"raw political fear"

Police, firefighters to be furloughed in Montgomery | Washington Examiner

...County workers -- including uniformed public safety officials originally thought to be spared from mandated off time -- will take three to eight days of furloughs in the fiscal year starting July 1, depending on their salaries. Some of the roughly 12,000 employees will lose 3 percent of their yearly earnings.

At the same time, public school employees won't be dinged workdays, with top brass in the Montgomery County Public Schools system vowing to avoid furloughs...

...Gino Renne, president of the Montgomery Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, said the schools are bloated.

"County leaders decided out of nothing more than raw political fear to allow the excesses of the school board to continue," he said. "It's a sad day for the rest of the work force and taxpayers."

College Readiness Reports: A Few Concerns and A Lot of Questions

As part of its Seven Keys Initiative, MCPS is now tracking high school graduates. The tracking seems limited to determining if graduates enroll in college and persist through college to degree obtainment. The National Student Clearinghouse is being used to track graduates. Using its Clearinghouse data, MCPS recently released a number of reports which reveal college enrollment numbers for over 33,000 graduates. Reports also reveal how many or our graduates actually received a degree.

In my opinion, tracking our graduates is a worthwhile investment, but after reading the first set of public reports, I’m left with a number of concerns and questions.

· First, the number of MCPS graduates reported in these college readiness reports does not match previous MCPS reports of the number of MCPS graduates. The graduating classes in question include the classes of 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. So focusing on just these four classes, I added up all of the Hispanic graduates from an official MCPS SAT report (http://sharedaccountability.mcpsprimetime.org/reports/list.php?selection=613). I counted 4,729 Hispanic graduates in this report. But the college readiness reports only count 4,214 Hispanic graduates. The difference of 515 is fairly large—10.8%. There also is a fairly large difference for African American graduates. By my calculations, the percentage of missing African American graduates is 8.3%. Where did the extra graduates disappear to? Are the missing graduates those who never enrolled in college at all? Or are they simply graduates no one was able to track down?

· Second, the graduation rates reported in these college readiness reports come without any benchmarks. MCPS is always telling the world how much better its students perform than others, but it may have hesitated to do so this time because our graduation rates are lower than the national averages. So, for example, MCPS reports that approximately 27% of its African American graduates earned a degree in six years. Sounds okay, right? But according to the U.S. Department of Education, the college graduation rate for black students is 42% (see the following publication: Horn, L. (2006). Placing College Graduation Rates in Context: How 4-Year College Graduation Rates Vary With Selectivity and the Size of Low-Income Enrollment (NCES 2007-161). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.) The national graduation rate for white kids is 62%, a figure slightly higher than 58% graduation rate for white MCPS graduates. So, how come MCPS graduates are doing worst?

· Third, given the size of the data file – following 33,000+ graduates, I actually thought MCPS would provide us with much more than what they recently released. For example, I’m really interested in seeing the college data broken out by FARMS participation. Pretty much all the research on college persistence and graduation tells us that money matters a lot when it comes to completing college. So, how do our poor students perform? How do our special education students perform? How do African American males perform? The latter is a group of students known to have poor college outcomes. How many of our graduates who entered Montgomery College transfer successfully to a 4-year college and earn a degree?

· Finally, I wish MCPS researchers would do a better job of explaining how they do what they do in terms of research methodologies, including providing us with information on the reliability of the information and data obtained from the National Student Clearinghouse. The MCPS college readiness reports are almost void of explaining methodology. My favorite book of college attendance and persistence and what it all means is The Shape of the River (Bowen & Bok). That book alone spends more than 100 pages explaining its methodology. From this book you can honestly figure out what the researchers did and how they did it. MCPS provides nothing in the way of details. For some of us, the details matter.

Joseph Hawkins

Council says no to Board Budget

Based on a straw vote taken today by a unanimous County Council, MCPS' FY11 budget will be 56% of the county budget, not the 57.2% that the Board of Education wanted. 


The Council's vote today shaves $24.4 million off of the Board of Education's desired budget. 


County Council Education Chair Valerie Ervin announced the reductions as $4.7 million from MCPS' technology modernization and relocatable classrooms budgets, and $19.7 million from MCPS' Operating Budget. Councilmember Ervin announced these recommendations on behalf of the Education Committee. 


The full Council then voted unanimously to support these recommendations. 


The entire Council meeting was over in about 3 minutes. There was no sign of anyone from MCPS or the Board of Education at the table in front of the Council during this brief session.


