Vandalism at Walt Whitman High School

From WUSA9, reporter Samantha Gilstrap. For the whole story go here. 

To stop antisemitism in MCPS, follow @wwhs_jews4change on Instagram. Jews4Change is a group of Jewish Whitman students who are pushing for their school to better support Jewish students and staff, and address the antisemitic climate at Whitman. There is going to be a walk out on 12/22 (or possibly 12/21 if there is snow on 12/22) at Whitman in the morning. Support and promote the walk out, especially if you have high school students. Go to it if you can.

MARYLAND

'Jews not welcome' graffiti found at Bethesda high school

For the second time in a month, Montgomery County Police are investigating antisemitic vandalism in the community.

Ninth-grade student Rachel Barold at Walt Whitman reached out to WUSA9 after receiving an email from her principal regarding the incident. 

She says she was with other students at the time the email hit her inbox.

"We all opened our phones at the same time and you could hears kids saying 'oh my god' check your emails. Everyone was in shock about what happened," said Barold.

She claims the graffiti comes directly after a school lesson on the Holocaust.

Barold said a petition for the Holocaust lesson was started after Jewish students at the school began noticing their other classmates genuinely did not know what it was.

Barold said this should never be happening, adding that Whitman has issues with xenophobia.

"People are forgetting and it's scary because if you don't remember what happened, history repeats itself," said Barold.

Barold is helping to organize a walkout on Thursday, December 22 with the group Jews4Change at Whitman to draw awareness to the issue.

00:3002:28

Part 2 - Whitman HS to take part in research study of concussions

If a picture says a thousand words - a video provides a million.

Here is the video from Fox 5 showing the concussion research device that may be tested at Whitman HS.







Did you catch the principal on the clip as saying he is concerned about concussions because fewer kids are coming out for football. Gee, Dr. G - I hoped that you would be more concerned about the health of your students.

Friends in the Right Places

Whitman High School and its cluster feeding schools are so lucky. This cluster has two Board of Education Members - one current Pat O'Neill and past member Shirley Brandman - are residents of the Whitman Cluster and are parents of children who attended the school.

 So - it should not be surprising that whenever Whitman wants something - poof - it happens.

Just 100 students over enrollment and Whitman is up for another renovation/expansion. Lucky for Whitman, the school is next to a former MCPS elementary school. So - say goodbye to the elementary school. Plans are to demolish the building and let Whitman grow!

Really - how crowded is your neighborhood high school - and can it expand by elbowing out its neighbors?

Read all about it here.

Say Good bye to Summer Reading

Another county wide boutique program is apparently on its way out.

Summer reading. Who knew?

From the April 27th Whitman Student Newspaper, we learn that the county budget crunch is responsible for the elimination of yet another part of the Montgomery County Public School curriculum. Some of the reasons for eliminating summer reading:

1. Schools do not have enough copies to provide all students in the same grade with the same book. Does this mean that regardless of the class, all students in the same grade read the same material? What happened to differentiation?

2. Teachers think it will be a burden to collect the books at the end of the summer. Is this different from the end of the year when students turn in textbooks?

3. Students won't be able to annotate the copies of the books, so the learning experience isn't the same. Unlike college students, Whitman students must not recycle their books or pass them along to siblings and neighbors.

4. Libraries don't have enough copies of books for high school students.

I am once again amazed how a world class school system spins its money woes into a tale of gloom and doom and makes the students education suffer.

Here is the entire article:

http://bwprint.theblackandwhite.net/print9/Page1.pdf


No more summer reading?

by Victoria Scordato

Summer reading, as we know it, is changing. The English and History departments can no longer require students to buy any of their summer reading books, as a result of the new Montgomery County policy that eliminates student fees.

County officials have given schools two choices regarding summer reading: If teachers want to assign a specific title, the school must provide all students with a copy of that book. However, as a result of the economy and the current freeze on all county funds, schools won’t have the financial capabilities to buy class sets worth of books.

