MCPS fails to address G87 mold concerns

 Story by Gavin Tribble of the Walter Johnson Pitch newspaper reprinted in The Sentinel. Full story here.

After every class period when students rush through the hallways, ceramics teacher Kimberly Venesky wipes water off her cabinets in G87. The water coats her cabinets, running down the front, settling atop cabinet doors and pooling on the floor.

“Just people washing their hands and splashing or whatever, water is running down the stainless steel [countertop] and down towards the front,” Venesky said. “It’s sitting on top of the [cabinet] door, so when you open the door water is falling onto the floor.”

This has caused the cabinets, which are new, having to be replaced over the summer, to start deteriorating. Parts of the cabinet have begun to buckle under repeated contact with water and the door has started to split apart.

These cabinets have had issues long before they were replaced, having leaked for several years until, finally on March 13, 2024, a Work Order Request was filed to replace the counters. A day later, plumbers reported suspected mold, requesting an Indoor Air Quality investigation in a second work Order Request.

The Indoor Air Quality investigation was completed on March 18, 2024, finding a decayed root structure on a piece of rubble in the cabinet. It is also unclear if mold was properly checked for, as the cabinets were not removed, so the wall behind was not assessed, where Venesky argues the mold was located.

While the Indoor Air Quality investigation was complete, the cabinets were not replaced.

Eventually on June 18, over a year after the request was first filed, new cabinets were installed. However, it was unclear what happened when they put the new counters in.

“I don’t know how they addressed the mold, whether or not they just put the cabinets on top of it, wiped it down, whether it’s actually up to code, and that’s my concern right now, that it’s just going to come back,” Venesky said.

Ex-Bethesda lacrosse coach arrested in bizarre murder, kidnapping plot

A former Bethesda, Maryland, high school lacrosse coach is under arrest in connection with an attempted murder and kidnapping case so bizarre that even federal prosecutors say it reads “like the script of a bad horror movie.”..

...According to the documents, Hayes convinced a Florida couple, Frank and Jennifer Amnott, to help her and Reburn kidnap five children from two Mennonite families living in rural Dayton, Virginia. Hayes had told the couple that three of the children were actually hers and had been stolen from her, prosecutors said...

https://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2019/12/ex-bethesda-lacrosse-coach-arrested-in-bizarre-murder-kidnapping-plot/

and

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/florida-man-pleads-guilty-life-sentence-plot-kidnap-children-and-murder-parents

Reopened Woodward High School Might Not Have Athletic Stadium

High school in Rockville would be first in MCPS without sports complex

Story by Caitlynn Peetz in Bethesda Beat. Full story here.

MCPS staff shared early plans for construction at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, including plans for flexible classroom space that could double as gathering and performing arts areas, but much of the discussion was the future of athletics at the school.

The property’s uneven topography presents unique challenges, MCPS staff said. Although the school’s total property includes about 27 acres, the total “usable acreage” is about 16 acres.

If MCPS were to include a traditional athletic stadium at Woodward, along with baseball and softball fields, the school would lose all of its available parking spaces and be forced to build a parking garage, estimated to cost $50 million.

I’m the Wife of a Former N.F.L. Player. Football Destroyed His Mind.

By Emily Kelly in the New York Times, whole article here. Yellow highlights my own.

My husband, Rob Kelly, is a retired N.F.L. player. After five seasons as a safety beginning in the late 1990s, four with the New Orleans Saints and one with the New England Patriots, he sustained an injury to a nerve between his neck and shoulder during training camp that ended his career. By the time he retired in 2002 at 28, he had been playing tackle football for about two decades.

Rob had no idea, however, that all those years of playing would have such serious consequences. Safeties are the last line of defense and among the hardest hitters in the game. One tackle he attempted while playing for the Saints was so damaging, he doesn’t remember the rest of the game. He got up, ran off the field and tried to go back in — as an offensive player. He knows this only because people told him the next day.

And:

For decades, it was not well understood that football can permanently harm the brain. Otherwise, many parents would most likely not have signed their boys up to play. But this reality was obscured by the N.F.L.’s top medical experts, who for years had denied any link between the sport and long-term degenerative brain diseases like C.T.E., chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

That started to change in late 2009 when, for the first time, the N.F.L. publicly acknowledged that concussions can have long-term effects. In 2016, a top league official admitted there is a connection between football and C.T.E. which has now been found in the brains of more than 100 deceased players. But for Rob, and countless other players, those admissions came too late.