Councilmember Ervin also announced that the Education Committee recommended that $2 million in unused MCPS FY10 funding be carried over to be applied to the FY11 rate increase on the energy tax.

Cabin John: We've been Duped!

Yes, you have!

This is the message on a sign on the fence outside the construction site for the new Cabin John Middle School. Just last week this community saw that the plans for the new school had been radically changed. The community was alerted by the pouring of concrete into forms along the sidewalk. See the result below.

The school is now going to sit 12 to 14 feet above street level. At the street level a 12 to 14 foot retaining wall will hold the dirt for the school site in place. Above that will be a black metal fence 4 feet high. Total height of this wall will be 16 to 18 feet above the sidewalk.

This wasn't the plan for the site that was reviewed by the community. When did the plan change? Who approved the changes? How much will the construction of this massive retaining wall that covers much of the perimeter of this site cost? Where is the funding for this massive change in the plans for this school site coming from - the County Council or the State of Maryland?

These photographs show the huge retaining wall that is being constructed along the side of the Cabin John Middle School site that borders the Georgetown Hill Early Childhood Center. Will bungee jumping be a new activity at the pre-school?

Council to try again...MCPS Operating Budget

Yesterday the Montgomery County Council was scheduled to take up the MCPS Operating Budget. However, that discussion was cancelled. A press release from the Council states that the MCPS Operating Budget will now be discussed today at 2 PM.

At 2 p.m., the Council will address the MCPS requested operating budget. As currently proposed, MCPS is the only agency budget that does not include a reduction from the approved FY10 budget. By comparison with other agencies of the Montgomery County, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission budget includes a reduction of 15.8 percent. The County Government budget includes a reduction of 7.7 percent. The Montgomery College budget includes a 3.7 percent reduction.

As currently requested, the MCPS budget would represent 57.2 percent of the total County budget.

From the packet for today's Council work session:

The Board of Education requested a total of $2,263,286,410 for the FYll MCPS Operating Budget. This amount represents an increase of $62,709,410 or 2.8 percent over the FYI0 approved level.

WUSA9 - MCPS tricks another communty! Jokes on you!

You are a parent or community member in Montgomery County. A new school is being constructed in your neighborhood. You attend the community meetings to review the plans, you comment, discuss, and think you have been involved in the process of building a new school in your neighborhood.

MCPS really knows how to punk a community doesn't it! Gotcha!


Here's the latest MCPS "gotcha" in construction plans:  the Cabin John Middle School community has suddenly noticed an 11 foot tall retaining wall being constructed at the edges of the CJMS property. This "retaining wall" was not part of the plans for the school vetted by the parents and community. When complete the retaining wall will be 12 to 14 feet high with black metal fencing on the top.

Imagine that the construction budget for the Cabin John Middle School modernization had ENOUGH SURPLUS CASH to pay for the construction of this enormous 12 to 14 foot retaining wall. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what this wall is costing taxpayers?


WUSA9 reports on this latest Superintendent Weast "gotcha":

May 19, 2010 UPDATE: Additional pictures of the wall that is under construction at the Cabin John site.

reBlog from voices.washingtonpost.com: FLOTUS to visit Silver Spring school

A famous visitor coming our way!

First lady Michelle Obama has invited Mexico's first lady to tour a Silver Spring elementary school honored for teaching healthy living.voices.washingtonpost.com, FLOTUS to visit Silver Spring school, May 2010

Let's just hope she doesn't ask to see the vegetable garden!

Wash Post: MoCo Scrambles to Avoid Running Out of $$$$$$$$

The party's over in Montgomery County, according to an online article in the Washington Post.

Public schools were showered with resources, public employees were paid generously, the uninsured were given health coverage and the poor were given tax breaks.
Now officials are scrambling not to run out of money by June 30.

Wonder what the Bond Rating agencies will have to say about THAT?

Budget Deal Has Been Cut, Source Claims

Heard on the street: The County Council has "cut a deal" with MCPS about the budget.

What is it? What does it involve? Furloughs, layoffs, or something else? Will MCPS get the "full amount it has in mind," or something less?

When do taxpayers and employees find out about this secret deal, negotiated in private?

Perhaps Tuesday? at the County Council Education Committee meeting?

Stay tuned. The ED committee meeting will be televised live at 1:00 on County Cable Montgomery.

MCPS Hiring $132,000+ Administrator!

One more administrator for MCPS! (Teachers, clean out your desks.)

