Frederick County Legislative Delegation Holds Public Forum On Saturday

One of the issues brought up was education funding.

Frederick, Md (KM) Education funding is expected to be one issue facing state legislators during the 2025 Maryland General Assembly Session. That was brought up during the Frederick County Legislative Delegation’s public forum on Saturday.

County Executive Jessica Fitzwater emphasized that in comments before local lawmakers. :”It is a critical need for our county to make sure that we are advocating for Frederick County’s fair share. That we are really putting a microscope on the way that we fund school construction in this state. We’re doing everything in our power to address those capacity challenges and aging infrastructure,” she said.

Fitzwater said the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future,. a plan designed to improve education in the state, calls for an expansion of pre-k in the schools. “We don’t have space for the amount of pre-k students that the Blueprint is telling us to ramp up on, especially three-year-olds And the space that we do have was not designed for three and four-year-old children. So there’s issues with the type of space, and having enough space,”: she said.

The state is facing a deficit for the next fiscal year. State Senator Karen Lewis Young said the Governor did not specify that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future would be cut to balance the budget, but he said everything is on the table.

Another request before the Delegation was to reinstate the Remote Virtual Program in the Frederick County School System. The Board of Education in May cut funding for RVP for elementary school students as a way to balance the budget. But in June it was retained for middle school students, but only for the 2024 and 2025 academic year. It provides remote learning for students outside of the traditional classroom.

Melissa Medwick said a number of students benefit form the this program. “That is serving children with IEP 504’s; those who are medically fragile; those that have suffered from bullying; those that were part of the DOJ investigation; children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and general education kids who are struggling to learn in our distracting, overcrowded schools,” she said.

Medwick said she and other families have been advocating for seven months to bring this program back.   She said they have been met with “a lack of transparency and unwillingness from FCPS and some members of the Board to engage in a meaningful conversation.”

School Board President Karen Yoho says there’s a reason she and other members can’t speak about this issue. “It’s been really hard not to talk about it, and it’s not our usual practice not to be able to talk about things. But there was an appeal that was sent to the State Board of Ed. We only just got the ruling from their meeting—just Tuesday, correct? That ruling just came out, but they did rule in our favor,” she said.

There was also a request to expand the Family Connects program. Frederick Health Hospital provides the service free of charge to mothers within three week of giving birth. The funding for the program comes from a grant under American Rescue Plan Act money from the federal government. “The nurse comes to the home and does a comprehensive wellness check of both the mom and the baby. She connects them to community resources that are personalized, and can stay connected with the family for up to 12 weeks after the visit,” says Heather Kirby, the Vice President and Chief Population Health Officer for Frederick Health Hospital, who serves as the Executive Sponsor for the Family Connects program.

“Almost one quarter of deaths that are  pregnancy-related complications occur in the six-weeks time between delivery and that first follow-up appointment,”  Kirby continues. “And we know that African-American women die at a rate three times that of White women.”

State Senator Karen Lewis Young and Delegate Ken Kerr plan to file a bill setting up this Family Connects program   statewide during the upcoming Maryland General Assembly Session,  which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, January 8th, 2025.

By Kevin McManus