“We don’t have 450 books to give, and getting them all back—it would be simply impossible,” said English department resource teacher Suzanne Doggett.

So, schools must work with local libraries to compile a large list of potential options.
Departments haven’t decided on the changes they will make to comply with the policy, but they have come up with some promising ideas.

“We might have students read different books by the same author,” English teacher Marilee Roche said. “That way, when we read a book by that author in class, students will still have some background knowledge to bring to discussions and assignments.”

Advanced Placement courses will be hit especially hard by the new policy because teachers incorporate the summer reading books into the curriculum, especially during first quarter. The new policy puts her students at a severe disadvantage, said AP World History teacher Susan Olden-Stahl.

“We have our students read over the summer because it gives them a base of knowledge,” she said. “It would make the first weeks of the school year incredibly difficult if they didn’t have that coming in”.

Olden-Stahl also voiced concern about annotating, noting that students need to know this important skill before they enter the course. As a result of the new policy, annotations will essentially be eliminated because students can no longer be required to write directly in their books.

Students are also concerned about the possibility of more work if teachers assign former summer reading books during the year.

“It’s going to slow down the curriculum and make English less enjoyable if we have to catch up on all the summer reading during the year,” junior Vera Carothers said.

Most agree that while the policy is has definite benefits, its impact on summer reading will result in unfortunate consequences for students and teachers alike.

“It’s a shame we’re going to have to water down summer reading, but the county is caught,” principal Alan Goodwin said. “They can’t charge students more fees and there just isn’t enough room in the budget to purchase hundreds of new books for each school in the county.”

*******************

6/14/2009 Update - see http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2009/06/wootton-cluster-eliminates-summer.html to read the letter sent out to middle school parents in the Wootton Cluster concerning the rationale behind eliminating summer reading.

Short Primer on FERPA and "Obligations Wall"

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is the federal privacy act equivalent for educational records. All schools that receive federal funding are subject to FERPA. FERPA is a personal right - that is, the cause of action may only be brought by the individual whose rights have been violated. For example, only a student or parent of a student named on the "obligations wall" (at Richard Montgomery, Blake, or Whitman) or public HSA remedial list (Blair) is entitled to file a complaint with the US Department of Education. If my child's rights aren't violated, sorry, no right to complain.

Remedies are mostly corrective - the objectives are get the school or school system to fix their policies and procedures. However, the regulations do permit the Department of Education to withhold funding for egregious cases - see 34 CFR 99.61 et seq.

As a lawyer involved in freedom of information and privacy act issues, most people I know outside of MCPS in who deal with records subject to the privacy act or educational research and testing work very diligently to comply with the various requirements of the applicable privacy laws and regulations. MCPS is rather cavalier in its interpretations - but then again, that seems consistent with MCPS believing that most laws and policies are meant for others. I know I've spoken with my kids schools about having volunteers helping out with mailing interims, but didn't get very far, since the school claimed the volunteers were working just like school staff. How fascinating. I've only had one instance that I know about where my child's name was on the "obligations wall," and at that point I was more concerned about whether she could purchase a homecoming ticket than I was about filing a FERPA complaint.

More on FERPA is on the Department of Education's website:http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

Audit reports reveal ongoing financial disarray at Whitman HS

A just-released audit of the Whitman High School Independent Activity Fund reveals multiple account overdrafts and little adherence to the rules for IAF management.

Among the findings of the MCPS internal auditor:

• Contracts with vendors were signed without receiving required authorization from the principal.
  
• Staff members with MCPS-issued American Express cards never filled out the required purchase logs.
  
• Required pre-authorizations for purchases were frequently signed after orders had been placed and payments had been made.
  
• Required documentation for purchases was missing 37 percent of the time.

The new audit report, which covers the period March 1, 2007 to October 31, 2008, is available here.

The audit report for the previous period, January 1, 2006 to February 28, 2007, in which the auditors complain of financial management issues similar to those in the new report, is available here.

A comparison of the two reports reveals little, if any, improvement in financial management practices between the two audit periods.

