By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Two of the four Worcester County Board of Education candidates attended a town hall last Thursday to discuss current matters ahead of next month’s election.

Sponsored by the Democratic Club of Worcester County, the town hall allowed members of the audience to ask the contestants. Incumbent Jon Andes is defending his District 3 seat against Cheryl Middleton. Incumbent Elena McComas is facing challenger Dorothy Leslie Shelton in District 5.

Although no reason for her absence was forthcoming from the Middleton camp, Shelton wrote on Facebook last week that a scheduling conflict prevented her from attending the forum.

The absence of the challengers to Andes and McComas left them with the floor, and they used their time to give voters recaps of their backgrounds and to answer questions.

Andes, who was Worcester County Public Schools superintendent from 1996 to 2012, began as a social studies teacher from Pennsylvania. He eventually moved to Maryland, accepting a position at Havre de Grace High School in Harford County, where he worked his way up from teacher to principal.

Under his leadership, the school became the first nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in Harford. As a result, he said, he was promoted to assistant superintendent of the school system. Andes moved to Worcester County in 1996 to accept the superintendent position and served until 2012.

During his 16 years as superintendent, Andes was involved in six capital projects, including the construction of Stephen Decatur Middle School, the expansion of Stephen Decatur High School, the building of Ocean City Elementary School and the opening of Worcester Technical High School in 2005.

At the time, he told the audience, the vocational facility offered only nine programs, The technical school now offers 26, including culinary arts, cosmetology, heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR), biomedical sciences, welding, pre-engineering, and interactive media production.

Andes was also involved in Pocomoke High School’s 2010 renovation and the planning process for Snow Hill High School’s update, completed in 2017.

“When we go back to 1996 when I became superintendent,” he told the audience, “we were 19 out of 24 in the state for student achievement,” he said. “When I retired, we were number one.”

Andes said the “magic formula” to make the leap from the state’s number 19 school system to the first was to look at individual students, determine which kids may require remediation, hire talented faculty and staff and retain them, focus on data analysis, implement “rigorous and robust” after-school and summer academies and keep class sizes small.

Andes continues to exercise his teaching skills as a Salisbury University professor.

McComas grew up in Salisbury, graduated from Wicomico High School, received a bachelor’s degree in science education from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a master’s in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins. She worked in Montgomery County and California. McComas taught biology for 25 years across all grades, particularly at the high school level. While living and working in Temecula, California, McComas helped open two high schools and acted as the science chair for both. She eventually left public education and worked as a science education instructor at California State University, Long Beach.

McComas moved back to the Maryland Eastern Shore 11 years ago and settled in Ocean Pines. She said she ran for the school board to focus on and give back to the community. Given her experience in learning facilities, she opted to run for the Worcester County Board of Education in 2016 and will be seeking her third term.

“I know I never taught in Worcester,” she acknowledged. “But I have so many experiences having taught in other places to know exactly what works and what doesn’t … I love education. It is my passion.”

Since being elected to the board, McComa said her greatest achievement remains her involvement in school safety efforts.

“I am proudest of the fact that throughout this past year, with all the turmoil, particularly about safety, that we have come out on the other side,” she said.

During the last school year, the education system and the county’s law enforcement were mired in a public war of words over safety within the schools, where police argued that Worcester County Public Schools was not doing enough to address a spike in violent crime.

Law enforcement claimed in February that the 2022-2023 school year was the most violent on record, with a rise in attacks, fighting, and bullying committed by students against each other and staff.

McComas said that to address these concerns, the school system started a safety task force, of which she was a member. Fellow board members Bill Gordy and Katie Addis also served, along with Sheriff Matt Crisafulli, Chief Deputy Nathaniel Passwaters and Worcester County State’s Attorney Kris Heiser.

“When those frontal lobes get hit with hormones, a lot of time these kids do not think,” McComas said. “You want to deal with that with consequences, so we went ahead and created a safety task force.”

For a while, the team assembled each week and collected and analyzed data from the beginning of 2023. In the summer of that year, district personnel met with the sheriff’s department. It revised its memorandum of understanding for how the law enforcement and school system would work together to improve safety. The updated MOU was instituted in September 2023, and McComas said that in March 2024, incidents had dropped 28%.

