Churchill High School Construction errors deplete science labs

Testimony before MCPS Board of Education
September 25, 2006

In 2001, Churchill High School was officially reopened in an
on-site modernization. Students began attending a new facility.

In 2003, MCPS heard from the Science teachers at Churchill
High School about reductions in the square footage of science
classrooms during construction. That information has been part of
the Churchill Cluster testimony since that time. Attachment A lists
the deficiencies in the science classrooms that were noted by the
science teachers in the summer of 2003.

According to MCPS' Department of Facilities Management there
are no plans at this time to correct the deficiencies in the science
labs. At a minimum, MCPS would need to commission a feasibility
study to determine the extent and cost of needed repairs. No funding
exists for that study at this time.

In addition to the list of classroom deficiencies on
Attachment A, I have also learned that the Chemical Storage room for
the science department was eliminated during the modernization.
Chemicals are now stored in an inner hallway between classrooms.
Attachment B is from the Maryland Public School publication on the
storage of chemicals in high school science labs. The guideline
specifically states that chemicals should not be stored in hallways.

The deficiency in the science labs at Churchill has meant
that science classes can only perform a very limited number of
laboratory experiments. Attachment C shows the results of a 2000
National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education. In that survey
the average percentage of instructional time spent in hands on/lab
work was 22 %.(C-3) At Churchill High School, 5 labs in a semester is
considered a lot of lab time. 1 to 5 labs per semester equates to 5%
or less of science class time spent in hands on/lab activities.

This deficiency was caused by the under building of the
science classrooms. From the moment the modernized school opened,
the science labs were too small to accommodate the science students
at the school. Overcrowded classes prevent science teachers from
safely conducting laboratory experiments. Attachment D shows
Maryland Public Schools' maximum number of students that are to
participate in a lab.

28 is the maximum number of students a teacher is to
supervise doing a lab at one time, with 24 being the preferred number
of students. At Churchill a classroom of 32 or more is common, thus
severely limiting the amount of laboratory experiments that a teacher
can safely supervise.

The MCPS Science web site lists the 5 E's of teaching
science. One of the E's is extend. Extend is described as:
The "extend" stage allows students to apply their new labels,
definitions, explanations and skills in new, but similar situations.
It often involves experimental inquiry, investigative projects,
problem solving and decision making. Lab work is common. Students
frequently develop and complete their own well-designed
investigations.

At Churchill High School the definition of "common" would be
doing labs in 5% of the classroom sessions. Significantly lower than
the 22% figure shown in the National Survey of Science and
Mathematics Education attached as Attachment C. And in sharp
contrast to the 71% of the science classes that do labs once a week,
Churchill High School students can be exposed to lab work as little
as once a month.

Churchill High School has now gone 5 years without any
capital funding to address this serious physical defect that greatly
impacts the science curriculum and the associated Signature
Program. I am now hearing that parents and community groups are now
beginning to donate funds to the principal to address this problem*,
but without the Board of Education's commitment to capital funds to
fix this deficit, and operating funds to staff the program, the
science classes will continue to operate at a substandard level.

Please make a commitment to complete the science classrooms
at Churchill, as they were meant to be built during the 2001
modernization based on the student population and state guidelines,
and allow the science department to operate at the level to which it
was intended.

Thank you.

Janis Sartucci

*Winston Churchill Foundation, Inc. - Chairman: Robert W. McCann -
fundraising and Churchill PTSA.

 "The role of the laboratory is central in high school physics
courses since students must construct their own understanding of
physics ideas. This knowledge cannot simply be transmitted by the
teacher, but must be developed by students in interactions with
nature and the teacher. Meaningful learning will occur where
laboratory activities are a well-integrated part of a learning
sequence."  The Role of Laboratory Activities in High School Physics
A Position Paper of the AAPT Committee on Physics in High Schools
August 1992 Subcommittee on the Role of the Laboratory: Carole Escobar, Paul
Hickman, Robert Morse, Betty Preece (Approved by the AAPT Executive Board, November 1992)
2006 © American Association of Physics Teachers

