Why won't Starr Fix the Roof at Wheaton Woods Elementary School?

If the roofs leaks in your house do you fix it or tear down the house?

For some odd reason, Superintendent Joshua Starr won't fix the roof at Wheaton Woods Elementary School.  Instead he is making the teachers and students live with a leaky rook until the school can be torn down and rebuilt.

Gazette:  For a wet Wheaton Woods, it’s four more years until it gets a new building

...After a downpour on April 30, water gushed into the Rockville school, taking down ceiling tiles and soaking about 12 areas in the school, including storage areas that held supplies, Cherissa Taylor, president of the school’s PTA, told county schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr in an email.
“Whenever it rains, Wheaton Woods elementary has water leaks and falling ceiling tiles. Over time, this water damage can and will turn into mold issues,” Taylor wrote. “Our children deserve a safe, healthy environment in which to learn and our PTA and school community will not accept another year in a substandard building.”...

Meet Me In St. Louis

National Staff Development Council, annual conference, St. Louis, MO (December 2009)
SESSION DETAILS: C19 DEVELOPING A COURSE ON STRATEGIES TO TEACH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS:

Hear how teachers at Wheaton Woods Elementary School in Rockville, MD, developed and delivered a course for the faculty on research-based strategies for English language learners. Delve into the process and practice some of the strategies. Leave with a plan to replicate this highly successful course.

Deborah Firestone, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD, and Michelle Pace, Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD
Strand: Race, Class, and Culture

And yet another session, too!
E13 EMPOWERING COLLABORATIVE TEAMS THROUGH EFFECTIVE FACILITATION

Empower your team through effective facilitation. Learn processes and skills to facilitate collaborative work, and match these processes and skills to outcomes and audiences to maximize appropriate stakeholder involvement. Reflect on collaborative work, and learn to use a measurement tool to guide progress toward effective facilitation.

Linda Natale, Teach for Learning, Gaithersburg, MD
Margaret Hart, Teach for Learning, Darnestown, MD
Elizabeth Sandall, Montgomery County Public Schools, Germantown, MD
Carol Starr, Teach for Learning, Rockville, MD
Strand: Fundamentals of Professional Learning

Imagine our surprise to see the above conference listings, when here we thought all along that there was a Travel Freeze instituted by MCPS! At least, that's what they told the County Council earlier this fall.