Narcan demonstration at Wootton High School. @mymcmedia pic.twitter.com/RUUNVWbMpj
— Maryam Shahzad (@maryam_mcm) December 13, 2022
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Narcan demonstration at Wootton High School. @mymcmedia
Monday, December 12, 2022
Why does Montgomery County 911 Refer a Sex Assault Call from Wheaton High School to Park Police?
❓ On December 9, 2022, Montgomery County's 911 call center received a call reporting a sex assault that occurred earlier at Wheaton High School. When the dispatcher put out the call at 2:24:34 PM here is what transpired with the responding officer:
Dispatcher: Sex assault, occurred earlier Wheaton High School. Suspect not on scene. Student reporting sex assault...
Officer: Do you mind just passing that over to the Park Police? They are responsible now for Wheaton High School.
TONIGHT: Police Chief Marcus Jones on public safety and State Senator Ben Kramer on Planning Board Legislation
DECEMBER PROGRAM
We will also be joined by Maryland State Senator Ben Kramer (D-19) who will discuss his legislation relating to the structure of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and other issues.
To join the Zoom meeting from your browser, use this link. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86361556889 To participate by phone (audio only), call 301.715.8592. The meeting ID is 863 6155 6889. No password is required.
DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
More information about the program and other important civic news can be found in the DECEMBER 2022 Newsletter. https://montgomerycivic.org/files/CFNlatest.pdf
A print version of the newsletter is also available. Please pass the newsletter on to your neighbors.
MCCF MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
If you have not already done so, please renew your membership this month so that you will continue to receive our notices. Individual memberships are available. We appreciate your support and participation. https://montgomerycivic.org/MCCFMembershipApplication1.html
We look forward to seeing everyone online on the 12th.
Montgomery County Civic Federation, Inc.
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Loudoun Co. former superintendent Ziegler, school official indicted by special grand jury
A Loudoun County judge ordered Monday that the documents be unsealed, according to a release from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. The indictments were handed up by a special grand jury, which was empaneled in April at the request of Miyares...
Loudoun Co. former superintendent Ziegler, school official indicted by special grand jury | WJLA
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Maryland State Board of Education Appoints New Executive Director
From the Southern Maryland Chronicle, full story here. Yellow highlights my own.
BALTIMORE, MD (December 6, 2022) – Following a thorough, deliberative, and competitive recruitment and hiring process, the Maryland State Board of Education announced the selection of Zachary Hands as the State Board’s Executive Director. Zachary Hands will begin in his new role on December 14, 2022.
And:
Previously Mr. Hands served as the Maryland State Department of Education’s Director of the Office of Education Policy and Government Relations, as well as Special Assistant to the State Superintendent. During that time, he notably served as a liaison during the meeting of the Kirwan Commission and the development of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, assisted in drafting and promulgating the State’s education equity regulation, and helped lead the Department during its response to the initial Covid-19 pandemic emergency and recovery process.
Friday, December 9, 2022
New @mocoboe members Immediately Left Town for Miami Vacation with rest of BOE and @mcps Superintendent.
This December vacation for the Board of Education and Superintendent will be paid for out of the MCPS Operating Budget. Remember all those teachers begging for school supplies? Sorry, the Board of Education and Superintendent needed to get some Miami sun in December. Buy your own supplies teachers.
@mcps Teachers buy your own supplies. Superintendent McKnight needed a Miami vacation in December.
At #CUBE22 conference, Dr. McKnight is interviewed by Alex Lopez about the importance of racial equity in education. "There's no more important goal than achieving equity in education.” https://t.co/nSUOzUrTXh @NSBAPublicEd pic.twitter.com/TybWmDh6xV
— MCPS (@MCPS) December 8, 2022
7th grader shot in thigh by classmate with BB gun in Silver Spring [Silver Spring International Middle School] @mcps @mocoboe
The Montgomery County Police Department was called to Silver Spring International Middle School Thursday after learning that a student shot her classmate with a BB gun.
According to a statement from the principal, the student was showing off the loaded BB gun to a friend while in her 7th-grade classroom, when it accidentally discharged and struck her friend in the thigh.
The classroom teacher immediately called school administrators and security, who confiscated the BB gun and removed both students from the classroom.
The school nurse examined the student who was shot and found no injury...
7th grader shot in thigh by classmate with BB gun in Silver Spring (msn.com)
Heinemann’s billion-dollar sales have nationwide reach: @mcps @mocoboe spent $1,905,023.86 on Heinemann materials over 10 years
Heinemann’s billion-dollar sales have nationwide reach
APM Reports found that the controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade.
Teaching children to read is not just a critical piece of elementary education. It’s also big business.
In 2019, school districts spent more on English language arts programs for elementary schools than on all instructional materials for middle and high schools combined, according to the Association of American Publishers, an industry trade group. That year, school districts spent $1.33 billion on reading programs for kids in pre-K through sixth grade.
