Weast ends year with $32,800,000 surplus

Read the July 26, 2010, memorandum from Superintendent Weast here.


Note the surplus in these two categories:

Category 1, Administration, reflected a surplus of $1,862,479. The surplus is a result of greater than budgeted salary lapse and turnover savings ($900,000) and other savings as a result of the comprehensive expenditure restrictions ($950,000). Savings in Category 1 are 4.4 percent of budgeted expenditures.

Category 2, Mid-level Administration, reflected a surplus of $2,076,598. The surplus is a result of greater than budgeted lapse and turnover savings ($1,600,000), reductions in the acquisition of instructional materials ($200,000), and other savings as a result of the comprehensive expenditure restrictions ($300,000). Savings in Category 2 are 1.6 percent of budgeted expenditures.

And...remember how Superintendent Jerry Weast told the Board of Education that illegal curricular fees could not be eliminated because MCPS didn't have the money to pay for textbooks and instructional supplies? He said the "harsh reality is that MCPS simply would not be able to offer a number of courses that are available to students today..." 


Yet, he eliminated 70% of the fees by adding $1.5 million to the instructional budget. What would it take to eliminate ALL illegal curricular fees? Here's an over $5 million surplus sitting in the Textbook and Instructional Supplies budget. That should do it! 


So exactly why are MCPS students being charged illegal curricular fees?  

Category 4, Textbooks and Instructional Supplies, reflected a surplus of $5,189,453. The surplus is a result of reduced central acquisition of textbooks and instructional materials based on the comprehensive expenditure restrictions ($3,700,000), savings in instructional materials in the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs ($900,000), savings in expenditures for staff development training materials ($300,000), and savings in printing and computer supplies ($300,000).

Weast reveals $320,000 stash!

Remember when Superintendent Weast said he was going to close Monocacy Elementary School?

Remember the $205,259 for Media Assistants and the $342,240 in Building Maintenance positions that Superintendent Weast is cutting from the Operating Budget?

Remember when the students and parents from Einstein High School's Visual Art Center lobbied for the return of one of their two teachers?

Remember when Superintendent Jerry Weast said "We are broke"?

Would you be surprised to find out that all that time Superintendent Weast was holding on to a $320,000 pot of money?

Well don't be surprised.

On June 8, 2010, those funds were put on the Board of Education's "Consent Agenda" and the Board voted to spend those funds on . . . not classrooms, not maintenance, not media assistants.

No, instead of spending the funds on classroom teachers the Board approved Superintendent Weast's plan to spend the $320,000 to develop an Online Curriculum! You know, the one that is going to be sold by Pearson Education, Inc.

According to Superintendent Weast's memo to the Board, the $320,000 is needed to pay for "contractual services".

So where did this $320,000 stash come from? More on that here . . .

"A crippling blow to the only countywide high school art magnet program..."

Letter to MCPS Board of Education from supporters of the Einstein High School Visual Art Center program:


Dear Montgomery County Board of Education,

We appreciate how difficult this budget cycle has been, and we appreciate your careful attention to our testimony, in person and through emails, on the subject of the 50% cut to the Visual Art Center teaching staff at Einstein High School.

Now that the total schools budget amount is clear, the VAC parents, students, alumni and supporters below are requesting that you vote on the specific cut to the Visual Art Center. A crippling blow to the only countywide high school art magnet program is a policy issue. This issue was sidelined during the extended negotiation over the total schools budget.

The cut is being described as “fair” by MCPS staff, but we disagree. It appears that the total schools budget is down 1% from last year. We disagree that this necessitates a 50% cut to a program with only two teachers. There is no other countywide high school art magnet program, while we have multiple magnet programs for sciences and humanities. We do not believe there is another countywide magnet program being run by one teacher. And we do not believe that any other countywide magnet has lost 50% of their teaching staff.

This program closes the achievement gap, yields 100% pass rate on program AP tests, brings important distinction to Einstein High School, and brings millions of dollars in scholarship money and multiple prestigious awards to MCPS each year. The community has very clearly spoken out against this cut: parents, students, alumni, and countywide arts leadership including Busy Graham, Mark Jaster and Jose Dominguez.

We await your response.

Thank you for your service in representing the community.

