...A local parents' group wants to see the contract between the Bethesda-based company and MCPS.
"This has not been discussed at the Board of Education. This has not had any procurement process so once again, we see MCPS making a deal with a company behind closed doors," said Janis Sartucci of the Parents'Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland.
The Coalition filed a Maryland Public Information Act request to secure a copy of the contract between VOLT AI and MCPS.
"There's an agreement with a company that's going to effectively be able to watch students in hallways, and there's no documentation that's been made public," Sartucci said.
Sartucci showed 7News a letter she received from MCPS saying, "There are no contracts, invoices, receipts, or purchase orders from VOLT AI. The 30-day pilot program is a no-cost agreement."
She also told us at a meeting earlier this month, MCPS Chief Safety Officer Marcus Jones assured the school community that lawyers from both sides had thoroughly vetted the agreement between the school system and VOLT AI...
The community isn't the only group that is surprised. The Board of Education is surprised too.
The plan has never come before the Board of Education for discussion, there has not been a feasibility study, and there is no funding in the MCPS budget for any renovations or modifications to the holding school.
Instead of presenting the BOE with possibilities, requesting funding, and obtaining a BOE vote, someone in MCPS administration made their own decision to move the Ewing @ Plum Orchard program to an elementary holding school.
When former Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus G. Jones was announced as the MCPS Chief of Security and Compliance on June 25, 2024, it was a surprise as Chief Jones had just retired from the Montgomery County Police Department.
Police Chief Marcus G. Jones was announced as the MCPS Chief of Security and Compliance at the June 25, 2024, Board of Education meeting right after the appointment of Thomas W. Taylor as the new MCPS Superintendent. The announcement was made by Acting Interim Superintendent Dr. Henry Johnson. Interim Superintendent Monique Felder was not present at the June 25, 2024, Board of Education meeting.
After Acting Interim Superintendent Dr. Henry Johnson announced the recommended appointment of Marcus G. Jones as MCPS Chief of Security and Compliance, a Board member announced "move approval" and the student member seconded the motion. The Board President then announced "all in favor raise your hand" and a vote was taken. The Board President then said, "that's unanimous, congratulations." The MCPS Press Release on the position repeated the Board vote.
But the exchange by the Board of Education was just a cover for whoever actually hired Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones had already been hired for this new position by April L. Key on June 20, 2024, almost a week before the Board meeting.
The Parents' Coalition has obtained Mr. Jones' offer letter from MCPS via a Maryland Public Information Act request. The letter offers Mr. Jones the position without any contingency on Board of Education approval. The letter ends with "Welcome to the MCPS family!"
The Board of Education did not have any approval authority over the hiring of Mr. Jones per Board of Education Policy GEA, "Leadership positions subject to Board approval shall be those positions classified “O” and higher on the MCPS salary schedule." Mr. Jones position was classified NS.
You might remember the name of April Key, MCPS Chief of Human Resources and Development, from the Beidleman matter or from the Damascus High School sex assault cases.
MCPS made him reverse Beidleman sex harassment finding—and then retaliated, he alleges
Walker alleged that the administrators who have retaliated against him include two of the most senior leaders in MCPS: Chief of Human Resources and Development April Key and Chief Operations Officer Brian Hull, who was acting superintendent for a short period last fall and who ranks just below Superintendent Monifa McKnight, according to an MCPS organizational chart.
Criticism over MCPS allowing 2 former principals to serve in corrective action workgroup.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — At a February 8 Montgomery County Council meeting about the Inspector General report on MCPS' complaint processing, a councilmember referred to the 2018 Damascus High School sexual assault case.
Laurie-Anne Sayles asked MCPS Chief of Human Resources April Key a pointed question about the school's former principal and former head football coach.
"Is the coach and principal still employed by MCPS?" she queried.
"Yes, they are," answered Key regarding former Damascus High Principal Casey Crouse and former coach Eric Wallich
That Tattler reporters set the narrative for parents and other news outlets alike is extraordinarily inappropriate. The school failed to fulfill one of its basic duties: keeping parents in the loop about their child’s safety.
