As a former school principal, Naval Support Activity (NSA) Bethesda School Liaison Officer Horace Franklin knows the value of a good education. He also knows that consistency plays a part in how well children learn.
So when the Montgomery County Board of Education proposed a redistricting change that would involve elementary school children of wounded warrior families aboard NSA Bethesda moving from one school to two separate schools, Franklin took action.
“I looked at it through the eyes of a parent and an administrator. If there’s a problem, the principal is going to be the one to solve it,” Franklin said. “I’m like a principal with no school. I solve problems and get resources aligned so the kids are successful.”
The issue arose when the school board made a decision to reassign children who live in NSA Bethesda’s Tranquility Hall with a family member receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) from Bethesda Elementary School to Rosemary Hills Elementary School and North Chevy Chase Elementary School. Children in kindergarten through second grade would attend Rosemary Hills and third through sixth graders would go to North Chevy Chase, Franklin said.
The recommendation sparked debate between school board members and NSA Bethesda military families, who felt their children were already going through enough transition by leaving their home school to come to NSA Bethesda.
NSA Bethesda leadership agreed, and petitioned the Montgomery County school board to allow the children to remain at Bethesda Elementary.
“One of the things we talked about was the idea that you have children who have a wounded warrior (at NSA Bethesda), their life has been uprooted from wherever they were before, and all the things they’re dealing with having an injured parent now and the life changes that are occurring because of that,” NSA Bethesda Commander Capt. David Bitonti said. “The school was serving as a constant for them once they were here. If they had other siblings in the school, they could help each other, and more importantly, as the families congregate here, they become supportive of one another. If our population is scattered, you lose that support system. So from a continuity perspective, from a community perspective and from a stabilization perspective it was very important for our children to have the opportunity to stay at Bethesda Elementary.”
Franklin said the highest number of elementary age children living on NSA Bethesda has never reached more than 20 and their time on the installation can last anywhere from six months to two and a half years. If school redistricting took place, that could mean several transitions for just one child.
“A child in the second grade could go from their home school to NSA Bethesda, and then in the fall would attend Rosemary Hills. If they’re here the following school year they would go to North Chevy Chase for third grade,” Franklin said. “When the service member gets better they would go back home, so they would have four different transitions. We were just trying to create a sense of stability and a sense of normalcy where the kids were all at one school that they know.”
There were concerns for the schools as well, said Franklin, who held meetings with each school’s Parent Teacher Association to make sure the attendance rates of Rosemary Hills and North Chevy Chase wouldn’t be harmed and Bethesda Elementary could handle the additional students. An even bigger benefit to keeping the children at Bethesda Elementary is their familiarization with military families, Bitonti added.
“Bethesda Elementary has learned over the years about the unique needs of military children and the things they’re dealing with as the family member of a wounded warrior,” Bitonti said.
After conducting a boundary change study review, the Montgomery County school board voted on March 24 to allow the children living on NSA Bethesda to continue attending Bethesda Elementary.
“We’re very appreciative of the cooperativeness and open nature of not only the Montgomery County school board, but also the families and students at Bethesda Elementary and their willingness to work with us and hear the reasoning behind what we had to say, and then move forward with supporting the decision that we thought was best for our families,” Bitonti said.