More development in WJ Cluster

The Planning Board, which is appointed by the County Council, is starting another Master Plan along the Pike Grovesnor-Strathmore. Staff is introducing the Scope of Work at the Planning Board today.

From the Scope of Work:
"The Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro Area Minor Master Plan Amendment will address approximately 105 acres of land located on the east side of Rockville Pike (MD 355), from Rock Creek Park to the south, to Strathmore Avenue to the north."

Community Facilities The 2016 Subdivision Staging Policy indicates that the Walter Johnson cluster is close to a moratorium for all school levels.  Additional residential development and the pace of its delivery will affect the Walter Johnson cluster, as well as the adjacent Downcounty Consortium secondary schools.  This planning process will assess the impact to the cluster from proposed residential development in the minor master plan area, given anticipated residential development elsewhere in the cluster.

According to the Scope of Work, a meeting was held on July 7, which included Walter Johnson cluster representatives, but that information never appeared in the WJHS listservs.

Schedule:

September 15, 2016: Scope of Work to the Planning Board 

January 2017: Working Draft to Planning Board 

February 2017: Planning Board Public Hearing

March - April 2017: Planning Board Worksessions

May 2017: Planning Board Draft Approved and Transmitted to County Council and County Executive

http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/agenda/2016/documents/GrosvenorScope-Final_000.pdf

NBC4: Tests of Condition of WJHS Field Spark Concerns

Crumb rubber turf athletic fields are located at many schools, but one field in particular is raising concerns in Montgomery County, Maryland, due to its condition.

Parents are worried about sections of the football field at Walter Johnson High School that appear to have become damaged and degraded. 

Members of the Montgomery County Civic Federation said they spent considerable effort getting information about the condition of the field through Maryland's Public Record Laws. They said the results were worse than they expected, and they're worried it might not provide sufficient cushioning on impact.

Maintenance records, which included impact testing, were also sought through public records laws.

"We found that some sections had potential for injury levels that tested higher than the maximum recommended by the NFL," said Bailey Condrey, with the Montgomery County Civic Federation.

The artificial turf on the football field was installed in 2010 and made by a company called FieldTurf. 

In a statement to Forbes magazine, which first reported the story, the company said, "FieldTurf is committed to the safety of every athlete that plays on each of our more than 7,000 fields. We stand behind the testing and safety of the fields."

The company also said Walter Johnson High School's field does meet industry safety standards for shock absorption. Some school systems around the U.S. have sued over the degradation of their fields.

Source: Tests of Condition of Crumb Rubber Turf Field Spark Concerns in Montgomery County | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Tests-at-Montgomery-County-Field-Spark-Concerns-393195221.html#ixzz4K9Spnxj6
Follow us: @nbcwashington on Twitter | NBCWashington on Facebook

Walter Johnson: New Development Planning at Rock Spring

The Rock Spring property across the street (north) from Walter Johnson is now the subject of the master plan planning process and intensive development is likely.  There will be an open-house-style meeting for the public on September 1st, at 7pm at Walter Johnson.

According to the Montgomery County Planning Department,

Rock Spring Park is part of the North Bethesda/Potomac office submarket. It accounts for 48 percent of office inventory in North Bethesda and 7 percent of office space Countywide. The current office vacancy rate in Rock Spring is 19.3 percent, much higher than in the wider North Bethesda submarket (14.7 percent) or the County (13.5 percent). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has vacated approximately 159,731 square feet of leased office space in Rock Spring for a new location in Twinbrook. Rock Spring has 63 percent of North Bethesda’s vacant office space and 10 percent of all vacant space in the County.
 
The challenges of developing the proposed Master Plan amendment focus on reevaluating a typical suburban office park with an automotive-oriented street network and large parking garages and surface parking spaces. The proposed amendment will examine opportunities for a new street network; public use spaces and amenities; residential and non-residential uses; sustainable environmental measures; infrastructure needs for the area; and linkages to the proposed transitway. 

The Planning Department has put out a post requesting property owners, i.e., real estate developers, to contact them to set up individual meetings in July and August.  For the rest of us, not so much.

There will be a 'open house'-style meeting on September 1, at WJ, beginning at 7pm.

