Editor,

I am writing in response to the Worcester County Commissioners’ latest vote to form a commission to oversee local public school construction.

One of the reasons Mr. Joe Mitrecic voting no for the formation of this commission was because of the existence of the Buckingham Planning Committee that has already been working on planning the new Buckingham Elementary School that will replace the existing 50-year-old school located in Berlin.

I am one of many members of that planning committee, which also includes three county commissioners: Eric Fiori, Diana Purnell, and Jim Bunting, as well as the mayor of Berlin and two town council members, two Worcester County Board of Education members, three teachers, the principal and vice principal, several parents, the superintendent and assistant superintendents of Worcester County Public schools, the chief financial officer of Worcester County Public Schools and other central office staff.

That planning committee has been meeting for the last nine months to discuss the needs for a new school that will educate Berlin children now and for the next 50 years. The majority of people serving on that committee are both Worcester County residents and Worcester County taxpayers who have taken our role on that committee very seriously.

Worcester County prides itself on having local control of life in our community. The existing committee is already fulfilling that desire for local control. Who best to decide what a school located in Berlin needs than Berlin elected officials, Berlin parents, staff who will be working in the new building and central office staff who have spent their professional lives as educators, as well as trained architects who have built many elementary schools on Delmarva?

This type of committee was used when Ocean City Elementary and the new Showell Elementary school were built and resulted in two beautiful schools that serve the needs of the Ocean City, Ocean Pines, and Bishopville communities in Worcester County

There are many questions raised by the creation of this new commission, such as: would this newly formed commission meet with the existing Buckingham planning committee to discuss what has already been done? We have already approved a design and layout of the building; will this newly formed commission be able to override that work? Who will have the final say on a design? When will this newly formed commission meet? Will the meetings be open to the public, will they be held in the Berlin community?

Why don’t the three county commissioners who have already been part of the planning process feel they can share their thoughts and concerns with the Buckingham planning committee they already are a part of? In all of the meetings so far, the questions the county commissioners did ask were clearly and thoroughly answered by the professional architects already hired to design the school.

Again, Worcester County elected officials often complain about what they see as over regulation on a variety of local issues, yet the six county commissioners just voted to create an extra layer of regulation over funding for local schools. Will they do the same for all other government building that takes place in Worcester County or just for the construction of Buckingham Elementary?

As a resident of Worcester County and a taxpayer, I do not want my taxpayer money spent on forming a redundant commission to do a job that is already being done by highly qualified professionals and locally engaged community members.

Melissa Reid
Berlin