According to the WUSA9 Website:
POTOMAC, Md. (WUSA9) -- A former quarterback at Wootton High School is being charged in the fatal North Potomac crash that left two Wootton High School students dead in June.
Samuel Ellis, 19, is being charged with five counts in the death of the students, officials said. He faces 23 years in prison should he be convicted.
Unfortunately, the message from Whitman's principal is that parents should stop hosting parties in their homes.
..."In response to this incident, we will be limiting what actions can be done using a USB device. So, for instance, a person may be able to save a document to a thumb drive, but will not be able to run a program off of a USB device," Tofig wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette.
The issue of students changing grades and people attempting to break into MCPS data systems is "not new," Tofig wrote. Walt Whitman High School principal Alan Goodwin confirmed that a student hacker broke into the grading system at Whitman last fall after plugging into the school's network through a personal laptop...
...Principal Joan Benz did not return calls for comment...
...Teachers are in the process of checking and verifying that student grades for this school year are correct, Tofig said. The investigation will not delay the issuing of second quarter report cards today, Tofig said...
http://www.theblackandwhite.net/2009/10/20/audit-reveals-spending-mishaps/#more-812Audit reveals spending mishaps
by Alex Zimmermann Published on Oct.20, 2009 No CommentsRecent MCPS budget audits revealed several minor spending mishaps at Whitman, including a $16,750 athletic field maintenance contract that wasn’t approved in advance by MCPS administrators.
Chief operating officer Larry Bowers must approve all school spending projects over $6,500, MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram said. Although the school spends money on various projects throughout the year, this was likely a minor error that failed to go through every required process.
“We have lots of contracts that have to be approved,” principal Alan Goodwin said. “We’ve had the same contract with the ground maintenance crew for a long time, so it must have just been a timing issue. Some contracts are worked out through parent groups, so it could have been one of those.”
In addition to the account switch, the athletic field maintenance contract wasn’t approved in advance of the formation of a year-to-year contract.
“As a new athletic director, I found out after the fact that we had to submit it to [the office of the deputy superintendent],” athletic director Andrew Wetzel said. “We then submitted it to his office and it was approved. We didn’t write any checks until it was.”
The contract existed prior to Wetzel’s appointment to athletic director. However, Wetzel did not realize that contracts must be re-approved in advance every year.
The audit also revealed that Whitman’s checking account was overdrawn four times because of delays in recording account info, according to the Gazette. However, Goodwin said that the bank account was never low.
“There was no bank imbalance, per se,” he said. “The summer before last we were switching banks, so there was a time lag.”
The MCPS Accountability Office regularly conducts audits of county schools to ensure all spending practices are in accordance with regulations. The most recent audit at Whitman was published this spring.
“These audits are done and shared with the schools to remind them that there are processes and procedures to be followed,” Cram said. “It’s good to have an audit to make sure everything goes by the book.”
The Accountability Office sends auditors to schools to check all the accounting books and to meet with the principal and business manager. After the audit is complete, they submit a report to MCPS and the school advising certain changes. Administrators hope to fix all the problems, but that’s not always possible.
“What was frustrating was that a couple of the things were in previous audits as well, especially related to field trips and that kind of thing,” Goodwin said. “Once again, it’s just making sure that we are smoothing out our processes.”
Although the audit revealed certain minor issues that the school needs to fix, no business practices are more serious than a routinely missed form or a small mishandled sum of money.
“The audit just revealed some sloppy business practices like making sure that all ticket sales are more carefully scrutinized and that teachers turn in the proper forms for field trips and for fundraisers,” Goodwin said. “Nothing illegal was found. It was just to make sure we are following all the procedures more closely.”
Whitman's Black & White student newspaper reports:A student broke through security barriers on Whitman’s Pinnacle grading system Sept. 23, changing grades entered by several teachers.
The administration informed the affected teachers as soon as they discovered the incident...
...Administrators reported the incident to MCPS, which is currently analyzing the flaw to improve security for the future, assistant principal Jennifer Webster said.
“The programmers who wrote the [Pinnacle] program are using the experience to improve their security,” she said.
The student discovered a flaw in the security system and was thus able to access teachers’ Pinnacle accounts...
