Kent County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mary McComas says the years-long effort to build a new middle school in Chestertown is now approaching a critical crossroads. one she describes as a test of the community’s commitment to its children and its future. “This is a defining moment for Kent County,” she says.

“This is not all of a sudden,” McComas said. “The Board did not make this decision in isolation. We engaged the community extensively over several years, examined the options, and the overwhelming preference was to keep the middle school in Chestertown proper. This is the course of action we have been on for years.”

The process began nearly four years ago with an educational specifications study that presented multiple options for the aging 70-year-old middle school. Community engagement sessions narrowed the list to two, and the Board ultimately endorsed the Chestertown site with “full community support.”

Since last fall, the district has used state and local funds to work with architects on design and engineering. A presentation of the finalized plans will be made at the September Board of Education meeting, followed by community meetings at Kent County High School. McComas hopes construction can begin by late winter or early spring.

“We’re not just talking about bricks and mortar,” she said. “We’re talking about whether we as a community choose to invest and renew our school system, symbolized in a new middle school — or whether we do the very least we can.”

McComas says that under Maryland’s school construction cost-share formula, Kent County was initially responsible for 50% of eligible costs, with the state covering the other half. McComas explained that “eligible” space includes instructional areas, such as classrooms and a portion of the gym, but not community-use space like spectator seating.

Because of the district’s high poverty rates and the age of its facilities, the state’s share has risen to 60%. Legislative advocacy has also secured a pre-authorization for an additional $8 million state grant and $3 million from the Interagency on School Construction for the first year of construction.

The County Commissioners recently suggested a target of 80% state funding, which McComas welcomed. “I appreciate their partnership,” she said. “We will work that issue until the very last moment.”

Why Not Worton?

Relocating middle school students to the unused Worton Elementary building has been floated as an alternative, but McComas says it’s a poor fit and not cost-effective.

“The roof alone needs $2.2 million in repairs,” she noted. “There are ventilation and boiler issues, no full-size gym, no science labs, restrooms sized for small children. It simply wasn’t designed for middle school education.”

She added that the Worton “cafetorium”, a combination gym, cafeteria, and auditorium, would create daily scheduling conflicts for lunch, physical education, and music programs. “On the surface, it sounds practical,” she said, “but when you look at the truth of it, it’s not a viable solution and it ignores the community’s decision to keep the school in Chestertown.”

This is Part One of a two-part interview. The second will be posted on Tuesday.

This video is approximately eleven minutes in length.

Marty Two Bulls Jr., an Oglala Lakota artist and educator, is the second artist-in-residence in the Kent Cultural Alliance’s ongoing climate-focused program. A native of South Dakota, Two Bulls brings a distinctly grounded and thoughtful approach to his residency on Maryland’s Eastern Shore—one that blends artistic practice, deep observation, and an educator’s instinct for dialogue.

Partnering early on with the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, Two Bulls toured restoration sites along the shoreline—places where local communities are working to reintroduce biodiversity and combat erosion. That firsthand experience shaped his residency: “It gave me a sense not only of the region’s history,” he said, “but also of the future challenges it faces, especially with rising sea levels.”

While known for large-scale installations and process-driven sculpture, Two Bulls chose to return to simpler forms during his time in Kent County. “This residency gave me space to breathe, to reflect,” he said. “I’ve spent the time drawing and painting—mostly local plants and animals—and just meditating on what climate change means here and how to speak about it in a way that breaks through the political noise.”

For Two Bulls, communication is at the heart of his practice. He is both a fine artist and a graphic designer whose illustrations have appeared in newspapers and magazines. His visual work, whether gallery-bound or published, seeks to build understanding. “So much of this conversation is locked in party politics,” he noted. “I want to find new language, new metaphors that might help people connect to the issues more personally.”

A former faculty member at Oglala Lakota College, Two Bulls recently stepped away from teaching to focus full-time on artmaking. Still, his identity as an educator remains strong. “I’m not that old, but old enough to know I don’t want to spend the rest of my time writing emails. I want to do the work that calls me—and include my family in it too.”

Uniquely, the Kent Cultural Alliance supports artists bringing their families. Two Bulls has spent the summer here with his wife, daughters, and mother-in-law—a rarity in the world of artist residencies. “That made all the difference,” he said. “More programs should rethink their models—if we want a richer diversity of voices in art, we need to make room for people with full lives.”

