Pleading, begging, hoping

Our Opinion

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009

Officials from all over Maryland went before the Board of Public Works in Annapolis last week to appeal for money. They asked for money for school renovations, replacements and new buildings.

This year, though, it was a little scarier than usual. This year, officials worried that the pie they were hoping for a piece of has become awfully small, and it doesn't look to be getting bigger any time soon. State money is just not the pot of cash that it was in 2006.

Calvert County was well represented there, and the money being requested was money for the county's biggest point of pride: its schools. There are school renovations in the works, plus a new building for Calvert High School.

There was $65 million in available money, and Calvert wanted $1.2 million to finish the replacement of Calvert Middle School, as well as $3.7 million to start the CHS replacement. There is already $6.2 million secured for Calvert, but Calvert County public schools Superintendent Jack Smith was doing his best to argue for more.

Calvert High School is not falling down, bricks are not tumbling down the side of the building and the floor is not cracking. But there are plenty of problems with the aging building and lots of classes are held in rooms with no windows, poor ventilation and poorer climate control.

As Smith told the panel last week, the students will still be educated there and graduate as they would from any other school. But that doesn't make the new high school a low priority. Belts in the state and counties have tightened to the point that circulation is being cut off. Every government agency is trimming, cutting, squeezing and pinching, as they should be.

But we hope that the news expected in the spring will be good news — that Smith got what he asked for last week, and that we can stop delaying these important projects.