In 2006, the salary for this position was listed as $132,364. We don't know what this position pays today or what the incoming new hire will receive as salary and compensation, but we do know that MCPS administrators are in the $200,000 to $250,000 range. Get your resume in by May 28th! No hiring freezes on administrators!

Revealing the Underlying Rot

Where is the Board?
Commentary by Fred Stichnoth


Sometimes it takes a crisis to reveal underlying rot.  We can hope that MCPS' suit against the County fulfills this function.  It depends on us.  


Regarding the appalling suit itself:  those who function in the practical world know that bizarre and extreme measures usually are impractical and misguided.  How did the Board miss this prudential rule of thumb?  


The May 14 Washington Post editorial concludes by stating that the failure of compromise speaks poorly of Superintendent Dr. Weast, the Council President and the County Executive. The Board was not omitted because of the Post's perception of its prudence;  it was omitted because there is no expectation that the Board will exercise its statutory responsibilities.  The Board subordinates itself as a largely ceremonial office of the System.  


The Post attributes the "vacuum in leadership" to money, and "egos, conflicting personalities and political futures."  Yes, but more than those personal factors, the vacuum in leadership is about the collapse of political institutions.  The Superintendent's "leadership" without institutional checks is the riot of ego.  (The institutional checks are wanting.  A mid-level MCPS staffer argued that it is best that the Superintendent mislead the Council to believe in the consistent quality of the schools, in order to secure more funding for more of the same green zone glitter--the Post calls it "the county's golden goose."  A Board of Education member complained that MCPS staff routinely lies to and is otherwise uncooperative with the Board.)  A Board without politics is an arm of the emperor.  What, other than a collapse of politics, can it mean that the four incumbent Board members running for reelection are all without opposition?  


MCPS and its Board department have enshrined their politics-free institution in the Framework for Equity and Excellence--the central statement of Our Call to Action:  "This organizational culture also will serve to protect the ongoing work to promote equity and excellence from external factors that could possibly disrupt the work or distract staff from their focus.  These external factors include political factors, legal considerations, and economic realities."  The System opposes itself to reality.  Through its lawsuit, the Board manages to fly in the face of all three:  politics, law and economics;  true to its resolve, it absconds from the reality-based world.  


If the Board will not function, then it is up to the County Council to resist the bullying and to reveal that the emperor has no clothes.  Beyond the Board and the Council, it is up to us to restore MCPS leadership by returning it to the real world and to politics.

School Lunch: A Primer

I spent some time searching around the internet looking for variety and differences in elementary school lunches across the US. I have to tell you, there wasn’t much. A non-statistical but random sample of six May/June 2010 lunch menus (not much, I know, I would encourage you to do the same), including Montgomery County, Maryland Public Schools, showed lots of cheese pizza; from this I conclude the US has an abundance of cheese. And, public school nutritionists, or the federal government, strongly believe that every food item should be breaded.


So, here we go ‘round the horn… On most of the menus, one day of the week is pizza day. Including of course, cheese pizza.

The Oakland Unified School District, in California, instituted ‘Meatless Mondays’ which they replaced with, from what I can tell, cheese, including, cheese quesadillas; bean and cheese burritos; and grilled cheese sandwiches.

On the other hand, Oakland stood out in that vegetables and fruit were served with every meal, ranging from ‘Beautiful Baby Carrots’ to ‘Kind-hearted Kiwi’ Oakland also offered stir fry vegetables and a ‘chicken vegetable medley’ to their children. Kudos!


In the Portland, Oregon public schools, Thursday is pizza day. Portland also offers 1% or non-fat milk, and offers teriyaki, and vegetarian chili and to its monthly menu. Portland offers unlimited fresh fruit and vegetables, too, from their fruit and veggie bar. And…Portland works to bring in local produce to the school cafeterias. According to their website, twice a month they feature local produce grown by local farmers.

At the Berkeley Unified School District, in California, all I can say is wow! Unlike Montgomery County, Berkeley made a decision to move “from pre-packed “heat and serve food” to freshly prepared buffet-style service.” I could not find a monthly menu, but the website did state that almost all their food is made from scratch; there are salad bars in all the schools; all the hamburgers and hot dogs are natural and from grass-fed animals; and more. Much, much more.

