Open Letter to Members of the Montgomery County Council:
June 8, 2011
When one locally funded government agency thinks it's okay to lie to the appropriating agency then we have completely dysfunctional government. Lying cannot be tolerated. Everyone loses, and I am looking to my County Council to stand up and set the standard. It is past time to hold the MCPS Board of Education accountable for the loose and unprofessional fiscal management practices they have allowed.
The BOE threatened to sue the Citizens of Montgomery County for more money, while simultaneously conspiring to ignore the will of the Appropriating agency by piling up secret sandbags of cash. It is time to tame this bully. We are one county and we need to have one government. The School System needs to become, or at least behave as, part of the greater community it serves.
If you have the authority to do so, I would urge you to subpoena the key MCPS players, put them under oath and ask questions. The public is minimally entitled to hear answers as to who knew what and when in regards to the millions in magically found money. And if there is wrongdoing I would expect you to pursue remedy.
Equally important, I think we have all been given a great lesson as to why the law provides the Council a vehicle to act throughout the year on School System fiscal issues (Education Articles 5-105). I urge you NOT to approve your annual resolution saying you will not act on school system requests to transfer money between categories until the end of the year. Make the school board come before you and the public each month and make their case item by item. And then make sure MCPS gets approval before they act, unlike the millions spent on Promethian Boards.
Furthermore, I urge the Council to exercise its rights under the Education Article section 5-111 (d) (1) and (2) to obligate MCPS to report on its operations and any changes made to its approved operating budget in November and March of the coming fiscal year.
Bob Astrove
Uhm, bub, have you seen the Barclay letter to Ervin? I would strongly urge you to get all the facts before you spout off like this again. No wonder you lost.
ReplyDeleteAll I want to know is who actually wrote the "Barclay" letter!
ReplyDeleteAnd, for the record, Valerie Ervin needs to PAY HER TAXES!
A "Barclay letter to Ervin" is of no interest to the budget discussion. Mr. Barclay can not act alone. He is a member of a public body that can only act at the direction of the body.
ReplyDeleteIs there a Board of Education letter (stating Board of Education action) to the County Council? Now that would be important in this discussion.
It's "of no interest" to you b/c it contradicts your arguments.
ReplyDelete@10:17 No, it actually has no force. Ask Nancy Navarro about the time when she was on the Board of Education and the President wrote a letter she didn't know about.
ReplyDeleteThe Board of Education is an elected body, they act as a body, and no one member can act for the Board. That's the law.
Find a history or civics teacher and ask them to help you look up Maryland law and read up on the power of Boards of Education in Maryland. That will help you understand how our system of government works.
Janis is correct that the Barclay letter does not carry the weight of the school board behind it. Nor does it have any legal ramifications.
ReplyDeleteHowever, where I believe Janis ignoring some facts is that Barclay claims the Council:
1. Was informed of the money that the health care account had in it.
2. Had limited interest in the actual budget numbers of MCPS.
None of us can know whether Barclay or Ervin is telling the truth. If Barclay is, then Ervin isn't honest and can't be trusted. If Ervin is telling the truth, then it's Barclay.
Either way there is a serious disconnect between the CC and BOE that isn't healthy for any of the groups involved.
I think both should be replaced as leaders of their legislative bodies.
But Ervin's letter specifically to Barclay IS relevent? You certianly posted that, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteIt's not a fact if it's gossip. Barclay's letter is a lot of gossip. Barclay, Brandman (I work best behind the scenes), Ervin and Berliner met in secret. The purpose was clearly to skirt the Open Meetings Act. They were all happy to do it at the time. Barclay has no evidence of anything he claims from those meetings. His choice to hide.
ReplyDeleteRead more here: http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/06/leadership-wars-or-what-happens-when.html
You're amazing! How do you do it Janis? How can you take something that is so clear and make it sound so paranoid? Barclay's letter spells out in detail all the chances the CC had to ask about, inform themselves, and contradict anything in the BOE budget. The CC chose not to do that. Valerie Ervin chose not to do that. Frankly Janis, I would much rather believe someone who pays their taxes like the rest of us do. Ervin can't be trusted in anything she does.
