Potty Parity or Playing Fields?

Remember when your mom (or your grandmother or. . .) said you had to do your school work before you could go off and play?

MCPS believes in playing first. While MCPS and the Montgomery County Council seem to have plenty of creative ideas, and money for sports and playing fields, they cannot seem to come up with the money to pay for bathroom renovations in schools.

Will MCPS follow the lead of Ryanair and start charging a user fee to fund these renovations?

Here is a post about the current state (or lack thereof) of the bathroom renovation project in MCPS.

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From: Steve Augustino
Subject: Re: [MCCPTA_Delegates] Restroom Renovation Project
Date: Friday, March 6, 2009, 10:22 AM

All:

Allow me just a little more background on the restroom renovation project. In FY 2007, MCPS initiated a project to renovate restrooms in schools throughout the county.

MCPS initially selected 47 schools, selected because they had last been renovated prior to 1985 and were not on the modernization list. These schools were renovated on a four year schedule in the order listed in Appendix G of the CIP. (http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/PDF/CIP10)

That project is finishing this year, and MCPS is planning to propose a new phase of the restroom renovations in the next CIP. The tentative criteria are schools where restrooms were last renovated between 1985 and 1999 (more than 10 years old), and again, that the school is not on the modernization list. I have given the cluster coordinators lists of the schools scheduled to be assessed and those not scheduled to be assessed.

The purpose of our comments will be to provide meaningful input to assist the inspectors in evaluating the next group of 103 schools. These evaluations will result in scores given to each school and a ranking schedule similar to Appendix G. I anticipate that the new restroom renovation project will be spread out over 8-10 years (approx. 10 per year, as with the first project). Comments should follow the assessment criteria as much as possible but also note any other factors relevant to assessing the order of restrooms to be renovated.

Steve Augustino

CIP Chair

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Original Message -----
From: "Steve Augustino"
Sent: Friday, March 6, 2009
7:54:35 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [MCCPTA_Delegates] Restroom Renovation Project

Delegates,

I just want to give you a head's up that MCCPTA will be seeking your input in connection with the assessment of school restrooms for renovation. In the six-year CIP to be proposed in October 2009, MCPS will be ranking 103 schools - slightly more than half of the schools in the county - for the order of renovations. MCPS has agreed to provide MCCPTA with the opportunity to submit written comments on the condition of each school in advance of the rankings.

The comments would be available to the inspectors as they visit each school to assign the grades that will be used in the rankings. Your cluster coordinators will be seeking input from you and your schools shortly.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the project, you may ask it here or email me directly.

Steve Augustino

CIP Chair