On June 11, the Carroll County Board of Education voted 5-0 to end the overnight portion of Outdoor School, citing safety concerns at the Hashawha Environmental Area. The board cited a specific incident in which an individual appeared to be under the influence, entered the property, and attempted to access the buildings before a staff member intervened.
"No tradition is more important than the safety and security of our children," the board wrote in a statement released the following day. Day programming will continue in the 2027-28 school year after a one-year break, but the overnight stays that have defined the experience for fifty years are gone.
The vote came at a notable moment: three of the five current Carroll County Public Schools (CCPS) board members — President Stephen Whisler, Vice President Dr. Patricia S. Dorsey, and Board Member Tara Battaglia — have terms expiring in December. Whisler is leaving after one term to seek another office, while Dorsey and Battaglia are both ineligible to run for the Board after serving two consecutive terms.
Whisler is running for the Maryland House of Delegates, facing incumbents April Rose and Chris Tomlinson in next week’s Republican primary. Battaglia is running for the Carroll County Republican Central Committee. Dorsey has not publicly announced any future political plans.
The remaining two board members, Dr. Greg Malveaux and Kristen Zihmer, were elected in 2024 and serve through 2028.
Six candidates are running for the three seats set to be vacated by Whisler, Battaglia, and Dorsey later this year. Westminster Wire asked all six candidates for their reaction to the Outdoor School vote. Three have responded, and all three took issue with how the current school board made the decision.
School board candidates react to the Outdoor School vote
Julie Walsh (Mt. Airy) spoke at the June 10 board meeting in opposition to the vote and submitted written remarks. She told Westminster Wire she was disappointed in both the outcome and the manner in which it was reached.
"I was frustrated at the speed at which the situation unfolded, the lack of notice to the community, and the lack of transparency," Walsh said. "If I had been serving on the Board when the vote was taken, I would have pushed back on the process, and I would not have voted in favor of the measure without an opportunity for the public to weigh in."
In her written remarks, Walsh argued that safety concerns alone aren't sufficient grounds to end the program. "The question is not whether there is risk," she wrote. "It is whether the risks outweigh the benefits." She noted that athletics, field trips, and school bus rides all carry risk, and said she found it hard to believe something had changed so dramatically after fifty years to shift that calculation. But she noted that there may be a risk the public has not been made aware of.
"I think most CCPS families would rather see a temporary closure with a thoughtful reopening than the permanent elimination of this most dearly-held program," she wrote of the end to the overnights.
Lisa Maisano (Sykesville) said she learned about the vote from the newspaper less than 24 hours before the meeting. The agenda listed only "Outdoor School Program,” with no indication that a vote to end the overnight portion was coming.
"It is unacceptable that the public was not made aware of the significance of the meeting, decision, and vote ahead of time," Maisano said. She called for future decisions of this magnitude to separate the presentation of risks from the vote itself, allowing for public comment in between. She also raised a question the board has not answered publicly: how are other Maryland counties still able to run overnight outdoor school programs?
Maisano stopped short of promising to reverse the decision if elected. "I very well may have come to the same conclusion as the BOE when presented with all the information they had," she said.
But she was unambiguous about the process. "A piece of Carroll County died with that decision if we let it," she wrote in a statement posted to her campaign page. "If I'm elected to the BOE, I can't promise that I have the power to bring overnight Outdoor School back. But what I can promise is that I will do everything in my power to ensure that decisions as important as this are made transparently and with clear communication and meaningful public input."
Shannon Hinkhaus (Westminster), a finance professional and the first candidate to file for the 2026 CCPS school board race, offered a measured take on the board's intentions alongside her criticism of the process.
"As someone who has such great memories from my own Outdoor School experience, I am sad to see the overnight component lost," she said. "But I understand that times change, and standards of safety and security have evolved."
"My objection stems less from the final result than from the process followed to get there," Hinkhaus said. "I would have preferred for the board to have discussed the risks in one meeting, invited community input, then saved the vote for a subsequent meeting."
"I do trust that our board's intent was to act in the safety and best interests of our students, and that the five members voted in good faith," Hinkhaus said. "However, the transparency of the process is important, and I believe the community should ideally have had the opportunity to witness and participate in discussions of closure vs. risk mitigation, any potential solutions, and all associated costs."
Marsha Herbert, Sharon Wilhide, and Cleveland Christopher Friday are also on the ballot for Carroll County School Board and had not responded at the time of publication.