New Independent Free Service for MCPS Special Needs Families

Hello,

 

I am the parent of a child with special needs in MCPS and an advocate for people with disabilities. Many parents come to this forum (editorial note:  this refers to a countywide special needs listserv) to look for information about specific schools. 

In order to offer parents a more organized way to collect and browse this information, I have created a website (completely FREE to use) where parents can share information about their own experiences at individual schools and look up what others have said about each specific school in MCPS. Posted comments are completely ANONYMOUS..

This FREE service is hosted at http://www.r2minnovations.com/mcps-reviews/, and offered through R2M Innovations, LLC on behalf of parents and it is not affiliated with Montgomery County Public Schools. This service is completely free and is aligned with the broader mission of R2M Innovations, a startup with the goal of developing solutions to improve the life of people with disabilities. 

This service has the SOLE purpose of offering a free and useful tool to parents, and has no commercial purposes. The reason R2M is mentioned is because it is sustaining the cost of developing and maintaining the service.

Any suggestions for improving this service are welcome.

Max A.

A Look at the MCPS Trailer Dump at the Historic Lincoln High School

How would you feel about old rusting tractor trailers gracing the entrance to your neighborhood? The residents of Lincoln Park have been forced to deal with it for decades.
At the June 16, 2016, Montgomery County Planning Board meeting on the County Executive’s purchase of the Westmore property for a bus depot, residents of Lincoln Park testified about their current situation. They explained that for years, over 130 rusting trailers have decayed around the historic Lincoln High School.
Many on the Planning Board expressed surprise that the neighborhood had been dealing with such a situation for years and the MCPS system was responsible...

 http://www.rockvilleview.com/a-look-at-the-mcps-trailer-dump-at-the-historic-lincoln-high-school/

Monday: Supt Smith to Meet with Montgomery County Councilmembers Off Camera

MCPS SUPERINTENDENT TO MEET WITH COUNTY COUNCIL

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Jack Smith is scheduled to informally meet with Montgomery County Councilmembers on Monday, July 18th.

According to a news release, this will be Smith’s first time meeting with Councilmembers since he officially took office on July 1st.

The meeting will take place on the sixth floor of the County Council Building at 12:00 p.m. and is open to the public, but will not be televised.

Cell Tower Planned for Morris Park/ Next to Summit Hall Elementary

At the June 20 Mayor and City Council meeting, the City Council authorized the city manager to execute an agreement with Verizon Wireless to install a cellular tower at Morris Park, which is located near Summit Hall Elementary School. The resolution passed 4-1, with Councilmember Robert Wu voting against.
During the public comment period, Gaithersburg residents and Janis Sartucci with the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland spoke in opposition to the cell tower. Among the issues raised were lack of adequate notification of residents and Summit Hall Elementary officials, placement of the cell tower between two ball fields and near an elementary school, the safety of hazardous materials used in the cell tower, the location of the cell tower on a flood plain, and potential health concerns arising from radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) emitted by the tower...

http://towncourier.com/cell-tower-planned-for-morris-park/

Prince George's Ex-school janitor stole MacBooks, iPads meant for students, sold them online

A former elementary school janitor has been sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to stealing laptops from the campus where he worked.
Kenneth Foster, 34, was sentenced in Prince George’s County Circuit Court on Thursday and ordered to pay $18,000 in restitution with five years probation, prosecutors announced in a statement.
Foster worked at Vansville Elementary School in Beltsville, Md., at the time of the theft, according to the Prince George’s County state’s attorney’s office. The school received about $30,000 worth of MacBooks in January 2014 and put them in storage, but when officials went to retrieve them months later, they found that the equipment had disappeared, prosecutors said.
Foster had left the school system on medical leave shortly after the laptop delivery and was still on leave when authorities discovered that the computers were missing, prosecutors said. Authorities later learned that Foster was working in a North Carolina school district when several iPads went missing and while he supposedly was still on medical leave from Prince George’s, prosecutors said.
Investigators later found that Foster was selling the iPads and MacBooks on Craigslist....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/ex-school-janitor-stole-macbooks-ipads-meant-for-students-sold-them-on-craigslist/2016/07/07/23f7d890-4454-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html#comments

Fairfax School employee steals money from student's lunch accounts

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/virginia/school-employee-steals-money-from-students-lunch-accounts/255373266

Floreen wants Cell Towers in Front Yards

On July 14, 2016, the Montgomery County Planning Board will discuss Montgomery County Councilmember Nancy Floreen's plan to change County zoning laws to allow cell towers to be built in front yards of homes without public hearings. 

The Montgomery County Planning Board is recommending that Ms. Floreen's zoning change be approved, however, Planning Board staff note the problems with Ms. Floreen's proposed zoning change, include the issue of setbacks from homes.