To find out more contact 
Kristin O’Connor: 301.495.2172, kristin.oconnor@montgomeryplanning.org
Don Zeigler: 301.495.4638, don.zeigler@montgomeryplanning.org

And More Development in WJ Cluster

Hi all,
I received the following notice for development in the White Flint Sector, below. All the development will be in the WJ Cluster. I believe 'east of Woodglen' means those children will go to Garrett Park ES.
Paula Bienenfeld

Notice of Public Hearing, March 1, 2012
A hearing for the Preliminary Plan and Site Plan referenced below will be held March 1, 2012 in the Montgomery County Planning Board’s first floor auditorium at 8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring. You may testify before the Planning Board by signing up in advance at daicsearch.org/planning_board/testify.asp, by calling 301-495-4600, or by filling out the yellow form at the public hearing.

Name of Plan: North Bethesda Market IIZoning: Split Zoned CR3 C1.5 R2.5 H150 & CR4 C3.5 R3.5 H300
Acres: 4.41
Location: Located in the southeast quadrant of the intersection of Nicholson Lane and Woodglen Drive
Proposed Use: 290,282 sq ft of commercial uses and up to 382,986 sq ft of residential uses for up to 339 units, including 12.5% MPDUs; modifications from the approved Sketch Plan for this site include changes in building massing and public benefits.

The staff report will be available online via the link to the Planning Board’s Agenda at http://www.montgomeryplanningboard.org/ on Monday, Feb 20, along with an approximate time that this item will be heard, or call 301-495-4600 for more information.

For information about the staff recommendation or to offer comments on the plans, please contact Patrick Butler via email at Patrick.butler@montgomeryplanning.org or by phone at 301-495-4561 for the preliminary plan, or Joshua Sloan via email at Joshua.sloan@montgomeryplanning.org or by phone at 301-495-4597 for the site plan.

Written testimony should reference the agenda item and must be submitted at least one full business day before a scheduled hearing, i.e., by COB on the Tuesday before a scheduled Thursday hearing, may be emailed to MCP-Chair@montgomeryplanning.org or faxed to 301-495-1320.

$2 Million Slush Fund with Modernization

File this under "who knew that a $2 million slush fund comes with a school modernization?"  How does this work out for Kennedy High School where the floor just dropped in one part of the building? Will Kennedy HS "win" the emergency repair slush fund or must they wait for a modernization?  What about the rotting Old Blair auditorium at Silver Spring International Middle School? Where's the 11 year rotting auditorium slush fund?


Imagine being able to pour an extra $2 million into a school.  A little "gift" from the Board of Education. 


This article also has interesting information on how local schools are funded, $92.70 per student for instructional materials and $35.03 per student for textbooks.  The article says that amount is the same all over the county. What happened to Jerry Weast's red/green zone funding?


The Pitch Online:  What the School’s Budget Means to WJ

...Normally, at the beginning of each school year, the county allocates $92.70 per student for instructional materials, and $35.03 per student for textbooks. The amounts allocated per student are constant within the county, but the amount of money schools receive varies depending on the size of each school’s student body...

...While it may seem that some schools within the county receive more money than others, there are numerous factors that separate the distribution of funds between schools. Due to the lengthy construction, the county granted WJ a Furniture & Equipment account which is comprised of a $2 million budget and is used for materials, furniture, equipment and anything the administration deems a necessary without drawing from instructional funds.
“It comes from the county as a part of the capital budget made years ago when they first started working on the school,” said Cosgrove. “After construction ends we have a year-and-a-half to spend it.”
Only schools undergoing large modernizations are granted this account. WJ uses the money on anything from desks to pencil sharpeners, including the Promethean boards. While the county distributes a few boards per school, the F&E account has allowed WJ to buy enough Promethean boards for each classroom.
“We thought it would be better if every teacher had one. Because teachers work as teams, teachers without boards wouldn’t be able to team plan,” said Cosgrove.
The F & E account is still in use and will be available until the funds run out, giving WJ the leisure of purchasing necessary equipment.
“We were fortunate that we could use our F & E money to give everybody a Promethean board,” said Cosgrove.

White Flint Sector Plan: Town Hall Meeting TONIGHT

All,


It is very important that we all be at the Town Hall meeting tonight, which is for the residents, to let our councilmembers know we do not want inappropriate development, overcrowded schools, and dangerous traffic.  We do not want our children breathing in dangerous air quality.  We want to REDUCE our carbon footprint, not increase it with tens of thousands of new cars.
As a resident of Luxmanor, I live in a community of some 800 homes on 400 acres. On about the SAME amount of property, the Planning Board wants to put 9800 residential units.

