Former state Sen. Gerald Winegrad hit the nail on the head with his recent letter (The Sunday Capital, May 15). As a city resident and homeowner with one child in Hillsmere Elementary School, I am disappointed with city leaders who are more concerned with appeasing developers than considering the needs of their constituents.

I would like to keep my daughter in public schools, but I will not have her education suffer as a result of overcrowding. At Hillsmere, all fourth-grade classes — except for one — are held in trailers. In order to gain access to the main building for use of the media center, library, cafeteria or restroom, students are required to walk outside in whatever kind of weather conditions. Why do city officials think it is OK to compromise our children’s quality of education in order to make developers happy?

The needs of our schools take a back seat to projects like Crystal Spring that will only exacerbate this problem by adding more students to our already-overburdened schools. There are hundreds of homes either pending approval or under construction along Forest Drive, and without an updated Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, the city does not have to consider school capacity when approving new development.

As yet another portable trailer classroom is being erected on the grounds at Hillsmere, I, along with many other parents, plead with our city leaders: Please put our children first and pass 0-36-15 to update our Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance. As your constituents, we elected you to office to stand up for us. Please get this right for our children!

LYNNE KANE-VAN REENAN, ANNAPOLIS

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