The MOU guidelines revised in summer 2023 state that “children under the age of 10 are not criminally responsible for their actions and they will be referred to behavioral resources; children aged ten to 12 are only criminally responsible for crimes of violence, and firearm-related offenses; children aged 13 to 17 can be criminally charged for crimes of violence and firearm-related offenses, as well as certain misdemeanors. (Threats of mass violence, threats of arson, violation of protective orders, etc.)”

“That is the greatest accomplishment for me,” McComas said. “Are we always 100% safe? No, we will always be working towards being better, but we saw tremendous improvement.”

Andes said his most significant accomplishment while on the board was securing the recent funding commitment to build a new Buckingham Elementary School.

He served on a feasibility study with fellow board members William Gordy and Donald Smack and Worcester County Commissioners Eric Fiori, Jim Bunting, and Diana Purnell to meet with BES staff and architects to design the new facility to replace the old and run-down current structure.

The process depended on the Maryland Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC). The IAC, or “the bank,” provides state funding for projects like replacing BES. Initially, the group was steadfast in not providing the county school systrem with any money for the school project because neighboring schools were not  crowded.

“I went ballistic,” Andes said. “The kids at Buckingham and the community at Buckingham deserve a new school.”

A work group was put together in May to start looking at options and meeting with IAC leadership to find a compromise. Andes said that after “a lot of talking,” the IAC offered $26 million for the BES project.

The workgroup included Andes, Gordy, and Smack representing the Worcester County Board of Education; Senator Mary Beth Carozza (R-38); Ted Elder and Fiori from the Worcester County Commissioners; Chief Financial Officer Vince Tolbert; and Dr. Chris Welch, principal of Buckingham Elementary School, among others.

“Moving the state from zero dollars to $26 million for BES is my biggest accomplishment,” the former superintendent said.

According to Andes, the IAC also committed $28 million to replace or renovate Berlin Intermediate School sometime in the future.

The BES project will cost $73 million. Of that, $47.9 million will come from local funding, and $25.8 million will be provided by the state.

On Oct. 15, IAC leadership, the school board, and the county commissioners will gather in an open public meeting. At that point, the IAC will detail the building plans to the commissioners. Andes hopes the county leadership will vote to move forward with the BES replacement initiative.

Former SDHS Assistant Principal Katherine Cater asked the board candidates about their priorities, particularly regarding funding and teacher salaries.

“We have got to draw those teachers to this county,” Cater said. “Back when I started teaching, this county was the primo county … because of class sizes and salaries. We drew the best of the best. Not to say we don’t have them right now. We are holding onto those people, but other places are getting on board with that, and they are coming up with the money.”

Worcester is the wealthiest county in Maryland based on a state formula that uses property values. As a result, the school system relies on local government for around 80% of its funding. For the fiscal year 2024 budget, the county commissioners provided the school system with the maintenance of effort formula: the lowest amount of money they were legally allowed to give, and teacher salaries suffered.  The county committed to more funding for the 2025 budget than in the previous year. Still, it was less than what the school system requested.

McComas said that addressing the funding and teacher salary issues requires communication, particularly with the county commissioners.

“I am excited that we … have lines of communication open with the commissioners that probably weren’t there before,” she said. “Our teachers need to be compensated, no question. Yes, I want to keep smaller class sizes.  How do we get the findings? That is going to be communication and elections.”

Andes said that the school system’s biggest challenge over the next several years is complying with Blueprint funding.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future is an educational reform program that will increase state funding over the next 10 years to “transform public education in the state into a world-class education system.” Individual systems will be required to raise teacher salaries and expand learning offerings to their students to meet set standards.

A pillar of the program requires that students acquire college and career readiness (CCR) skills by the end of their 10th-grade year, which prepares them to enter entry-level college courses and “work in high-wage, high-demand industries.”

According to Andes, Worcester is not receiving enough money to keep up with the program’s demands.

