Pedestrian Advocates List 10 Steps For Safer Walks To School
A group of pedestrian safety advocates want Montgomery County leaders to change traffic laws and improve intersections in an effort they say will improve safety for students walking to schools.
The letter, issued by the Action Committee for Transit, Washington Area Bicycle Association, and a group of parents seeking traffic changes around Bethesda Elementary School, lists 10 steps for improving unsafe walking conditions the group says costs Montgomery residents millions of dollars a year.
Those steps include expanding school zones, establishing a maximum speed limit of 20 miles per hour during school hours in school zones, doubling fines for speeding in school zones, giving pedestrians an exclusive window to cross and prohibiting right turns on red during school hours.
The group cited the Dec. 11 pedestrian incident on River Road and the Feb. 27 collision near Bethesda Elementary (in which a baby in a stroller was struck by a car but not injured) as two countywide examples of why the changes should be made.
The letter was sent to Montgomery County Department of Transportation Director Art Holmes.
Since the rash of reported pedestrian collisions in the first half of 2013, police have ratcheted up enforcement. Today, Montgomery County Police started a series of pedestrian enforcement “stings” that will continue throughout May. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. today, plain clothes police in bright clothing will cross a busy intersection in Aspen Hill in marked crosswalks, issuing citations to drivers that do not yield.
B-CC Student Named 2013 Presidential Scholar
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School’s Bayard Miller has been named a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar, one of two Maryland public school students to receive the honor.
Miller and 140 other students from across the country will be honored during a ceremony in D.C. on June 16. The award is given to students for academic achievement, leadership, citizenship, service and contribution to the school and community.
Miller named B-CC Social Studies teacher Timothy Gilmore as his most influential teacher.
One man and one woman from each state, as well as 15 at-large winners and 20 arts winners are chosen. They’ll receive a Presidential Scholar Medallion from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the ceremony. The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President Barack Obama, selects honored scholars annually.
Since 1983, each Presidential Scholar has invited his or her most inspiring teacher to go to the ceremony with them, meaning Gilmore will be in attendance to receive a Teacher Recognition Award from the Department of Education. Richard Montgomery High School student Marni Morse, of Potomac, was named as the second 2013 Presidential Scholar from Maryland.
Flickr photo by US Department of Education
Three Bethesda High Schools Make Top 200 Of ‘Best High Schools’ List
All three Montgomery County High Schools in Bethesda made the top 200 of another ranking of America’s top high schools.
This time, The Daily Beast rated the top 2,000 public high schools in the country based on a formula that seeks to measure how well a school prepares students for college. A few weeks ago, both Walt Whitman (No. 59) and Bethesda-Chevy Chase (No. 128) High Schools made the cut for the U.S. News and World Report rankings.
The Newsweek/Daily Beast rankings put Whitman at No. 137, Walter Johnson at No. 148 and B-CC at No. 178. Poolesville (No. 96) and Winston Churchill in Potomac (No. 97) were the top two Montgomery County schools. A total of 17 MCPS schools made the list.
The rankings were determined by a formula that includes graduation rate (25 percent), college acceptance rate (25 percent), Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and other college-level tests taken per student (25 percent), average SAT/ACT scores (10 percent), average AP, IB and other college-level test scores (10 percent) and percent of students enrolled in at least one AP, IB or other college-level course (5 percent).
“The Newsweek rankings, and other such lists, demonstrate that our high schools are national leaders in preparing students for college and the workplace,” MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr said in a release. “While there is still work left to be done, our staff and community should be proud of how well we are serving our students.”
Group Will Appeal Kensington Middle School Decision
Residents opposed to a plan that would put a new middle school on the site of a Kensington park will appeal a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge’s ruling in favor of Montgomery County Public Schools.
John Robinson, president of the Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association, announced on Sunday that the group will appeal the decision made in April by Judge Ronald Rubin, who issued a a declaratory judgment saying the transfer of the land from MCPS to the county Parks Department violated no federal law or statute.
The Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association wants Rock Creek Hills Local Park (3701 Saul Rd.) maintained as a park.
