Please help me with the concept here and the math…
I take it that this is an example of a VERY wealthy community raising funds for their elementary school to help defray expenses with books (rare first editions), Promethean boards (holographic) and pencils (gold plated), yes? From the “thank you” letter, doing the math, it appears that well over a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS was raised (5x $10K+, 13x $5K+, 32x $2.5K+, and many other family and corporate contributions). That’s $195K+ in identified contributions plus all others that could easily meet or exceed $55K more. The total could be a lot more than $250,000. Forget the gold plated pencils; are they building a new wing onto the school? Are they funding construction of a new school building altogether?? Wow!
Now check this out… Going to Westbrook’s web site and using an average class size of 25 students and multiplying that by the number of K through 5 teachers, there cannot be much more than 300 students attending this elementary school (the Westbrook web site says 350). Some MCPS elementary schools (especially Title One schools) have student populations in the 800+ range. Parents at those schools don’t raise quite as much cash as they do at Westbrook. Doing the math again, the money raised at Westbrook equates to nearly $1,000 per student. Gee, how can I get my kid transferred to Westbrook? But hey, MCPS has great free breakfasts for the Title One kids at other county schools. Do I have this all wrong? What’s going on here? It must be nice to be rich.
"It must be nice to be rich". That pretty much sums this situation up. It's sad that the quality of schools are determined by the tax base of their neighborhood. This essentially says that poor kids deserve a poorly funded education while rich kids deserve all the bells and whistles. It's not that anyone wants to take away the bells and whistles from the wealthy children, but why can't we give them to ALL children? Ridiculous.
Isn't there some rule about serving Booze at school functions? Looking specifically at the Moms UnWined, Margaritas and Manicures, etc. And this is to raise money for an elementary school?
Then there was a restriction. This organization is run from the school. Same address. Same people in charge.
Do you support teens hiding in the basement and drinking alcohol as not counting as underage drinking? That is, it's OK for adults to skirt the rules by pretending this is not a school sponsored event?
Tell me, how was this advertised to attendees? It wouldn't have been through the SCHOOL would it? That would then be the SCHOOL promoting events with ALCOHOL as the theme.
Checking the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation online database, there are at least two glaring issues with “The Friends of Westbrook School Foundation, Inc.,” founded on August 2, 1999 (Dept ID #: D05434568). 1.) The “foundation’s” address (Principal Office) is listed as 5110 Allan Terrace, Bethesda, MD 20816. That’s the same address as Westbrook Elementary School. The private foundation should not be located at Montgomery County PUBLIC school. Several legal issues could arise from this. 2.) “The Friends of Westbrook School Foundation, Inc.,” was FORFEITED on October 7, 2005 for “FAILURE TO FILE PROPERTY RETURN.” There is no mention of a reinstatement; however, there does seem to be data regarding filings from 2009 forward. There should be an indication that this organization was officially removed from forfeiture (usually a paper filing and a fine, after 2001, the paper filing would be viewable on the state’s web site as a PDF). There is no mention of a reinstatement on the state’s web site. The Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation online database has been up and down this morning. When it stabilizes, click on the link below to see this for yourself.
Chris, You are in favor of public schools in affluent neighborhoods becoming private schools, correct? It's OK if a neighborhood takes over a public school and makes it their own private entity? Obviously, this changes property values permanently.
The way MCPS "balances" this out is that schools in poor neighborhoods get cell tower compounds on their playgrounds. Fair?
One neighborhood gets an improved, upgraded, Terrazo tile palace, and other schools get a 20 x 30 propane tank fueled 180 foot tall tower on their playground. Property values go up for affluent and down for poor. These are permanent changes to neighborhoods that forever impact property values.
You are good with that? If so, please provide your zip code so we can see how this impacts your neighborhood. Thanks.
I want to point out that calling out the people who donate by amount is something many organizations, including religious organizations, dropped years ago. In some cases, general amounts, e.g., $25-$100, or $250-$500 are called out but never have I seen specific amounts associated with specific names. There is a very good reason organizations no longer do this. It creates tremendous social pressure on people who belong to those organizations; and, the practice inappropriately suggests that some people within an organization are valued more because of the money they contribute.