In the Scarsdale Public Schools, in New York, the Edgewood ES PTA sponsors a fund-raiser, the Bento Box Japanese Lunch, on Mondays, which costs either $3.85 for the regular size chicken bento box; $4.45 for the chicken bento box; and $3.75 for the sushi. This is PTA sponsored, compared to the $2.50 that MCPS charges for each lunch in our elementary schools.

For the chicken plan, we offer three different meals in rotation; Teriyaki Chicken on rice, Chicken cutlets & rice, Fried chicken & noodles. For the sushi, you’ll have 8 pieces of California Rolls which have avocados, fish cakes and cucumbers.

St. Paul, Minnesota Public Schools really offered something different. Their May lunch menu includes Thai chicken; hamburgers with sweet potato fries; and a chicken rice bowl with broccoli and orange wedges as sides. Wow!  And interestingly for Minnesota, cheese did not feature.

Here in Montgomery County, Maryland the profile is similar to most of the menus. Pizza day (choice of cheese or pepperoni) appears to be Tuesday. MCPS offers teriyaki, and from what I could tell, all the poultry is breaded, except for ‘roast turkey.’ The variety includes ‘baked turkey corn dog nuggets,’ ‘baked chicken nuggets,’ and ‘whole grain chicken drumstick’ although why chicken is labeled as ‘whole grain’ is beyond me, but I assume that the drumstick is breaded instead of baked or roasted. Given that the ethnic diversity in our county is a point of great pride to us, it is disappointing to see that our schools don’t offer the foods we enjoy in our homes. Instead the County is teaching our children that pizza, chicken ‘Mcnugget’ look-alikes, and take-out food are the norm.

The MCPS website states that our children’s lunches ‘meet USDA standards’ for nutrition. But these nutrition standards are now the subject of much scrutiny and debate. The USDA recently requested that the Institute of Medicine review these standards. These reports are being published now and you can find them here.  And, the comparison between the current requirements and the new recommendations can be found here.

How Did we get to this Point?
Lynn Olver has posted a brief history of school lunches on her website, Food Timeline, which you can access here. The Children’s Aid Society established the first free school lunch, to provide for urban children over 100 years ago.


More recently, according to Wikipedia, the National School Lunch Act was signed by President Truman in 1946, and its purpose was two-fold, first to feed children; and second, to “prop up food prices by absorbing farm surpluses” And here on Wikipedia is where we get the first glimmer of why our Montgomery County children are being fed breaded and fried food. According to Wikipedia,

...the cheapest way to satisfy the nutritional standards is with something breaded and fried. For example, a corndog plus a fruit cup and milk would meet the current meal plan requirements.

This law, and the federal nutrition standards, married with our autocratic dysfunctional county government explains why our children are fed fast food in a place of learning. So, what are they learning about nutrition and food? And what are we, their parents, learning about Montgomery County government?

Parents irked by graduation fees | Washington Examiner

Parents irked by graduation fees Washington Examiner

...Rosanne Hurwitz, a Blair parent and active member of the school watchdog group Parents Coalition of Montgomery County, complained to Blair principal Darryl Williams that the dues violate Maryland's constitutional right to a free public education. Her Parents Coalition cohorts have argued for nearly two years that graduation dues, as well as fees for classes and supplies, are illegal.

Some principals have listened and have dropped certain fees. The district as a whole, however, has denied the complaints...

Senior year expenses, from prom to AP tests, add up for parents | Washington Examiner

Senior year expenses, from prom to AP tests, add up for parents | Washington Examiner

Video: See program Weast has cut by 50%

The Einstein High School Visual Arts Center has been in existence for over 27 years.
Watch this VOA video and meet the teachers and students.
Half of the instructors in this program are being cut by Superintendent Jerry Weast.

Administrators add $100,000 in travel to FY11 budget

Travel freeze? Apparently not. In fact, the Board of Education agreement with the MCPS administrators and principals organization, MCAAP, had $100,000 of travel and conference fees added to the FY11 MCPS Operating Budget. 


Here are the sections from the budget that list the details on this increase. See the link to the full text of the budget below.


Elementary School Budget

As required by the current Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) contract, there is an increase in travel funds of $50,104 for members to attend conferences and other professional growth opportunities. Additional funds are budgeted in the middle and high schools budget

Middle School Budget


Other-$26,294
As required by the current Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) contract, there is an increase in travel funds of $26,294 for members to attend conferences and other professional growth opportunities. Additional funds are added in the elementary and high schools budget.


High School Budget

As required by the current Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) contract, there is an increase in travel funds of $23,602 for members to attend conferences and other professional growth opportunities. Additional funds are added in the elementary and middle schools budget.

