Wednesday, January 19, 2022
This Private Equity Firm Is Amassing Companies That Collect Data on America’s Children
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Jan. 18th @mcps COVID-19 Data for Active Cases Sorted from Highest to Lowest
MCPS parents are now compiling their own data to track what is going on in schools. Today's numbers are shown in the image and in the PDF below.
This spreadsheet can be found here.
Note: The data source is MCPS and many MCPS teachers and parents have reported the MCPS data that is released is not accurate.
2022 Jan 18 MCPS Covid - Ac... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...
Report: Baltimore County School Board broke state law, fudged purchasing rules [@mcps @mocoboe Could this be YOU too?]
State law requires that the board use the county attorney for legal counsel unless it’s in a dispute with county government. It can also ask the county attorney for permission to hire an outside firm.
In January 2019, the school board hired the Columbia-based law firm Carney, Kelehan, Bresler, Bennett & Scheer to help with the search for a new superintendent. Inspector General Richard Henry said the board received permission to do that. But once that search was over, the school board violated state law by keeping the firm on as its legal counsel and the billable hours started adding up.
“It exceeded over $100,000,” Henry said...
...Furthermore, Inspector General Henry said the board broke its own spending rules by dividing up the cost of the legal services. Anything that costs $50,000 or more must be put out for a competitive bid. Henry said the board skirted that by submitting a purchase order for $49,999...
Monday, January 17, 2022
Former @mocoboe Board of Education Members Mike Durso and Jeanette Dixon Endorse Monifa McKnight for Superintendent of MCPS @mcps
Update: WTOP coverage of this letter.
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17 January 2022
(Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday)
Dear Members of the Board of Education:
We write to you on this historic day as former high school principals and members of the Board of Education with 57 years of service in Montgomery County, and while we are no longer employed by MCPS, we both closely follow the work of the Board of Education and MCPS.
Given the unprecedented challenges the school system has faced in the last two years of educating our students during a worldwide pandemic, we believe it is imperative that the Board of Education appoint Dr. Monifa McKnight as Superintendent of MCPS for the next four years effective immediately.
It has not been lost on us that both the Interim Superintendent and the Board of Education have come under excessive scrutiny and criticism recently related to Covid-19 and protocols. Indeed, just within the last few days, both the MCEA and MCAAP have posted strongly worded letters related to the handling of the virus and its impact on students, staff, and families. We understand the frustration all are facing with these ongoing challenges.
Dr. McKnight knows and loves MCPS. Despite being buffeted by events beyond her control, she has worked tirelessly to ensure our students get the best education possible. We believe all education stakeholders should be grateful for her courage in taking on the position of Interim Superintendent. She has had a year to hone her skills as a superintendent and learned valuable leadership lessons. She has learned about the need for MCPS and the Board to improve communication, something that has been an ongoing issue in MCPS even before Dr. McKnight’s service as Interim Superintendent began. She is fully able to assess the inner workings of the school system and those who serve it.
We believe it would be unwise to appoint someone from outside of the system because it would take this person two years to learn all there is to know about MCPS. In Dr. McKnight we already have someone who is competent to provide both the continuity and change needed by MCPS. Based on her performance as Interim Superintendent, Dr. McKnight has earned the opportunity to continue to lead MCPS.
Naturally you are aware of what Dr. McKnight has done, but we wish to highlight why we believe she is the right choice for the next four years. As Deputy Superintendent she administered the school system from the time Dr. Smith announced he was retiring in February 2021, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic that necessitated a paradigm shift in the way educators teach and students learn. During this time, she was able to get the 2021-2022 budget passed and ensure a smooth close of the school year, including celebrating and attending graduations for the Class of 2021.
In addition:
· Dr. McKnight implemented initiatives focusing on an anti-racist audit, reorganization of the system for greater accountability, and professional development for all staff.
· Dr. McKnight has established excellent relations with elected officials at the county and state levels, state education officials and other Maryland school superintendents. She has completed the Leadership Montgomery program.
· Dr. McKnight is a good listener, presenter and public speaker with the ability to inspire others. She has demonstrated flexibility, and she has been responsive to the education stakeholders of Montgomery County.
· Dr. McKnight is professional, and she is respectful of the Board. She works well with the Board’s officers. She has gone out of her way to get to know the Board as a group and individually.
· Dr. McKnight is responsive, and she is not afraid to change her position or correct that which is not working. She is adept at analyzing data and using technology.
