Rumor Mill-5281

Published December 13, 2012

The purpose of this section is to answer any questions parents, teachers or community members might have regarding the school district and to set the record straight in regards to any rumors that might be circulating.

If you have a question or have heard a rumor that you would like for us to address, simply SEND US your questions and we will respond to them in upcoming issues of IN FOCUS. Below are some of the questions we have received since our last issue.

I am a Bethesda parent. Our children were rezoned from Page Middle to Spring Station during the last rezoning. We are happy with this decision. Now, we hear that Spring Station is at capacity and there may be another rezoning which could change some future Bethesda students back to Page Middle. Any truth?

We are not planning rezoning for the upcoming school year. Next year will be our third school year since our county-wide rezoning. We had anticipated that, with continued growth in our community, that rezoning should serve us three years. As a result of continued growth, some of our schools have again grown to at or near capacity over this time, but, again, no mandatory rezoning is scheduled for the 2013-2014 school year.

I heard that the entire school will close for a week if 10 percent of the students are absent. Can you confirm or squash this rumor?

There is no truth to the rumor that schools will close if 10 percent of students are absent. Any decision to close a school rests with the superintendent. There is no specific number of absenteeism that would bring about a school closure.

In another state, our schools notified parents whenever a pesticide was applied at school. I’m surprised that WCS doesn’t notify parents when chemicals are applied to school grounds (including the football field). Why doesn’t WCS do this?

WCS has grounds maintenance contracts with a number of mowing firms, and it is just for mowing of the non-athletic field grass. The district does not do any kind of fertilizer or weed control applications on the non-athletic field grass.

Non-pesticide measures are used to control pests within the school buildings. The district only uses pesticides when satisfactory results are not achieved with the non-pesticide measures, and then only applies the chemicals after-hours when the building is not occupied. All pest control measures use products that are authorized for use in K-12 schools.

All high school and middle school athletic fields are maintained by the schools themselves. Thus, any chemical treatments applied on those fields are done by the school’s athletic department or a vendor contracted by the athletic department.