Weast Takes Toilets from Tots

If you have been around Montgomery County Public Schools for decades you would have noticed that the standard MCPS kindergarten classroom has changed under Superintendent Jerry Weast. 

Prior to Weast's arrival in MCPS, the specifications for kindergarten classrooms included a bathroom and water fountain within the room.  Educational specifications from 1993 for a MCPS kindgergarten classroom are shown to the left.

Makes sense doesn't it? A classroom with a bathroom and water fountain keeps the kindergarteners under the watchful eye of the teacher at all times.  Not only was there to be a bathroom in the classroom, but the fixtures were to be child sized with everything accessible to a small child.  

But that was the way things were before Jerry "blur the lines" Weast arrived. 

Now kindergarteners are no longer given learning environments that meet their needs, in fact, it is now fine to place them in a school built for middle school students with adult sized bathrooms down the hall. 

Well, it's fine with Superintendent Weast, but for parents, kindergarteners are still small children just starting out in public school. They still need guidance, and supervision, along with lower water fountains, lower toilets, lower sinks, lower soap dispensers and lower paper towel holders.  And don't forget the bathroom doors "easily accessible from the outside". There was a reason for that educational specification!