“Unfortunately, the state is not giving us enough money to implement the Blueprint,” Andes said. “… when they allocate money, they send it out in two ways. One is a wealth-based formula, and the other is a body count, which is the number of multi-language students, those qualify for free and reduced meals and special education kids. We get a specific dollar amount per student for those students, and everything else is wealth-equalized. So, the more wealth you have, the less state aid you get…Worcester County is considered to be the wealthiest county in the state of Maryland, even though 50% of the kids are eligible for free or reduced meals. That is a significant challenge. We have to rely on the county government for a significant portion of our budget. We have no choice. The state is not going to change the formula for Worcester.”

Andes said that the public schools are getting $778 per student next year to implement the most rigorous, ambitious school reform in the United States.” Divided out, that comes to $4 per student per day.

“If we have a class of 20 kids in an elementary classroom, that is $80 to provide an additional raise to everyone in the school system, to provide funding for bus contractors, custodians, educational assistants, technology, heat, lights, and electricity,” Andes said. “All those kinds of things. We cannot do that without local help, keeping that formula with small class sizes, after-school and summer school programs, and recruiting and retaining the best we possibly can. The only choice is to have the county provide us with additional dollars. We are getting $778 more per pupil for next year. Wicomico is getting $1346 more per pupil in state aid. This is the way it has been in Worcester since I arrived in 1996. The total reliance on county government for funding.”

Andes said that ensuring that WCPS is properly funded comes down to telling the public the truth, including that Worcester is a top-performing school district and that sufficient money is required to maintain this level of excellence.

“You cannot deny that under the state aid formula, we are the wealthiest county in the state,” he said. “The fact is we have to rely on the county government for a significant portion of our funding. We cannot change that. We need help getting the facts out and having people understand those facts, including that we have the top performing school system in Maryland, number one in English and reading, and number two in math.”

The latest niche study gave only three school systems in Maryland a grade of A, including Howard, Montgomery, and Worcester Counties. To continue to secure a funded budget, Andes argues that getting these truths out via social media, word of mouth, press, or podcasting is vital.

“I came here, and I decided to stay here because of the quality of life in Worcester County,” Andes added. “A major part of that quality of life in Worcester County is our public school system.”

The candidates also acknowledged campaign positions held by their opponents, which they said have created “nonsense” throughout the race.

McComas said that her challenger, Leslie, has focused on keeping boys out of the girls’ bathroom despite the fact it remains a nonissue. The incumbent maintained that the schools have private restrooms available to all students upon request, and parents are invited to meet with school officials about any concerns they may have.

Guardians can also block their child from checking out a book at the library and opt their student out of certain curricula.

“I appreciate the fact that concerned parents do have an avenue,” McComas said. “… I want to be able to sit down and say to my opponent, ‘Let’s work this out.’ Let’s look at what is right and what is wrong. I would love to be able to sit down with my opponent and talk.”

Andes echoed the sentiments.

“Boys use boys’ bathrooms; girls use girls’ bathrooms,” he said. “When a family has a request for a child to use a private bathroom, they go in and meet with the principal and come up with a commonsense resolution to the matter, and that common sense resolution is implemented … we invite parents to be actively involved, and if a parent does not want their child to have access to a book, there is a process. If they do not want them to be exposed to a particular aspect of the curriculum…there are options. There are alternatives. This is the way it has always been…We invite parents to be partners as we work through this.”

The candidates were asked about taxpayers and voters who do not have as much stake in the school system as students and parents and their role in challenging books or opposing certain curricula.

In Worcester, there is a process for a parent to have a book reviewed at the school and district levels. In other areas, like Carroll County, residents who are not parents or faculty in the educational system also have that option. McComas argued that this ability should be reserved for the stakeholders.

“We look to the stakeholders, our parents, and our students to look at the books and make those decisions,” she said. “…having someone walk off the street…I look at some counties, like Carroll, where anyone can go in and ask a book to be taken off the shelf for review, and I think they have something like 65 or 67 books they are trying to go through right now, and that is a lot. Now, do I agree with all the passages in the books that we have in the libraries? No. However, I have sat down with parents who have no problem…we have a diverse community with a lot of different ideas and belief structures. Let’s meet in the middle. Let’s give our concerned parents the ability to control what their kids see, and the other parents that have no problem, it’s okay.”

Worcester County residents living in District 3 or District 5 may cast their ballots for the board of education on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting runs from Oct. 24-31.