Wednesday, December 7, 2022
'This is a critical area': Montgomery Co. schools continues to face psychologist shortage
...MCPS confirms out of 147 full-time school psychologist positions, there are 31 vacancies.
"There are so many competing positions out there and pay comes into it," said Jessica Baxter of MCPS.
Full time MCPS psychologists with a master's degree earn from $67,000 to $126,000 per year.
'This is a critical area': Montgomery Co. schools continues to face psychologist shortage | WJLA
Mother of Magruder shooting victim says school leaders never contacted her
NYC schools pull $31M textbook contract vote after parent, teacher backlash
The Department of Education is putting a pin in a multimillion-dollar proposed textbooks contract after the Daily News reported that it offered no discount on a bulk order for the nation’s largest school system.
The Panel for Educational Policy was slated to vote Wednesday night on a seven-year agreement with educational publisher McGraw Hill estimated to total $31.7 million — when it was pulled from the agenda just hours before the monthly meeting...
NYC schools pull $31M textbook contract vote after backlash (nydailynews.com)
PLANNING TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY ACT OF 2023
This Act’s summary description:
FOR the purpose of altering the appointment process, salary authorization process, and terms for commissioners appointed to the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission from Montgomery County; requiring the County Executive of Montgomery County to appoint one member of the Commission who shall serve as the chair or vice chair of the Commission and chair of the Montgomery County Planning Board; requiring certain public hearings and acceptance of public testimony on each appointment to the Commission from Montgomery County; prohibiting the chair of the Board from engaging in certain employment; authorizing and establishing procedures for the Montgomery County Executive or Montgomery County Council to discipline a commissioner from Montgomery County under certain circumstances; prohibiting a commissioner from Montgomery County from engaging in certain political activities while the commissioner serves on the Commission; prohibiting a former commissioner from Montgomery County from working for certain compensation for a certain period of time after the commissioner leaves office; requiring a commissioner from Montgomery County to complete certain training at certain times; requiring the Board to publish agendas of open meetings along with certain other materials on its website at certain times; requiring the Board to approve meeting minutes in a certain manner under certain circumstances; and generally relating to requirements for the members of the Maryland–National Capital Park and Planning Commission from Montgomery County and meetings of the Montgomery County Planning Board...
Planning Trust and Transparency Act of 2023 | Seventh State (theseventhstate.com)
Magruder HS January Shooting Lockdown: MoCo State's Attorney John McCarthy "@McCarthyMoCo confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building. Lockdown is lockdown. Curious elected officials should have been locked out."
Late mail-in vote count topples five conservative school board candidates in Maryland
Five socially conservative school board candidates in Maryland who were leading just after Election Night ended up losing when the counting of mail-in and provisional ballots was concluded this week.
Those changes meant that 20 of the 41 socially conservative candidates identified by Capital News Service came out ahead in their races, down from 25 right after last month’s election, according to unofficial results posted on the Maryland Board of Elections website.
Still, nearly half of the conservative board candidates ended up ahead in a state where a Democrat, Wes Moore, won the gubernatorial election by more than 30 points to become Maryland’s first Black governor.
Conservatives won school board races throughout much of the state, with the largest number elected in Wicomico County, followed by Harford, Baltimore, Carroll and Washington counties...
Late mail-in vote count topples five conservative school board candidates - Maryland Matters
Tuesday, December 6, 2022
Day #1: New Councilmember Exposes Council's Dirty Little Secret: Votes taken behind closed doors through "polling."
"I want to speak about something which I think we are all in agreement - and I think it is important to name. After the election when I became privy to more of the Council's inner workings, I was surprised to learn that there are some processes which pre-date our current Council and current outgoing Council leadership that can in some instances remove some debate and decision-making from the public eye...
...I'm speaking about polls taken in various manners, that could be treated with the same finality as a vote on the dais, without as much public debate or oversight..."
MCPS explains why it failed to properly report school shooting and stabbings
..."There were three school incidents, and the law was not followed," she said.
Sartucci referred to the January shooting at Magruder High and November 2021 stabbings at Montgomery Blair and Clarksburg High Schools.
"There was no after-action committee meeting. There was no report done. We basically find the law as written is worthless."
Changes to Maryland law in 2020 require school systems that experience a critical, life-threatening incident to notify the Maryland Center for School Safety no less than 24 hours after the school system learns of the incident...
MCPS explains why it failed to properly report school shooting and stabbings | WJLA
@mocoboe President Brenda Wolff Chose $100 a plate Party over Magruder High School Community Meeting
That was the same date and time as the Magruder High School community meeting to discuss the critical shooting incident at the school on January 21, 2022.
Baltimore judge seals case as attorneys fight over release of Catholic church sex abuse report
Baltimore Circuit Judge Anthony Vittoria ordered the case sealed on Friday. His order means all hearings will be closed to the public and all legal motions will be confidential...
Statute of limitations reform will top civil law reform in 2023 session
Advocates are hopeful that the anticipated release of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office’s 450-page investigation of sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore — along with changes in the makeup of a key Senate committee — mean that this time a bill will pass the General Assembly.
“If this isn’t the year, I don’t know what year is,” said David Lorenz, who heads the Maryland chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The proposal, known as a “lookback window,” will be paired with legislation to abolish the statute of limitations for civil claims in childhood sexual abuse cases.