Thanks,
Paula Bienenfeld

DATE: TONIGHT Nov 18
TIME: 7:30PM
LOCATION: TILDEN MIDDLE SCHOOL, 11211 OLD GEORGETOWN ROAD

Here is the information (below):
Montgomery County Council to Host White Flint / Kensington / Garrett Park/ North Bethesda Areas Town Hall Meeting On Wednesday, Nov. 18

Residents Invited to Express Their Views on Issues, Ask Questions of Councilmembers at Tilden Middle School

ROCKVILLE, Md., November 9, 2009—The Montgomery County Council will continue its efforts to find out what issues most concern residents when it hosts a Town Hall Meeting for the White Flint / Kensington / Garrett Park / North Bethesda area on Wednesday, Nov. 18. The meeting at Tilden Middle School will start at 8 p.m. A pre-meeting reception will begin at 7:30 p.m.

This will be the third Town Hall Meeting hosted by the Council in 2009. The Council is composed of President Phil Andrews, Vice President Roger Berliner and Councilmembers Marc Elrich, Valerie Ervin, Nancy Floreen, Mike Knapp, George Leventhal, Nancy Navarro and Duchy Trachtenberg. The Council previously held Town Hall Meetings this year in Germantown/Boyds and West Gaithersburg/Darnestown areas. Most meetings have attracted more than 200 residents.

Tilden Middle School is located at 11211 Old Georgetown Road between the Wildwood section of Bethesda and the southern area of Rockville, adjacent to White Flint.

The meeting will allow residents to let the Councilmembers know how they feel about specific issues and will allow them to ask questions of the Councilmembers in an organized, but informal, setting.

Topics expected to be of interest include the proposed White Flint Sector Plan, schools, public safety, traffic, growth, the County budget and taxes.

“In many ways, our County is facing one of its most difficult periods in a very long time. We are all in this together and we want residents to tell us about their most important concerns as we approach making important decisions about growth in this area,” said Council President Andrews. “This Council has made a priority of having better direct communication with residents, and Town Hall Meetings have proven to be an excellent way to do just that. For the citizens, these meetings provide a forum where they can see their elected officials in a different format than a televised meeting or through a news release.”

The meeting will be taped for later broadcast on County Cable Montgomery (CCM—cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). Susan Kenedy, a producer for the county station, will moderate the meeting.

For more information about the Town Hall Meeting or about the broadcast times, call 240-777-7931.

Don't forget the Turf Cam!

On March 10, 2009, the MCPS Board of Education voted to turn the Walter Johnson High School field over to a private organization. In the deal the football field will be covered with artificial turf. The "deal" was described as revenue neutral.

But wait a minute! Don't forget the TURF CAM! Every artificial turf field press box needs TURF CAM to protect the investment in the $1.2 million artificial turf field. How much does TURF CAM cost? The All Weather Camera System w/ Telephoto Day/Night Lens for Richard Montgomery High School's artificial turf field was $5,575.01. Hopefully, the MCPS Board of Education will fund this add on for the Walter Johnson HS field at their next meeting. No money for classroom supplies, but you gotta have your TURF CAM!
Turf Cam

Publish at Scribd or explore others: natural playground

WTOP: Turf War

Turf war brewing over Montgomery County athletic fields

March 10, 2009 - 12:13am

Kate Ryan, WTOP.com

ROCKVILLE, Md. - The fight over Montgomery County athletic fields isn't exactly following the "Field of Dreams" mantra of, "If you build it, they will come."...

In Montgomery County, a turf war may rage again as the school system proposes adding four more artificial fields at area high schools. They already have one at Richard Montgomery High School.

A posting on the Parents Coalition website argues against the installation of a new field at Walter Johnson High School.

The article on the site complains that the Walter Johnson High School Booster Club will have to fork over nearly $9,000 a year to maintain the artificial turf, a substance that's supposed to be low-maintenance. Richard Montgomery High School boosters pay nothing.

Acting Director of Facilities Management for Montgomery County schools Joe Lavorgna says that's not accurate.

"The booster club at Richard Montgomery is responsible for the maintenance contract for the artificial turf field," Lavorgna says.

He says that's between $7,000 to $8,000 a year. ... (click here for full article)

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