Prince George's BOE President and Superintendent at 2013 MABE reception. |
Below is public comment that details what Prince George's County parents got from the MABE - Milestone partnership.
How many Montgomery County parents want 3 cell towers on every public school playground? Get ready, our Board of Education could come back from their Ocean City vacation with the very same "deal."
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Prince George's County Public Schools - Board of Education Meeting - Public Comment
September 23, 2014
Good
evening. My name is Janis Sartucci and I am a member of the Parents'
Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland. I am here this evening
because over the summer I began researching the deals that Maryland
Boards of Education had made with a company called Milestone
Communications Management III, Inc. to place cell towers on each and
every public school property in the State of Maryland. As part of my
research I did a Maryland Public Information Act request for the
agreements between the Prince George's County Board of Education and
Milestone Communications. Through that research I received and made
public documents that were not available on the Board of Education
website.
The documents revealed that the Board of Education approved a Master Lease with Milestone on
November
11, 2010, in an agenda item that took up just 40 seconds. While
the BOE vote was in November, the actual document was not signed
until February 7, 2011, and the signature is not that of the
Board President, but of only the superintendent.
On
page 11 of the Master Lease at Section 17.1 it calls for Milestone
Communications Management III, Inc. to be qualified to do business in
the State of Maryland. However, Maryland corporation records seem to
show the date of registration for that company in Maryland to be
April 5, 2011.
My
research also revealed a lease for a cell tower at Flowers High
School signed by Superintendent Kevin Maxwell on August 5, 2014.
The lease had not been made public. The lease was approved by
Monica E. Goldson and James E. Fisher, but the lease was with a
different company. It was not with Milestone Communications
Management III, Inc.
By making these documents public, parents now know that the Board of Education has approved a deal to built up to 3 cell towers on each of 73 public school sites in the county.
The
County process to build a cell tower includes a review by the Tower
Commission. The Tower Commission met in July without public notice.
Applications for building permits have now been filed for cell towers on some sites. These applications are not going through the Special Exception process. A building permit can be obtained without a Special Exception if the cell tower will have 4 or fewer site visits per year. However, we know that in Fairfax County, Milestone Communications cell towers on public school sites require one to two site visits per month. With 12 to 24 site visits per year, I believe that the cell tower proposals for Prince George's County Public Schools should be going through the Special Exception process.
I ask, how can parents track construction projects at their schools when companies are switched, documents are signed in secret, and building permits do not go through the Special Exception process?
How
is the Board of Education serving school communities by placing these
commercial structures on school playgrounds without public notice,
without parent input, and without community input.
I
know that in 8 days the Board of Education will be in Ocean City for
the annual Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE)
conference. I know that Milestone Communications will also be there
as a sponsor of that conference. Milestone representatives will have
more than 3 minutes to talk to each of you in Ocean City. They won't
be on the clock.
GREAT WORK JANIS!!! Go Parents' Coalition!
ReplyDeleteJanis you did a great job last night exposing the back door deals and access that the Milestone Communications has to the P.G. Board of Education. Key Point: Next month, the Board of Education will be in Ocean City for the annual Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) conference and Milestone Communications will also be there as a sponsor of that conference. Milestone representatives will have more than 3 minutes to talk to each BOE chair member. They won't be limited, like concerned parents were, to only three minutes to speak! Sadly "brain tumors now account for more deaths among children and those under 40 than any other cancer." The Coalition Against Cell Towers on School Grounds is committed to informing parents and fighting this issue.
ReplyDeleteJanis, you are a force to be reckoned with. This is great stuff!
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Janis!
ReplyDelete