Read the Planning Board staff's memo here.

MSI Gets 3 MCPS Fields, Has $5.2 Million to Spend on Plastic Grass #nobid

Three Montgomery County schools will get new artificial turf athletic fields as part of a legal settlement that will provide field access to the county’s largest recreational youth soccer organization.

Montgomery school officials announced the agreement Thursday, saying Montgomery Soccer Inc. will contribute as much as $5.2 million toward the construction of fields at Walt Whitman High School, Albert Einstein High School and Julius West Middle School.

In return, MSI, a nonprofit with more than 900 teams and nearly 15,000 youth players countywide, will get access to the fields when the schools are not using them...

...The plan comes two years after MSI sued the school system, claiming school officials used a flawed and unlawful process to grant the use of fields “to elite clubs that serve only a limited fraction — the wealthiest — of the County’s youth.”...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/legal-settlement-calls-for-new-turf-fields-at-montgomery-county-schools/2016/06/30/d465cebe-3ecb-11e6-80bc-d06711fd2125_story.html

Breaking: Rock Creek Forest Elementary Violates Open Meetings Act - Childcare Selection Committee

https://www.oag.state.md.us/Opinions/Open2016/10omcb67.pdf

MoCo 911 outage another sign of growth outpacing i...

Robert Dyer @ Bethesda Row: MoCo 911 outage another sign of growth outpacing i...: The failure of Montgomery County's 911 emergency system last night and early this morning is another indication that infrastructure i...

...And a damning 2016 State of Maryland audit of Montgomery County Public Schools uncovered a staggering number of cybersecurity weaknesses, leaving student information easily accessible to hackers. Cyber intruders, the audit revealed, could access "any destination on the MCPS network." Eighty-six business partners of the school system improperly have "network-level access to the entire MCPS network." And the installed version of the database holding student information hasn't been supported by its developer since January 2012. Oh, and did I mention that 75% of the workstations tested by auditors didn't have the current security updates downloaded?...

MoCo 911 System Back Up & Running After 2-Hour Outage

MoCo 911 System Back Up & Running After 2-Hour Outage: Montgomery County's 911 system is back up and running Monday morning after going down for two hours, authorities said.

@mocoboe Spends $32K in April Fighting Families of Special Needs Kids. Will New Supe Smith Continue Trend?

Special Education Legal Expenses

Special education legal fees for outside counsel for April 2016 totaled $32,713.

The year-to-date total of $298,232 is $61,685 (26.1 percent) more than the same period in the previous year.

In addition, total year-to-date special education legal costs of $298,232 are $102,725 (25.6 percent)
less than the budgeted amount of $400,957 through this time period.

***********

How many hours of 1:1 tutoring would $32,713 buy?
Does this expenditure of $32,713 do ANYTHING towards closing the "achievement gap?" I'm guessing NO.
The Montgomery County Board of Education just keeps throwing good money after bad.
Can't wait to ask Superintendent Jack Smith whether he thinks spending over thirty thousand dollars in one month to enforce denial of special education services is a prudent use of money. You're an educator, Dr. Smith....do you want this to be your legacy?

New MCPS superintendent promises to keep students safe

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (WUSA9) – The new Montgomery County superintendent promises to keep all 157,000 student safe.
Dr. Jack Smith is a former teacher, principal and superintendent of Calvert County schools.
“Education excites you,” asks WUSA9 Reporter Andrea McCarren.

“Tremendously. It’s just the best thing in the whole world,” Dr. Smith responds.
Dr. Smith’s enthusiasm is infectious.
“We expect students to learn, we expect to keep students safe and secure in our buildings. We expect to be efficient and good stewards of taxpayer money,” he said.
We asked Dr. Smith about a wide range of issues, including racial and economic inequality.
He vows to eliminate disparities.
“If a student isn’t learning, we have the capacity, we have the expertise, we have the understanding on how to help that student,” Dr. Smith said.
Underage drinking?
“In any way that we can prevent it, we should. Any way we can talk with parents, we should,” Dr. Smith said. “The goal is not punishment. The goal is to have students know and understand the very real, natural, logical consequences.”
Alleged sex offenders in the classroom?
“I take the responsibility of the safety and security for every child very seriously. I really do. I have five children and four grandchildren,” said Dr. Smith.
He promises a team effort to ensure a good reporting system is in place and strong protocols are implemented in every one of Montgomery County’s 204 schools.
“Around any sort of abuse, around any sort of inappropriate sexual activity, and around all the other things that are real risks to students,” Dr. Smith said.
It’s his third day on the job and he is wildly optimistic.
“We are a very, very fortunate community and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Dr. Smith said.
Montgomery County Public Schools offer an Extended Learning Opportunities - Summer Adventures in Learning (ELO - SAIL) program to give students in kindergarten, first and second grade a chance to practice their reading, math and language arts skills. 