...MCPS’s duties are shockingly opaque. A concerned parent or student cannot even access the “Principal’s Handbook” or their “Parent Involvement Toolkit” on the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) website. How are we supposed to understand if administrators are doing their jobs correctly if we don’t even know what they’re being instructed to do? B-CC administration can hold all the town halls it wants. The fact that these Potemkin villages pop up after every one of these incidents seems like a tacit acknowledgement of wrongdoing...
The Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD filed a Maryland Public Information Act request for:
MCPS Office of Shared Accountability evaluations of MOCO KIDSCO dba KIDMuseum since 2015
We received just two documents from MCPS in response to this request. Both documents are shown below.
The documents from MCPS show only two years of data on the numbers of students that attended KID Museum. The 2022 data brief was only tasked with reporting numbers of students, nothing else. There has been no actual verification of performance by MCPS.
The 2021 data brief was tasked with reporting numbers of students and number of classrooms implementing the KID Museum curriculum and nothing else.
For reference, MCPS has about 33,000 students in Grades 2, 3 and 4. The 2022 data brief from MCPS shows that KID Museum served just 1,079 Grade 2-4 students in one of their programs, and 2,942 students in a summer program.
MCPS middle schools have an enrollment of about 36,000 students. The 2022 data brief from MCPS shows that KID Museum served just 1,450 middle school students.
In Fiscal Year 2022, the Board of Education paid KID Museum $1,707,632 and served just 5,471 students out of 69,000 students in the targeted grades.
...To illustrate how this approach would avoid smoke and allow us a clear look into the mirror, let’s use the Montgomery County Public Schools pre-kindergarten education as an example. An MCPS strategy budget schedule would show a line for Pre-K education, with a requested budget of $20.2 million. Base spending isn’t shown in the budget request, but Interim Superintendent Monifa McKnight’s budget proposal references a budget increase of $3.3 million to fund 41.5 more full-time equivalent employees...
Maryland’s motto for the new year: prevention and preparation | GUEST COMMENTARY
By JIM ROSAPEPE and JOSELINE PEÑA-MELNYK
FOR THE BALTIMORE SUN |
JAN 22, 2022 AT 5:11 AM
We know from centuries of human history — and two years with COVID — that viruses don’t surrender easily. They morph in unpredictable ways. The plague of the Black Death in 14th Century Europe lasted more than a half dozen years — and reappeared periodically into the 19th Century. There were four waves of the Spanish flu in the early 20th Century.
We’ve already had more than four surges and three significant variants of COVID. Will this winter’s omicron be the last? Not likely.
...Last, all organizations — including health providers, schools, retailers, nursing homes and the legislature — need to embrace, not reject, what we’ve learned from this crisis, both to minimize short-term disruption and, as President Joe Biden says, to build back better. We know that telemedicine, online retail, telework and online education have worked for many. Even in our legislative work, allowing the public to testify on ZOOM instead of having to drive to Annapolis, find a parking place and wait hours in committee rooms was a big victory for ordinary people. It has made our democracy and our families’ health safer. Let’s make it permanent.
...But Hershey took issue with the fact that the nominating committee did not reconsider the nomineesfollowing letters from various groups — including the Maryland Latino Caucus and Prince George’s County Executive — asking them to do so. “It wasn’t just a few pissed-off rural county legislators,” Hershey said.
“What was the hurry that this could not be addressed?” he continued. “When letters go to the nominating committee about the makeup of this board, and they did absolutely nothing about it, they’re doing that because they say — we are not accountable to the General Assembly.”..
Mara Doss, the associate vice president for teaching, learning and student success at Prince George’s Community College.
Fagan Harris, chief executive officer of Baltimore Corps, a nonprofit that recruits talented professionals and connects them to leadership opportunities.
William “Brit” Kirwan, the chair of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, whose policy recommendations make up the foundation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.
Isiah “Ike” Leggett, former Montgomery County executive and currently a member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.
Jennifer Lynch, the director of educational partnerships for Baltimore County Executive John A. Olszewski Jr. (D) and previously an elementary school principal in Baltimore City Public Schools for five years.
