Patch Updates: Community Use of School Facilities

Here's what you need to know from the Baltimore County Board of Education meeting Tuesday night:

The board will look at changes to the controversial school facilities use policy known as Rule 1300 at a policy committee meeting next week. The policy was revisited after public outcry that its strict enforcement was preventing community groups from holding events and PTA groups from conducting fundraisers.

After hearing from the public in February and March, the board discussed the policy at its annual retreat in March. According to the minutes of that retreat, which were released at Tuesday's meeting, the total number of facility use applications that were rejected has increased steadily. The number of applications from the community has increased as well. 

In the 2004-05 school year, officials rejected 15 out of 1,181 applications. For the 2009-10 school year, 156 were rejected out of 4,443 applications, and for the current school year, an estimated 238 were rejected out of 5,010 applications.

Officials said that aging facilities should be a factor when considering being less strict on the policy because there are 90 school buildings that are more than 50 years old.

Board members said during the retreat that it is the law for schools to be open to community use and that the policy shouldn't reject so many longtime school community events.

The board will discuss changes to the policy at its policy review committee meeting Monday.

Also at Tuesday's meeting, school officials said the number of retirements and resignations is now at 215, which means that fewer teachers will be "excessed" at their schools, meaning they will be more likely to stay at their current posts. When the board approved its budget for the 2012 fiscal year, a total of 196 positions were left vacant.

Donald Peccia, assistant superintendent of human resources, said there may be 10-15 teachers who will retire in the next few months.

"We might have an oddity here and there," he said, referring to teachers who may have to move to different schools because of staffing adjustments.

"But the choice will be greater as the numbers grow," he said, referring to the number of positions that will be open due to retirements.