ReplyDeleteOh, but everything WAS discussed in the secret meeting. Didn't you read the letter? So what's kept Barclay and Brandman from making the MCPS Budget a public, transparent document? They played this game too. How about they release the minutes from these secret meetings? Let's see the documentation from those meetings.
ReplyDeleteAnd while you are at it, since your work for MCPS, let's see the E-Rate Rebates that have come in for the last 2 years, the Wireless Generation Royalties, and the cell tower revenues to name a few.
All the things that haven't been brought to the Council for appropriation as required under Maryland law.
Make those documents public and then you can talk about the MCPS budget. Name calling is a poor excuse for the facts. You can post the documents to the MCPS website or send them on over to us. We'll be happy to post them.
By the way, do you want to mention the Apple endorsed Board of Education members who have had financial issues?
While you are at it. Let's see the American Express bill. You know the $5 million + bill that gets paid without oversight.
ReplyDeleteLet's see what's being charged to the public on those 1,400+/- cards.
Oh, and find this one for the public.
ReplyDeleteWhen did the Board of Education approve a payment of $1,129,925 to Atlas Tracks in 2010?
And what was the payment for?
Janice--I know that there is oversight of the AMEX bills at the school level. My school secretary uses the AMEX cards to make school purchases and she has said that there are certain things that she cannot purchase with the card. I happen to have a choral music account with funds raised by my chorus fundraiser and many items are purchased with funds from this account using the AMEX. A form must be filled out with the item, cost, vendor, reason/use of the item. Once the form is approved by the administrator, then the purchase can be made. The receipt from that purchase is attached to the original request/approval form. There is a definite paper trail for school purchases on the AMEX cards. There are different cards for different accounts--one for school purchases with MCPS funds and one for school purchases from Independent Activity Funds such as the account I use.
ReplyDeleteVicki E.
Vicki:
ReplyDeleteIf your school's accounting for credit card purchases and IAF expenditures is 100% perfect, then it's probably the only school in MCPS that has excellent (or even good) oversight. When was the most recent IAF audit performed and what did the auditors say about IAF management? Does your school publish the IAF audit report on its web site? If not, why not?
Vicki, that's great that your school is careful with the use of the Amex cards. That's the way it should be. Unfortunately, other MCPS employees abuse the cards and pay for things to benefit themselves, like office parties, lunches at expensive restaurants, honey baked hams, etc. I think that the citizens would be better off if the cards were discontinued and actual paper checks used to pay for items pursuant to an invoice, or people had to present detailed receipts along with a request for reimbursement. Too many abuses have taken place with those cards.
ReplyDeleteLyda Astrove
Lyda--I agree with you. I suspect such abuse occurs more in central offices. I don't think my experience at the school level is unusual for a school situation. We are also audited and the auditors that come to our school--a medium sized elementary school--go over everything with a fine-toothed comb. They interview those of us that handle any kind of purchases and we fill out a lot of forms. Personally, I don't mind a bit as I've always been rather anal when it comes to handling other people's money. But my experience tells me that if something wasn't documented appropriately the person using the account would definitely have to answer for it. There are advantages to using the cards over checks in some situations as sometimes a particular purchase may be needed in a short turn around time and calling in a purchase or ordering online with a credit card can expedite receipt of a much needed item. For other things that are planned in advance, then checks work fine. Again--this is at the school level. Often those of us at the school level feel there are different standards for us than for central office higher ups.
ReplyDeleteVicki E
@Louis--I don't keep track of when we are audited as I am a teacher and it's not my job. I devote a lot of personal time as it is to running the fundraiser in order to provide materials and activities to my title I students that they otherwise wouldn't have. I'm not sure how much longer I can continue to donate the extra hours.
ReplyDeleteI know we are audited regularly because I am always called down to talk to the auditor. Typically he/she just wants information about the source of the funds in the account. My school choruses do an annual fundraiser so that is the information that the auditor wants. They like to know what kind of fundraiser it is, and they like to run a profit/loss statement. They've always been very impressed with the level of profit we make.
Every penny turned in to me from any student is documented on the appropriate form and turned in to our secretary during the fundraiser. I don't have direct access to any funds. I just make the purchase requests. We are an elementary school and don't have many independent activities. I know that we have someone go over the books monthly and I get an account statement to sign. The big audits are either yearly or every other year it seems.