Statute of limitations reform promises to be one of the major civil issues for lawmakers when they gather in Annapolis for their 2023 legislative session in January.
“We’re taking this issue very seriously in the Senate,” said Sen. William C. Smith Jr., who chairs the powerful Judicial Proceedings Committee.
In years past, Smith’s committee has been a stumbling block for statute of limitations reform. Maryland lengthened the statute of limitations for lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse in 2017, granting abuse survivors until their 38th birthday to file claims.
But the law did not apply retroactively, so survivors whose claims were already past the statute of limitations did not get the chance to sue their abusers or the institutions that abetted them.
Lookback window legislation has passed in the House of Delegates repeatedly, but has sputtered in the Senate amid questions about its constitutionality. The 2017 law also included a “statute of repose” that may further insulate institutions from older lawsuits, though advocates for a lookback window say they should still have the chance to bring legal challenges in court.
Del. C.T. Wilson, a Charles County Democrat and childhood sexual abuse survivor, said he has already pre-filed a bill for the 2023 session...
Monday, December 5, 2022
@mocoboe @mcps spent $6.2 MILLION for CO2 data for 10,000 classrooms. Where is the data?
CDC now talks about CO2 monitoring as an indicator of good ventilation. https://t.co/Ph6OcYf3Cd "One potential target benchmark for good ventilation is CO2 readings below 800 [ppm]." Caveats: non-human sources of CO2 (gas stove), filtration removes particles not CO2. HT @citlanx
— Linsey Marr (@linseymarr) June 9, 2021
Board of Education Award Co... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...
Hate Graffiti, Shooting Threat Sprawled in Kennedy High School Bathroom
There were no reports of an incident at the school in Silver Spring that day.
According to a letter from Principal Joe Rubens, school staff “worked quickly to cover the images.” He said he was “deeply disheartened” to learn of the vandalism “that included language and references of symbols of hate speech that are harmful and unsettling for many in our community.”..
...Email requests for information to Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery County Police were not returned...
Friday, December 2, 2022
MCPS Board of Education Members Sworn In
The two returning and two new Montgomery County Board of Education members were sworn in Thursday and immediately took their seats.
Board President Brenda Wolff from District 5 and Karla Silverstre, an at-large member, were re-elected in November. Also elected was Grace Rivera-Oven and Julie Yang.
“The success of Montgomery County depends on the success of our children in MCPS,” Silvestre said. “Thank you for your support. We will need it now and into the future.”
Wolff called the previous two years “an incredible journey for us, because we had incredible things to deal with.” Her goal during her second term is to ensure that all students are college or job ready.
Rivera-Oven, who represents District 1 and is a native of Bolivia, promised “to work very hard to ensure your voices and heart,” she said, referring to the students who represent 156 countries and speak 115 languages.
Yang, who represents District 3, said, “Education has made the biggest difference in my life” and referred to her second-grade teacher “who didn’t give up on me.”
While serving on the board, Yang hopes to “have a positive influence on the life trajectory of a student, because every child can succeed if they are given an opportunity to.”
BOE members also honored outgoing members Scott Joftus, who was not re-elected, and Judy Docca, who has been on the board since 2006...
MCPS Board of Education Members Sworn In - Montgomery Community Media (mymcmedia.org)
Thursday, December 1, 2022
Magruder HS Parent Meeting Looks Sparsely Attended. 6 PM Start May Have Done the Trick to Keep Attendance Low.
.@MCPS was joined by @MontgomeryCoMD Public Safety Officials to discuss response to January 21 Magruder HS shooting @LindsayAWatts @fox5dc https://t.co/Uqe4KKXXxR & @wtop parents say school officials apologized for shortcomings in communication & response https://t.co/zqDq6mQ0ba pic.twitter.com/xHHuMpBf56
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) December 1, 2022
[@mocoboe Ignores Another Victim, Gets Sued Again.] Family of student shot at Magruder sues county, school board
...A complaint, which lists Thomas’s mother, Karen Thomas, as the plaintiff and was filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, alleges that the county deprived Thomas “of his right to a reasonably safe and secure public education” and that the school system did not take any action to curb rising reports of violence on school grounds after students returned to campuses after remote learning during the beginning of the pandemic...
Family of student shot at Magruder sues county, school board (msn.com)
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Montgomery County urges justices to deny religious burden claim
Burtonsville Associates and Burtonsville Crossing LLC allege the county essentially blocked construction of the church in violation of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act by refusing to alter its master plan and extend sewer service to the planned building, as it had done for a secular facility.
Montgomery County, in its responsive high court filing, said Congress enacted RLUIPA to prohibit government from imposing a substantial burden on religious exercise through land use restrictions.
Lawmakers, however, did not require counties to make special accommodations for religious facilities in land use decisions, as that would violate the constitutional prohibition on governmental establishment of religion, wrote the county’s lead attorney, Howard R. Feldman.
He added that the county’s decision to stick with its master plan on sewer service did not substantially burden the church’s religious exercise because a septic system would still enable the church to have an 800-seat facility rather than its preference for one that would accommodate 2,000 congregants...
Montgomery County urges Supreme Court to deny religious burden claim (thedailyrecord.com)