The Washington Post: Yeshiva Facility Deals Costly for Montgomery

County Has Spent Millions in Public Money to Help Fund the Nonprofit's Renovations of Two Schools

By Cameron W. Barr

Washington Post Staff Writer 
Sunday, August 13, 2006

In 1999, Montgomery County leased a shuttered public school to the Yeshiva of Greater Washington, a deal both sides considered a bargain. The nonprofit group got a derelict building and 20 acres in Wheaton for $1.75 million, with the understanding that it pay the millions more needed to renovate it. The county unloaded a neighborhood eyesore.
Seven years later, the deal has turned out to be costly for taxpayers and a boon for Yeshiva.
The county school system took back the building to ease overcrowding, had to compensate Yeshiva for renovations it had made and spent $12.4 million on further improvements needed to reopen the facility as a public school. The county then leased a second former public school to Yeshiva, where it now operates a private girls academy.
Yeshiva's compensation was a $9.9 million construction contract with the school system that provided nearly enough public money to cover the cost of the organization's renovations at both schools, according to a Yeshiva financial document reviewed by The Washington Post.
A top aide to County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) was involved at every stage of the complex series of transactions. The aide, Jerry Pasternak, mixed policy and political roles, helping to negotiate the leases and the construction contract with Yeshiva, in addition to raising some of the $92,000 that Yeshiva supporters have contributed to Duncan's political account since 1998. Pasternak declined to be interviewed for this article.
Jeffrey Lee Cohen, president of Yeshiva's board of directors, said in written responses to questions that county schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast initiated the move from the first school to the second, not Yeshiva. The construction contract "was executed and performed in good faith by both parties," Cohen said.
In interviews in late May this year, Cohen and fellow Yeshiva board member Dennis Berman said there was no connection between Duncan's support for the leases and campaign contributions to him from the organization's supporters. "It certainly never was a quid pro quo," Berman said.
Duncan spokesman David Weaver said that the county executive had addressed questions for this article in earlier interviews. Weaver noted that Duncan did not act alone; the school leases and the construction contract were approved or funded by the County Council.
"I've spent 25 years working hard to do things for people," Duncan said in an interview in June. "Do people give contributions? Yes. Is there a pay for play? No. Is any decision I make based on campaign contributions? No. I always put policy before politics."
After being elected county executive in 1994, Duncan implemented a policy of leasing or selling unused public schools as a way to return neighborhood eyesores to productive use, he added. "We had people living in [one former public school]. We had syringes in the courtyard, we had mattresses in the courtyard, we had condoms in the courtyard. That's not good for a neighborhood."
Duncan is completing his third term as county executive. On June 22, he abruptly halted his campaign for governor of Maryland, citing a diagnosis of clinical depression.
Montgomery school system officials said they entered into the construction contract so that Yeshiva would relinquish the first school, which Duncan had leased over school system objections. "We had to fulfill a lease which we did not write, which we were not a party to," school system spokesman Brian Edwards said. He said Weast was not available to discuss the issue.
The contract allowed Yeshiva to bill the full $9.9 million regardless of the renovation costs and to use the leftover taxpayer money as it wished. The school system awarded the contract without competitive bidding and waived rights to inspect the project.
"Our clear intent was to reimburse [Yeshiva] for what they had done" at the first school, said Richard Hawes, the school system's director of facilities management. "If they made money off of it, that's the American way," he said.
The financial records reviewed by The Post indicate that in 2004, Cohen wrote checks for $200,000 to two educational organizations in Israel from an account used for renovation work funded by the construction contract. The records also show that Cohen wrote a $220,000 check on the same account to Brit Limited Partnership, a firm he partially owns that has contributed $12,000 to Duncan.
Cohen declined to answer questions about these checks.
Two Deals for YeshivaIn the mid-1990s, Yeshiva was searching for a new home for its girls school. The organization had vacated a six-acre campus in the Four Corners area of Silver Spring and was temporarily housing the girls school at a synagogue.
On Oct. 29, 1998, Pasternak wrote to the County Council in support of a Duncan initiative to lease the former Col. Joseph A. Belt Junior High School in Wheaton to Yeshiva. The proposed deal gave Yeshiva the option to buy the 20-acre facility for the amount of the 17-year lease: $1.75 million. The terms were similar to a 1995 lease between the county and a nonprofit group that defaulted in July 1998.
In the letter, Pasternak said Yeshiva had funds available to renovate Belt; the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission had bought the organization's Four Corners property that year for $1.25 million...