I think Chris has misstated the issue Apparently, the problem is not that parents have money. Rather, the problem is that parents are spending the money on their children's education.
What exactly does the Parents' Coalition think should be done about this "travesty"? Forbid the parents from making these donations? Have MCPS confiscate the funds and redistribute them as they see fit?
You know, there are some parents who read to their young children than other parents do. That creates an unfair advantage, and needs to be interdicted.
Zinzindor you have misstated the issue. This has nothing to do with education and everything to do with property values. A lot of these donations are from people that don't even have children at this school. There's nothing in this money that has to do with education. You are in favor of communities being able to turn a neighborhood school into a private school. Why should taxpayers support these schools at all if the neighborhood is going to take it over? Maybe we should just cut the funding to schools that have local funding?
"You are in favor of public schools in affluent neighborhoods becoming private schools?" - I am in favor of parents contributing to their schools. And if they can afford to give "gobs" of money, so be it. My child goes to one of the counties poorest schools. Ya know what? The poor schools will stay poor no matter whether rich families contribute to their rich schools or not. One doesn't change the other. If I could contribute a hefty sum of money to my kids school, you bet I would. I do it now wherever I can. I know we are talking about an elementary school but if Kennedy, Watkins Mill, Springbrook, Wheaton, Northwood or Einstein (or their respective cluster schools) had an opportunity to get significant donations to improve their school, you would oppose it? If not, why would you oppose it in any neighborhood at all, affluent or not? So parents of Bethesda/Potomac can't give yet until the other areas catch up? " It's OK if a neighborhood takes over a public school and makes it their own private entity?" - I am in full favor of parents being completely involved. Whether they do it through time or money or both. Because they give money, THEREFORE, they've taken over? What is the school doing, directly connected to the money the school is getting, that is hurting the education process? Has the curriculum changed? Have teachers been fired because of undue influence of their money? Are they dictating policy? I am not being facetious here, are things changing that are hurting the school? Because if so, that needs to be addressed. Not that parents give lots of money. Otherwise what's the boundary? If I give $100 is that too much, $1,000 or $10,000. And why? Because other schools don't have it? That doesn't make sense. If a school raises $250,000 are you going to say anything above that amount must go elsewhere. If I have given to that school, I want it to go to that school.
Then you better pay attention, because the BOE is looking at moving these funds around. The teachers' union is also looking at using these funds to supplement classroom teachers. That is, the teachers' union wants to add these funds to time for substitute teachers and specials. That will change the educational program at these schools and create a gap between the red and green zone schools. Seems like you need to catch up on what is being planned.
"One neighborhood gets an improved, upgraded, Terrazo tile palace, and other schools get a 20 x 30 propane tank fueled 180 foot tall tower on their playground. Property values go up for affluent and down for poor. These are permanent changes to neighborhoods that forever impact property values." - Property values go down because of those darn rich people wanting the best for their kids? So they must stop right now? You don't think gangs, drugs, crime, and low income might have something do with declining property values do you? Schools don't suffer just because they aren't affluent. It's also kids coming from homes that are single parent homes, parents perhaps not as educated, aren't as involved, many that don't speak English, many with their own issues of alcohol or drugs. Sure, all those issues exist in wealthy neighborhoods but not to the level of poor neighborhoods...hence, they're poor. When one of my kids went to a rich private high school nearly every child was represented by at least one parent at "Back to School Night". My child that went to one of the poor public schools maybe 3-4 kids were represented in classes of 25-30 kids. Why do they dump cell towers and industrial tanks in poor neighborhood schools? Because they can I guess. When they tried to put up a cell tower on the Whitman property a few years ago neighbors organized and got together a petition and blocked it. Maybe it was just a few citizens or maybe it was hundreds. I don't really know. Maybe Wheaton did the exact same thing and were ignored. Maybe they didn't have the same organization. I lived in the area then but I honestly don't remember when that came about. But if you forbid all wealthy school parents from contributing...the cell tower and propane tanks will still be there. Maybe the poor neighborhood parents could organize pickets, rallies and protests. But my property going down BECAUSE Bethesda's is going up. Mine is going down because peoples homes are being foreclosed on. Homes are being filled with the "undocumented" to the tune of 2,3,4 families in one dwelling and cars are parked on lawns and all over the place. Businesses are not opening up and many sit vacant (although it's getting slightly better). BTW, you do realize that a lot of these schools are being re-done. Not as fast as I would like but they are getting them. Check out the new Weller Road ES which is huge and quite nice as well as Glenallen ES. BTW- Winchester Homes, has donated $10,000 to the school for computers and a mobile lab (Gazette, 04/11). Ohhh, that sounds like a lot of money, maybe we should deny that. My kid goes to a poor school and I don't have money envy. Good luck to those other parents. In fact, I'll send them $10 just BECAUSE I can.
