Education makes Howard County go round.
Families move here because of it, development is ruled by it, and the county's reputation largely depends on it.
It's practically a religion.
And in two days, voters will choose a replacement for departing school board chairwoman Jane B. Schuchardt.
The primaries in September knocked a third candidate, Arthur Neal Willoughby, out of the running, leaving Courtney Watson and Barry Tevelow to vie for the seat.
Watson, who took nearly two-thirds of the vote in the primary, has politics in her blood.
When she was growing up, her father served on the school board and County Council, and as county executive. Working for change was, and is, a way of life in her household.
Now 40, Watson is a member of the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance Committee, a founder of a group that lobbied for the county's 12th high school, the recipient last year of the annual PTA Council of Howard County Award for her work on school issues, and a mentor at Dasher Green Elementary School.
Tevelow, whom Willoughby now supports, has been a passionate populist on Howard educational issues for years.
He has testified frequently at school board and County Council meetings, and is a strong critic of the current board's practice of holding closed meetings. He also gave kids a forum for their voices in 1997, when he founded a nonprofit organization with a paper put out by teens.
Tevelow, 44, also has been a PTA member for a decade and a youth sports coach.
Whoever is elected Tuesday won't have an easy time on the board.
Faced with persistent achievement gaps, overcrowded schools and too little money, the board often finds itself in the awkward position of having more questions than answers.
Here are some of Tevelow's and Watson's answers to questions about education:
Q. The school board recently asked for $86.3 million to spend on capital projects in the coming fiscal year. How can we maintain the county's high educational standards when the cost is so high?
Watson: The school system is an economic driver of the county, affecting all citizens by contributing to a high quality of life, high property values and low crime rates. For these reasons, we cannot afford not to maintain the high educational standards. However, the [school board] should prioritize the $86.4 million request because some projects are more critical than others, and the expense should be better distributed over a longer period of years.
Tevelow: First, it is important to understand what accounts for good schools and high educational standards: good principals, a safe and nurturing learning environment, involved parents and caring teachers.
Fortunately, here in Howard County we have many of those attributes. Yet the overcrowding situation is impeding our safe and nurturing learning environment. We need to build schools in locations where our population centers exist.
Further, we need to partner better with the county's departments of Planning and Zoning and Recreation and Parks, and the Office on Aging to ensure that our facilities are multifunctional and will satisfy our future needs.
Q. Superintendent John R. O'Rourke has pledged to eliminate the achievement gap between ethnic and economic groups by 2007. Is this realistic?
Tevelow: It is possible to eliminate the achievement gap. In fact, I believe if we followed models which have worked in other jurisdictions, we would see significant improvement in just a few months.
The gap persists because of a couple of key factors: resources and attitudes.
We need to [keep class sizes low and] get all of our children started early in their academic endeavors. Head Start [a child development program serving low-income families] is a proven program which needs to be expanded.
Our Department of Education and board of education has failed to engage our low-performing communities. I would attend their places of worship. I would visit their shopping centers and neighborhoods. I would build a rapport and trust with those who have been pushed away and disenfranchised.
Watson: We absolutely must continue to work to close the gap through an approach that includes the input of teachers and administrators in the schools, as well as working to support and train parents at home.
As a board member, I will request data on the success of the new School Improvement Unit program early and often to determine whether the program is an effective and fair use of resources. I will also look for the feedback of administrators and teachers who are on the frontlines of this program, as well as continue to look for programs which show success in other areas of the country.
Q. Do you think school administrators are doing an adequate job at the important task of forecasting future enrollment?
Watson: The [department] is not doing an adequate job of forecasting future enrollments for several reasons:
1) The model does not incorporate new students that are generated from the resale of existing homes.
2) The model does not include a preschool count, which would give a more accurate forecast for kindergarten than the current method of using live births.
3) The model is inappropriately using cohort survival [the average change in size of a class of pupils as it passes from grade to grade] methodology in some areas that have experienced fast growth, but are now built out.
We need to develop better enrollment projections, and potentially have a dedicated person from the Department of Planning and Zoning on loan to the school system to assist. As a board member, I will demand more predictability and accountability in this area.
Tevelow: Central office administrators have failed at projecting future enrollments year after year. [They] hired consultants to perform the same task, and this also yielded inaccurate results.
Other high-growth areas, such as Anne Arundel County, have been able to effectively deal with this issue. The Pointers Run community in Howard County was able to get accurate counts for their neighborhoods. I encourage looking to models which have had proven success.
We need to include the community as a partner in addressing educational issues.
Q. When many talk of improving Howard County's public school system, they talk about spending dollars, but is money really at the heart of the system's problems?
Tevelow: Again, realizing it is what goes on in the classroom that is important, one quickly realizes money is only part of the problem.
Yes, teachers deserve more money. Yes, we need up to update textbooks and provide services to our students with special needs. Yes, we need buildings which support a safe and learning environment. But money does not ensure quality principals, high teacher morale, or a [department and board] which encourages community involvement.
Watson: Effective utilization of funding is a big part of the equation in solving the school system's problems. We must look for ways in every budget to more efficiently spend the current dollars.
Other parts of the equation include valuing our teachers in different ways, but specifically by not overburdening them with new requirements without removing some existing demands.
We must also address program-equity issues that exist across the school system for different reasons, including the impact of fund raising, the constraints of certain facilities and the differences in programs offered to students.
Q. How does the board need to change to be more effective?
Watson: The board can be more effective by:
1) making it easier for parents to participate in the process;
2) considering the addition of special assistants to improve constituent service;
3) changing the meeting formats to incorporate work sessions;
4) becoming more efficient in discussions at board meetings;
5) holding the superintendent accountable for issues that are important to the public.
Tevelow: The board needs to hold the schools Superintendent John R. O'Rourke and his staff accountable for their actions.
In order to represent the public, the board needs to keep the public informed of all legally available information, and be accessible to the public they serve.