Our wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and members.
(Photo from The New Yorker)
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
In lawsuit, HET MCPS, LLC (electric school bus vendor) says Mont. Co. Inspector General "issued misleading and inaccurate findings."
The company that is leasing electric school buses to the Montgomery County Board of Education has filed a lawsuit against one of the other bidders on the MCPS electric school bus procurement.
Contained in this new lawsuit is an extensive list of things the electric school bus vendor, HET MCPS, LLC, says were misleading and inaccurate in the Montgomery County Inspector General's July 25, 2024, Investigation of MCPS' Management of the Electric Bus Contract Memorandum of Investigation. (Pages 10 - 16)
The lawsuit also discusses the funds allegedly owed to the Board of Education from HET MCPS, LLC. (Page 18)
The complaint filed in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland is below.
HET MCPS, LLC and HEF-P Bal... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Group demands update from Montgomery Co. Schools on literacy initiative
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — An advocacy group known as the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence is pushing Montgomery County Public Schools to do more to improve reading scores for minority students.
7News checked Evidence of Learning literacy scores from the 2023-2024 school year and found 85% of white students were proficient in literacy in Montgomery County, while only 62% of Black and 54% of Hispanic students were proficient...
Monday, November 25, 2024
7News presses MCPS about electric bus negotiations and $1.5 million owed to system
Now, we're asking the school district how the process of recovering the $1.5 million is going...
7News presses MCPS about electric bus negotiations and $1.5 million owed to system
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Schoolhouse Limbo: How Low Will Educators Go to 'Better' Grades?
Maryland’s new education chief, Carey Wright, an old-school champion of rigorous standards, is pushing back against efforts in other states to boost test scores by essentially lowering their expectations of students.
States, including Oklahoma and Wisconsin, are making it easier for students to demonstrate on annual assessments that they are proficient in math and English after a decade of declining test scores nationwide. By redesigning the assessments and lowering the so-called “cut scores” that separate achievement levels such as basic, proficient, and advanced, several states have recently posted dramatic increases in proficiency, a key indicator of school quality.
Wright warns that lowering the bar on proficiency can create the public impression that schools are improving and students are learning more when, in fact, that’s not the case.
“You can make yourself look better to the public by lowering your cut scores,” Wright, the Maryland state superintendent of schools, told RealClearInvestigations in an interview. “But then you are not really measuring proficiency. My position is no, no, no. Parents and teachers need to know if their children are proficient or not.”..
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Are Maryland Families Unaware Of Dangerous Criminals In Public Schools?
https://eastongazette.com/2024/10/22/are-maryland-families-unaware-of-dangerous-criminals-in-public-schools/
Maryland man accused of sexually assaulting three young teens
...Portillo would meet the 14-year-old at parks in Damascus and go for walks, according to a charging document. The victim told police he would pick her up from school to hang out frequently...
Maryland man accused of sexually assaulting three young teens – NBC4 Washington
Rockville: Seventeen-Year-Old with Warrant, Arrested with Handgun and Drugs
Gaithersburg, MD- A 17-year-old who had an active warrant for failing to appear at court, was arrested on Friday, November 8, 2024, after he was found in Rockville with a handgun and 250 suspected fentanyl pills.
On Friday, November 8, 2024, at approximately 1:30 p.m., officers from the Montgomery County Department of Police -4th District Special Assignment Team observed the teen, who had a warrant for his arrest, in the 5500 block of Besley Court of Rockville. When officers approached the teen, he took off running and attempted to pull a loaded Glock 17 from his waistband. He was quickly apprehended and taken into custody.
During a search, in addition to the loaded firearm, the 17-year-old was determined to be in possession of 250 blue “M30” suspected fentanyl pills and an undisclosed amount of cash.
He was transported to the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit (CPU) and charged with possession of a firearm and drugs with the intent to distribute. He is currently still being held at CPU...