Winchester Homes is donating for the perk of overcrowding. What's to "like" about that?
You hit the nail on the head with your comment that no matter what the red zone schools do the cell towers will still be there! That's the point! Those are PERMANENT changes that were made to those school sites that will FOREVER drive away families from the neighborhood! That is a permanent change that stamped the school as red zone. Doesn't matter who is in the neighborhood.
And, by the way, you missed Sligo Middle School. Jerry Weast & his cell tower buddies tried to sneak a cell tower on to that playground. They were STOPPED by the neighborhood and the Parents' Coalition. Illegal documents that had been filed were challenged and thrown out at the Board of Appeals. Yes, with NOTICE even a red zone school can successfully stop a cell tower on a playground. That's why MCPS does NOT give those communities notice. Do you like that MCPS treats red zone schools differently? That's what you are advocating, a two tier system.
This is incredible.
ReplyDeletePlease help me with the concept here and the math…
I take it that this is an example of a VERY wealthy community raising funds for their elementary school to help defray expenses with books (rare first editions), Promethean boards (holographic) and pencils (gold plated), yes? From the “thank you” letter, doing the math, it appears that well over a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS was raised (5x $10K+, 13x $5K+, 32x $2.5K+, and many other family and corporate contributions). That’s $195K+ in identified contributions plus all others that could easily meet or exceed $55K more. The total could be a lot more than $250,000. Forget the gold plated pencils; are they building a new wing onto the school? Are they funding construction of a new school building altogether?? Wow!
Now check this out… Going to Westbrook’s web site and using an average class size of 25 students and multiplying that by the number of K through 5 teachers, there cannot be much more than 300 students attending this elementary school (the Westbrook web site says 350). Some MCPS elementary schools (especially Title One schools) have student populations in the 800+ range. Parents at those schools don’t raise quite as much cash as they do at Westbrook. Doing the math again, the money raised at Westbrook equates to nearly $1,000 per student. Gee, how can I get my kid transferred to Westbrook? But hey, MCPS has great free breakfasts for the Title One kids at other county schools. Do I have this all wrong? What’s going on here? It must be nice to be rich.
"It must be nice to be rich". That pretty much sums this situation up. It's sad that the quality of schools are determined by the tax base of their neighborhood. This essentially says that poor kids deserve a poorly funded education while rich kids deserve all the bells and whistles. It's not that anyone wants to take away the bells and whistles from the wealthy children, but why can't we give them to ALL children? Ridiculous.
DeleteIsn't there some rule about serving Booze at school functions? Looking specifically at the Moms UnWined, Margaritas and Manicures, etc. And this is to raise money for an elementary school?
ReplyDeleteIf the event wasn't at the school, and sponsored by neither the school nor the PTA, then there would not be an alcohol restriction.
DeleteThen there was a restriction. This organization is run from the school. Same address. Same people in charge.
DeleteDo you support teens hiding in the basement and drinking alcohol as not counting as underage drinking? That is, it's OK for adults to skirt the rules by pretending this is not a school sponsored event?
Tell me, how was this advertised to attendees? It wouldn't have been through the SCHOOL would it? That would then be the SCHOOL promoting events with ALCOHOL as the theme.
Alcohol is served at fifth grade farewell parties. Lots of it.