Whitman's Student Paper Calls for More Transparency in MCPS

Good article in the online edition of Whitman HS's student newspaper.

The students get it - we're in tight budget, with a rough economy - its time to get tougher with the county credit cards, stop spending where its not needed. Start with more open disclosures of how we spend our money. And of course, check the credit card logs.

Can the kids get the adults in MCPS to shape up?

************************************************

Opinion

MCPS officials should more closely regulate purchases with county credit cards

By Megan Dwyer - News Writer
Published February 24, 2009 05:17:49 pm

Members of the Montgomery County Parents Coalition recently raised concerns over credit card regulation within the school district. A local legislative audit released in late January supported the claim that MCPS doesn't do enough to regulate credit card usage. While independent organizations have recognized the problem, Superintendent Jerry Weast asserts in his memo that every system can improve, and that he is pleased with the results of the credit card audit.

Yet it seems surprising that Weast was satisfied when auditors found that there were 512 credit card purchases totaling $39,400 in fiscal year 2007 that didn't have an obvious connection to education or the MCPS mission. Officials need to better regulate the questionable purchases that they don't approve before or after employees spend the money.

Members of the County Legislature are taking ineffective steps to rectify the situation through a proposed bill to mandate recording all purchases over $10,000 in a searchable database.
While measures like the proposed database are well-intended, the county still needs broader reform for credit card policy. Most of the illegitimate credit card purchases are less than $10,000, making the database irrelevant to the problem. Officials should just follow the regulations and check the logs.

The school system also needs to ensure that different people order, receive and allocate the credit cards, leaving less room for questionable purchases. Officials need to be diligent about checking and approving credit card logs. Standards should be stringent for what constitutes justifiable spending.

MCPS officials are slashing funding in an attempt to close the deficit gap in the operating budget during these tough economic times. To maximize the efficiency of every dollar, the county should implement a more transparent and efficient system, with strict adherence to regulations, thus monitoring credit card spending and decreasing unnecessary expenditures.

Government Courses - Another Missing Component in MCPS Education

What has happened to the teaching of US government to our high school children? Do they know that federal laws apply in MCPS schools? Are our children learning from the adults in the school building to follow rules and standards of conduct?

Apparently not if your child attends a school where they post or disclose personally identifiable information that is readily apparent for all to view.

I've seen this first hand at Blair. Every few weeks, our trusted Blair volunteer coordinator puts out a plea for volunteers to help stuff envelopes containing student interim grades for mailing to parents. When I have questioned this practice, I've been told that the letters are folded in such a way that the volunteers do not see the individual score reports, and that even if they view the letters, the parents are acting in accordance with school policies that let them perform these tasks. Pretty feeble justification, in my opinion, especially when the policy requires training of the volunteers, documentation of the hours, and requires that the the principal is responsible for:

Supervising the scheduling of the volunteer, determining the
role of the volunteer, and assuring that the volunteer has no access to
confidential student or personnel information.

Then, a few weeks ago, at Blair, I noticed the public posting of students who were scheduled to sit for the January administration of HSAs. Names, room numbers, and tests to be taken - names of those students who didn't pass the tests when they were administered the previous May. My student's name is not among the ones posted, so I don't have standing to complain. This time Blair administration won't get an e-mail from me - but I hope that some of the parents of kids named on the list will say something.

Is this an isolated practice? No. Just yesterday, I heard of another high school in Bethesda that will be posting names in the school hallways of students who owe financial obligations. I thought that practice was eliminated - after all, didn't Magruder and Richard Montgomery HS also do that a few years ago and were told to stop?

From the Department of Education website:

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g;
34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

. . .

Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. (34 CFR § 99.31)

What can you do as a parent or student? Call your principal, show him/her the law, assume this is a mistake, but ask to get the information off the wall.

Should they refuse and you want to pursue this further? Contact the Department of Education Compliance office at the information on their website.

For additional information or technical assistance, you may call (202) 260-3887 (voice).

Individuals who use TDD may call the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.

Or you [use] the following address:
Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920