Churchill High Students Were Expected to Buy Own AP Texts

Enter Janis Sartucci. The mother of a Churchill senior, Sartucci is a frequent critic of both the school and the school system. Sartucci said she questioned the school's textbook rules as early as 2003 but took the issue to heart this year after paying $150 for AP psychology and history textbooks for her son.

Sartucci searched state code and found a citation that requires public schools to provide textbooks at no charge. This summer, she alerted other parents, school board members, local lawmakers and the news media. Reaction snowballed.

Superintendent Jerry D. Weast "only has a couple things that he's supposed to do, legally," Sartucci said, "and one of them is buy textbooks."

It's hard to determine the sentiment of other Churchill parents. Robyn Solomon, president of the Churchill Parent-Teacher-Student Association, said in an e-mail that Sartucci "DOES NOT speak for the parents at Churchill High School" and "lacks the respect of a large majority of the parent population. We are all sick and tired of her placing our Blue Ribbon School of Excellence negatively in the papers." Sartucci, for her part, contends that Solomon is beholden to the school because she works as a substitute teacher there. Several other PTSA leaders would not comment.

One explained that she had to "work with the school" and did not want to speak out. Fewer than 10 parents have accepted the school's offer of a refund for textbooks purchased.

Privately, some in the community said the issue conjures up unflattering stereotypes about Potomac and its Blue Ribbon school: of teachers insulated by high test scores and setting their own rules, and well-heeled families who can afford to buy what others must borrow.

Students -- who generally aren't paying for their texts -- seem largely unperturbed.

"I think those who had trouble paying got a fee waiver or something," Yukari Yamahiro, a 2007 graduate, wrote in an e-mail, "but most kids in Churchill had no problem paying."

Joan C. Benz, Churchill's principal, sent a letter home Aug. 30 to clarify "misunderstandings" of the school's policy, which she said is to provide textbooks to all. She conceded, however, that there would not be enough textbooks for all, at least for a few weeks.