· Dr. McKnight has worked assiduously with all education stakeholders including those who have undermined her efforts and not given her the time and unquestioned support they gave to past male superintendents.
In conclusion, Dr. McKnight has earned the opportunity to continue to lead MCPS. She is a person of integrity who is an outstanding role model for all of our students. They can look at her and know that anything is possible when an African-American girl raised by a single parent in Orangeburg, South Carolina can rise to lead the fourteenth largest school system in the United States.
She is the right person for this time. We urge you to make this historic appointment.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Durso
Former MCPS Principal
1996 – 2009
Former Member of the Board of Education, District 5
2009 – 2018
Jeanette E. Dixon
Former MCPS Principal
1997 – 2013
Former Member of the Board of Education, At-Large
2016 - 2020
Byron Johns
Vice President
Returning from virtual learning, Prince George’s Co. schools to distribute masks, test kits to students
CEO Monica Goldson said in a letter to the community that the school system will aggressively test its student and staff population each week following the return to in-person learning...
Sunday, January 16, 2022
How Baltimore County Public Schools was making decisions when school opened after winter break.
COVID-19 School Status
BCPS may move individual schools or groups of schools to virtual learning after reviewing a number of factors (e.g., percent of positive student and staff cases, number of staff, and students in quarantine, and special program considerations) in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health, Maryland State Department of Education, and/or the Baltimore County Department of Health. These closures will be tracked here. Factors considered during collaborative team discussions regarding a move to virtual instruction include but are not limited to:
• # of staff testing positive*
• # of students testing positive*
• # of staff in quarantine • # of students in quarantine
• # of staffing vacancies
• Special program considerations
• Additional Information
*Consistent with the Maryland Department of Health definition, five percent or more of unrelated students/teachers/staff (minimum of 10 of these individuals) testing positive for COVID-19 in a 14-day period is a consideration. However, please note that the 5 percent threshold does not automatically result in school closure. If a decision is made for a temporary transition to virtual learning, parents/guardians at the school will be notified...
Jan. 3rd: Whitman HS Teachers Has Option to Livestream their Classes on Zoom or use "Quarantine Instruction" model.
JANUARY 3, 2022
Whitman teachers will have the option to livestream their classes on Zoom when students return from winter break, according to an email Principal Robert Dodd sent to staff on Sunday. Dodd’s message also addressed expected gaps in staff coverage in the coming days.
Beginning Wednesday, teachers will be able to choose between two options for instructing students who are in quarantine. They may either livestream their classes on Zoom or deliver instruction through the existing “Quarantine Instruction” model, in which educators provide students at home with access to virtual school materials and establish direct contact through virtual check-ins or email.
Teachers must communicate their chosen instructional method to quarantined students and can switch between the options from lesson to lesson. Educators who livestream their classes must position their microphone and laptop to ensure remote learners can hear and see the instruction over Zoom, but they won’t need to incorporate “interactive strategies” to include the students at home in-class activities, according to Dodd’s email...
A daily count of COVID cases is meaningless without knowing how many other kids and teachers tested positive in the previous 5 to 10 days and how that compares to the total population of the school.
...As an example, I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. A week ago, the county announced it would publish daily COVID case counts for each school, then calculate the amount of schools more than 5% positive over a 2 week period, which would trigger the school to go virtual.
That was clear, responsible use of data they already had. They generated a spreadsheet (unfortunately via pdf) but it clearly showed RED schools, YELLOW, and GREEN. The data not only was understandable, its existence would trigger a set of actions. Great...
Great idea! Made 1 for my kid's classroom but not allowed to donate it b/c @MCPS says...
Great idea! Made 1 for my kid's classroom but not allowed to donate it b/c @MCPS says "it is not recommended to bring in outside air filters as there are complications that arise including who is responsible for ensuring they are working properly, maintained, and cleaned" 🤦♀️
— Sanyukta Mathur, DrPH MHS (@SanyuktaMathur) January 14, 2022
More schools expected to move to virtual learning in Montgomery County
The update late Friday afternoon came as another difficult week ended in Maryland’s largest school system, which faced mounting pressure to its rethink plans for full-scale in-person education...
...School officials said next steps will be announced during the week of Jan. 18, when they expect to place some schools into virtual learning for 10 calendar days. Parents were asked to report results of at-home rapid tests for their children by Friday...
