Officials from the town of Bel Air are upset that school officials blasted the community when justifying a smaller auditorium as the proposed replacement for Bel Air High School.
The new school will have a smaller auditorium than the current building. Town leaders wanted a larger facility with the potential to host community events.
Board of Education member Thomas Fidler questioned if Bel Air would be able or willing to contribute to the cost of a larger auditorium, suggesting it would be “impossible” to get money from the town.
Mayor Terry Hanley took offense at that comment, citing the town?s interest in working with the county to raise up to $1 million for an expanded auditorium and sent a letter back in October of 2005 requesting the auditorium as part of a performing arts center and magnet program.
“We sent letters. … Maybe he?s just not reading his mail,” Hanley said.
The town?s 2007 budget included $400,000 for the construction of a new auditorium, and officials had talked about working with the county to raise even more money, Hanley said.
Part of the push for a larger auditorium rested on the town?s desire to draw a performing-arts magnet program to the new school, though the current proposal calls for a medical science program tied to the nearby Upper Chesapeake Medical Center.
While officials in Bel Air want the performing-arts program, so do some others in Havre de Grace, said schools spokesman Don Morrison.
Morrison said that the plans for Bel Air?s auditorium are in keeping with the county?s policy: The state will only pay for auditorium space for about one-third of a school?s student body ? between 550 to 575 students at Bel Air ? and Harford County Schools follow that figure consistently. “It makes no sense economically or programmatically to have an auditorium big enough to seat the entire student body,” he said. “It would be too expensive, and it would sit idle for most of the year.”