Article continues at this link 

U.S. Targets Sex Abuse Of Exchange Students

Gaithersburg High School biology teacher Andrew Powers sneaked into the bedroom of the 17-year-old German girl living with his family in the middle of the night last December and tried to get her to perform oral sex, according to a police affidavit. When his wife wasn't home, Powers also "frequently" roamed the house naked in front of the student, the affidavit adds. Powers, who has resigned, is to be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual offenses. His attorney declined to comment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/11/AR2005081102083.html

WUSA9: No Joking Matter

It was supposed to be funny, but scores of parents of special education students are furious about the remarks of a school system lawyer.

The parents say the attorney was making fun of them and their children during an out of town convention.

It was a take off on "Saturday Night Live" at a special education lawyer's convention in San Francisco.

Parents, however, say the comments of Montgomery County Public Schools attorney Zvi Greisman about special ed students anything but funny.

"Sit on your seat for five minutes and keep your big mouth shut without attacking anyone," Griesman can be heard on a videotape of the skit.

"My 13 year old son's ability to sit in a seat and be quiet is measured in half minute increments. And to have somebody joke about somebody sitting in the seat and keeping their big mouth shut is beyond offensive," Lyda Astrove said of Greisman's comment.

Astrove is the mother of two special education students. She has had to fight the school system in an administrative court to get enough help for Scott, who is so autistic he can barely sit still.

She feels Griesman was mocking parents who go to court to help their children.

"In Boulder, Colorado, students took to the street in celebration of their due process victory when the judges ordered them new sets of parents," another comment made from Griesman's skit.

Greisman refuses to apologize. He declines to talk on camera now, but says it was all done in light hearted good spirits.

Ricki Sabia is also furious about the performance. She says the public is paying Greisman to help children like her son Stephen, who has Downs Syndrome. And she says instead he's making fun of them.

"I think there are some things that just don't have a lighter side. These are issues that parents cry themselves to sleep about at night. It's very sad and hard to lighten up when it's your child," Sabia said.

A school spokesman declines to comment on what the school attorney was doing on his own time.

"I know if there were kids in a schoolyard that were making jokes about a kid with disabilites, one would hope someone would put a stop to that, but it makes you wonder," Sabia said.

Far from apologizing, Greisman is slated to deliver another take on what he calls the lighter side of special ed law at the next convention.

Parents saying if he was making fun of a religious group or minorities, no one would put up with it.

They are demanding the school system apologize and disavow Greisman's comments.

To learn more on this story, click "Play Video." 

Written by Bruce Leshan

2004: Homeless Students Win Preliminary Injunction Against Montgomery County Public Schools

Homeless Kids Win Injunction Against Montgomery County School System

Click here for an article about this injunction in the Gazette News.
Public Justice Center Press Release
August 11, 2004
For Further Information Contact: Francine K. Hahn, Esq. Public Justice Center 410-625-9409, ext. 234
For Immediate Release: Homeless Students Win Preliminary Injunction Against Montgomery County Public Schools

