DEAL ISLAND, MD — Discontent is rising in Deal Island regarding an upcoming meeting with Somerset County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ava Tasker-Mitchell.
The meeting, scheduled for tomorrow evening, follows a hot mic incident in which Dr. Tasker-Mitchell stated that the local elementary school “should have been done away with years ago.”
The original announcement stated that Dr. Tasker-Mitchell would be "meeting with the community at Deal Island Elementary School" on January 9.
The meeting was postponed to the evening of Tuesday, January 14, due to winter weather.
People were quick to notice changed language in a reminder about the rescheduled meeting released Saturday, stipulating that the meeting is "exclusively" for parents and guardians.
Darci Wilson, a lifelong resident of Deal Island, expressed her concerns about the exclusion.
"The Deal Island community is a very small, close-knit community," Wilson said. "Many of the adults in the community consider themselves guardians to the children of that school."
Katie Upton's three children are all either current or former students of Deal Island Elementary. She said she believes all Deal Islanders should be welcomed to meetings involving the school and questions the decision to restrict attendance.
"She knows that she made a lot of people upset and she just wants to address the parents," Upton said. "In actuality, it's not just the parents that are being affected."
Upton said she hopes community members, whether they have currently enrolled students or not, show up to tomorrow evening's meeting.
"I want them to pack out the cafeteria," Upton said. I want her to know that we stand strong together."
That is what Wilson said she and some of her fellow Deal Islanders are planning to do.
“We take seriously the saying that it takes a village, and that village just wants to convey that we'd like our voices to be heard," Wilson said.
Despite repeated attempts on Monday, Somerset County Public Schools did not respond to our request for comment about Tuesday's meeting.
