childrens' potential situation. I sincerely hope they will take me up on that offer as it would definitely enlighten them.

When we asked the board after they informed us of their recommendation to terminate our contract with Washington County, to justify giving their teachers raises three years in a row during a budget crisis and we were told that it was a contract issue. Well… we thought our children had a contract too! What kind of an example does that set? The teachers in Washington County have made concessions two years in a row. Are Allegany teachers willing to the same? Are they being asked to? Allegany County teachers are the seventh highest paid teachers of the 22 counties in Maryland.

Most of the residents in Little Orleans have family roots that go back six and seven generations. Large Sunday family dinners are still commonplace here. We raise our children by setting strong examples of work ethics and tried and true old fashioned family values that are quickly becoming rare in our world today. We are what is right with our country and we feel that is worth fighting for. We are not asking for a hand out although it sometimes feels as though we are regarded with indifference. Most of us work east of the county but bring our paychecks back here. We gladly tolerate campers, tourists , fishermen and hunters in our backyards all year long .We also help bring in revenue to Allegany by welcoming the thousands of motorcyclists that descend on our little village for one week each summer for East Coast Sturgis by providing them food and services. We do all this at a minimum cost to the County of Allegany. Have you seen our road and bridge conditions lately? Just ask the police department how often they need to visit us in a month. Seeing a police car in Little Orleans is an EVENT.

We have recently provided the board with two budget saving ideas that will save the county approximately $112,000 in transportation costs. That is just about $25,000 short of our children’s education costs. The education costs to send our 44 children to Washington County is about $ 137,000.Considering Washington County educates our children for roughly $2,000 less per pupil than Allegany that seems like a bargain. I am sure if we all work a little harder we can help find even more money saving ideas that could prevent asking the least of us to sacrifice once again.

We humbly ask our fellow Allegany County residents to help in our endeavor to keep our children in the school closest to our homes permanently. This is the smartest and fairest option. Please call or e-mail the Allegany County Board of Education with your support. We strongly urge the board to overlook the quick fix and consider the long-term benefits of allowing us to do what we do best … raise successful children while keeping families close.

When times are tough is it sometimes challenging to do the right thing but what sets Americans apart from any other nation is our ability to do just that.

With sincerest thanks,

Linda Martin
Little Orleans