“Tremendously. It’s just the best thing in the whole world,” Dr. Smith responds.
Dr. Smith’s enthusiasm is infectious.
“We expect students to learn, we expect to keep students safe and secure in our buildings. We expect to be efficient and good stewards of taxpayer money,” he said.
We asked Dr. Smith about a wide range of issues, including racial and economic inequality.
He vows to eliminate disparities.
“If a student isn’t learning, we have the capacity, we have the expertise, we have the understanding on how to help that student,” Dr. Smith said.
Underage drinking?
“In any way that we can prevent it, we should. Any way we can talk with parents, we should,” Dr. Smith said. “The goal is not punishment. The goal is to have students know and understand the very real, natural, logical consequences.”
Alleged sex offenders in the classroom?
“I take the responsibility of the safety and security for every child very seriously. I really do. I have five children and four grandchildren,” said Dr. Smith.
He promises a team effort to ensure a good reporting system is in place and strong protocols are implemented in every one of Montgomery County’s 204 schools.
“Around any sort of abuse, around any sort of inappropriate sexual activity, and around all the other things that are real risks to students,” Dr. Smith said.
It’s his third day on the job and he is wildly optimistic.
“We are a very, very fortunate community and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Dr. Smith said.
Montgomery County Public Schools offer an Extended Learning Opportunities - Summer Adventures in Learning (ELO - SAIL) program to give students in kindergarten, first and second grade a chance to practice their reading, math and language arts skills. 

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/maryland/new-montgomery-co-superintendent-promises-to-keep-students-safe/265249899

BOE to Hide Behind Closed Doors to Discuss Study of Choice and Special Academic Programs

The Board of Education will use the Maryland Open Meetings Act as an excuse to hide behind closed doors tomorrow and discuss the recent Choice Study.  

Do MCPS parents care about what is going to be discussed?  There's nothing confidential about the results of a public study, but that will not stop the BOE from hiding behind closed doors to discuss the Choice Study. 

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/boe/meetings/agenda/2016/160714-ResolutionCS.pdf

BOE Taxpayer Paid for Party and Vacation List for 2016-2017

On July 12, 2016, the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE) will approve their taxpayer paid for vacation and party plans for the 2016-2017 school year.  The Parents' Coalition has previously documented the public school education dollars that are diverted to the entertainment and lodging of BOE members and MCPS administrators. 

MCPS parents would rather see education dollars being spent on these vacations and parties than on classroom teachers, and so this vacation and party list will be approved unanimously by the current Board of Education.

Note that at most, one or two of these events include actual MCPS public school students. 

In addition, this is only a partial list of vacations and parties for the year.  Additional events can and will be approved without any public notice.  See the note at the bottom of the second screenshot.

Board of Education Taxpayer Funded Vacations for 2016-2017

 Board of Education Taxpayer Funded Parties for 2016-2017

http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/ABNMM35B5531/$file/Annual%20Ticketed%20Event%20and%20Meeting%20List%20for%2016-17.pdf

Yet another MCPS software blunder

MCPS Chief Technology Officer Sherwin Collette, a gentleman with a degree in English and no credentials whatsoever in information systems management, has committed yet another amateur software configuration blunder.

Due to misconfiguration, MCPS employees and retires are not able to access any information stored on the PenPoint system.  The system is currently 100% down.

Many users get the following error screen immediately after entering their userid and password.   Even the most rudimentary testing would have prevented this situation from occurring.

Montgomery Co. teen, lured to the woods and stabbed, becomes latest victim of gang-related killings

Members of the violent MS-13 street gang enlisted a 19-year-old girl to lure another teenager into a darkened Montgomery County park where he was stabbed more than 40 times and killed, according to police accounts of the county’s 10th gang-related killing in the last 10 months.
The accounts, filed this week in Montgomery District Court, underscored the horror of the slaying, with at least three assailants — one of them just 16 years old — who either held down the victim or repeatedly stabbed him.
“We really are seeing an unprecedented level of gang-related homicides,” said Capt. Paul Liquorie, director of the Montgomery Police Department’s Special Investigations division.
In one of the suspected MS-13 killings last year in the county, assailants allegedly threw heavy rocks down on the victim as he crawled away from an attack toward a stream, according to court records. In another, the victim was told, “Get on your knees,” before being shot in the face, neck and shoulder while in the woods.
In the latest case — the June 16 death of Cristian Antonio Villagran-Morales, 18, in Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg — police arrested two suspects late last week, and are looking for two more...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/a-maryland-teen-lured-to-the-woods-becomes-latest-gang-related-murder-victim/2016/07/07/fd004542-43f9-11e6-bc99-7d269f8719b1_story.html?postshare=8061467896127098&tid=ss_tw-bottom

Union Robocall Urges Calls to Nancy Floreen Re: Funding for School Nurses, Says "Mismanagement Must be Stopped"

The following robocall was received by Montgomery County residents today. 
The robocall ends by saying that it was funded by UFCW Local 1994 - MCGEO.
 