Delete-= BREAKING NEWS =-
ReplyDeleteChecking the Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation online database, there are at least two glaring issues with “The Friends of Westbrook School Foundation, Inc.,” founded on August 2, 1999 (Dept ID #: D05434568). 1.) The “foundation’s” address (Principal Office) is listed as 5110 Allan Terrace, Bethesda, MD 20816. That’s the same address as Westbrook Elementary School. The private foundation should not be located at Montgomery County PUBLIC school. Several legal issues could arise from this. 2.) “The Friends of Westbrook School Foundation, Inc.,” was FORFEITED on October 7, 2005 for “FAILURE TO FILE PROPERTY RETURN.” There is no mention of a reinstatement; however, there does seem to be data regarding filings from 2009 forward. There should be an indication that this organization was officially removed from forfeiture (usually a paper filing and a fine, after 2001, the paper filing would be viewable on the state’s web site as a PDF). There is no mention of a reinstatement on the state’s web site. The Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation online database has been up and down this morning. When it stabilizes, click on the link below to see this for yourself.
http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/UCC-Charter/DisplayEntity_b.aspx?EntityID=D05434568&EntityName=THE+FRIENDS+OF+WESTBROOK+SCHOOL+FOUNDATION%2c+INC.&TabNum=1
I found what the money is for. I sure got the math right ($247,000). Check out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/agenda/2011-12/2012-1211/4.2.4%20Westbrook%20ES%20Request%20Fund%20Improve%20CNE.pdf
The total amount of funds raised by the Friends of Westbrook Foundation for this project is $330,000.
DeleteI don't understand, am I suppose to be angry? Parents have money. Good for them. More power to them.
ReplyDeleteChris,
DeleteYou are in favor of public schools in affluent neighborhoods becoming private schools, correct? It's OK if a neighborhood takes over a public school and makes it their own private entity? Obviously, this changes property values permanently.
The way MCPS "balances" this out is that schools in poor neighborhoods get cell tower compounds on their playgrounds.
Fair?
One neighborhood gets an improved, upgraded, Terrazo tile palace, and other schools get a 20 x 30 propane tank fueled 180 foot tall tower on their playground. Property values go up for affluent and down for poor. These are permanent changes to neighborhoods that forever impact property values.
You are good with that? If so, please provide your zip code so we can see how this impacts your neighborhood. Thanks.
I want to point out that calling out the people who donate by amount is something many organizations, including religious organizations, dropped years ago. In some cases, general amounts, e.g., $25-$100, or $250-$500 are called out but never have I seen specific amounts associated with specific names. There is a very good reason organizations no longer do this. It creates tremendous social pressure on people who belong to those organizations; and, the practice inappropriately suggests that some people within an organization are valued more because of the money they contribute.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious to know what, if any, overlap there was between the officers of the school's PTA and the officers of this foundation.
ReplyDeleteI think Chris has misstated the issue Apparently, the problem is not that parents have money. Rather, the problem is that parents are spending the money on their children's education.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly does the Parents' Coalition think should be done about this "travesty"? Forbid the parents from making these donations? Have MCPS confiscate the funds and redistribute them as they see fit?
You know, there are some parents who read to their young children than other parents do. That creates an unfair advantage, and needs to be interdicted.
Zinzindor you have misstated the issue. This has nothing to do with education and everything to do with property values. A lot of these donations are from people that don't even have children at this school.
DeleteThere's nothing in this money that has to do with education.
You are in favor of communities being able to turn a neighborhood school into a private school. Why should taxpayers support these schools at all if the neighborhood is going to take it over? Maybe we should just cut the funding to schools that have local funding?
"You are in favor of public schools in affluent neighborhoods becoming private schools?"
ReplyDelete- I am in favor of parents contributing to their schools. And if they can afford to give "gobs" of money, so be it. My child goes to one of the counties poorest schools. Ya know what? The poor schools will stay poor no matter whether rich families contribute to their rich schools or not. One doesn't change the other. If I could contribute a hefty sum of money to my kids school, you bet I would. I do it now wherever I can. I know we are talking about an elementary school but if Kennedy, Watkins Mill, Springbrook, Wheaton, Northwood or Einstein (or their respective cluster schools) had an opportunity to get significant donations to improve their school, you would oppose it? If not, why would you oppose it in any neighborhood at all, affluent or not? So parents of Bethesda/Potomac can't give yet until the other areas catch up?
" It's OK if a neighborhood takes over a public school and makes it their own private entity?"
