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Thursday, May 21, 2015

Today: After years of hiding, live webcast of BOE and Planning Board Meeting!

The Montgomery County Planning Board and the Board of Education have been meeting for years off camera and often without notice to the public.  The meetings were labeled as dinner meetings to give the impression that the events were purely social.  In fact, the meetings were packed with important discussions of public school planning issues.

The Parents' Coalition has attended some of these meetings and videotaped the meeting so that the public could observe the discussion and decision making of these two important public bodies. 

Finally, tonight's meeting will be held in the Montgomery County Planning Board meeting room and the meeting will be televised so that all citizens of Montgomery County can observe the discussions and deliberations as these two public bodies discuss public school planning.  Tune in at 5:30 PM this evening.  The meeting will be webcast by the Planning Board at the link below. 
The Agenda for this evenings meeting is also shown below. 

Past Meetings: 2011
2012 
2013

Tonight:  Thursday, May 21, 2015
Montgomery County Planning Board Agenda

5:30 pm DINNER MEETING MRO AUDITORIUM
Joint meeting of the Montgomery County Planning Board and Montgomery County Board of Education (Meeting may be viewed live on our website, visit (www.montgomeryplanningboard.org)
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 21, 2015 at 5:15 PM

    Deliberations at the Dinner Meeting? How could they do that? Has the agenda for the dinner meeting been posted anyplace other than on the Parents’ Coalition Blog? Don’t get me wrong; you folks are a great resource for information, but hardly an official site for notices.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 25, 2015 at 9:57 AM

    The video from the meeting is a must see for every homeowner and parent in lower Montgomery County. There is a lot of new development in the works and the lack of suitable school facilities makes it somewhat difficult to push these projects effortlessly. The Planning Board wants MCPS to start experimenting with “unconventional school space” such as empty offices, co-locating with daycare centers, libraries etc, and they want it to happen ASAP. What I found a little worrisome was that there was no discussion about public involvement in this process.

    Also, when school board member Barclay asked about the current recommended acreage to build a new school he was abruptly interrupted by the Planning Board Chairman and unfortunately the public never got to hear the answer.

    The citizens of this county may not have direct input regarding individuals serving on the Planning Board but the Board of Education is an elected body that should now be watched very closely on this.
    D.Wilson

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMay 25, 2015 at 12:30 PM

      “Political and business leaders often refer to Montgomery County as the “economic engine” of Maryland.
      Interesting words, “economic engine.” “ http://www.theseventhstate.com/?p=3177

      Delete

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