Joseph Manko, the education program officer for the Abell Foundation and previously an elementary school principal in Baltimore City Public Schools for ten years.
Harry Preston V, a Baltimore City Public Schools teacher for the last 16 years.
Laura Stapleton, the interim dean of the University of Maryland, College Park College of Education and a professor in human development and quantitative methodology.
Joshua Starr, the chief executive officer of Phi Delta Kappa International, a nonprofit membership organization for K-12 educators, and previously the superintendent of Montgomery County Schools from 2011 to 2015
Today, the Montgomery County Delegation held a meeting and started the meeting off by talking to County Executive Marc Elrich and County Council President Gabe Albornoz.
In a discussion about the salaries that the Board of Education pays certain employees, County Executive Marc Elrich revealed that the Board of Education still has $400 Million Dollars of Federal money at its disposal. Elrich said the school system has not shared how they plan on spending those funds.
As a direct result of Parents' Coalition investigation and calls and emails, the County Council retreat that was hidden from view and made difficult to watch is now more easily publicly available, on the council's YouTube and FB Live pages. Government transparency is always important.
Thank you for your interest in the meeting. The meeting will now be broadcast on YouTube and Facebook. Please see the press release below.
Council Holds Operational Meeting on Jan. 10
For Immediate Release: Friday, Jan. 7, 2022
Rockville, Md., Jan. 7, 2022–On Monday, Jan. 10 at 10 a.m., the Council will hold an operational meeting to discuss the 2022 Council calendar and Council policies and procedures. A status report on the renovations required for the Council Office Building to accommodate eleven Councilmembers will also be provided.
The agenda can be viewed here. The operational meeting will be conducted virtually on Zoom and will be streamed live on the Council's webpage via YouTube (MoCoCouncilMD) and on Facebook Live (MontgomeryCountyMDCouncil).
I am writing today, as a concerned MCPS staff member, to ask the BOE to support MCPS in implementing a clear and transparent COVID reporting dashboard for the school system.
Currently, the MCPS COVID dashboard and case reports are not following a universal standard. Many schools' email notifications of positive cases never make it to the MCPS website, such as the cases reported at Sherwood HS, William H. Farquhar MS, and Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School, just to name a few.
Also, many case reports have multiple cases listed, so it is difficult to see where individual schools stand with recent cases and outbreaks. For example, Magruder HS, Blake HS, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase HS have used this notification method within the few last weeks. In fact, since December 7, Magruder HS has sent four community letters reporting 46 cases. Yet when you look at the MCPS website, there is no indication at all that there are so many cases at Magruder HS.
Lastly, MCPS is not reporting all of their schoolwide outbreaks to the state health department. Only 9 MCPS schools have been listed on the state dashboard as having outbreak-associated cases for the month of December. You can download the data here: https://data.imap.maryland.gov/datasets/md-covid19-schooloutbreaks/explore. Yet MCPS lists 452 total COVID cases on their own website. While all of these cases may not meet the school-wide outbreak definition, according to the state many schools should meet the criteria for an outbreak and be listed on the state dashboard.
Howard County Public School System has clear and transparent COVID dashboard. HCPSS provides daily case totals among elementary, middle and high schools: https://covid.hcpss.org/
You can see each individual schools’ daily case numbers, which are categorized by student, staff, contractor, or visitor. For example, this is the case reporting for Oakland Mills HS: https://covid.hcpss.org/school/omhs
MCPS has approximately 100,000 more students than HCPSS, yet we have no idea of the number of current cases or the schools that have current cases. We do not know if there is an increased number of cases in recent weeks, and without the state/county health department reporting a current positivity rate, we need MCPS to act now to get this information to all of its community members.
It is time for the BOE and MCPS to set clear, transparent guidelines for school administrators to report and publish COVID case information.
It is also time for the BOE and MCPS to implement a clear and transparent COVID dashboard for all members of the community so that we can track the number of cases in our schools, which is especially important for both holiday/seasonal surges and new variants. At this point in the pandemic, our current method of publishing COVID cases in our school system is unacceptable.