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Montgomery parents of color call for more info on students’ reading skills
Montgomery County advocacy groups and afterschool service providers say they have noticed a troubling trend: Students of color were not reading on grade level, but their parents had no idea because a report card indicated the child was passing in the subject...
Speech therapist shortage in Montgomery County schools affects students in need
A Bethesda mom says her kindergartener has gone weeks without receiving the speech services the school is required to provide him
...Online job listings for Montgomery County Public Schools show Ashburton Elementary is one of eight schools looking for an SLP who can start immediately...
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/speech-therapist-shortage-in-montgomery-county-schools-affects-students-in-need/3769633/
Monday, November 18, 2024
Maryland teacher indicted on federal drug charges
"Why aren't we drug testing the people who have these little lives in their hands?" Davis said. "That’s a stunner, and we are taking action on that. That is a concrete action coming out of this town hall."
Davis noted that school district officials, including the chief of schools and the chief of safety and security, as well as Councilmember Kristin Mink, attended a town hall last month where the issue of drug testing school employees was raised.
Montgomery County Public Schools confirmed Magid’s employment but declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation...
Maryland teacher indicted on federal drug charges | FOX 5 DC
@mcps 1st Grade Teacher Faces Prison in Connection with Fentanyl Overdose Death
MCM previously reported that Sarah Katherine Magid, 34, of Burtonsville, was indicted in connection with the March 23 death of a Washington, D.C. man from fentanyl toxicity.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Magid is charged with distributing fentanyl that resulted in serious bodily injury and death of a victim. Magid appeared in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt Thursday...
...Law enforcement officials received a complaint in July that Magid, who was a MCPS teacher, left her classroom to sell drugs to people not connected with the school. The officials found text messages on Magid’s phone “indicating that she dealt drugs during work hours,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office...
‘Our current path is not sustainable’: Montgomery Co. schools superintendent, council look at challenges to school funding
“What is clear in my examination of the budget, and as illustrated in the data that you have before you today, is that our current path is not sustainable,” Taylor said at a county council work session on Tuesday.
Taylor and Board of Education President Karla Silvestre were among the school officials at the work session on the school system’s “cost drivers” — expenses that fuel the budget.
Craig Howard, the county council’s new executive director, explained that over a period of 10 years, FYs 2015-25, the operating budget grew by 3.9% on average each year.
In June, the county council approved a $3.3 billion operating budget for FY 2025.
Noting that nearly 90% of the operating budget is spent on staffing, Taylor said, “The system must engage in a thorough reevaluation of resource allocation.”..
Friday, November 15, 2024
Montgomery County Taxpayers League hosts MCPS Superintendent Taylor, Nov. 19, 7pm on Zoom
The Montgomery County Taxpayers League is hosting MCPS Superintendent Taylor, all are welcome to zoom in. Registration link below.
DATE: Tuesday, Nov 19th
TIME: 7pm
Fordham Institute: Many [@mcps @mocoboe] expenditures are expensive giveaways to the unions, giveaways that are completely unrelated to serving students or improving outcomes.
A reform agenda for Montgomery County: Investing in effective teachers in the system’s high-poverty schools
...It’s true that school districts need to be careful not to steal resources from central support staff that add value to student learning. Curriculum and instruction staff in particular can be essential to making sure teachers have the professional support they need to be effective.Still, it sure seems like there are a lot of highly-paid administrators in MCPS’s central office that may not actually be necessary, many of them former principals. Encouraging some of these folks to retire would be a good start and could save a few million dollars a year.
The real money, though, is in employee benefits—a whopping 23 percent of MCPS’s total budget , an astounding $765 million every year. Now let me be clear: Teachers, administrators, and other staff deserve fair and competitive health insurance, retirement, and other benefits. But what MCPS provides—to existing employees, but especially to retirees—goes far, far beyond that. Many expenditures are expensive giveaways to the unions, giveaways that are completely unrelated to serving students or improving outcomes.
What do I have in mind?
