After Alleged Assault, Twinbrook Elementary Staff Meets with Parents

Last week the administration at Rockville’s Twinbrook Elementary School became aware of an alleged sexual assault on school grounds. The incident happened during recess and involved two students at the school.

Monday morning, a group of parents and administrators gathered to learn about school safety in the wake of the allegation made last week. This was the second Parent Coffee held for this purpose, the first occurring last Friday.

A group of about 20 people were present with an equal mix of school administrators and parents. According to a participant who was at both meetings the parent turnout was about the same on Friday. Attendees signed in and an agenda was distributed. They outlined how to report an incident, safety measures at the school and asked parents to complete an evaluation form...

After Alleged Assault, Twinbrook Elementary Staff Meets with Parents - Montgomery Community Media (mymcmedia.org)

Parents, Principal React to Alleged Sexual Assault at Twinbrook Elementary

An alleged assault by one elementary schooler on another on the Twinbrook Elementary School playground has caught the attention of parents, community members and the school’s principal.

Earlier this week, in a post on the neighborhood engagement app NextDoor, a distressed mother posted a report about her daughter being assaulted on the playground during recess at Twinbrook Elementary School in Rockville.

On Wednesday, Matt Devan, principal of Twinbrook Elementary, sent a letter to the Twinbrook Community stating, “School administrators…are working with our school counselors, the MCPS Office of School Support and Wellness and Montgomery County Agencies to follow all the established protocols to ensure a thorough investigation and ensure student safety.”

Devan also refers to parent reactions on social media creating “a number of concerns.”..

...MCM was alerted to this incident by the Parents Coalition of Montgomery County.

Parents, Principal React to Alleged Sexual Assault at Twinbrook Elementary - Montgomery Community Media (mymcmedia.org)

AFTER parent uses NextDoor to notify Twinbrook Elementary School community of sexual abuse on playground allegation, Twinbrook ES Principal puts out letter to Twinbrook Community.

 NextDoor posting at this link. 

Here's the letter that was sent by the Twinbrook ES principal after the NextDoor posting. 

Planning Commission Blunder Results in Project Approval

Twinbrook Safeway in Jeopardy
JBG's latest project for the redevelopment on 1800 Rockville Pike (the Safeway project) has been working through the City of Rockville Planning Commission process for approval.

On Wednesday, April 11, we learned that the City of Rockville Planning Commission inadvertently approved the development in toto on March 28 without knowing that they did, and effectively gave the developer eveything they asked for.
During discussion on the project, the Commission voted 3 approval, 2 denial, and 1 abstention to approve the project. The Commission then continued to take votes, ask for testimony, and issue instructions to city staff, concluding the discussion with a 5-1 vote to table the project while further information was gathered. No commissioners protested the 3-2-1 vote or questioned its validity. The City staff, including the Commission's City attorney, continued to participate in the discussion. The Commission was clearly concerned about the APFO impacts, including the traffic congestion and school overcrowding generated by this proposal, especially since JBG was requesting a parking waiver and was pressing its view that residents of its new apartment building could share parking and use Metro parking.

There are at least 5 developments we know that may be coming to the area around the Twinbrook Metro. The Mayor and Council is looking at a development requiring approximately 2000 parking spaces to be built under current City guidelines. That developer, at the strip mall that includes the Fuddruckers and the Pier One, also asked to be exempted from building some of the mandated parking and be allowed to build 3 extra floors (15 stories total). The Planning Commission did NOT approve that request, but because of its size, it went to the Mayor and Council. It appears at this point that the Mayor and Council will may well grant that parking waiver, as well as all of the developer's other requests.

In the context of all these projects going concurrently through City process, the Planning Commission (after the 3-2-1 vote) asked Staff to re-evaluate the school numbers not only for JBG's projects but for all the planned projects. We are unsure at this time if Staff is actually going to perform the evaluation since the request occured after the botched vote as part of the deliberations that the City attorney says cannot be part of the public record on the project.

The project that the Planning Commission inadvertantly approved on March 28 includes a Safeway that will directly face the Twinbrook Metro entrance on the Chapman Avenue side of the Metro. Numerous employees of Safeway have expressed concerns that the Twinbrook Safeway is in the process of being shut down.

We have told the Planning Commission that shutting our Twinbrook Safeway will be a hardship not only to some residents of the Twinbrook community but also deprives many people who come to the Safeway by bus from other neighborhoods along Veirs Mill of a convenient mainstream grocery. Going north, the next grocery store is Giant in Hungerford, going south you have to get to the shops at Randolph and Veirs Mill for food, and the next major grocery store is in Wheaton. Otherwise, traffic from Twinbrook to grocery stores such as Giant and Target on Rockville Pike must cross the Metro tracks on Twinbrook Parkway. JBG also plans to build another residential tower with a Walmart close to that intersection.

The TCA was pleased that the Planning Commission had tabled the 1800 Rockville Pike project on March 28, wisely seeking additional information and public comment on the project, and planning to continue discussion on April 11. Commissioners Trahan, Hadley, Hill, and Cook expressed concerns that were to be addressed on April 11.

Therefore, on April 11, the TCA was surprised when Planning Commission Chair David Hill opened the meeting with a discussion about a problem with votes taken at the March 28 meeting. The City attorney concurred with JBG's attorney that a 3-2-1 vote on March 28 had actually approved the project and that all the additional votes taken by the Commission were moot. The project could go forward even though the Planning Commission did not understand the consequences of their actions and none of the pertinent issues expressed by commissioners were addressed. Chairman Hill expressed reservations about the city attorney’s interpretation of the legalities surrounding the vote. (TCA will review the Planning Commission tape and check into the decision)
The TCA is dismayed that a major project appears to be have been inadvertantly approved without any major problems being addressed by the responsible body. The neighborhood will bear the brunt of this slip-up while the developer will get everything they wanted.

