Let's make this really simple: If the CURRICULUM requires headphones, they are to be SUPPLIED for FREE by the public school system.
For College Gardens Elementary School students that means you do not have to pay $3 for headphones and you do not need to bring them from home. If you need them for your classes, MCPS will be supplying them to you as part of their $2.4 BILLION dollar operating budget. That's what those billions of dollars are for, that is Maryland law.
In this specific example below, not only is College Gardens ES charging students for something that should be supplied for free, but College Gardens is overcharging students ($3.00) what MCPS is paying for these headphones ($2.75). That's a rip off on top of a rip off with no accounting for where the extra funds are going.
For readers that wonder why we track the expense accounts of administrators, here's why!
How many headphones did Board of Education members "party" away last year? 2,398
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January
28, 2015
Dear
Parents/Guardians,
College
Gardens has received chrome books for all students in grades 3 and 5.
These are in addition to the 90 chrome books purchased by the PTA.
With the use of the chrome books, students will need headphones.
Students may bring
their own from home or purchase KOSS headphones from the school for
$3.00.
The
chrome books are used in the classrooms to enhance creativity and
collaboration in the classroom. All students will have access to a
Google Apps for Education account. These accounts are secure to the
learning environment and staff members are able to access their
accounts. The staff and student accounts enable document sharing,
collaborative work, and assessment opportunities in this cloud-based
platform. For MCPS, participating students and staff are assigned an
“@mcpsmd.net” G-mail like account. With this e-mail account
students only have access to w-mail with people inside the MCPS
system. Student progress and engagement will be monitored via a
learning management system integrated into the platform that allows
teachers to send information to students, offer real-time feedback,
and monitor progress on activities.
As
an added precaution to safeguard students, MCPS has enabled a feature
of Google Search called “Safe Search” within our Google Apps
domain. With “Safe Search” enabled, sexually explicit video and
images are filtered from Google Search result pages, along with
results that might link to explicit content when logged into their
account. In essence, students’ internet searches are safer and
more secure than if they were not using their accounts to conduct the
same searches.
If
you have questions or want additional information on the MCPS
initiative to bring chrome books into the schools, please contact the
Office of the Chief Technology Officer at 301-279-3581, or if you
have questions regarding the use of chrome books at College Gardens
you may contact me at 301-279-8470.
Sincerely,
Stacey
Rogovoy
Principal
SR:cb
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