Friends of the VAC

1. Sue Katz Miller
2. Paul Miller
3. Aimee Miller, VAC ‘12
4. Bob Drogin
5. Frankie Drogin
6. Maggy Sterner
7. Casey Drogin, VAC ‘10
8. Ruth Ilan
9. Jim Kuhn
10. Aaron Kuhn, VAC ‘10
11. Busy Graham
12. Stew Hickman
13. Molly Hickman
14. Mark Jaster
15. Wyatt Jackson Jaster, VAC ‘09
16. Betsy Keeler
17. Harvey Meyerson
18. Maggie Munoz
19. Michelle Jimenez, VAC ‘12
20. Ruy Teixeira
21. Lauren Teixeira, VAC ‘10
22. Robin Allen
23. Ian Teixeira
24. Marianna Previti
25. John Previti
26. Rosetta Previti, VAC ‘14
27. Max Shevitz
28. Betty Shevitz
29. Michael Shevitz, VAC ‘03
30. Tonda Taylor Bean
31. Mary B. Stevens
32. Miriam C. Stevens, VAC ‘10
33. Katie Dell Kaufman
34. Nancy Martin
35. Benjamin M. Rosenthal
36. Bob Holmcrans
37. Karen Holmcrans
38. Mary Holmcrans, VAC ‘13
39. David Hammer
40. Lauren Hammer
41. Deirdre N. Parker
42. Rosanne Skirble
43. Daniel Klein
44. Martin Swift, VAC ‘08
45. Jeffrey A Toretsky
46. Elizabeth Toretsky
47. Brenda Smoak
48. Jenna Fanning, VAC ‘08
49. Jennifer Woronow
50. Phyllis Goldfarb
51. James Fellows
52. Aaron Fellows, VAC ‘12
53. Diane Wendt
54. Rachel Milner
55. Richard Nowitz
56. Varda Nowitz
57. Mark Inglis Sorden
58. Danielle Ceneta, VAC ‘09
59. Sunny Keene
60. JoAnne Pierson
61. Jamie Newell
62. Alejandro Newell
63. Viviana Azar
64. Ryan Hartley Smith, VAC ‘02
65. Judy K. Reul
66. Linda Nemec
67. Chris Bort
68. Theresa Bort, VAC ‘10
69. Samuel F. Baldwin
70. Emory Luce Baldwin
71. Keith Donohue
72. Melanie Donohue
73. Ann P. Riley
74. Janette Patterson
75. Sandra Moore
76. Chas G. Poor
77. Joan B. Duncan
78. Lauren A. Poor, VAC ‘10
79. Nicole L. Poor
80. Mr. Yung Son Pak
81. Mrs. Young Chin Pak
82. George Smith
83. Diane Smith
84. Sara Falconett
85. Jerry Falconett
86. Dr. Nancy Nolan Sorden
87. Anna Lukacs, VAC ‘08
88. Roy W. Deppa
89. Shelley Waters Deppa
90. Ellen Bloom
91. Nina Corin
92. Ka Lai Lou, VAC ‘07
93. Tor Opsahl
94. Anja Opsahl
95. Meredith Meer
96. Helen Rea
97. Robert Sugar
98. Rebecca Sugar
99. Steven Sugar, VAC ‘08
100. Lisa Goldring
101. Eileen F. Heiss
102. Joseph M. Heiss
103. Lynn Crawford Cook
104. Madeline Marie Cook, VAC ‘09
105. Shira Medoff
106. Carin Gottlieb
107. Ilene Lundy
108. Michelle Trout
109. Harry Trout
110. Jack Chen, VAC ‘11
111. Zhao Chun Chen
112. Wei Wang
113. Terri Lundy
114. Don Lundy
115. Charles Ritchie
116. Jenny Ritchie
117. Samantha Ritchie, VAC ‘12
118. Linda Sapin
119. Jim Swyers
120. Naomi Manzella
121. Nora Manzella
122. Tom Hamburger
123. Ellie Hamburger
124. Ben Hamburger, VAC ‘06
125. Carl Elefante
126. Adriana B. Elefante
127. Stephen B. Elefante, VAC ‘09
128. Caroline Miller
129. Peter Miller
130. Elizabeth Luu
131. Ali Vallespin
132. Lorraine Duffin
133. Ellen Hornstein
134. Denis Cioffi
135. Adelle Banks
136. Alison Rutsch, VAC ‘08
137. William Rutsch
138. Linda Rutsch
139. Mark Butler
140. Hayden Butler, VAC ‘12
141. Isla Norwood
142. Esther DeVries
143. Johanna Janssens
144. Jeff Bartholet
145. Wei (Vivian) Cheng
146. Sara Bluestone
147. Lewis Cuffy
148. Katie Chung
149. Cynthia Wang
150. Kelvin Childs
151. Richard Payne
152. Bettie Payne
153. Susan Wood
154. Tracey Goldman
155. Andrew Strongin
156. Emma Strongin, VAC ‘14
157. Marika Partridge
158. Larry Ravitz
159. Heidi Landecker
160. Abraham Murrell, VAC ‘09


Please see link to letter above for additional names. 