I can only assume that this is the procedure used or expected at all schools. I've been at my school over 20 years and I've been running fundraisers for the last 15 years. I've had different administrators and different secretaries, but the procedures have been pretty much the same regardless.
On a side note: As in any large organization, there are abuses which should be handled on an individual basis. It tends to feel like we are all being painted with the same brush regarding these abuses and those of us who play by the rules are starting to feel like maybe we shouldn't conduct these activities anymore. I know that I've been asking myself why I bother these days. Very frustrating.
Vicki
Vicki: Certainly it's not your job to track when the school is audited. But wouldn't it be worthwhile for you to at least look at your school's IAF audit report, if for no other reason than to be sure that the funds that you raise are not being misused? When everything is in order, the audit reports are only about two pages long and they take about two minutes to read.
ReplyDelete@Louis--I know the funds I raise are not being misused. They are in a separate account and I get a monthly statement from the secretary that shows all action in the account. I sign the statement and return it to her, making a copy for myself. My funds are not mixed with the other IAF funds as directed by the auditor. I also keep a record of all transactions so that I can plan for future purchases. My records match those kept by our financial secretary. We just don't have that many activities at the elementary level that things get mixed up. Perhaps it's different in secondary schools. So basically you could say that I get copies of anything dealing with my fundraiser account.
ReplyDeleteVicki
What was it the past MCEA President said about eating lunch at that Rockville restaurant that the 850 Hungerford group likes so much? 70 times? That's money that doesn't flow to the schools.
ReplyDeleteSchool based employees can ignore this, if they wish. But they pay the price.
Janis--It's not that we choose to ignore what the central office people do, it's just that there are only so many hours in the day and with an every increasing workload and possibly a second job on the horizon, there is only so much we can do. 60 hour workweeks, family duties, taking care of elderly parents, possibly working a second job--we trust that there will be appropriate oversight over the central offices. We are trying to maintain our own programs. We need to take something off the table before we start worrying about every other job in MCPs. In fact we need to take something off the table period. Not a cop out--simply a reality.
ReplyDeleteVicki: If more teachers were as diligent as you in monitoring school financial records, a lot more money that was intended to fund student activities would actually be used for its intended purpose.
ReplyDeleteThe IAF audits indicate that the elementary schools have limited (financial) activities, as you state. But there's still lots of room for mischief. For example, the most recent IAF Audit Report for Somerset Elementary states that more than 80% of IAF expenditures were made without required prior approval. But since MCPS requires an MPIA request to get an audit report, the information in the reports is largely unknown to parents and staff members.
@Louis--I agree that teachers should monitor the funds for the activities they sponsor. Sadly, MCPS has never had a strong commitment toward the performing arts. It's been somewhat of a joke in music teacher circles around the state for years. As such, in order to have a decent program, I've made a commitment to raising funds that support my program. Due to the number of hours it takes to do this, there is no way I'm not going to monitor it! My time is simply too valuable.
ReplyDelete--Vicki
@ Janis (1:32) -
ReplyDeletefor artificial turf for RM, WJ, and Blair, which includes a warranty
memo from Tofig dated 1/25/10
The PC already requested this information. So why are you even posing it as a question under this thread? just to make more waves?
@9:14 - Do tell! That's really funny. Richard Montgomery High School's field was in use by then. We're still paying in 2010?
ReplyDeletePlease show the public WHERE in the Board of Education meetings the Board voted to approve a $1 million + payment to Atlas Tracks in 2010.
RM? Blair? WJ? Wow. I sure hope not. Those fields were already in place. Did MCPS pay MORE money for them.
Just show us exactly where in 2010 the Board of Education voted on this procurement. That's all. It's easy. Well, except that the MCPS website is now broken and past Board minutes don't even come up for lots of years. But we are sure you can find the minutes that show this procurement.
Thanks!
"Turf Wars"
ReplyDeletea combination of grants, businesses, and county funds
all around the same time
The memo dated in Jan. 2010 was in RESPONSE to a request . . .
http://ww2.gazette.net/stories/06032009/aspenew210753_32532.shtml
Walter Johnson
2009
http://silverchips.mbhs.edu/story/print/9293
montgomery Blair
2009
http://ww2.gazette.net/stories/031908/silvnew202353_32369.shtml
Richard Montgomery
2008
Try again.
