The lack of ownership also raises concerns about the turf field located at Richard Montgomery High School that Real Maryland sponsored and help fund in 2009.The entire article can be found here.
As of press time, Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Montgomery County Public Schools said MCPS had not received any notice from Real Maryland and was unsure how the soccer team’s exodus would affect Richard Montgomery or if there was a remaining fiduciary responsibility.
Starr on parents who have their students skip state tests.
Superintendent Starr's reason for realigning the MCPS Central Office.
| Monday, December 3, 2012 | House Hearing for local bills - 7:00 p.m. - 3rd Floor Hearing Room, Stella Werner Council Office Bldg., 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, MD 20850 - Local bills refer to legislation affecting issues specific to Montgomery County. Click here to sign up to testify |
Answer includes Superintendent Starr saying he will not give families his vision for special education students in MCPS, students relegated to basement, when I say I won't do it, what about every other group...
Answer includes Superintendent Starr's explanation of his social, emotional learning agenda, it's not an initiative, it's not in a binder, it's not a curriculum that teachers are going to get, state test score is not end all, be all goal, increasing collective awareness, has to be embedded...
Answer includes Superintendent Starr discussing: Pearson Curriculum 2.0, teacher training in new curriculum, assessment of schools was done (?), don't care about No Child Left Behind, there's been a math work group and all that, push to accelerate, kids were being held back, fixed mindset, Carol Dweck book, social emotional piece, anyone take the SATs?, math concepts.
To Whom It May Concern,
What is the point of the practice MSAs? If they’re just to get us ready for the proper MSA, we already are. Most of the fifth-graders have taken it at least once, and the fourth-graders have usually taken it once before. I know there are some people who have just come to this school and are new, and the third-graders certainly haven’t taken it before. Maybe they should have the practice MSA, but it doesn’t mean all three grades should have to take it. It messes up schedules, and last year, I had to choose between instrumental music and my special. Nobody offered a make-up time, instructions on which to do, or even an apology I’d have to miss something. I don’t even think that’s a choice people should have to make. It also eats up our reading and math time. We don’t even get to read when we finish a section of the practice MSAs! Maybe it’s not allowed on the real one, but what about the practices? You’re supposed to check your work when you’re done. Okay. Once you’ve checked your work three times and you still have ten or fifteen or maybe twenty minutes left, is there any merit to checking it again? And then what are you supposed to do? If it’s still “good practice”, why is it as strict as the real MSA? Last year, among all the vocabulary quizzes, words of the day, and learning time spent reviewing strategies and going through packets, I think we got in more than enough practice time, and the tests really seemed unnecessary. MSAs are about reading and math, but instead of spending our time working up to the MSA focusing on reading and math(and science, in the case of the fifth-graders), we focus on test strategies. We’re learning how to take a test, not how to be good at reading and math. Altogether, I think we overload on MSA practice.
Sincerely,(5th grader)
In the last 24 hours, Montgomery County Public Schools has confirmed purchases totaling over $10 million that will be made without the issuance of Requests for Proposals or competitive bids. These are not purchases that are part of any other procurement program. In the past, these exact same purchases were made without even contracts.
While in the past the Board of Education President would sign off on MCPS contracts, purchases can now be made without contracts and without Board of Education approval. Attached is an example showing the signature of a MCPS staff member in the place marked “Board of Education”.(See page 4)
1. Yesterday, the County Council held a hearing on a $2,042,000 Appropriation request from MCPS. During the course of the hearing it was revealed that MCPS would be buying 2,000 Interactive White Boards from a London based company without the use of competitive bids or a bulk buying contract. The MCPS Chief Technology Officer simply contacted the company and the deal was made.
What is the result of this? The result if that at least 2 Montgomery County vendors of Interactive White Boards were unable to bid on this procurement that will total $8,900,000, including one vendor that is minority owned. A MCPS purchase that could have gone to a Montgomery County vendor will instead go to a London based company.
This morning I sent each of you a video clip of the Council hearing yesterday where the no bid purchase was discussed.
2. Later in the day, the Montgomery County Board of Education met to discuss putting an artificial turf field at a high school. Before the Board had even voted on the installation, MCPS staff announced the vendor that would be used for the artificial turf installation. Once again, this is a foreign based company and companies based in the United States are unable to bid on this procurement. The vendor for the construction was picked before any formal bidding process.
There really is no solution to the problem of MCPS skirting procurement laws. My information is just to notify you that procurement laws are not working and are unenforceable.