Program Cut in Half Yields Award Winner

If a student in the Visual Art Center program at Einstein High School wins an award next year they will only be able to credit one teacher. 


One of these teachers won't be back in the program next year and only half as many students will be able to experience this unique learning environment.


While half of the teachers in this program are being cut for next school year, Superintendent Weast has promoted 7 administrators this month.  And, as the Board of Education responds when an administrator is hired or given a raise; "Clap, clap, clap."

Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) announces that AARON KUHN, a senior at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, MD, is the 2010 recipient of the Ida F. Haimovicz Visual Arts Award. Mr. Kuhn will receive a $3,000 cash award on Tuesday, June 8 at 5:00 PM at the reception for his solo exhibition at the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Montgomery College Takoma Park-Silver Spring Campus.

Aaron Kuhn, who works primarily with paint, credits Einstein’s visual arts magnet teachers, Mr. Michael Piechocinski and Ms. Jane Walsh, for helping him to think conceptually about his work and causing him to act as his own critic...

Video: See program Weast has cut by 50%

The Einstein High School Visual Arts Center has been in existence for over 27 years.
Watch this VOA video and meet the teachers and students.
Half of the instructors in this program are being cut by Superintendent Jerry Weast.

Weast finds money for police, not teachers

Gazette: School system agrees to fund 17 county police for campuses

Final plan depends on approval of proposed budget

by Andre L. Taylor 

Seventeen Educational Facilities Officers will work in Montgomery County public schools next school year, but county police will not foot the bill...

...Montgomery County Public Schools agreed to pay for 17 Montgomery County Police officers in the schools, he said. The bill for the school system will be a little more than $1.9 million, Andrews said...

Found some $$$! Don't Cut Visual Art Center! (or classroom teachers, for that matter)

Can we all agree that preserving actual Classroom Teacher positions in MCPS should be the highest priority? That the classroom teacher is where the actual learning begins, and that their positions should have priority over central office spending that has no direct, immediate contact with teaching actual students?

Here's a list of some contracts approved by the Board of Education recently. Let them know that you value classroom teachers over consultants.

April 26, 2010: Maryland Public Television, $178,574 (online professional development)
April 15, 2010: WT Cox Subscriptions, $304,000 (Magazine Subscription)
Feb, 17, 2010: Arroyo Research Services: $39,975 (Professional Development Evaluations)
January 12, 2010: Gompers, $125,000 (support for security activities)

Magazine subscriptions? Public Television? Consultants? When did the Board of Education prioritize these things over classroom teachers? The Board knew back in January that there isn't money to spare in this year's budget. Why did they keep voting to spend money on items that don't relate directly to classroom instruction?

Oh sure: the $10 million dollar MCPS Ministry of Truth (Minitrue) will come out with some statement as to why the above expenditures directly contribute to MCPS's success in closing the achievement gap. But do you believe it? Don't you think that money should be spent on teachers in a classroom instead?

Weast slashes highly successful arts program in half

According to public comment delivered to the Board of Education today, the Visual Art Center at Einstein High School sends 100% of their students to college, the students have received over $18 million in scholarships and all of the students pass AP exams with high marks. Read about this program in this article:


The Takoma Park/Silver Spring/Kensington Voice - School Scene: Budget cuts: This time it's personal
Sue Katz Miller

...Last week, I learned that my daughter's program, the Visual Art Center (VAC) at Einstein High School, was targeted for a 50% cut, even though the program only has two teachers to begin with. Students were shocked, weeping and hugging each other, when the cut was announced at the annual VAC art show...

...Unlike other selective magnet program, the VAC takes kids in sophomore, junior or even senior year who suddenly yearn for intensive art instruction. Unlike other selective magnet programs, the VAC has no transportation funding and no administrative funding, just two teachers who teach their hearts out while also serving as guidance counselors as they prepare portfolios and help students apply for scholarships, colleges, and competitions. This program has been the definition of lean, mean, and successful. Chopping it in half makes no sense...continues here.

Join the Facebook page in support of this program here.