#UPDATE @MCPS says this letter on the Gaithersburg/NW HS football fight on 9/16 was sent later Monday.

#UPDATE @MCPS says this letter on the Gaithersburg/NW HS football fight on 9/16 was sent later Monday.
•both schools forfeiting Sept. 23rd games
•JV games will not be played this week, may be rescheduled for later
•investigation continues @fox5dc https://t.co/kjlEhzHOwe pic.twitter.com/14hK1u2l9n

— Stephanie Ramirez (@RamirezReports) September 20, 2022

@KateRyanWTOP · Dr. Karen Salmon @MdPublicSchools announces cancellation of sports programs for the remainder of the year during the MSDE Board meeting.

Dr. Karen Salmon @MdPublicSchools announces cancellation of sports programs for the remainder of the year during the MSDE Board meeting. Says a release is due out later today.

— Kate Ryan (@KateRyanWTOP) April 28, 2020

MCPS halted her son’s wrestling career. No one will tell her why.

Neki Nettey walked into the Montgomery County Public Schools office lobby last week holding a green folder in one hand and her 4-year-old son’s hand in the other. Nettey did not have an appointment, but she told staff members she would not leave the building until she spoke with an MCPS official regarding a months-long case involving her 17-year-old son, Armon.

“I’m trying to get answers,” Nettey said. “I am his legal guardian, and I have a right to know what is going on. MCPS is not held to deadlines, and no one will talk to me.”

At the start of the school year, Armon transferred within the county from Sherwood to Springbrook. Armon was granted a Change of School Assignment (COSA) on the grounds that his family was experiencing a hardship; Neki is a single mother who started working later hours, so Armon now picks up his younger brother from a day care near Springbrook after school...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/01/23/montgomery-county-halted-her-sons-wrestling-career-no-one-will-tell-her-why/?fbclid=IwAR0sTkEJFU7q27Rf5XBHV8ltT-hjnagGmMZ0KwYPB6FQZQkeMudJWsirtTQ#comments-wrapper

15,754 students participated in Athletics, only 376 were English for Speakers of Other Languages students

Question:  How many ESOL students participate in athletics?

MCPS Response:   For the 2018–2019 school year, 15,754 unique high school students participated in Montgomery County Public Schools athletics for at least one season (many participated in multiple seasons, as our rostered number is more than 22,000 students). Of the 15,754 students, 376 were English for Speakers of Other Languages students.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/boe/meetings/memorandum/191218%20ESOL%20Student%20Athletes%2011-12-19-05-C%20BD.pdf

MCPS fires Damascus JV football staff

DAMASCUS – Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Jack Smith told reporters on May 14 that members of the Damascus High School staff have been disciplined to varying degrees in the aftermath of a recent investigation of supervision.

Athletic Director (AD) Joe Doody, junior varsity head coach Vincent Colbert and the entire JV coaching staff were removed from their positions within the school’s athletic department as school officials finalize a two-month investigation.

More than five months have passed since four freshmen on the junior varsity football team were allegedly sexually assaulted with a wooden broomstick by their teammates. The incident occurred in a campus locker room after school on Oct. 31.

Since then, Circuit Court Judge Steven Salant transferred all four suspects, who had been charged as adults, to juvenile court. The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office began an investigation as to whether the rape was an isolated incident.

For nearly two months, MCPS investigated supervisory and reporting practices at Damascus, specifically on the afternoon of the alleged incident. MCPS determined the junior varsity football team was unsupervised between about 2:50 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., during which the alleged victims were apparently sodomized with a broomstick. The JV coaches who would have supervised the players in the locker room were “delayed” in reaching the school but insufficiently informed other coaches of that fact.

The investigation also considered reporting of the incident to the police and to the central office staff...

https://mont.thesentinel.com/2019/05/16/mcps-fires-damascus-jv-football-staff-crouse-resigns/?fbclid=IwAR2rWTx0BjvmbiBLkLFtwcP5i6dt8Ao1klK-4JYt0YyGXDdaM0bqlBM7YzM

‘Stop, stop, stop’: Police report describes alleged sex assaults in JV football locker room

...The incident report, written by Detective Dana Williams of the Montgomery County Police Department, describes interviews with the reported victims, who said they previously had heard about broomstick attacks but were uncertain about whether the accounts were genuine.

One of the boys allegedly attacked “reported that when he was in middle school, he heard about ‘brooming,’ but thought that it was a myth,” Williams wrote. Then the teenager was attacked, the report states, and he pleaded with teammates to stop, but they told him it was a “tradition.”

“He thought the football team was supposed to be a family and look out for each other,” the report states, summarizing the boy’s views, “and did not think they could do something that horrible.”..

...The report, written Thursday, covers the alleged actions of three 15-year-old junior varsity players who are each charged with two counts of second-degree rape and two counts of attempted second-degree rape...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/stopstop-stop-police-report-describes-alleged-sex-assaults-in-jv-football-locker-room/2018/11/06/b7cfb75c-e1de-11e8-ab2c-b31dcd53ca6b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.006c3972203d

Eight schools stage exhibition in effort to make badminton an official high school sport

Gazette: Trying to make varsity

Soccer coaches rethinking division alignments

Gazette:  Only two of 15 Montgomery 4A South Division contests were decided by more than two goals

MCPS cuts schools athletics budget by 10 percent

Gazette:  Montgomery County cuts schools athletics budget by 10 percent

Junior varsity programs take biggest hit in county's cuts to athletics

Fall high school varsity coaches in Montgomery County may still hold two-a-day workouts next month, but they’ll only get paid for one of those practices.
The two-a-day fall practices was the largest chunk of cutbacks the Board of Education made from athletics in its 2012 fiscal budget, accounting for nearly a third of the $751,900 reduced from the previous year. The 10 percent reduction also includes cuts to postseason coaching compensation and junior varsity sports... article continues here.

Cuts to MCPS athletics budget

Montgomery County Public Schools cut about 10 percent of its athletics program when it adopted the 2011-12 fiscal budget on June 16. Here are the cuts made:

$246,400 by reducing stipends to pay coaches for two-a-day practices in the fall

$126,700 by reducing the number of stipends paid in junior varsity sports; reduced each junior varsity sport by 2 to 3 games and 3 practices

$88,200 by eliminating three practice sessions per season for all high school varsity sports

$69,800 by reducing high school postseason compensation by 55 percent

$63,200 by eliminating one game per each of six teams at middle schools

$45,700 by reducing referees and transportation costs for junior varsity sports

$33,600 by limiting high school junior varsity cheerleading to fall only

$32,200 by eliminating high school varsity spring cheerleading

$17,500 by eliminating high school developmental girls golf

$12,900 by cutting stipends to high school intramural directors by 50 percent

$9,800 by reducing the high school coed and boys volleyball seasons by one game

$3,800 by reducing the amount each middle school receives for equipment and supplies by $100

$2,100 by reducing stipends to middle school athletics coordinators (four hours per school)

BOE proposes to continue excluding home schooled students from extracurricular activities

From the proposed 2010 Legislative Platform (last page):

Home Schooling

Maryland law recognizes home instruction as an alternative to public school enrollment and as a means for students to receive regular, thorough instruction. Currently, home school students are expressly authorized to participate in public school standardized testing.

The Montgomery County Board of Education opposes:

• Any requirement that home school students be allowed to participate in public school athletics or other extracurricular activities.
  

Anyone know the rationale behind the BOE's opposition to allowing home schooled students to participate in public school athletics and other extracurricular activities?  Does anyone really benefit from this policy?