Yesterday, the BOE and county council met for one of their joint sessions. It went very well! Wildly speculating that perhaps Kirby’s absence (where is that guy anyway?) perhaps freed people from having to talk about harebrained rent-to-own schemes. But who knows for sure?! Here’s some highlights:

• Meeting agenda and minutes passed with NO issues. Take note Shrealuter!
• Superintendent Alban spoke of two major factors that influenced the next year’s proposed budget:
  • Additional enrollment: 1,000 projected students and the positions needed to to face this growth.
  • The second year implementation to make the salary scales, not only for teachers but also for support staff and administration, more competitive. You know, so all of our good teachers and staff don’t run off to Montgomery County.
• Other factors that have influenced this year’s budget are the legislative mandates to fund Epi-Pens and to translate IEP’s for students. This only has to be done for languages that are spoken by 1% of the population. In Frederick, only Spanish fulfills that requirement.
• Frederick High is on track to open this Fall. So far, $3 million in savings has been found. Governor is also putting aside $339,000 for the LYNX program.
• Butterfly Ridge Elementary-redistricting plans have been started and is expected to be contentious. Bids have been  received and will be processed soon.
• Sugarloaf Elementary-Bids are being processed.
• Urbana Elementary-Students will be moved to Sugarloaf when completed. Urbana will then be renovated or rebuilt, depending on costs.
• Rock Creek-Must find a campus since they need to be near the general school population.
• Waverly-future dependent upon what happens with the new redistricting and Rock Creek.
• RFI (Request for Information) was sent out to the community for the old Lincoln School building.
• No public or board or council member comments.