Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Breaking: New Superintendent and Board of Education Usher in New Era of Transparency

 April Fools

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Today, the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board issued an official opinion that found the Montgomery County Board of Education violated the Maryland Open Meetings Act during a Closed Session on September 26, 2024, when they discussed the acquisition of diesel school buses for $13.9 million dollars. 

This blog reported on this presumed violation on January 9, 2025, along with other irregularities in the procurement.   

Same old, same old at the Montgomery County Board of Education.  

We will have more on this, including how not only did the Board of Education violate the Open Meetings Act, but how they spent thousands of dollars in outside legal time to defend their violation in multiple responses to the original Complaint I filed on January 9, 2025.  

For now, here is today's Opinion: 

19 OMCB Opinions 070 Montgomery County Board of Education VIOLATED Open Meetings Act by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

Monday, March 31, 2025

Response to OpEd from President of Taxpayers League:

Response from Esther Wells, President of Montgomery County Taxpayers League to March 29, 2025, OpEd on Bethesda Today. 

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This OpEd is disingenuous. “The County Council now needs to decide: Does it invest in education or not?” 

Taxpayers have consistently funded MCPS far above the required levels. So,that’s not the right question to ask. 

The real question is what accountability will MCPS provide Students & Taxpayers in the form of academic ROI [Return on Investment] if we fund MCPS over $250M higher than required to per State law? 

Test scores are stagnant/declining, public safety in our schools are at unacceptable levels, MCPS struggles to ensure every classroom has a teacher in it daily, $168M funds wasted with EV buses that don’t work, multi-million dollar school bus tracking app that can’t protect student data, so that gets canned. 

Millions spent annually in legal fees, embezzlement of funds in transportation dept, the list goes on. 

Let’s balance the conversation and stop making it seem like Taxpayers have not prioritized funding to our schools, we have. 

What we’ve lacked is accountability of the investment. 

Can someone please provide a SMART goal on what the ROI will be to fully fund MCPS in FY2026? Thanks

Esther L. Wells on X: "@bethesda_today This OpEd is disingenuous. “The County Council now needs to decide: Does it invest in education or not?” Taxpayers have consistently funded MCPS far above the required levels. So,that’s not the right question to ask. The real question is what accountability will MCPS provide https://t.co/XY63Y5esTf" / X

Friday, March 28, 2025

Advocacy Site for Parents & Guardians: SAY NO to drug & Alcohol Rehab Center Next to Greenwood Elementary School


 



Community Meeting

Many questions remain after the community meeting held on March 24 at Greenwood Elementary. Councilmember Luedtke promises that answers to follow-up questions will be responded to by email. If you attended the meeting in person or virtually, you should receive an update from the Councilmember's office.

If you were not able to attend, the recording is available: Zoom Recording from GW Community Meeting

More on this issue impacting MCPS' Greenwood Elementary School in Brookeville, MD.

NO to Drug & Alcohol Rehabilitation Center Next to Greenwood Elementary School

Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Maryland residents outraged over drug rehab facility near Montgomery Co. school

Tensions ran high Monday night as Montgomery County, Maryland, residents gathered at Greenwood Elementary School to voice concerns over a drug rehabilitation facility set to open near the school.

The meeting, hosted by Montgomery County Council member Dawn Luedtke, aimed to address residents’ questions about zoning laws, facility regulations, and community impact.



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The planned facility, to be operated by The Freedom Center, will be a Level 3.5 residential substance use disorder treatment center. It will house up to 16 residents across two properties on Gold Mine Place, just feet away from the elementary school.

Community members have expressed frustration over a lack of communication from the facility’s operators, as well as concerns about potential safety risks for children. Many parents in attendance raised objections to the facility’s proximity to the school, emphasizing the need for students to feel secure during recess and outdoor activities...

Maryland residents outraged over drug rehab facility near Montgomery Co. school - WTOP News

Residents dissatisfied with meeting outcome over proposed drug rehab facility in Maryland

Coalition Sues Trump Administration For Dismantling Department of Education, Hurting All Students

Advocacy organizations representing millions of educators, civil rights champions, school employees, students, and families will file a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump Administration’s illegal attempts to dismantle the United States Department of Education. The plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), public school parents, The National Education Association (NEA), and AFSCME Maryland Council 3, and they are supported by Student Defense and Education Law Center (ELC).

Washington, D.C. — Advocacy organizations representing millions of educators, civil rights champions, school employees, students, and families will file a lawsuit Monday to stop the Trump Administration’s illegal attempts to dismantle the United States Department of Education. The plaintiffs include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), public school parents, The National Education Association (NEA), and AFSCME Maryland Council 3, and they are supported by Student Defense and Education Law Center (ELC).

Since taking office, Trump Administration officials have taken an escalating series of steps to dismantle the Department, including a series of staff reductions and the termination of $1.5 billion in current contracts and grants for Congressionally-authorized programs and activities. On March 11, the Secretary instituted a Department-wide reduction in force, which, when combined with prior staff reductions, slashes the already lean Department workforce in half.  

Most recently, on March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order formally instructing Secretary Linda McMahon to pursue "all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States." The very next day, President Trump indicated that the administration would move the higher education student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration and disability-related programs to the Department of Health and Human Services.  