Heinemann Publishing — which puts out curricula by Lucy Calkins, and Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell — has been among the largest players in that market. What hasn’t been clear is just how much money Heinemann earns and how widespread its products are. That’s what APM Reports wanted to find out...
...Much of that money comes from districts across the country. APM Reports sent records requests to the largest school districts in every state — 100 districts in total — asking if they had purchased materials from Heinemann in the past decade. We obtained records for 87 districts. All but five said they’d purchased Heinemann materials...
...But most controversially, some of the books and curriculum have perpetuated a theory that’s commonly referred to as cueing. The theory holds that students can be taught to problem solve unknown words with multiple sources of information, like context and picture clues. It’s a strategy that cognitive scientists have refuted in repeated studies. Other publishing companies put out programs based on this theory, but Heinemann’s products are among the most popular...
Heinemann’s billion-dollar sales have nationwide reach | APM Reports
Investing in indoor air quality improvements in schools will reduce COVID transmission and help students learn
Fall 2022 marks the start of the fourth school year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spotlighted the importance of indoor air quality in schools. Ideally, all school buildings would have adequate ventilation, filtered air in each classroom and windows that open. Sadly, this is not the case – and indoor air quality in many schools is poor as a result. This is especially problematic in the wake of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s August 2022 COVID-19 guidance for schools, which scales back other measures for limiting transmission, such as masking, testing and quarantining.
Beyond minimizing COVID-19 transmission, indoor air quality also matters for student academic performance. This is especially important given the learning losses that many children experienced in the first two years of the pandemic. Hot, stuffy classrooms make it harder for students to learn. So do cold classrooms.
Our research focuses on indoor environments and health – an area that has received increased attention during the pandemic, since most COVID-19 transmission occurs through shared air indoors. There is ample evidence that smart investments in school buildings can reduce transmission of infectious disease, while also improving learning and increasing well-being for students, teachers and administrators...
Thursday, December 8, 2022
‘Tripledemic’ Causing Higher Volume of Patients in Emergency Rooms
And let’s not forget COVID. So we termed this the tripledemic, because of the three different upper respiratory tract environments,” Damiano said during a media briefing Wednesday.
He said that in July and August, most upper respiratory tract infections were due to COVID-19, but that has changed. Now, about 50% of those visits at Silver Spring and Germantown locations are RSV or flu.
“The impact on the emergency room is that the volumes are higher, and as the volumes are higher and we try and see and triage the patients, it also results in longer wait times.”
The US has never recorded this many positive flu tests in one week
This flu season’s ferocious start has given way to record-shattering levels of transmission — and massive strains on the American health system.
In the week ending November 26, more than 34,000 positive flu tests were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from labs around the US, as shown in the orange line on the chart below. That’s more positive flu tests than have been reported in any single week during any flu season on record, going back as far as 1997.
The trajectory dwarfs the past six flu seasons, including the relatively bad 2019-2020 one that immediately preceded the start of the Covid-19 pandemic (shown in the black line)...
2022 is the worst flu season in two decades. See the rise in charts. - Vox
Effort to Roll Back Recent Howard County Board of Education Election is Undemocratic
Specifically, Howard County Senator Clarence Lam and Delegate Courtney Watson have put forward a bill decreasing Dr. Chen and Ms. McCoy’s terms to two-years. That provision is part of broader legislation – Howard County 10-23 – that reduces the number of elected BOE members from seven members to five and granting authority to the Howard County Executive to appoint two members, based on recommendations from the county’s legislative delegation, beginning in 2024. Under the measure, three of the elected members would be chosen by state Senate districts as opposed to the current system of election by each of the five councilmanic districts and two members would be elected at large or countywide. (The Howard County BOE also has a student member that sixth through eleventh graders elect but the pending bill does not affect that position.)...
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
https://www.fox5dc.com/news/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."
FINALLY — @MCPS met with the community to discuss what occurred @MagruderHS on January 21. Honestly, I can’t imagine the school staff handling it better, but finally, the details emerged!! My favorite parts… 1/
@mentionsapologized. In my 10 years as an advocate, tonight marks the second time I’ve heard leaders admit publicly mistakes were made. That was important. 2/
No one expects a crisis to go perfectly. But when @MCPS glosses over the missteps, it doesn’t honor the experience. I appreciated @MCPS acknowledging there were folks that shouldn’t have been allowed to access the building. WE WERE IN LOCKDOWN!!! 3/
They didn’t name names, but @McCarthyMoCo confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building. Lockdown is lockdown. Curious elected officials should have been locked out. (Sorry) 4/
And, @MCPS made clear they learned their lesson — reunification THEN press conference. That was NONSENSE holding our kids while McKnight and @mcpnews 5/
I doubt we will see another community required to wait 10 months before @MCPS meets with them. So that’s good. That’s what advocates want — to see progress!! If @MCPSSafety issues a new After Action without community input, we’ll return to @mocoboe. 6/
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
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