Parents, teachers fear Blair magnet program will be hit hard by cuts

Instructors will have to teach additional classes, lose planning time

But magnet teachers say that at least four instructors will not be returning in the fall for various reasons, some in protest of the cuts.

‘‘It dawned on me at one point in the process that I was looking down the barrel of a gun. But the gun was not aimed at me, it was aimed at education,” said Ralph Bunday, a physics and chemistry magnet teacher who helped craft the program’s curriculum when it launched in 1985. Bunday’s last day at Blair will be July 1.

‘‘I fancy myself continuing the fight,” Bunday said of becoming an advocate for the program in his retirement.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has recommended a budget for the Montgomery County Public Schools that was 3.8 percent more than the fiscal 2008 budget approved by the County Council last year, but 2.4 percent, or $51 million, less than the $2.1 billion requested by the county’s Board of Education.

School board member Christopher S. Barclay (Dist. 4) of Takoma Park said it was too early to be specific on cuts that will be absorbed by the school system. The County Council, which has the final say on budgets, will vote in May. Public hearings are being held this week.

Dennis Heidler, Blair’s magnet program coordinator, would not comment on the cuts until they are fully approved.

Community Superintendent Heath Morrison said the cut would be for three and a half positions, which could be ‘‘easily absorbed” by staff by giving magnet instructors five, rather than four, courses. Teachers in the mainstream program at Blair already teach five courses. Magnet teachers were initially given fewer courses to allow for planning periods and time to collaborate with other teachers, Morrison said.

Eric Walstein, a math teacher in his 22nd year in the Blair magnet program, said the teachers would lose their ability to ‘‘do extra things, which is why the magnet was set up in the first place.”

Last year, Walstein created an independent course for student Brian Lawrence, now a freshman at California Institute of Technology, in differential geometry to better understand a theory proven by a Russian mathematician. The course was led not by Walstein, but a professor from the University of Maryland.

‘‘The fact that the magnet allows us to have that kind of freedom is one of the things that make it so unique,” Walstein said.

Parents, teachers and students met with school and county staff at Blair April 2 to discuss the cuts. Parents plan a rally in Rockville to protest the cuts before the County Council vote.

‘‘The part that really upsets me is that people do not see this as special needs. These students excel in this environment,” said Nuray Anahtar of Bethesda, a mother of an incoming Blair math, science and computer science magnet freshman.

Anahtar’s older daughter, Melis, graduated from the Blair magnet as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004.

‘‘From the emphasis on research, as well as the fact that they treated us like adults, the program is the main reason I’m at [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] today,” she said.

Ida Lee of Silver Spring, whose son will graduate this year, said the reason the magnet students were so successful was because ‘‘they don’t just teach them the books.”

Emily van Loon of Takoma Park, whose two sons graduated from the magnet program, said her sons would not be as well-balanced if it were not for the magnet. Her oldest son, Elliott Wolf, a senior now at Duke University, said his professors recognized the program as a ‘‘national player in math and science education.”

‘‘The magnet sets up a lot of amazing kids to do a lot of amazing things,” he said. ‘‘It fills a void in the lives of a lot of students who don’t feel satisfied in the run-of-the-mill MCPS instruction.”