Montgomery County's inspector general said Tuesday that unnamed county officials have withheld information and interfered with several investigations by his office, including some that have proved embarrassing for county government...Which brings to mind the "memo switch" that occurred somewhere between the County Council's mail room and the County Council's Education Committee, when the Education Committee was investigating how Promethean Boards appeared in thousands of MCPS classrooms at the start of school in 2008.
There has never been a public explanation by the Council for this switching of memos.
On November 26, 2008, MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast sent a packet of information on the Promethean Board purchase with a cover letter to Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin. The packet was date stamped when received by the County Council and is the first document shown below.
When the County Council's Education Committee met to discuss the November 26th packet and its contents, one of the enclosures (Attachment B) had been switched. A June 9, 2008 memo from Superintendent Weast to the Board of Education had been switched to a different version; same date, same topic, but different explanation and history of Promethean Board purchases.
No mention was made of this switch during the Education Committee's discussion, nor was this switch noted in the Education Committee's staff presentation. The two memos give a different history on the Promethean Board purchase and different information as to who was involved in the decision-making process.
Will the real June 9, 2008 memo please stand up?
Date Stamped November 26, 2008 packet to Councilmember Valerie Ervin
In the packet presented to the Montgomery County Council's Education Committee Attachment B of the above packet was switched to a second version. See page 19 of PDF below:
Second version of June 2008 memo from Superintendent to Board of Education
The Weast memo refers to the Promethean Boards utility be evaluated by the Office of Shared Accountability. OSA is supposed to be producing a report on the "Technology Enhanced Critical Inquiry Project": studying 7 schools. At least that is what Weast said on November 26, 2008.
ReplyDeleteHellooooooo: it is now March 2010. Can't find anything in the OSA documents about whether this report has been produced or not. Are they working on it? Has it been published? or are they not working on it? or are the $200K consultants going to be producing the report?
Dr. Weast's letter to Ms. Ervin mentions surveys of students. What were the survey questions and responses? Did the survey reveal that individual students' private information is frequently displayed upon these P-Boards in error, as teachers switch between desk use and classroom use?
ReplyDelete