Two Bulls’ work-in-progress will culminate in a gallery exhibition and artist talk this weekend. It reflects both the Eastern Shore’s landscape and the deeper cultural questions about belonging, responsibility, and future resilience. “Art can help us imagine other ways to live,” he said. “That’s what I’m here to explore.”

You are invited to Kent Cultural Alliance’s CLIMATE exhibit and talks of resident artists, Evan Kassof and Marty Two Bulls, Jr. this Friday and Saturday.

Friday, August 1, 2025 – OPENING NIGHT at KCA from 5-8 pm.  Join us for the opening of CLIMATE, An SFW Residency Exhibit featuring KCA’s resident artists

Saturday, August 2, 2025 – ARTISTS’ Talk at KCA at 1:00 join us for this more formal presentation of residency work by KCA’s artists.  The presentation will be followed by a lite reception.

For more about Kent Cultural Alliance, go here.

For more about Mary Two Bulls Jr., go here.

When Bradley Moore accepted the position of Chestertown’s Town Planner and Zoning Administrator ten months ago, it was a decision shaped by both chance and purpose. A native of Vermont with deep Eastern Shore ties—his mother grew up in Denton—Moore came across the job listing via a LinkedIn post shared by a colleague from his master’s program at the University of Delaware. After 20 years in the D.C. area working in patent law, and a growing urge to pursue public service, Moore saw local government as the scale where change was tangible.

“I always had that drive to try and change the world,” Moore says, “but that vision shrank in scale. What I love about local government is that the impact is visible. It touches people’s daily lives.”

Since taking office, Moore has immersed himself in Chestertown’s unique challenges: balancing historical preservation with 21st-century needs, fostering responsible growth, and ensuring zoning remains both legally sound and imaginatively flexible.

“Zoning isn’t just law, it’s part art,” he explains. “You get an address, you look up the zone, and sure, some things are black-and-white. But often you’re thinking about what’s appropriate, what fits the spirit of a place.”

A key focus has been the town’s historic district, where renovation often runs headlong into the complexities of modernization. Moore acknowledges the delicate balance required: “People want to retain the character of these beautiful old buildings, but also bring them into the modern age—solar panels, geothermal wells, climate resilience. It’s a careful threading of the needle.”

Chestertown’s Comprehensive Plan update is another priority. Working closely with the Planning Commission, Moore praises their thoroughness. “They’ve committed to making this a real roadmap, not just something to sit on a shelf. We’re now deep into workshops and pushing toward completion by year’s end—then we move into comprehensive rezoning.”

One of the most pressing issues he sees on the horizon? Housing.

“There’s a big need for what we call ‘missing middle’ housing—duplexes, triplexes, small multi-unit spaces,” Moore notes. “We can’t rely solely on single-family homes or big apartment complexes. We need a variety of options so people, especially working families, can afford to stay here. It’s ironic that even police officers and town employees often can’t afford to live in the town they serve.”

Moore also keeps an eye on broader trends, including the evolving landscape of short-term rentals like Airbnb. “It’s about balance,” he says. “We want tourists to have places to stay, but we also need to protect the supply of long-term housing for residents. This is an issue that’s playing out nationally, and we’re all trying to catch up on policy.”

Moore sees his role not just as a regulator but as a community listener and educator. “Most people don’t know what an easement is, but they should. Planning should be part of civics. It shapes our neighborhoods, our economy, and how we live.”

This video is approximately twelve minutes in length

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One of the great things about living in town is that my apartment sits just above Evergrain Bakery. And yes, you can smell the blueberries and sourdough rising in the ovens. It didn’t take long to realize a good story was baking right beneath my feet—though it took a little longer to get to it.

Recently, I had the chance to spend a morning with Doug Rae as he prepared a large batch of sourdough “Miches.” For someone like me, whose baking experience begins and ends at pizza, the process felt like a kind of modern-day alchemy. It was more intricate than I expected: Rae mixed the live yeast culture with flour, coaxed water into a giant mixer, added a scoop of salt, and after cutting and hand-shaping the dough, ended up with elastic globes that looked a bit like curling stones that would eventually find their way to the oven. All of this, of course, was measured out in increments of time as as the fermenting process took place. Yet he moved through it all with the casual ease of folding laundry. He’s been doing this for years.

