The Parents' Coalition has video of the end of the meeting, including pictures of the breakfast buffet that was laid out for the attendees. This picture was taken at the end of the meeting.
Here's the video:
BOE Members in attendance at the meeting:
Christopher Barclay
Patricia O'Neill
Shirley Brandman
Phil Kauffman
Rebecca Smondrowski
Mike Durso
County Council Members in attendance at the meeting:
Valerie Ervin
Roger Berliner
Craig Rice
Phil Andrews
Marc Elrich
George Leventhal
Council Staff
Essie McGuire
Valerie Ervin's chief of staff Sonya Healy
MCPS Staff in attendance at the meeting:
Joshua Starr
Larry Bowers
Dana Tofig
James Song
Roland Ikehoa
Laura Steinberg
Montgomery County Delegation in attendance:
Jaime Raskin
Nancy King
Al Carr
Susan Lee
Eric Luedtke
Rich Madaleno
Jeff Waldstreicher
Karen Montgomery
Craig Zucker
Anne Kaiser
Let us know who you recognize in the meeting video and we will add in the names.
Marc Elrich is also present.
ReplyDeleteAround 1:17 into the video, Marc Elrich asks some excellent questions about school capacity... why is it set at 120%? He also talks about the sale of school property, such as Peary HS (Aspen Hill). He is met denial and told that it was not "this Board" but the previous Board. The dialog goes to the heart of what's wrong with school capacity issues in Montgomery County. A transcript should be made of this video.
ReplyDeleteCouncilmember Elrich was at the Peary HS hearing. Board Member Pat O'Neill testified opposing the sale. I believe Councilmember Elrich voted for the sale. Please check the video archives. Regarding the 120% capacity, again, it is set that way because the County Council works closely with the Planning Board (whose members are appointed by the County Council) and this is what they decided. The council needs to take some responsibility for their actions. And voters need to take responsibility for the Council and Board of Education members they elected.
DeleteYou're right, Elrich DID vote for thee sale of Peary HS. Andrews was the only MC Councilmember who voted against it. Not that it's right, but voting against the sale to the "purchasing organization" was considered political suicide.
DeleteRice (I think)... at 9:00 "We're growing at an exponential rate." (exponential???!!!)
ReplyDeleteElrich is in the leather jacket.
ReplyDeleteAt 16:20, Christopher Barclay (yes?) "We are in a capacity crisis."
ReplyDeleteThere should be several separate posts developed from the dialog in this video.
The Washington Post should pick this up as well.
Rich Madaleno, Jeff Waldstreicher, Karen Montgomery, Craig Zucker, Anne Kaiser
ReplyDeleteAnd Valerie's chief of staff Sonya Healy
Nice!
DeleteJanice, I am so glad that you were able to make this video. The buffet is an interesting item, but it pales in comparison to the comments and questions by MC Councilmembers and School Board Members. Even though it's only the tail end of the meeting, you have captured information that is worthy of a Washington Post article. The headline should read "Barclay: We are in a capacity crisis"
ReplyDeleteBy the numbers, MCPS isn't in a capacity crisis. Not according to the State of Maryland. According to MD School Construction standards, MCPS has seats for 155,825 students.
DeleteMCPS also has a large inventory of closed school sites, all previously paid for with tax dollars for school construction.
MCPS doesn't want to use MD State classroom sizes and so they call it a capacity crisis.
They also don't want to reclaim the closed school sites.
Janice, I believe you, I just don't understand why MCPS would not use existing capacity. What's their game?
DeleteMoney.
DeleteHere's what the Sentinel article said:
"The county council, along with County Executive Ike Leggett, the MCPS school board and members of the Montgomery County Delegation are asking Gov. Martin O’Malley and the Maryland General Assembly to allocate $20 million for school construction."
$20 million - that doesn't even equal the cost of one elementary school.
$20 million will buy 16 FieldTurf plastic grass football fields for some of the MCPS high schools that don't already have artificial turf football fields. That's all.
Governor O'Malley pushes for FieldTurf plastic grass football fields across the State, so this will be easy for Annapolis to push through.
$20 million will not solve or even impact a "capacity crisis". That's the reality of these numbers. Plastic grass has been and remains a much higher priority for MCPS than adding classrooms or mold remediation, etc...
But, using numbers of students, FARMS rates, etc... is a great public relations tool for "selling" the need to the public.
Remember, that no matter how much money Annapolis gives to MCPS they have NO CONTROL over how the money is spent. That's why in 2 previous years Superintendent Jerry Weast was able to MOVE Capital Budget money to the Operating Budget.
If MCPS is in such a "capacity" crisis why have they turned over a wing of Sligo Middle School to a private school? Drive by and take a look at the new banner hanging on the right side of Sligo Middle School. That's a private program taking up MCPS classroom space. How did that happen?
DeleteJanice, I hear you and that makes sense (about the money and artificial turf). However, I 've been hearing other things from people in high places... Something else that is being or could be requested in Annapolis is the ability for Montgomery County to use Maryland's bonding status to have the County acquire approximately $750M in bonds at 2% - 3%, while not impacting the county's triple A bond rating and pay them off over the next 30 to 40 years... this would pay for many MC school construction projects. Have you heard anything about this?
DeleteAt the 0:32 mark Barclay says they will never give up another school.. Maybe Park and Planning should note that for their "swap" discussion.
ReplyDeleteThis video is a gold mine of information about what our elected officials think about school capacity, school construction and many other policy issues, including how over-development impacts our schools. You'd never get a sense for any of this reading the Gazette article.
ReplyDeleteFor Starr and the BOE it was a missed opportunity to improve the balance between the student FARMS populations at MCPS schools by promoting more equitable distribution of affordable housing. The off-site, out-of-view meeting was sandwiched between two County Council Public Hearing dates on the proposed zoning rewrite, in which increases in affordable housing (MPDU) bonus rates are under consideration. No one from MCPS or the BOE testified at the Public Hearing, either. However, the Hillandale Community, which is served by Cresthaven ES, Nix ES, Key MS, and Springbrook HS, all with high FARMS rates, asked the Council to pinpoint bonus affordable housing to areas that lack affordable housing and where the elementary/middle school FARMS rates are at or below 40%. (watch at 00:49:20 : http://montgomerycountymd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=6086
ReplyDelete(staff report: p.59: http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/cm/2013/131202/20131202_PHED1.pdf ) Today at 1:00pm, the Council’s PHED Committee begins review of the feedback it received at the Nov. 12/14 Public Hearing and its plans for the revisions to the MPDU affordable housing program.