- The district’s supplemental pension program, which costs employees just .5 percent of their salaries but into which MCPS plows almost $80 million per year, for a generous pension on top of what the state provides.
- The district’s retiree healthcare insurance benefit, which costs MCPS over $30 million annually, even though retirees could gain coverage via other jobs, Obamacare, and/or Medicare.
- Its policy of paying 25-35 percent of the value of employees’ unused sick leave when they retire, which costs more than $8 million per year.
(These figures come from the district, given to me after I filed a Freedom of Information Act request. You can see the MCPS documents here and here.)
Add them up and these questionable uses of taxpayer funds sum to around $120 million every year...
Hayfield loses final appeal; Fairfax Co. powerhouse football team banned from postseason for two years
The league said it believes Hayfield violated the league’s Proselytizing Rule, which states, “No member school or group of individuals representing the school shall subject a student from another school to undue influence by encouraging him/her to transfer from one school to another for League activities.”
In addition, the letter stated the “VHSL staff also finds that the Hayfield administration did not adhere to the Guiding Principle of VHSL policy.”..
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Too little recess, too many movies: NYC parents fume as screen time replaces outdoor play
Teachers told her son’s kindergarten class at P.S. 139 they were “too loud,” and they didn’t want to disrupt the testing conditions for the students in grades 3-5, Miranda said. Instead of playing outside, her son watched part of the Disney movie, “Wish.”
“They want kids to be docile and quiet. It’s a lack of creativity and a lack of prioritization of kids’ physical well-being,” Miranda said.
Now, they’ve traded their six-block walk to the Ditmas Park school for a six-stop subway ride to P.S. 456, the Elizabeth Jennings School for Bold Explorers, a progressive school that opened this year in Downtown Brooklyn. The kids there go outside everyday.
A growing number of New York City parents are frustrated by how frequently their kids spend recess indoors, often watching movies. Schools are not required to list or report their recess policies, much to the dismay of many parents, who want more information on how much outdoor time or play their children get during the school day. Many are concerned that it’s an equity issue: Kids who get less outdoor recess tend to be those in poor urban areas, studies have shown...
NYC parents angry over too little recess, too much screen time at schools - Chalkbeat
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
New @mocoboe Members will be "Trained" how to act.
The next group of Apple Ballot candidates elected to the Montgomery County Board of Education will attend "training" through the private club for BOE members.
Club membership for the Board of Education is funded with MCPS Operating Budget funds. It costs the Board of Education about $100,000 a year to be a member of this private club.
The Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) operates outside of the Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act.
It's a secret club to keep the public away from public officials.
https://www.mabe.org/training/new-board-member-orientation/
What other Montgomery County elected officials are "trained" in how to hold their elected positions?
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Student-made App Offers Students Way To Voice Concerns
Closed bathrooms are no strange sight to Sherwood students, but rounding the corner at the start of the 2024-25 year, a team of student software developers is making an app to counteract issues like these, enabling students to report school-wide issues across MCPS. Ripple is an app for students to report problems in their individual schools.
The hope for Ripple is to give students a voice and hold MCPS accountable for providing the best schools it can. “I think it could help bridge the communication gap between students and admin, and help improve student experiences by providing data on the small issues that students have,” said new SMOB Praneel Suvarna.
Once opened on either chromebooks or phones, Ripple gives students a map of the county and a list of reports they can make. These reports are customized for each school to better reflect issues that may be specific to each school. The possible reports can include anything from locked bathrooms, missing menstrual products, nonfunctional water fountains, broken infrastructure, and anything else staff members see as an issue.
If a student hypothetically spots a locked bathroom, they may select their MCPS school, click on the “Closed Bathrooms” issue, and then type in the room number nearest to the problem and voilá. Their anonymous report is submitted and may be seen by teachers, staff, and even the principal. The map is also updated to show the issue in that particular school...
Student-made App Offers Students Way To Voice Concerns | The Warrior Online
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