An article in The Sun Feb. 13 incorrectly identified the Highlands office park site under consideration for a new Sparks school as having previously been part of an adjacent, contaminated former Bausch & Lomb property.
In fact, officials have found no indication of contamination on the proposed school site, although "there has been very little testing" there, according to J. James Dieter, director of the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.
The Sun regrets the errors.
The public meeting on the rebuilding of Sparks Elementary School was quieter than the Baltimore County residents who showed up expected. But not by their choice.
A study team appointed by Superintendent Stuart Berger to look at the future of the school, which was destroyed by fire Jan. 8, would not permit audience members to ask questions or make comments Thursday night, except in writing. And when a few frustrated residents shouted objections, they, too, were told to write.
"The decision was made because we expected three times the number of people. We wanted to avoid a lot of emotionalism at the microphone," said Sparks PTA President Bernadette Worthing, who co-chairs the study team. "Our main purpose was to get out information."
"I was totally flabbergasted," said Ken Bosley, who had arrived at Hereford High School 45 minutes before the meeting so he could be the first on the list to speak. But there was no list, only index cards and pencils.
"It prevented any back-and-forth discussion, and people within the community can't know who knows what" because the writers weren't identified, Mr. Bosley said. "My real hot questions, they didn't touch," he said.
Many questioners raised the issue of chemical contamination at one proposed site, the former Highlands office park on York Road about a mile south of the school. Part of the property was formerly owned by Bausch and Lomb Inc., which discharged heavy metals and other pollutants into the ground.
The other site under consideration is on Cold Bottom Road, near Interstate 83. School officials are still looking at the present Sparks site, but officials want to replace the 300-seat school with a building that can hold 600. The existing Sparks property is too small for a school that size, said Keith Kelley, executive director of capital improvements for the county schools.
Though county and state environmental officials said much of the pollution on the Highlands property had been cleaned, community members persisted in their questions.
"How can we risk future health problems?" shouted one.
"Would you send your child?" another parent asked Robert DeMarco, administrator of the Environmental Response and Restoration Program at the state Department of Environment.
"Yes, unequivocally, I would send my child," he answered.
The school board will make the final decision on a site, but no date has been set.