Parking space was an issue, but Flora M Singer Elementary School will open on Hayden Drive in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Md., for 648 preK-4 students on Aug. 27, according to the school’s website. This is a notably “green” school, an environmentally friendly facility in a park, that features a hybrid Energy Star and vegetative roof. The benefits (and a few disadvantages) of vegetative roofs are explained here.
The school’s founding principal, Kyle J Heatwole, wrote—in English and Spanish—on his Principal’s Page, “We are looking forward to a great year, as we work together to write the first chapter of our school’s history. We will work together to make Flora M. Singer Elementary School an exciting place, and a welcoming learning environment for our students.”
A recent article in the Montgomery County Gazette says one of two basketball courts at the school, which were approved by the board of education in the original plans from 2009, had to be scrapped in order to gain an additional 33 parking spaces for the school’s staff. “So many unforseen events happen throughout construction that we need to accommodate,” the paper quoted James Song, director for the Department of Facilities Management for Montgomery County Public Schools, as saying. “Overall, the community has been very supportive of this project.”
It seems the district was counting on sharing parking spaces with a neighboring recreational facility, whose parking lot is accessible from school property. The Glenwood Recreation Club had shared parking with an elementary school and special needs center that occupied the site before Singer Elementary was built, so the district was hoping that would continue.
But that hope didn’t bear fruit: “It was not in the best interest of the GRC Membership,” said Dave Kreischer, a member of the GRC Board.
The district had no feasible option, though it appears to have considered three alternative plans in total, but to eliminate a basketball court and use that space as a parking lot.
Representing the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Janis Sartucci told the Gazette she was disppointed that parents weren’t more involved in deciding what to do about parking. “To come down to this summer and say ‘oops, we don’t have an agreement’ is just unconscionable,” the paper quoted her as saying. “They should’ve had all of the facts up front and not two months before school starts.”
In all, about $23 million was spent by the district to build the school, and in defense of the decision to scrap a basketball court for a parking lot, we have to point out that elementary schools aren’t even required to have one basketball court in Maryland. And the space in question isn’t owned by the school district, and property owners have every right to say how their land is used and whether the school can use it in a certain way, such as a parking lot.
It’s just that, based on walking down my street, I’m sure kids in fourth grade like playing basketball—or at least shooting. It seems somewhat ironic for a school that trumpeted its green-ness not to reach an agreement over parking spaces. Not to mention that a deal with a rec club that fell through resulted in the district scrapping a basketball court. Where’s a stand-up comic when you need one?