Unfortunately, this does not appear to be an isolated incident in Rockville concerning problems with procedures, policies, and effective governance. Recently, the City has faced several lawsuits about the APFO and complaints/concerns about employee relations, open meetings requirements, appointments to boards and commissions, etc.

The TCA will continue to stay on top of this situation and hopes the City will work to improve its knowledge of and adherence to rules and regulations to better serve our community.

Sincerely,

Christina Y. Ginsberg
President, Twinbrook Citizens Association

Rockville Mayor and Council to Tour Overcrowded Elementary Schools with MCPS Officials

News Release

CONTACT:
Marylou Berg, Communication Manager, 240-314-8105
    

Rockville Mayor and Council to Tour Overcrowded Elementary Schools with MCPS Officials

ROCKVILLE, Md., October 25, 2010 - The Rockville Mayor and Council will tour four elementary schools within the Montgomery County Public Schools system in Rockville, starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Ritchie Park Elementary School. The Mayor and Council will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Carver Educational Services Building, located at 850 Hungerford Drive. The following list outlines the schedule of events for the day:

• 9-9:45 a.m., Ritchie Park Elementary School, 1514 Dunster Road
• 10-10:45 a.m., Beall Elementary School, 451 Beall Ave.
• 11-11:45 a.m., Twinbrook Elementary School, 5911 Ridgeway Ave.
• Noon to 12:45 p.m., College Gardens Elementary School, 1700 Yale Place

In addition to the Rockville Mayor and Council, Board of Education member Laura Berthiaume (Dist. 2) of Rockville; James Song, director of MCPS Facilities; Bruce Crispell, MCPS Chief of Long Range Planning; and Kathy Steinberg, MCPS Intergovernmental Relations, will attend the tour. The Mayor and Council are going on the tour for a first-hand look at the overcrowding issues in Rockville, and to talk with principals about the challenges of overcrowding in their schools and what they are doing to manage it.

The Mayor and Council plan to gather information that will help their efforts to lobby the Board of Education on school overcrowding in Rockville. The Rockville mayor and all four council members will be present at the tour; therefore, the tour is considered a public meeting and is subject to all provisions of the open meetings act. 

Teachers Beg on DonorsChoose.Org

Our 'world class' school system with its $2.1 BILLION budget has teachers begging for money for school items on DonorsChoose.org (see below). Many of the items requested are curriculum related - things that should be supplied by the MCPS.

Oh wait - those Pain in the Ass parents are supposed to cough it up through 'curricular fees'.

How is it MCPS always has a SURPLUS for Textbooks and Instructional Materials, yet schools do not have these materials?

Textbooks and Instructional Materials Surplus

2009 $5,000,000
2008 $6,800,000
2007 $ 200,000
2006 $ 400,000
2005 $1,500,000

Besides noting what the teachers are asking for, please note the interesting teacher comments copied from their DonorsChoose pages.

These are not all the requests. I will note requests for special education supplies in another post. There's even a request for a Gifted Center.

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Twinbrook ES Gr 3-5 $566 81 subscriptions to "TIME for Kids Magazine - News Scoop Edition". The cost of this proposal is $566, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Twinbrook ES Gr 3-5 $572 My students need reading comprehension centers, 14 different vocabulary centers, a poetry listening center, and privacy partitions. The cost of this proposal is $572, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Twinbrook ES Gr 3-5 $565 My students need 6 cases of multipurpose paper, 3 packs of easel pads, and 1 chart pad. The cost of this proposal is $565, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Twinbrook ES Gr PreK-2 Mrs G $642 My second grade students need 3 sets of guided reading kit books. The cost of this proposal is $642, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Twinbrook ES Gr PreK -2 $544 Mrs G "Have you ever tried to teach students who were learning math on 2 or 3 different grade levels in the same room? It's not easy! ...Help my students read WHILE mastering their math skills with these math centers. Also, help me keep my sanity teaching 30 kids with different needs. We would really appreciate your generosity! My students need 10 math centers resources, including 2 Magic Function Math Machine sets and a set of Stamp & Solve Math Activity Boxes. The cost of this proposal is $544, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Thurgood Marshall ES PreK-2 $1004 My students need 20 leveled book sets, from levels D-M. The cost of this proposal is $1,004, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Meadow Hall ES Gr PreK-2 $373 "I teach second grade in a school where the neighborhood has a low socio-economic status. There are many immigrant families who do not speak any English and have limited resources. A major obstacle in our classroom is a lack of supplies. With families who have to work multiple jobs to support their families, there are not many donations from parents... My students need a mailbox organizer to put their papers in. This is a good way to keep us organized and to save time. Also, we always run out of school supplies like glue sticks! We need 30 glue sticks. Please help to keep our classroom running in an organized way. The cost of this proposal is $373, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Meadow Hall ES Gr PreK - 2 $405 "... My students need supplies. It is as simple as that. We are not a Title 1 school, ...My students need pencils, glue sticks, glue bottles, Crayola crayons, Crayola markers, Scotch tape, highlighters, Expo dry erase markers, and other craft supplies. The cost of this proposal is $405, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment."

Corrected: How to look for Montgomery County Schools: go to DonorsChoose.org, click on "See Projects" upper right, or 'All Projects' in middle of page. Search State (Maryland) --> County (Montgomery)