The Somerset Elementary School fundraising to buy plastic grass for the elementary school playground has released the names of their top donors. The top donor for the plastic grass fund is the Somerset Elementary School PTA, raising $80,000 toward the cost of the plastic field.
In the $25,000 and above category, we see the Mayor of Somerset. How much "above" $25,000 is not shown. Remember, the cost of maintenance and replacement of this plastic grass field on a stone/concrete base will be on the citizens of Montgomery County. Get ready to kick in your share of the cost in the coming years. This is what we call "equity" in Montgomery County.
Check out where the Montgomery County Planning Board's Planning Director sends her children to school. It's not MCPS!
This video clip is from the January 12, 2016, Board of Education meeting discussion conerning putting MCPS children in commercial office space instead of public school buildings.
The following are the top 10 highest-paid lobbyists in Maryland
for the first six months of 2015, according to the Maryland State Ethics
Commission. Gerard E. Evans: More than $1.8 million Timothy Perry: More than $1.1 million Joel D. Rozner, of Rifkin, Weiner, Livingston, Levitan & Silver LLC: $969,000 Robert Garagiola, of Alexander & Cleaver: $927,415 Lisa Harris Jones, of Harris Jones Malone: $904,350 Bruce Bereano: $896,450 Michael Johansen, of Rifkin, Weiner, Livingston, Levitan & Silver: $866,165 Nicholas Manis, of Manis Canning & Associates: $769,333 Frank Boston III: $688,088 Steven Wise of Schwartz, of Metz & Wise P.A.: $648,856
...Council member Marc Elrich, who Leggett invited to speak toward the
end of the forum, said he’d vote for a property tax increase but that
getting all nine council members to support it is “virtually
impossible.”
He encouraged residents instead to get a referendum on the ballot to do away with the requirement for unanimous approval.
“We ought to have an honest debate and if people don’t like us
because we raised taxes, then they can elect us out of office,” Elrich
said.
Paul Geller, vice president of the Montgomery County Council of
Parent-Teacher Associations, told Leggett his organization is prepared
to advocate for a property tax increase so the county can move toward
reducing class sizes, adding more counselors in schools and making other
additions to the education budget, which takes up roughly half of the
county’s $5 billion annual budget...
Here are some sample questions in the letter (summary):
When are you collecting data on our kids and when are you not? It seems that Google is collecting even when students move off the educational websites/apps.
For what purpose are you collecting this data on our children? You state it is for educational purposes but we have learned you are using this information beyond 'education' only purposes.
Is it possible to make the data collection opt-in?
What third parties do you share this data with and what restrictions/security exists for these third party vendors?
What is the relationship between Google and the school districts?
Does Google offer to parents an information packet on what is being collected on their child, how it is used, and why?
We are thankful to Senator Al Franken for finally asking the questions Parents have been asking MCPS with zero response (except "Don't worry about it.").
WASHINGTON — A middle school student suffered minor injuries when she
was struck by a car while walking to the school bus in Bethesda,
Maryland on Thursday morning.
According to Montgomery County Public Schools, the girl, a student at
Westland Middle School, was walking to a bus stop on Fairfax Road, just
south of Bradley Boulevard, when she was struck...
Part 2: Exclusive video of Montgomery County Council Retreat on January 11, 2016. The retreat was held in Potomac, Maryland. No members of the press attended the retreat. The Parents' Coalition was the only outside organization to attend this off-camera, off-site public meeting of the Montgomery County Council.
Floreen: "...warm up for Westbard..."
Floreen on public hearings run by Committees: Floreen thinks all public hearings should be before the full Council. Councilmembers are not "up to speed on issues" when they do not attend public hearings.
Riemer: "immediate impact on schedule" with evening public hearings... "limit number of nights I go out during the week..."
Hucker: "...we're all grownups and can make good decisions about our time..." Minute 10 of video
Floreen: "...we have the Westbard challenge..."
Minute 12 of video
Floreen: "We've been doing a pretty good job of just letting public testify...Once we start engaging, we really can't stop...If you have questions at the end you can always ask staff at the end..."
Leventhal: "...long Delegation hearing...amazing for me to hear elected officials argue with their constituents who showed up to testify... it didn't reflect well on our Delegation... reflects better on us just to listen at public hearings... gets us home earlier... Don't ask questions and certainly don't disagree or pick fights..."
Navarro: "...where you have a theme going on that is factually incorrect..." Minute 17 of video
Floreen: "...we need supporting staff to help us..." during public hearings. "Keep in mind our job is to help the public."
Minute 19 of video
Floreen on number of people speaking at a public hearing. "If we keep our mouths shut, the community gets to weigh in... my personal...is more the merrier." "I know what they are going to say on land use..."
Minute 22 of video
Discussion of problem with lights on microphones at public hearings.
Hucker: "...we look very bush-league..."
