Two public schools in Harford County may be getting more support in providing Advanced Placement courses, including offering AP tests at no cost to students, Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Tomback said Wednesday.
Tomback told the Edgewood Community Council the school system expects to get grant funding "to ramp up AP placement courses in two schools in this area."
The announcement comes on the heels of a report showing Harford County schools have among the lowest numbers of graduating students in the Baltimore area to have successfully taken AP tests.
Tomback said he had to be vague about the announcement because a press release has not been formally issued and grant funding has not been formally secured.
Tomback would not name the two schools or indicate whether they are in the Edgewood or Route 40 area.
"This is a grant funded program that will give students the ability to receive support in advanced courses, but will also result in abilities of students to take AP courses at no cost," he said, adding it will also help in teacher training.
"We recognize there are needs," he said. "We do that for all schools, to be sure, but we recognize that some schools… require additional effort."
Tomback also told the Edgewood council about his concerns regarding the governor's proposal to make the county pay 50 percent of teacher pensions, and took several questions from residents in attendance.
The superintendent had dire words about the impact of defraying the cost of teacher pensions to the county, calling it a "miracle" if it does not affect students in the classroom.
"I know the county executive is very concerned about it," he said. "We in the school system are concerned because if we are in fact saddled with a…[financial] liability, it is not a one-time cost."
"An $8.3 million hit can only mean that we will do less with less, and that will mean personnel and programs," he said regarding the expected cost to the county.
"Make no mistake, it will impact children in classrooms, which is what we've avoided so far."
Council board member Veronica Black said a parent at the last meeting suggested the Route 40 schools might not be getting treated fairly by the school system, with which Tomback disagreed.
"A per pupil allotment is the same throughout our system," Tomback told Black. "In terms of wide disparity in funding, in terms of disparity in budgets, that's simply not true. If you're looking at other kinds of issues, we would need to look program by program or look at specific concerns."
Mentioning new or replaced schools in Edgewood and Joppatowne, Tomback added, "If you look at the resources over the last few years that have been placed in schools along Route 40, they have been significant."
Jim Lyons III, in the audience, said he would like to see more publicity about Edgewood schools.
Tomback said the school system has a good public relations department and tries to send out press releases.
He also said when someone sees Edgewood schools out in the community, such as an Edgewood High School music group playing at Barnes & Noble, for example, that makes a very positive impression.
"That's how you begin to change opinions that are based on nonsense," Tomback said.