- I am in full favor of parents being completely involved. Whether they do it through time or money or both. Because they give money, THEREFORE, they've taken over? What is the school doing, directly connected to the money the school is getting, that is hurting the education process? Has the curriculum changed? Have teachers been fired because of undue influence of their money? Are they dictating policy? I am not being facetious here, are things changing that are hurting the school? Because if so, that needs to be addressed. Not that parents give lots of money. Otherwise what's the boundary? If I give $100 is that too much, $1,000 or $10,000. And why? Because other schools don't have it? That doesn't make sense. If a school raises $250,000 are you going to say anything above that amount must go elsewhere. If I have given to that school, I want it to go to that school.
Then you better pay attention, because the BOE is looking at moving these funds around. The teachers' union is also looking at using these funds to supplement classroom teachers. That is, the teachers' union wants to add these funds to time for substitute teachers and specials. That will change the educational program at these schools and create a gap between the red and green zone schools.
DeleteSeems like you need to catch up on what is being planned.
"One neighborhood gets an improved, upgraded, Terrazo tile palace, and other schools get a 20 x 30 propane tank fueled 180 foot tall tower on their playground. Property values go up for affluent and down for poor. These are permanent changes to neighborhoods that forever impact property values."
ReplyDelete- Property values go down because of those darn rich people wanting the best for their kids? So they must stop right now? You don't think gangs, drugs, crime, and low income might have something do with declining property values do you? Schools don't suffer just because they aren't affluent. It's also kids coming from homes that are single parent homes, parents perhaps not as educated, aren't as involved, many that don't speak English, many with their own issues of alcohol or drugs. Sure, all those issues exist in wealthy neighborhoods but not to the level of poor neighborhoods...hence, they're poor. When one of my kids went to a rich private high school nearly every child was represented by at least one parent at "Back to School Night". My child that went to one of the poor public schools maybe 3-4 kids were represented in classes of 25-30 kids.
Why do they dump cell towers and industrial tanks in poor neighborhood schools? Because they can I guess. When they tried to put up a cell tower on the Whitman property a few years ago neighbors organized and got together a petition and blocked it. Maybe it was just a few citizens or maybe it was hundreds. I don't really know. Maybe Wheaton did the exact same thing and were ignored. Maybe they didn't have the same organization. I lived in the area then but I honestly don't remember when that came about. But if you forbid all wealthy school parents from contributing...the cell tower and propane tanks will still be there. Maybe the poor neighborhood parents could organize pickets, rallies and protests. But my property going down BECAUSE Bethesda's is going up. Mine is going down because peoples homes are being foreclosed on. Homes are being filled with the "undocumented" to the tune of 2,3,4 families in one dwelling and cars are parked on lawns and all over the place. Businesses are not opening up and many sit vacant (although it's getting slightly better).
BTW, you do realize that a lot of these schools are being re-done. Not as fast as I would like but they are getting them. Check out the new Weller Road ES which is huge and quite nice as well as Glenallen ES. BTW- Winchester Homes, has donated $10,000 to the school for computers and a mobile lab (Gazette, 04/11). Ohhh, that sounds like a lot of money, maybe we should deny that.
My kid goes to a poor school and I don't have money envy. Good luck to those other parents. In fact, I'll send them $10 just BECAUSE I can.
Winchester Homes is donating for the perk of overcrowding. What's to "like" about that?
DeleteYou hit the nail on the head with your comment that no matter what the red zone schools do the cell towers will still be there! That's the point! Those are PERMANENT changes that were made to those school sites that will FOREVER drive away families from the neighborhood! That is a permanent change that stamped the school as red zone. Doesn't matter who is in the neighborhood.
And, by the way, you missed Sligo Middle School. Jerry Weast & his cell tower buddies tried to sneak a cell tower on to that playground. They were STOPPED by the neighborhood and the Parents' Coalition. Illegal documents that had been filed were challenged and thrown out at the Board of Appeals. Yes, with NOTICE even a red zone school can successfully stop a cell tower on a playground. That's why MCPS does NOT give those communities notice.
Do you like that MCPS treats red zone schools differently? That's what you are advocating, a two tier system.