Frederick County Md Proposed New School

Calvert, St. Mary's and Charles County

“This year’s MSA results demonstrate the progress our number-one ranked public schools are making in academic achievement,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “Thanks to the hard work and commitment of our educators, students and parents, we can sustain and build upon the gains we’ve made for every student and every school in Maryland.” The State has been a leader in early childhood development, assessing the preparation of kindergartners; built a Statewide curriculum, currently being updated through the Maryland Common Core State Standards effort in English language arts and mathematics; greatly increased the percentage of highly qualified teachers in the classroom; and bolstered local school systems with the Bridge to Excellence funding.

Four schools did exceptionally well this spring, registering significant gains for the past two years that allowed them to leave the school improvement designation. Schools that left the school improvement process this year are: Liberty Elementary and Thurmont Middle in Frederick County; Panorama Elementary in Prince George’s County; and Somerset 6/7 Intermediate School in Somerset County.

Prince George's County Plans 113 Speed Camera Sites, 58 New School

Any road within a 1/2 mile radius of a school can potentially be designated as a school zone.  By that definition the combined land areas around this many sites would be larger than the District of Columbia.  The state highway administration updated their automated speed enforcement guidelines earlier this year, which clearly states that not all roads withing 1/2 mile of a school are automatically considered school zones: " The Maryland Annotated Code (TR § 21-803.1) allows school zones to be established within a one-half (½) mile radius of any school. However, not every road segment within a ½ mile radius of a school should be a school zone. " and " Except in unusual circumstances and as justified by a traffic engineering study, a school zone adjacent to a school should not exceed 500 feet approaching or beyond the school or the school activity. Where that activity is a school crossing only, the school zone typically should end a short distance beyond the crossing. "  And that all such areas must be " established by official action by the entity that owns the highway containing the segment; "  " appropriately signed in conformance with the MdMUTCD and guidance issued by the State Highway Administration " The boundaries of the new school zones are not listed in the meeting documents.  The list includes a school next to the locations, and do not give addresses for the schools or the bounds of the proposed zones.  Because of that it is unclear whether they will be designating specific sections actually near schools as school zone (as they would certainly prefer the public to believe), or whether they intend to do what many Municipalities have been doing for their programs, simply "designating" all roads within 1/2 mile radius of any portion of any school facility as a school zone, including in some cases major commuter routes in places not accessible to pedestrians. It is interesting to note that the OLD VERSION of the SHA's ASE brochure included the sentence " School  zones  should  not  be  established  solely  for  the purpose  of  installing  speed  cameras.