The School Board decided Wed. to keep the school open through 2020-2021 academic year.
Frederick, Md (KM) Members of the Frederick County Board of Education want to pause and take a closer look at future possibilities for Sabillasville Elementary School; and that’s why they decided to keep the school open for another year. That’s according to School Board President Brad Young, who was a guest on Thursday on WFMD’s “Morning News Express.”
“The school’s population is declining, and it’s very expensive school to operate based on the number of students,” he said. “I think we want to make sure we can take the time to see if there are any other options that we have. For instance, putting a magnet school there, something to use to get the school’s population back up because they’re no anticipated growth in that area.”
According to a report from Superintendent Dr. Therese Alban, Sabillasville Elementary School’s enrollment is 78 students, and that number is expected to drop to 53 students by 2024. Dr. Ablan said declining enrollments make the school more costly to operate.
In its motion on Wednesday, the Board of Ed said it will work with Sabillasville area residents to come up with solutions regarding the future uses of the building. Young discussed a magnet school, and pointed to the International Baccalaureate program at Urbana High School. “Kids drive there from all over the county because they want that specific program.. So maybe there’s a program that we come up with that we can put at that school that people would be willing to make that drive to get their students there to a smaller school,” he says. “And those are the things we want to explore and make sure we’ve exhausted every possibility before we make that closure decision.”
“What we want to make sure is to find a way either to get more students in there so that we can maximize the use of that building and the costs that we’re paying to operate it, or look at where we have additional capacity and combine,” he says.
The School Board on Wednesday set a deadline of December 31st, 2020 for all those involved to come up with a solution, or the school could be closed. “I’m, confident if we get together and work, we can find a solution to get some students there to that school. And that’s what I’m going to work to do with staff and the community over the next several months to come up with a way to make it viable so we can keep the school open,”: Young says.
By Kevin McManus