Md. top court: Hosts can be held liable in underage-drinking cases

A parent or other adult who “knowingly and willfully” hosts an underage drinking party can be held civilly liable for the death or injuries sustained or caused by an intoxicated attendee — such as in a drunken-driving crash, Maryland’s top court unanimously ruled Tuesday.

Adults facing potential liability in these cases cannot defend themselves by arguing that the underage person was contributorily negligent by having consumed the alcohol, the Court of Appeals said.
The high court’s ruling marked the first time it has recognized the potential liability of party hosts for the alcohol-related harm caused by their guests under the legal drinking age of 21.

The Court of Appeals based its landmark decision on a Maryland criminal law that makes it illegal to serve alcohol to underage individuals outside of immediate family or a religious service.
Section 10-117(b) of the Criminal Article, with its goal of protecting youngsters from the evils of alcohol, intrinsically contains a civil cause of action for people harmed by the adult who violated the law by permitting the underage drinking, the court said.

“[W]e hold that there exists a limited form of social host liability sounding in negligence – based on the strong public policy reflected in CR Section 10-117(b), but that it only exists when the adults in question act knowingly and willfully, as required by the statute,” Judge Sally D. Adkins wrote for the court.

“We view CR Section 10-177(b) as a recognition by the General Assembly, based on convincing evidence, that children under 21 are often less able to make responsible decisions regarding the consumption of alcohol and, as a result, are more susceptible to harming themselves or others when presented with the opportunity to drink in excess in a social, peer-pressured setting,” Adkins added. “It therefore carved out that specific class for special protection against adult social hosts who knowingly and willfully allow consumption of alcoholic beverages on their property.”

The Court of Appeals’ decision revived two lawsuits victims of drunken-driving incidents brought against adults who hosted parties leading to the underage intoxication.

Nancy Dankos’ claims her 17-year-old son, if sober, would not have accepted a ride in the back of a pickup drunk from a drunk partygoer at Linda Stapf’s Ellicott City home. When the truck crashed, Steven was thrown from the back of the vehicle and killed.

In the other lawsuit, Manal Kariakos suffered fractured vertebrae and a lacerated kidney when she was struck in Cockeysville by drunk driver Shetmiyah Robinson, an 18 year-old who had allegedly been served vodka shots by Brandon Phillips.

...

‘Alex and Calvin’s Law’

The high court’s decision follows the General Assembly’s strengthening last session of the criminal law by permitting adults to be jailed for up to one year for knowingly and willfully providing alcohol to or hosting drinking parties attended by those under age 21 who become impaired and seriously injure themselves or others in driving from the event.

The amendment, dubbed “Alex and Calvin’s Law,” was spurred by the deaths of two recent high school graduates who were killed in a drunken-driving crash after attending an underage drinking party. Supporters of the legislation called it obscene that the adult who hosted the party, Kenneth Saltzman, was merely assessed a $5,000 fine and faced no potential jail time under current law.
Alex and Calvin’s Law, which Gov. Larry Hogan signed May 19, goes into effect Oct. 1.

...

The Court of Appeals rendered its decision in the consolidated cases, Manal Kariakos v. Brandon Phillips and Nancy Dankos et al. v Linda Stapf, Nos. 20 and 55, September Term 2015.

 http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/07/05/court-of-appeals-underage-drinking-liability/

Companies Find Hiring Those On The Spectrum Has Vast Benefits

Doug Williams started noticing the signs when his son was 6 months old.
The absence of facial expressions. The drift of his gaze. Eventually, the agitation.
The official autism diagnosis came more than a year later, along with the whirlwind of figuring out schools and therapies. Not until his son, Hayden, reached high school and Williams glimpsed him as an adult did a fresh wake-up call hit.
What happens next?

Williams, CEO of suit-maker Hart Schaffner Marx, hopes to help answer that question for the many families worried about the same thing.
An estimated 50,000 individuals with autism graduate from high school every year, entering an adulthood without the supports they enjoyed in childhood.
More than a third find themselves not working or attending school in their early 20s, according to a report last year from the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University in Philadelphia. They are said to step off a "services cliff," with half receiving no life skills or vocational training during that transitional young adult period...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-autism-workplace-hart-schaffner-marx-0612-biz-20160610-story.html