Source:  Superintendent's Recommended FY11 Operating Budget

"Mr. Weast, whose brinkmanship has gone too far"

The Washington Post Editorial:  Montgomery leadership fails with battle over school budgets

...The school board and the school superintendent, Jerry D. Weast, are mainly to blame for things reaching this point. They have threatened to sue the county over budget cuts amounting to roughly $33 million, or less than 2 percent of the school system's annual spending... 

...Over the past decade, schools have generally accounted for 53 to 56 percent of annual county spending, with the rest divided among other services, including police, fire and rescue, parks, Montgomery College, and other administrative functions. Under Mr. Leggett's proposed budget, the school system's slice of the county pie would increase to 57.2 percent. If the County Council has its way and knocks $33 million from the school system's budget, its share of overall county spending would be about 56 percent -- still a percentage point higher than its average over the past decade...

..The sensible way out is a compromise. But with egos, conflicting personalities and political futures all colliding in an election year, both sides seem incapable of meeting each other halfway. That speaks poorly of Mr. Weast, whose brinkmanship has gone too far; of Council President Nancy Floreen, whose leadership skills are in doubt; and of Mr. Leggett, who is silent when he should be guiding the two sides out of the deadlock.

Parents upset with the cost of graduation

...In the complaint letter, Mrs. Hurwitz challenges “the senior dues fee, ...[are] not authorized by the Board of Education under policy JNA,” adding that “it is contrary to the Maryland State constitutional right to a free public education.”

In a bid to compromise the concerns addressed by Mrs. Hurwitz and to reduce disruption to the planning and ceremony, Mr. Williams reduced the senior dues fee by $1, and has also agreed to assemble a committee of parents, students and staff to address ways in which they can eliminate or reduce the fee in the future. Not only that, but the Blair High School principal has determined that students who aren’t able to pay the $34 senior dues will still be able to attend their graduation.

article continues here.

Lift the School Veggie Garden Ban!

Sign On Letter to Lift the School Veggie Garden Ban! Please Forward Widely! Dear Friends: As many of you know, the Montgomery County Public Schools Administration does not permit the growing of vegetable gardens on any school property, a position reiterated by School Superintendent Jerry Weast in a memo he sent to the Board of Education on February 26. We believe this is a bad policy, and we'd like to see it changed. The Master Gardeners of Montgomery County are joining with Montgomery Victory Gardens to send an open letter to Superintendent Weast requesting that this policy be revoked, and that schools be allowed to grow food gardens.  Literally thousands of schools across the country are discovering the multiple benefits of growing food in school gardens, and First Lady Michelle Obama is actively campaigning for them.  We cannot imagine a better use of some small part of any school's property than for a thriving vegetable garden, nor any better use of 1-2 hours a week of a schoolchild's time than being in that garden. We invite your organization to join us in signing this letter and expressing your support for vegetable gardens in our schools. The letter is open to signature by any and all concerned non-profit organizations or groups in Montgomery County.  We strongly believe that all citizens of Montgomery County have a vested interest in our public school system, and in raising our children with healthy eating habits and an understanding of where food comes from. You can read the letter to Superintendent Weast here. If your organization would like to join us in signing this letter, please contact either Pat Lynch of the Montgomery County Master Gardeners at lynchpd@earthlink.net or Gordon Clark at gordon@montgomeryvictorygardens.org.  We will keep the letter open for signatures for at least two months, but we encourage you to add your organization's signature as soon as possible. Initial delivery of the letter will occur the week of May 24, and we would like to include your organization if at all possible. (Organizational signatures will still be accepted after that date, and we will reissue the letter with additional signatures in June.)  We also encourage you to forward this letter widely. We believe this is a truly critical issue for our county schools, our county's children, and ultimately for all of us.  We hope you agree, and look forward to hearing from you soon. With Best Regards, Sheryl Freishtat, President Montgomery County Master Gardener Association Gordon Clark, Project Director Montgomery Victory Gardens

MCPS bartering on Race to the Top application

Baltimore Sun - Inside Ed: Montgomery says maybe to Race to the Top

...Montgomery County hasn't yet agreed to sign the Race to the Top application and is one of only two districts that is holding support back from the state's efforts to win as much as $250 million in federal funds later this year...

...The board wants the state to say that its evaluation system is currently in compliance with the Education Reform Act recently passed by the General Assembly and any other regulations passed in the future by the state board...