Edgewater Elementary Parents Plan Protest Outside School

parents plan to protest County Executive John R. Leopold’s for fiscal year 2013 on Friday morning outside their school on Mayo Road.

The school’s PTA president, Jenny Corkill, told Patch the parents are specifically protesting the fact that the school is not scheduled for renovations in the near future in Leopold’s budget. The protest will take place around 8:20 a.m. Friday, Corkill said.

Edgewater Elementary parents were hoping their school would be bumped up for renovations sooner than the previously scheduled 2016. But after Leopold released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013, the school is no longer on the short list for renovations, meaning they won’t come at least until 2019.

“Our school has the worst condition of all schools in the county based on Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ study, and we are at over 120 percent capacity,” Corkill told Patch. “Musty, moldy conditions still exist in our building and yet we are not included in [Leopold’s budget] and amazingly not in the budget at all for the next six years.”

In February, the school system hired an industrial hygienist to analyze Edgewater Elementary and investigate claims that . The specialist, Ed Light of Building Dynamics, told parents he found mold growth and dampness throughout the building, but not enough to cause severe alarm.

Light said the school’s condition was not unusual for a school as old as Edgewater Elementary, built in 1953.

The Anne Arundel County Council is currently reviewing the budget before the start fiscal year 2013 on July 1.

"The County Council must include Edgewater in the 2013 budget. Our children can't afford to wait," Corkill said.