A federal court yesterday granted the request of homeless children in Montgomery County, represented by the Public Justice Center, for a preliminary injunction to allow them to stay with their classmates as they matriculate from elementary to middle school or from middle to high school. Montgomery County Public School officials had said the students must transfer to different Montgomery County schools -- the ones closest to the family's temporary living quarters -- which would have disrupted the student's continuity of schools, friends, and community. Yesterday's ruling upheld the right of 44 homeless children in the County to school continuity under the federal McKinney-Vento Act.
Children who have homes move with their classmates, as a group, from an elementary school to a particular middle school, and then to a particular high school . This "feeder system" fosters continuity in education and the child's community. In ruling against MCPS, Judge Deborah K. Chasanow ordered that the four children named in the court papers must be allowed to remain in their school of origin feeder systems as they enter high school and middle school this coming school year and that MCPS must provide free transportation. Judge Chasanow also ordered MCPS to immediately notify the remaining 40 matriculating homeless students of their right to remain in their school of origin feeder systems. Any of these students who request it will be permitted to matriculate to the next level school with their class mates from last year, and will be provided free transportation from their temporary address.
"This is a huge victory for homeless students in Montgomery County which we hope will reverberate throughout the state and beyond," said Francine Hahn of the Public Justice Center, lawyer for the students. "The Court recognized that school continuity includes things such as academic consistency and maintaining friendships. Tearing homeless children away from their familiar school environments simply because they happen to remain homeless when moving up to middle or high school is contrary to federal law."
"I'm excited that Sierra will be able to continue with her peers and not be burdened by the additional transportation issues. I believe the outcome of our victory will be a great high school career for Sierra," said Melody Reynolds, one of the parents present at yesterday's court hearing.
The lawsuit was initially filed as an individual case in March 2002. In that case, the court ordered MCPS to allow four children in one family to return to their Montgomery County schools even though they were residing temporarily in the District of Columbia. One of those children, Brandon Haynes, had been kept out of school all year by MCPS officials who said the McKinney Act did not apply to him. Since that time Brandon has graduated from high school with his peers and is now attending college. The case was made a class action in November 2002.


Gazette article

Potomac Almanac Letter: Is This Involvement?

Is This Involvement?

By Janis Sartucci, Cluster coordinator, Churchill Cluster PTA Wednesday, July 14, 2004

The following letter to The Board of Education and Superintendent Jerry Weast is shared with the Almanac

On Tuesday, July 6, 2004, I testified with regard to Agenda Item 4.2.8 that to date there has been no PTA or community input with regard to the Site Selection, Feasibility Study (including Educational Specifications) and Architect Selection with respect to the construction of an elementary school on the Kendale Elementary School site. I stand by that statement and would be willing to sign a sworn affidavit to those facts if you so desire.

It is disheartening that the statements of four PTA and community members were so easily dismissed during that meeting.

Later that same day Mr. [Joe] Lavorgna [director, MCPS Department of Planning and Capital programs] and Mr. [Dick] Hawes [director MCPS Department of Facilities Management] made the following statements:

1. I asked Mr. Lavorgna if a feasibility study would be produced for the Kendale site, similar to the one prepared for the Potomac Elementary School addition. His answer was no.

2. When told that no PTA members were contacted with regard to the selection of an architect for the Kendale Elementary School site, Mr. Hawes said that the PTA vote on that matter was of no consequence, as the PTA was just one vote on a committee of seven.

In [Superintendent Jerry] Weast's recommendation of Feb. 23, 2004, he requested a feasibility study for the Kendale Elementary School site. I am not aware of any other school construction project that has been done without a feasibility study and community and PTA input. I trust you will supply me with the names and locations of the county schools that have been constructed without feasibility studies and community and PTA input.

I renew the request made in my testimony on July 6, 2004. I would ask that the Board of Education remand this issue back to MCPS staff for the formation of a committee as described in Policy FAA to consider and present back to the Board of Education a report on site selection. If the site is approved, I would request that the process proceed according to Board of Education policy and procedures.

Officials are investigating reporting failure

Magruder High School teacher accused of child abuse

Mar. 7, 2001

Effie Bathen Staff Writer

The county school system has launched a secondary investigation in connection with charges that a Col. Zadok A. Magruder High School art teacher made sexual contact with a female student, according to a school spokesman.

The school system is investigating the method by which the alleged incident was reported, according to Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Brian J. Porter.

Porter refused to give any more details.

Tim Delaney, director of the Montgomery County Police Family Services Division, said his office received the complaint of alleged sexual abuse from the school principal and arrested Magruder teacher Donald Gooden, 56, on Feb. 28.

Gooden, of the 5100 block of Church Road in Mitchellville, is charged with one count of child abuse and one count of fourth-degree sex offence. He was released on $15,000 bond the day of his arrest, police said.