“Taken together, Defendants’ steps since January 20, 2025, constitute a de facto dismantling of the Department by executive fiat…,” the complaint argues. “But the Constitution gives power over ‘the establishment of offices [and] the determination of their functions and jurisdiction’ to Congress—not to the President or any officer working under him.” Because it is a Congressionally-created federal agency, legally eliminating the Department of Education, or its constituent offices, or transferring them to other federal agencies, requires Congressional approval. 

While state and local governments are responsible for the vast majority of America’s public education system, Congress created the Department to help bridge longstanding gaps in educational opportunity and provide critical funding and supports to students. The Department fulfills that role by enforcing civil rights laws, supporting students with disabilities, promoting equal educational opportunities, bolstering the educator workforce, and administering the Federal Student Aid programs that place college within reach of working Americans. 

Eliminating or effectively shuttering the Department puts at risk the millions of vulnerable students, including those from low-income families, English learners, homeless students, rural students, and others who depend on Department support. It also jeopardizes more than 400,000 educator jobs; makes it impossible for the Department to ensure that federal education funding actually is spent as Congress intended; threatens support for 7.5 million students with disabilities; and leaves millions of students vulnerable to discrimination. It could also reduce access to Pell Grants, upend repayments for student loan borrowers, and invite fraudulent and predatory behavior from unscrupulous institutions of higher education.

The lawsuit alleges that actions to dismantle the Department exceed the constitutional authority of the executive branch and violate the federal Administrative Procedure Act. It asks the court to immediately halt the government’s attempt to dismantle the Department.

“As a parent of a child with disabilities who has an Individual Education Program (IEP), I am deeply troubled by the severe cuts the Trump Administration has made to the Department of Education,” said Mara Greengrass, a Maryland mother who is a plaintiff in the litigation. “Funding for special education and the Department’s oversight have been crucial in ensuring my son receives the quality education he—and every child in this country—deserves.”

“Nothing is more important than the success of students. America’s educators and parents won’t be silent as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Linda McMahon try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Gutting the Department of Education will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more out of reach, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections. Parents, educators, and community leaders know this will widen the gaps in education, which is why we will do everything in our power to protect our students and their futures,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle.

"Education is power. By firing half of the workforce at the Department of Education, Trump is not only seeking to dismantle an agency — he is deliberately destroying the pathway many Americans have to a better life," said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “The forceful elimination of thousands of essential workers will harm the most vulnerable in our communities. The NAACP and our partners are equipped with the necessary legal measures to prevent this unlawful attack on our children’s future.”

"Congress created the Department of Education, and Congress controls its future — not billionaires Marylanders never voted for," said AFSCME Council 3 President Patrick Moran. "This illegal move to bypass our elected representatives would be devastating to our state’s public schools. Department of Education funding supports AFSCME Council 3 members in their essential work every day. It helps bus drivers get students in rural areas to school on time, ensures cafeteria workers can deliver consistent meals to students in low-income areas, keeps custodial workers on staff to ensure public schools are safe environments, supports disability and English as a second language school services, and more. Without this funding, we lose essential school workers — and our most vulnerable students will pay the price."

“The Trump Administration’s effort to dismantle the Department of Education is not only illegal; it inflicts great harm on students, schools, and communities across the country,” said Robert Kim, Education Law Center Executive Director. “The Administration’s assertion that critical federal funding and support for schools and students will somehow continue as normal even after shuttering the Department reveals a dangerous lack of understanding of the Department’s role to provide funding for and implement programs for our most underserved student populations, ensure equal access and opportunity, and enforce civil rights in our nation’s schools. We cannot afford to let the Trump Administration throw our public schools into chaos.”

“Donald Trump’s own Secretary of Education has acknowledged they can’t legally shut down the Department of Education without Congress,” said Student Defense President Aaron Ament. “Yet that is, for all intents and purposes, exactly what they are doing. It’s a brazen violation of the law that will upend the lives of countless students and families.”

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https://www.nea.org/about-nea/media-center/press-releases/coalition-sues-trump-administration-dismantling-department-education-hurting-all-students

Monday, March 24, 2025

Gun Store Burglary: Authorities said the two arrested suspects, both 16 years old, were caught in Gaithersburg, Maryland, thanks to swift interagency cooperation between Fairfax County police, Montgomery County police, the Gaithersburg Police Department and the ATF Washington Field Division.

Two teenagers have been arrested in connection with a gun store burglary in Springfield, Virginia, while a third suspect remains at large, authorities said Monday.

Fairfax County police responded to a burglary alarm around 1:21 a.m. at Dominion Defense, located at 7200 Fullerton Rd. on Monday morning. Officers arrived to find the store’s front entrance severely damaged and multiple firearms stolen.

According to Fairfax County police, the suspects used a stolen Toyota Tacoma to ram the storefront before stealing firearms and fleeing the scene. They later switched vehicles to a stolen Hyundai Tucson before fleeing across the American Legion Bridge into Maryland...

2 teens arrested after Springfield gun store burglary, 3rd suspect still at large - WTOP News