Washington Post and Gazette fooled again by MCPS

Tofig admits that $25,000 stock trading fund never really existed at Gaithersburg High School

Stock Trading Room equipment mysteriously disappears

The MCPS announcement on November 26, 2006 was big news.   "Gaithersburg High School Celebrates Opening of First High School Stock Trading Room in Nation."  Funded by a $75,000 grant from the NASDAQ foundation, the school had received an electronic ticker board, a NASDAQ data board, and other equipment to support the Academy of Finance program.  This was a huge win for a school that had a high poverty rate, declining test scores and a seriously decaying building.

Adding even more excitement, MCPS claimed that "Students Have $25,000 Fund to Trade", donated by "a longtime supporter of the school system who wishes to remain anonymous."  And for good measure, according to the announcement, "the school will keep any profits in the account."

The Washington Post and The Gazette both picked up the story, devoting considerable coverage to the grand opening of the trading room.  

"The most intriguing part, financial educators say, is that students will invest real money," wrote Daniel de Vise of the Washington Post.  "You have to have real money involved in order to get the students to take it seriously," said Scott Hoover, adviser to the student investment club at Washington and Lee University. "If you can get the students to take it seriously, they can do wonders."

In the Gazette, reporter Jamie Ciavarra included a quote from Principal Darryl Williams:  "Any money the students make will go back to the school to fund additional programs, while the donor has agreed to absorb any losses."

It sounded almost too good to be true.   And in fact, it wasn't true, according to a letter obtained last week from MCPS Public Information Officer Dana Tofig.  The $25,000 "donation" never took place.  No investment profits have been contributed to the school.  The "real money" that was "needed to get the students take the program seriously" was as fictitious as the profits that were contributed to the school.  

Adding further insult to the integrity of the finance program at GHS, the electronic ticker board, the NASDAQ data board and other equipment obtained with the $75,000 NASDAQ grant have disappeared from the school.  

"No one knows what happened to it," said a GHS finance teacher at an onsite visit by a Parents' Coalition member. The only physical evidence that the NASDAQ-funded equipment ever existed are the screw holes in the wall where the large displays were mounted.  

As for evidence that the anonymous donation "never came to fruition" -- or even that there was an anonymous donor at all --  the Parents' Coalition has requested documentation showing that someone had planned to fund the trading account.   So far, however, MCPS has not come forth with anything, even with names redacted, that shows that anyone ever intended to create the stock trading fund.

(Photo of Superintendent Jerry Weast yucking it up on opening day is from The Gazette archives.)


   

Blair Lee finis as Gazette continues to abandon state political coverage

...In May 2013, the Gazette did a major house cleaning, laying off reporters, editors and freelance columnists. Before that it had completely shuttered its Frederick County editions.

In 2013, it dropped Barry Rascovar, whose Monday columns now appear in MarylandReporter.com and on his own website, politicalmaryland.com. Columnist Laslo Boyd now writes regularly for Center Maryland, as does Josh Kurtz, once one of the mainstays of the Gazette of Politics and Business.

Other former Gazette reporters have gone into public relations and lobbying.

Tallman had left the Gazette to be a regional editor for the start-up of Patch.com, AOL’s hyperlocal websites that once had over 50 local reporters and editors in Maryland. AOL reportedly blew over $150 million nationwide on that project, which hired hundreds of reporters and editors across the U.S. Patch.com still publishes some local news in Maryland with a skeleton crew.

In April, the Baltimore Sun Media Group, owned by the Tribune Co., purchased the Capital-Gazette papers based in Annapolis and the Carroll County Times in Westminster. This means virtually all the local dailies and weeklies in the six-county Baltimore region are owned by the Sun and increasingly share content, where once they published competing stories on the same events.

The Washington Post and the Gazette newspapers share common ownership, but as yet do not share the same stories.
- See more at: http://marylandreporter.com/2014/11/24/blair-lee-finis-as-gazette-continues-to-abandon-state-political-coverage/#sthash.QLvXF38v.dpuf

After feud, Montgomery council to ask school system for additional financial reporting

Gazette:  Inspector General and Council Members: Reports need to be easier to read

With half of the county’s budget going to Montgomery County Public Schools each year, the Montgomery County Council restated on Tuesday its need to know when those funds are — and aren’t — being spent.