At 15, Rae and his father built a brick oven in their backyard. A few years later, he enrolled at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, home to one of the nation’s top baking programs. There, he trained under master bakers like Mitch Stamm and worked alongside Team USA as they prepared for the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris. “That exposure shaped everything,” he says.

Rae opened Evergrain Bakery in Chestertown in 2010 with a simple plan: “Bake as much bread as possible and get it to as many people as I could.” The shop quickly became a local institution, known for its sourrsough, rosemary focaccia, cinnamon raisin loaves, cheddar and herb rounds, and a New York–style bagel that sells by the dozen at farmers markets. On the pastry side, Evergrain produces laminated Viennoiserie like croissants and pain au chocolat, aliong with the aforementioned blueberry muffins, cookies and brownies.

Teaching is just as important to Rae as baking. “The only thing I love more than baking is teaching,” he says. Whether training staff or guiding college students through the alchemy of sourdough, he sees bread as a tool for connection and education.

Evergrain’s approach blends traditional and modern techniques—what Rae calls “retro-innovation.” By combining old-world methods with newer equipment, he says, “we get the highest quality product possible.”

Like many small businesses, Evergrain faced uncertainty during COVID. But support from the community turned 2020 into their busiest year. Today, they sell at farmers markets across Maryland—from Easton to Havre de Grace.

Looking ahead, Rae plans to open an offsite production facility and mill his own flour using heritage grains and working with local farmers. “Decentralizing food systems is a no-brainer,” he says. “It builds food security and identity.”

With plans to restore indoor seating and expand offerings, Evergrain remains grounded in Rae’s original vision: “What we make isn’t from a factory. It’s from people you know. And it’s for a cause we believe in.”

For more about Evergrain Bakery, go here.

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Just east of Chestertown on McGinnis Road, Oksana Bocharova walks through her seven-acre organic farm to assess the impact of recent rains. Too much rain, she says, is as concerning as drought. She knows that much of the day will be spent trying to gain control over an onslaught of new weeds. But that’s just a part of the complexity of running an organic farm with no pesticides.

Oksana’s journey to Chestertown began in 1999 when she and her husband left Russia for the U.S. In debt after trying to run their own farm following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and without access to bankruptcy protections, they took the leap, having to leave their two children behind until they were situated in the U.S.. With borrowed funds and a program called the International Dairy Training Initiative, they landed in the icy pastures of Minnesota and Wisconsin, learning American farm life by milking cows and cleaning barns.

What began as a one-year plan turned into a new life. After repaying their debts with the stronger U.S. dollar against the Russian ruble, the couple decided to stay. Through hard labor, $20,000 in legal fees, and eventual sponsorship from a farm owner, Oksana secured a work visa. A few years later, she brought her children to the U.S. and began building toward permanent residency.

When her marriage ended, Bocharova remained with her children, eventually moving to Maryland to work with Horizon Organic and later the Fry family’s dairy farm. Encouraged by supportive employers and agricultural workshops, she began exploring how to buy land for a farm and family house. Banks turned her down—but a USDA program for immigrant and beginning farmers worked with her. After three years, she bought her farm.

Today, Oksana’s Produce Farm is a model of small-scale, sustainable agriculture: diverse, organic, and community-driven. Daily, she prepares for the weekend markets. At Chestertown’s Saturday Market, she usually sells out to her devoted fans by the end of day. Her eggs are famous among marketers.

Her son, a former electrical engineer, left his job to co-found a fermentation business with her. They now supply farmer’s markets across Maryland and D.C. with sauerkraut, pickles, and kimchi—products rooted in Oksana’s Russian traditions and American entrepreneurship.

Oksana also hosts lush seasonal farm-to-table dinners on her property, bringing together food, friends, and storytelling under the stars—offering a taste of resilience, heritage, and healing. The one I attended was spectacular.

Bocharova’s work is hard, and the seasons are increasingly unpredictable, but her philosophy remains steady: “I wanted us to plant roots here,” she says. “To call this home.”

For more about Oksana and to attend one of her amazing dinners, go here.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length.