3. In January of 2009, the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits released their last Audit of Montgomery County Public Schools. We are almost 4 years from when that Audit was released. Our public school system has a budget of over $2 billion dollars. That’s over $8.4 billion dollars that has been spent without an Audit. The timing of State Audits needs to be every 2 years, not every 4 to 6.
4. The State Board of Education has no time limit on when they must release Opinions from Appeals. In some cases the State Board of Education has sat on decisions for a year. This makes the review process of the State Board of Education meaningless. Please consider placing a time limit on when Opinions of the State Board of Education must be released.
5. Appeals to the State Board must be filed within 30 days under the current law. However, there are situations where the parties impacted by a Board of Education decision are not even aware of the Board’s actions until after 30 days. Please consider extending the time limit on Appeals to protect citizens that may not have notice of Board of Education actions that impact their neighborhood.
Thank you,
Janis Sartucci
"The first clue Bonnie Beavers had of her daughter’s learning disability came in the second grade. The girl scored at the 99th percentile in math on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, but when her teacher divided the class into groups for math, she was not in the highest one.
Beavers showed the child’s test results to the teacher, who was unmoved. “I caught her counting on her fingers,” she said. Then she went completely over the top by insisting none of her students knew the groups were ranked by perceived ability.
“My daughter never again liked math or thought she was a good math student,” Beavers said.
The girl was later diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and executive function disorder (an inability to self-organize), as was her older brother."
"After two years at Barnsley, her son wanted to go to a math-science magnet school, but failed to qualify. He finished only half the math questions in the allotted time, though all were correct.
He enrolled at Westland Middle School, where Beavers asked for a 504 Plan, part of a federal law that requires schools to give children with disabilities a boost. She presented his high test scores and the contrasting Bs and Cs he was getting because of late or missing work. She asked for extra time on tests and other accommodations. The head of the school’s education management team said, “I feel sorry for your son. You are clearly pressuring him to make As,” then walked out."
In this study, the presence of hazardous organic chemicals in surfaces containing recycled rubber tires is investigated. Direct material analyses using solvent extraction, as well as SPME analysis of the vapour phase above the sample, were carried out. Twenty-one rubber mulch samples were collected from nine different playgrounds. In addition, seven commercial samples of recycled rubber pavers were acquired in a local store of a multinational company. All samples were extracted by ultrasound energy, followed by analysis of the extract by GC–MS. The analysis confirmed the presence of a large number of hazardous substances including PAHs, phthalates, antioxidants (e.g. BHT, phenols), benzothiazole and derivatives, among other chemicals. The study evidences the high content of toxic chemicals in these recycled materials. The concentration of PAHs in the commercial pavers was extremely high, reaching values up to 1%. In addition, SPME studies of the vapour phase above the samples confirm the volatilisation of many of those organic compounds. Uses of recycled rubber tires, especially those targeting play areas and other facilities for children, should be a matter of regulatory concern.
...I believe we need new legislation — the Stakeholder Right-to-Know Act — that would prohibit universities that receive federal funds from executing confidentiality agreements on behalf of their intercollegiate athletic programs, which limit information regarding transactions that should be provided to important stakeholders.
Right now, universities and their boards are captive to a process controlled by the commissioners of the various athletic conferences. Commissioners managing hundreds of millions of dollars are extorting what they need from the universities, and the schools are powerless to stand up to them. We need a national solution to end this practice...
ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Department of Transportation violated procurement procedures by allowing some contractors to perform work outside the scope of their original contracts without rebidding the jobs and without the approval of the state Board of Public Works, auditors found.
In a report released last week, the legislative auditors discovered that a rail safety inspection contractor continued to do work after its original contract had expired by making the company a subcontractor under a State Highway Administration contract for bridge engineering and design services.
Responding to the audit, the department said the procurement rules were bent “for the continuation of critical projects and were time sensitive. Those responsible for continuation looked to SHA, with many more contractual resources than TSO [the Transportation Secretary’s Office], as a means to retain the vendor experienced with the projects.”...
...passed on to the attorney general for investigation...
...To avoid bringing contracts through a bidding process has the potential to create favoritism and a too-cozy relationship with vendors. And to divert funds to projects other than those that were bid makes a mockery of the procurement process.”...
http://thedailyrecord.com/2012/11/18/audit-hits-mdot-procurement-procedures/
At the November 13, 2012, Montgomery County Council hearing on the purchase of 2,000 Promethean brand Interactive White Boards by MCPS, Councilmembers discussed a Maryland State Hardware Master Contract. It turns out that during the November 13th discussion, the MD Hardware Master Contract they were discussing did not exist. 