The Montgomery County School Board voiced unanimous opposition Tuesday to a proposed bill in the Maryland Legislature that would prohibit leasing space for any new cell phone towers on elementary and middle school property.
Currently, Rockville‘s Tilden Middle School and Germantown’s Capt. James E. Daly Elementary have towers. The financial benefit, according to a memo to the board from Superintendent Jerry Weast, amounts to $96,000 to be divided among various schools and district accounts each year.
The board strongly agreed that the decision to host a tower doesn’t belong at the state level, but to the school itself.
Members said the county currently has a system in place to determine whether or not it a tower lease is a good decision on a case-by-case basis.
“This bill would tie our hands forever and a day until another bill repealed it,” said school board member Patricia O’Neill.
Other members echoed O’Neill’s frustration with a lack of communication between the school board and the Montgomery County delegation to the state Legislature.
“Delegates and senators feel obliged to get a certain amount of legislation done every year, and to do that they don’t always get time for input,” O’Neill said.
The bill, proposed by Delegate Charles Barkley, D-Montgomery, and the Montgomery County delegation to the state legislature, would only affect Montgomery County schools.
Barbara Ferry, president of Tilden’s Parent Teacher Student Association, said she hasn’t heard any safety complaints from parents regarding towers on school property.
“If it doesn’t interfere with the students outdoors, and if it’s nowhere where it’s a temptation, and if the schools can use those funds for what’s important to those schools — whether it’s clubs, activities or musical instruments — it’s a good idea,” Ferry said.
Earlier this year, a committee at Rockville’s Julius West Middle School decided against hosting a tower.