"The young lady came forward with a complaint of sexual contact," Delaney said.

After talking with her parents, the teen told investigators that she had reported the alleged sexual abuse to a female teacher about two weeks earlier, he added.

"That teacher didn't notify anyone," Delaney said.

The female student complained of "a continuum of incidents" that occurred in the classroom between Jan. 22 and Feb. 15, according to police spokesman Officer Derek Baliles.

According to charging documents in Montgomery County District Court, Gooden asked the teen if she would pose nude so he could make a painting of her. The art teacher said he could get $600 for a painting and would pay her $75 for posing.

According to the charging documents, the teen also complained that Gooden once touched her breast, slapped her rear end, and twice made inappropriate sexual comments to her.

The charging documents also said that Gooden, a 30-year veteran teacher, denied any wrongdoing when the police questioned him.

Thomas Morrow, attorney for Gooden, said his client would "vigorously defend the charges."

Porter said the school system was conducting a separate investigation looking into how the student's complaints were handled.

He said that school policy encourages students to report any incident of sexual misconduct by a student or staff member, and that state law requires education employees to report any such incidents they hear about.

In comments to the County Council's Public Safety Committee March 1, Kristen Bender, field community prosecutor for the Wheaton-Glenmont District, also said it was important for teachers to report cases of sexual misconduct with a student when they hear of any.

She said it is a misdemeanor if a teacher fails to report a student's complaint of that nature.

Gooden is the second public high school teacher in Rockville within the last several months to be charged with child abuse linked to alleged sexual misconduct.

The other is Rockville High School teacher Adolfo I. Wittgreen, 31, of Oakview Drive in Mt. Airy.

His trial is scheduled for April 23, when he will face 12 counts ranging from child abuse to fourth-degree sex offenses. Prosecutors say he groped and kissed two students.

Wittgreen and Gooden could face 15 years in prison per victim for the child abuse charges, police have said.

Porter said both Wittgreen and Gooden also could face dismissal because the school system considers sexual activity between its teachers and any students inappropriate to the student-teacher relationship.

Despite what happens in court, the school system could dismiss a teacher accused of serious misconduct based up "a preponderance of evidence," a school personnel officer has said.

The State of Maryland also has laws against "moral turpitude," Porter explained. "Certainly any violation would constitute grounds for dismissal."

http://www.gazette.net/gazette_archive/2001/200110/olney/news/46436-1.html

1999: Teacher began relationship during investigation, police say

by Daryl Khan
Staff Writer
March 10, 1999
By the time Winston Churchill High School music teacher James Misenheimer allegedly leaned over in the darkness of his office to kiss a 15-year-old student, school officials and police were nine days into an investigation of sexual misconduct, according to court documents.
On Jan. 22, the night of their alleged first kiss, Misenheimer treated the girl, a Churchill sophomore, to dinner and video games at Dave & Busters where she was allowed in only because she was with Misenheimer, an adult at least 25 years old. After dinner and games, they returned to his Churchill office, according to court documents.
That first night was followed by several more as the relationship "escalated over the next several weeks," according to court documents, and eventually they were allegedly looking at graphic sexual books, and engaging in sexual relations.
While officials from Montgomery County Public Schools and Police Youth Services Division began on Jan. 13 looking into allegations that Misenheimer had been exchanging sexually explicit e-mails with his students, he allegedly began the relationship with the 15-year-old whom he befriended on school-related trips.
Montgomery County Public Schools placed Misenheimer was placed on administrative leave with pay on Feb. 12 after a social worker contacted police and told them of allegations that Misenheimer was engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct over the Internet with a 14-year-old Churchill freshman.
Police charged Misenheimer Feb. 24 with two misdemeanor counts of stalking and contributing to the condition of a child for engaging in sexual e-mail conversations with the 14-year-old.
But now he faces additional charges -- one felony count of child abuse and two felony counts of third-degree sexual offense -- after the 15-year-old student told school officials March 1 that she had sexual contact after hours with Misenheimer in his school office.
continues at link below:
http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/1999/199911/potomac/news/a44117-1.html