In October of 2021, MCPS staff and parents were relying on the MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard to show when COVID-19 Community Notification Letters were being sent out.
However, the Parents' Coalition was increasingly hearing from staff and parents that the Dashboard was not accurate. We particularly heard that Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School in Damascus had COVID-19 cases but that the school was not showing up on the MCPS Dashboard at all.
We filed a Maryland Public Information Act request to see if there had been any Community Notification Letters sent out for Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School.
What we received from MCPS was a surprise. There had been 5 Community Notification letters sent out for Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School from September 3rd to October 5th and not one of those letters was recorded on the MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard.
From: Parents Coalition
Sent: Thursday, October 7, 2021 12:02 PM
To: mpia@mcpsmd.org <mpia@mcpsmd.org>
Subject: Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School
This is a Maryland Public Information Act request for all of the COVID-19 Community Notification Letters for Lois P. Rockwell Elementary School for 2021 from January 1st through October 7th.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.
On October 7, 2021, here is what the MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard looked like. Note, Lois P. Rockwell ES would come after Little Bennett ES. It's not there.
MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard October 7, 2021
Here is the October 26, 2021, response we got from the MPCS public information office: 5 Community Notification Letters for Lois P. Rockwell ES.
None of these letters had been posted to the MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard.
Here is what the MCPS COVID-19 Dashboard looked like on October 26th, after we received the above response to our Maryland Public Information Act request. Suddenly Lois P. Rockwell ES was listed and 5 Community Notification Letters were shown.
FCPS took the Fairfax County moms to court, asking a Fairfax Circuit Court judge to censor the information on the mom’s website in a preliminary injunction motion.
This past week, the judge denied most of the school district’s request delivering a legal win to the mom’s seeking transparency...
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed on March 27, 2020, provided $13.5 billion to the ESSER Fund.
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSA), passed on Dec. 27, 2020, provided $54.3 billion in supplemental ESSER funding, known as the ESSER II fund.
The American Rescue Plan Act, passed on March 11, 2021, provided $122.7 billion in supplemental ESSER funding, known as the ESSER III fund...
The Education Department’s limited tracking of $190 billion in pandemic support funds sent to schools has left officials in the dark about how effective the aid has been in helping students.
After the pandemic shut down schools across the country, the federal government provided about $190 billion in aid to help them reopen and respond to the effects of the pandemic. In the year and a half since millions of children were sent home, the Education Department has done only limited tracking of how the money has been spent. That has left officials in Washington largely in the dark about how effective the aid has been in helping students, especially those whose schools and communities were among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
“We’ve been in the pandemic now for nearly a year and a half,” said Anne Hyslop, the director of policy development at the education advocacy group Alliance for Excellent Education. “There is a responsibility to the public to make sure the funds are spent responsibly, but also make sure that the funding that is spent is accountable to supporting students and educators.”..
...In January 2021, the federal education department opened up an investigation into Fairfax schools because of “disturbing reports involving the district’s provision of educational services to children with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Asked on Tuesday about the status of the Fairfax investigation, the Education Department's press office did not have that information readily available...
...We are very fortunate that in the State of Maryland and especially here at the Montgomery County level, we can benefit from the Maryland Open Meetings Act, which facilitates transparency. We benefit from hearing what decisions are being made, but we are also privy to the discussions that lead to those decisions.
Unfortunately, the transparency that is afforded at the county level is non-existent at our local schools. Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has set up a system where school-level decisions are made without any input or discussion from staff or the community. The lack of transparency at the school level perpetuates inequality within our system. It disenfranchises many of the key stakeholders who must live with the school-based decisions that are made...
Maryland health officials are refusing to release a complete list of schools where cases of COVID-19 have emerged, even as publicschool systems start making plans to bring select groups of studentsback to classroomsthis fall.
The debate over the safety of returning children and staff to school buildings during a pandemic has crescendoed in communities throughout the region in recent weeks...
...“The release of COVID-19 data within the school districts would help parents make informed decisions,” Kane said. “There’s a lot of debate behind the scenes about whether or not to return to school, how to return to school. Not having those data points really limits the conversation.”..