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In a moment when democratic institutions are under renewed scrutiny, Rich De Prospo offers an intense critique of America’s foundational narratives in his latest book, Exceptionally Backward: Economic, Racial, Gender, and Generational Inequality in a Neo-Colonial U.S.

De Prospo is Director of American Studies; Ernest A. Howard Professor of English and American Studies at Washington College. During his tenure there, he has written more than six books often challenging the standard academic “take” on the roots and ascension of American literary history, and now offers an interpretation of the founding documents as what WVU Professor of Literature Timothy. Sweet calls “an anticipatory reaction against Europe’s emergent humanist modernity

De Prospo says the project began in the early days of COVID lockdowns, during a chance sidewalk conversation in Pennsylvania. There, a colleague mentioned an obscure Soviet-era book titled Marx and Engels on the United States, a compilation of 19th-century commentary on American inequality. Intrigued, De Prospo returned to Marx’s observations and found unsettling continuity between the past and present.

What followed was a sustained inquiry into the ideological framework of the U.S. Constitution, which De Prospo argues was never meant to promote equality or popular sovereignty. Instead, it was meticulously designed to entrench elite control.

“The so-called Revolution of 1776 had no intention whatsoever of altering inequality,” he asserts. “What the Constitution protected wasn’t liberty—it was elite rule.”

Throughout the book, and in his interview with The Spy, De Prospo confronts a number of cherished civic beliefs. He draws on the writings of Jefferson and Hamilton, the Federalist Papers, and recent scholarship by legal experts like Erwin Chemerinsky and political scientists like Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. His conclusion: systemic inequality in the United States is not a deviation from its founding ideals—but rather their logical outcome.

This interview explores the persistence of Founding Father mythologies across political lines, the illusion of American “moderation,” and the cultural tug-of-war over who gets to define democracy. As De Prospo puts it, “This is not merely about originalism. It’s about whether a document built to preserve elite power can survive the demands of a democratic society.”

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length. Exceptionally Backward: Economic, Racial, Gender, and Generational Inequality in a Neo-Colonial US can be be found on Amazon.

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On Saturday, June 21 at 1 p.m., at the Harwood Nature Center at Lawrence Wetlands Preserve, Darius Johnson will present “We’re Still Here,” a talk on the history of Black countryside communities in Kent County.

Darius Johnson is a historian and preservation scholar with Chesapeake Heartland, as well as a committed community advocate. His original research brings long-overdue scholarly attention to the rural Black communities of Still Pond, Coleman, Big Woods, and Butlertown—histories that have long been marginalized in favor of a predominantly Chestertown-focused narrative.

The project became deeply personal for Johnson. Raised in Big Woods, with family roots in Still Pond and Butlertown, he began tracing his genealogy and made a startling discovery: he is a direct descendant of James Butler, a free Black man who owned land in 1820, during a time when many like him were still considered property.

“Facts and figures related to African American history in Kent County have been increasingly documented and celebrated in recent decades, yet a deep and often complicated gap remains in sharing many of the stories of success, empowerment, and lived experience that give meaning to the data. We’re Still Here aims to take a step toward bridging that gap, write Maria Wood, Executive Director of the Historical Society of Kent County.

What began as a personal journey has evolved into a county-wide archival effort. With the help of cousins and neighbors, Johnson is collecting and digitizing family records, rare photographs, manumission papers, and newspaper clippings—some dating back before 1900. The result is a growing digital archive of stories that document resilience, kinship, education, and land ownership in Kent County’s Black countryside.

In collaboration with the Historical Society of Kent County, Johnson’s presentation will guide attendees through generations of Black life rooted in land, freedom, and family—stories that have too often remained in the shadows.

Johnson also called attention to the upcoming Legacy Day , August 15-17, 2025. celebrates the rich cultural heritage of African Americans in Kent County. It is an opportunity for all residents to have a great time recognizing their shared history. Legacy Day is offered free of charge to the community – thanks to the generous support of individuals, organizations, and businesses. Catch up with the virtual celebration at: https://sumnerhall.org

We’re Still Here is free and open to the public. Reservations are encouraged.

Please note: there is no parking at the preserve. Visitors are asked to use the town lots on the 300 block of Cannon Street. Those with limited mobility may call (410) 778-3499 in advance.

For additional information, contact the Historical Society at (410) 778-3499 or [email protected].