Floreen: "Mr. Katz runs is own personal timer."
Katz: "What is follow up after public hearing?"
Minute 32 of video is discussion about making individuals disclose at public hearings when they are actually representing a group.
Baltimore County school Superintendent Dallas Dance, who has asked
that his contract be renewed, denied reports Tuesday that he has applied
to be the next superintendent in Montgomery County.
"I have not applied for the Montgomery job," he said. "I have not applied for any job."
Howard County Superintendent Renee A. Foose also denies that she is in the running for the job.
Montgomery
County's school board expects to make an announcement this spring on a
permanent replacement for Joshua P. Starr, who resigned after reports
that he did not have the votes needed to get a new contract. The
Washington Post cited unnamed sources saying that both Dance and Foose
were in the mix of applicants for the superintendent's job. John White, a
spokesman for Howard County schools, said Foose hasn't applied for the
job...
Sunday, March 4, 2007
The principal of Earle B. Wood Middle School in Rockville gathered
teachers and handed out a list of all the black, Hispanic,
special-education and limited-English-speaking students who would take
the Maryland School Assessment, the measure of success or failure under
the federal No Child Left Behind mandate.
Principal Renee Foose told teachers to cross off the names of students
who had virtually no chance of passing and those certain to pass. Those
who remained, children on the cusp between success and failure, would
receive 45 minutes of intensive test preparation four days a week, until
further notice.
...That is what some teachers say has happened at Wood. Their accounts and
interviews with Foose offer a glimpse at a kind of test-prep triage that
analysts think is increasingly common at many schools but is rarely
discussed in public...
...Test preparations began in earnest, the staffers said, on the day
faculty returned from winter break. In separate meetings with the
English and math teachers, Foose handed out lists of "subgroup" students
and outlined her plan: "We were told to cross off the kids who would never pass," one staffer
said. "We were told to cross off the kids who, if we handed them the
test tomorrow, they would pass. And then the kids who were left over,
those were the kids we were supposed to focus on."
The next week, teachers regularly began pulling selected students from
social studies, science, gym, art and other elective classes to work in
small groups to prepare for the test. They used test-prep workbooks and
sample material from the state education department's Web site.
The principal and some employees disagree on how often students were
removed from classes for test-preparation. Foose said that many teachers
delivered extra instruction in the classroom.
Employees say that Foose and one of her administrators added to the
urgency by telling students and parents that those who failed the
assessments might be held back. The principal said the comments came
from an assistant principal and were more about students' long-term
academic prospects...
... Others, inside and outside the school, said they thought the exercise crossed a line.
"They're not teaching the material," Cullison said. "They're teaching
them how to take a test, which is a huge disservice to these kids."
Community leaders and residents from Olney, Brookville, Sandy Spring, and upper Rockville were left without a keynote speaker at the Greater Olney Civic Association (GOCA) meeting this evening when no one from MCPS showed up for a 30 minute presentation about the solar power plant proposed for the MCPS site on Cashell Road.
No one from MCPS phoned or emailed anyone from GOCA to advise that the MCPS representative would not be present.
The meeting went on without the speaker, but at the end of the meeting, the president of one of the HOAs adjacent to the site announced that his HOA was considering litigation over the proposed solar power plant.
Community members had requested that a Board of Education member attend an MCPS meeting held in November 2015 about the proposed solar power plant, but no one from the BOE was willing to attend. Only a few community members had been advised in advance by MCPS about the November meeting.
WASHINGTON (ABC7) -- Six weeks after ABC7 revealed that several Montgomery County schools had radon levels above the EPA recommended limits, we're getting similar test results from Prince George's County public schools.
Tests showed that some schools had levels over 10 times the EPA action level. One school had a level of 109 picocuries per liter, which is 27 times the EPA action level.
ELKRIDGE, Md. (AP) — Howard County police have charged a former
elementary school employee with stealing nearly $9,000 from the school.
Fifty-year-old Twyla Blackmon-Green of Elkridge was charged Monday in
a criminal summons with 16 counts of theft, the department said Tuesday
in a news release.
Officers say the Howard County Public School System notified the
department about discrepancies in account ledgers. Authorities say
Blackmon-Green, an officer worker at Ducketts Lane Elementary School in
Elkridge, had access to the school’s accounts and cash. Investigators say Blackmon-Green stole money that had been collected for field trips, book sales and in fundraisers.
...S. Dallas Dance, schools superintendent in Baltimore County, and Renee A. Foose, superintendent in Howard County,
are among candidates who could be in play as the process heads into a
critical period in the coming months, according to a person familiar
with board discussions who requested anonymity to speak freely about a
sensitive personnel process...
WASHINGTON (ABC7) -- Six weeks after ABC7 revealed that several Montgomery County schools had radon levels above the EPA recommended limits, we're getting similar test results from Prince George's County public schools.
