An Open Letter to Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Dr. George Arlotto
A New Vision is Required for Meade High School
Dear Dr. Arlotto:
We hope this message finds you well. We are writing this letter to encourage a new vision for Meade
High School. As pastors, we collectively lead eight congregations that serve many families throughout the
Meade High Feeder. The school is an essential part of community life and serves a large number of
military dependents, students from robust middle-class neighborhoods, and students from disadvantaged homes. Despite its successes and promise however, Meade has been chronically underresourced.
We learned a lot from the Arundel Legislative Symposium about the needs of Meade High School and
believe they merit your immediate attention in a way that is new, bold, fresh, and imaginative. The
status quo simply won’t work for an institution as important as Meade High School. As a priority, we
ask that you commit to the following in your proposed schools’ budget.
• We are alarmed about the decades-long staff retention issues at Meade High School. This
issue can no longer be ignored. Over one-third of the staff currently at Meade High School is
newly hired as of the 2019-2020 school year. Experienced instructors are essential for addressing
the opportunity gap and fostering a stable community of academic excellence and discipline. We
implore you to address retention and recruitment challenges as a key priority in your budget. That
Meade High School has the highest staff turnover in the entire school district is a disservice to our
families, state, and county.
• Out-of-school time (OST) instruction and activities are key to rounding out the academic
experience. Yet there does not exist a system of OST support throughout the Meade High School
Feeder. We believe it is imperative to restore funding for activity buses at Meade and for the
school system to work with the community to extend high quality OST opportunities throughout
West County neighborhoods.
• Arrests and citation disparities at Meade High School are a cause for concern. We believe
that there is an urgent need for the school system to start addressing the needs of troubled youth
much earlier at the middle school level. We are asking you to hire more social workers to help.
We believe additional social workers are also needed to help address the unique needs of military
dependents at Meade who too often find themselves uprooted from familiar surroundings due to
a permanent change of station (PCS) or deployments.
• Finally, one of the more troubling discoveries from the symposium centered on routine
maintenance and landscaping at Meade High School. All children deserve an opportunity to learn
in a world-class facility. Please fix this.
We are grateful for the work of the young leaders who organized and led the Arundel Legislative
Symposium. We strongly support the symposium's efforts to strengthen our local schools. As clergy in
Anne Arundel County we recognize the awesome responsibility for educating over 80,000 students. We
are here to help. Meade High is home to gifted scholars, talented athletes, and dedicated
instructors. Let’s build upon these successes with a spirit of renewed commitment and focus. Much is at
stake. We stand ready in partnership with the Arundel Legislative Symposium and others to support
mentors, tutoring, and interventions needed to keep Meade a world-class community for excellence in
learning, opportunity, and leadership.

 Respectfully,

Rev. James Gosnell, Metropolitan UMC
Bishop Antonio Palmer, Kingdom Celebration Center
Rev. Joseph Powell, Covenant Life House Ministries
Bishop Shanklin, New Life International Fellowship Ministries
Bishop Larry Lee Thomas, Empowering Believers Church
Rev. Stephen Tillett, Asbury Broadneck UMC
Rev. Herb Watson, St. Mark's UMC
Rev. J. Demetrius Watts, Kingdom Life Church

cc:
Devin Tucker, Chair, Arundel Legislative Symposium
Colonel Eric Spragg, Commander, Fort Meade
Michelle Corkadel, President, School Board, Anne Arundel County
Steuart Pittman, County Executive, Anne Arundel County