School Board Candidates Field Questions From Council

The quality of the public schools and the strain on the education budget were hot topics during Tuesday night's discussion with the two candidates for the county school board seat that covers College Park.

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One issue of contention was whether the middle school model should be eliminated. As councilwoman Denise Mitchell (District 4) pointed out, not one of the middle schools in the area met AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, as defined as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Councilman Robert Catlin (District 2) asked whether the hefty cost required to move away from the middle school model was a worthwhile expenditure.

Cook said yes, especially because of the growing number of people in Prince George's County.

"We want to grow our economy and take our county to the next level," he said. "But to do so, we need to make the investment. Yes, it's expensive, but education is expensive. Ignorance is more expensive."

Higgins disagreed. She said now was not the time for such sweeping structural changes, considering the financial issues schools already face. Instead, she argued, there are smaller, easier-to-execute improvements that could be made to the existing infrastructure, such as incorporating the community into the school.

An example she gave was providing bilingual city staff for two hours on the first day of school.

"It's really not much of an effort, and it's a win-win for everybody," she said. "When the money comes back – and the money will come back – we can look at some of those structural things."

Councilwoman Stephanie Stullich (District 1) asked about the candidate's strategies for addressing concerns about the quality of Prince George's Public Schools. Higgins said that residents' confidence in the schools was a key aspect of her platform, and that in some cases, the problem was one of perception. That particularly applies to Paint Branch Elementary, she said.

"The perception of Paint Branch is not as positive as what's happening at Paint Branch," she said.

To help with this problem, Higgins suggested that principals should hold open houses so families could see what was happening firsthand. That would help parents make more informed decisions when deciding where their children should go.

But with some schools, the problems are very real, from the quality of education to safety.

"You have to tailor how to increase the sense of confidence, depending on what the issue is," she said.

Cook said problems stemmed from a too-high student-to-teacher ratio.

"We have to draw a line in the sand and say, 'This is as many children as we want to have in a classroom. Period,'" he said.

Mayor Andrew Fellows concluded the session by asking the candidates to address the biggest problem with the existing board.

Cook said the current school board was too eager to rush through policy. It has also not been very good about managing the budget, he said.

"There's been a spending spree for the last four years," he said, despite the poor economy. "We're looking through rose-colored glasses that everything's fine, that finances will keep coming, that the county will prop it up."

But Higgins said it's more personal – that the board and the way it works is mainly about how the members work together.

"My relationship with other board members would be critically important to make sure that I retained excellent relationships," she said. "I see my role would really be to use the skills that I have in terms of being a consensus builder, in terms of being thoughtful and listening to what is important to other members."