ReplyDeleteAn expenditure of $1 million + plus REQUIRES Board of Education ACTION under Maryland law. All we have asked is that you post the MINUTES from the Board of Education meeting where this expenditure to Atlas Track was approved.
That's all. Easy. Right?
BOE endorsed
ReplyDeleteScroll
http://www.scribd.com/doc/43431054/Artificial-Turf-Purchase-Orders-for-Montgomery-County-Schools
RM
WJ
BOE "endorsed" - That's hysterical. No...it takes ACTUAL Board of Education ACTION to approve a procurement. There is no such thing as Board of Education "endorsed".
ReplyDeleteBoard of Education meets.
Board of Education votes.
Minutes reflect vote.
It's the LAW.
Now go show us where the Board of Education approved a procurement of $1,129,925 to Atlas Tracks in 2010.
If you can find it, that's called following the law and being transparent about your actions taken in compliance with the law.
If you can't find it...
Vicki:
ReplyDeleteYou said "Sadly, MCPS has never had a strong commitment toward the performing arts. It's been somewhat of a joke in music teacher circles around the state for years."
I'm not able to go back as far as "forever", but up until the late 1990's the schools that my children attended had strong instrumental music programs with many participants. Clearly, though, there have been cuts in the programs more recently, particularly in the past 10 years.
Isn't is ironic, then, that Rick Penix, MCPS Coordinator of Fine Arts, is the gentleman who nominated Dr. Weast for the Maryland Music Educators Association Administrator of the Year award in 2005?
See:
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2011/03/would-rick-penix-sing-superintendent.html
Louis--I am a product of MCPS myself. It wasn't until I attended college at Catholic Univ. that I got to see school music programs elsewhere in my music ed. classes. We were not allowed to do our elementary student teaching for choral music in MCPS because elementary music classes only meet once weekly for 45 minutes or so. Meanwhile, In PG county, they met 3 times a week for 30 minutes. That proved to be a much more valuable experience for a 7 week student teaching assignment. Even after TRIM was passed around 1980 and severe cuts were made, PG still offered their elementary students more general music than MCPS. Howard County offers their elementary students 90 minutes a week and they can start instruction on strings in 3rd grade. Elementary School general music allocations require a teacher to have 24 - 27 classes in MCPS to be full time. In Howard County, one is full time with 13 classes. Elementary instrumental music teachers in MCPS typically have 3 or more schools. In Howard, they have 2 schools and are sometimes even full time in one school. The fact is that MCPS music teachers have to fight tooth and nail to maintain their programs at a lot of schools. This is particularly a problem at the middle school level. Part of the reason is that school based administrators can pretty much do as they want on the secondary level in terms of offering various programs. There have been several cases where principals have reduced or eliminated successful choral programs at the middle school level in order to use that staff allocation for a non arts position. I would say these problems affect choral programs more. Parents with children in instrumental programs typically have a financial investment in those programs and they tend to be more vocal.
ReplyDeleteIf you are ever fortunate enough to attend the MD all state chorus, band and orchestra concerts in Baltimore in Feb., you will find that there are a number of school systems that are much more heavily represented in those groups than we are in Montgomery even though those systems are smaller. Our programs aren't bad, but they don't have the same level of commitment from the school system as other counties. There are a number of changes that have been made over the years at the system level to the detriment of the performing arts that are simply too numerous to go into here.
I don't find it ironic at all that Rick Penix nominated Dr. Weast for the aware, by the way. Dr. Weast has been pretty supportive and he was instrumental in providing the Strathmore concerts for our 2nd and 5th grade students.
Sadly, many of our artistic students are being "persuaded" to forgo arts classes for other "academic" classes, being told that they won't get into college if they don't. I find that sad. My own two children totally disprove that theory!
I don't mean to sound as critical as I probably do, it's just that when one spends a lot of time with teachers and students in other school systems, one has more to compare. Sadly we have no "teeth" in our programs. There are no supervisors--only content specialists. Basically there are guidelines regarding scheduling of programs that many administrators simply choose to ignore.
I feel very fortunate to have worked with supportive administrators in my 29 years in MCPS yet it still often feels like an uphill battle to be able to give my students the musical experiences they deserve in the limited amount of time I'm given with them.
Vicki