...Now the school system has stopped posting percentages of student and staff positivity altogether, instead giving daily case counts. But parents and educators, worried about the state of omicron infection in their schools, started doing calculations of their own...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/01/15/montgomery-county-schools-covid-virtual/
Saturday, January 15, 2022
With COVID-19, Air Is Both the Problem and the Solution. ""Schools may balk at homemade equipment, but these boxes have been shown to work surprisingly well, “blowing the competition out of the water,” Prather told me.""
Is the ventilation adequate? To assess this, a nondispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensor can be used. “You want the air in your house [or indoors] to be as fresh as the outdoor air,” Professor Kimberly Prather told me. She is an atmospheric chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UC San Diego who studies aerosols. We humans breathe air in, hold onto the oxygen, and breathe out CO2. An NDIR CO2 sensor uses a specific beam of infrared light that CO2 molecules love to absorb. The more CO2 in the detector, the less infrared hits the sensor. The device translates this into the amount of CO2 present in the air in parts per million (ppm). “When people release CO2 into a shared room, that number creeps up. All that means is that you are breathing other people’s shared breaths. We don’t want that.” The CO2 detector cannot tell you if the virus is present. But if the virus is present, large quantities of CO2 means ventilation is bad and those aerosolized viruses are not leaving the room anytime soon. “If I see 1,000-2,000 ppm, I’m out of there. Schools that say ‘our rooms are safe,’ they better prove it, with kids present.”..
...Homemade air cleaners in the shape of a box made out of filters with a fan on top (known as Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, after two respected scientists in the field who came up with them) actually work extremely well, even with furnace filters instead of HEPA filters, and are much cheaper. Look for filters that are thick and heavily pleated, as they will provide more surface area for filtration. “There are videos of seven-year-olds building them and presenting them at their school,” said Prather. “The kids and parents feel like they’re doing something to help.” Schools may balk at homemade equipment, but these boxes have been shown to work surprisingly well, “blowing the competition out of the water,” Prather told me.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/covid-19-air-both-problem-and-solution
Montgomery Co. schools revise COVID-19 guidelines for schools, day cares
After day five, if the person has no symptoms — or has shown symptom improvement — and hasn’t had a fever for 24 hours, they may return to school as long as they wear a mask.
In a change of course from guidelines released in November, Maryland’s largest school system said fully vaccinated adults and children — and those who’ve had COVID-19 in the last 90 days — who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 don’t need to quarantine, but instead wear a mask around others for 10 days and get tested at least five days after the exposure. They will not be required to quarantine unless they also test positive...
Montgomery Co. set to reveal new plans for shifting to virtual learning
During a board of education meeting on Thursday, officials for the school district previewed the plan for shifting to 10 days of virtual learning if certain criteria were met.
Some of the factors include the number of students and teachers testing positive for COVID-19 over a 10-day period, the number of absences for students and teachers, and if the school doesn’t have enough substitute teachers. The number of unserved bus routes and the concerns of school officials about being able to safely and efficiently operate will also come into play with the decisions...
Montgomery Co. Ex. proposes temporary hybrid learning option as Omicron surges on
https://wjla.com/news/local/montgomery-county-executive-wants-hybrid-learning-option-asap
Opinion: Montgomery County schools have failed the students
Friday, January 14, 2022
MCPS Suspends Take Home Suppers for Students
We received information from the Division of Food & Nutrition Services (DFNS) that global supply chain issues resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have caused issues with delivery of items for meals at schools.
DFNS remains committed to providing nutritious meals including entrée, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and milk to all MCPS students. DFNS is completing emergency purchases to provide alternate food to students. Whena food shortage occurs, menus must be changed or adapted, while continuing to ensure that students are provided with meals daily and that accommodations are made for students with identified special dietary needs.
The priority is to provide breakfast and lunch to students in school. Students participating in onsite after school programs will continue to receive snack/supper. Currently, the take home suppers that we normally offer to our students are temporarily suspended. Meal service will resume as soon as the food products become available.
Today County Exec. Elrich said, "The school system is still sitting on $400 Million Dollars of Federal money."
Today, the Montgomery County Delegation held a meeting and started the meeting off by talking to County Executive Marc Elrich and County Council President Gabe Albornoz.
In a discussion about the salaries that the Board of Education pays certain employees, County Executive Marc Elrich revealed that the Board of Education still has $400 Million Dollars of Federal money at its disposal. Elrich said the school system has not shared how they plan on spending those funds.
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