The group has challenged the MCPS decision to build there at virtually every step, prompting superintendent Joshua Starr to start a new site selection process, filing an unsuccessful appeal with the Maryland State Board of Education and last September filing the suit.
MCPS claims it can build on the park because the Board of Education owns it. It is the site of a former MCPS school, but the school system transferred the land to the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).
When M-NCPPC developed the park in the early 90s, it accepted funds from Program Open Space (POS), which uses funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Park supporters have argued the use of POS funds was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which M-NCPPC took title to the property. This was the case since use of these funds places restrictions on future public use of parks, in contradiction with the terms of the original transfer agreement.
Robinson said Judge Rubin was mistaken in his ruling, and that the group still thinks MCPS violated statutes by not having further review done by state agencies:
Dear Members,As you are aware, on April 11, 2013, Judge Rubin made on oral ruling against the Rock Creek Hills Citizens Association and the individual plaintiffs on matters relating to the proposed conversion of Rock Creek Hills Local Park.
On April 23, 2013, Judge Rubin entered a 13 page written Declaratory Judgement stating his reasons. Counsel, the Association, and the individual plaintiffs have reviewed the April 23 order carefully and have again concluded that the Court’s erred in ruling that (1) the plaintiffs have no standing to challenge the proposed conversion, (2) the Board of Education has a valid reclaim right to the park, and (3) the government defendants did not violate any statutes in deciding to convert the park without further review by the state agencies having statutory jurisdiction over the proposed conversion. Therefore the Association and the individual plaintiffs are appealing the April 23 order. In addition, the Association’s park litigation fund has the resources to pay all its current obligations and has accumulated a modest reserve for the initial phase of the appeal.
Yours,
John M. Robinson
9616 Old Spring Road
Kensington, MD 20895
Parents on MCPS’ school site selection committee have argued the group’s continued opposition is holding up the process for a much-needed school.
MCPS is planning for the new middle school to open in August 2017 to deal with over-enrollment at Westland Middle School and the reassignment of Grade 6 students from Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase Elementary Schools.
Westland received a six-classroom addition in the 2009-2010 school year, but as the only middle school in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School cluster was 136 students over its 1,063 capacity this year. MCPS is projecting 1,600 middle school students in the cluster when the Grade 6 reassignments are made.
“This suit always struck me as incredibly frivolous,” said Rafe Petersen, a PTA Board member of Rosemary Hills Primary School with three kids in the school cluster. “A lot of us think it’s a little bit selfish of the people in that neighborhood. This after all is public land.”
German School Gets LEED Gold Certification
The German School Washington recently received LEED Gold Certification for its new Science Building, a prestigious designation for the 540-student school in Potomac.
The building features a green roof with several layers of plantings to absorb stormwater runoff, a rain screen facade, natural lighting angles that allow less use of electrical lighting, occupancy sensors and dual flush toilets.
The school (8617 Cheateau Dr.) has been around for 50 years and teaches students from preschool through high school.
The U.S. Green Building Council has been designating LEED buildings since 1993 in an effort to promote more sustainable and environmentally friendly construction. The school will celebrate the designation with a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on May 8.
The project was designed by Alexandria-based Geier Brown Renfrow Architects.
Photo via German School Washington
Whitman’s Festival Of The Arts Hits 50 Tonight
Today will mark the 50th time Walt Whitman High School celebrates its annual Festival of the Arts, the event that showcases all types of works and performances from the school’s students.
This evening’s program will also feature a selection of local food trucks and caterers.
It’s the 50th year of the school (7100 Whittier Blvd.), which has produced an interesting group of alumni that includes movie director Spike Jonze,’87, U.S. Senators Gordon Smith, ’70, and Mark Pryor, ’81, the billionaire Rales brothers (Steven, ’69, and Mitchell, ’74), celebrity news personality Giuliana Rancic, ’92, and football star Anthony Dilweg, ’84.
Tonight’s festival will have student paintings, sculptures, drawings, photography, graphic designs, ceramics and other works. The chorus, orchestra and jazz band will all perform and theater students will put on one-act plays.
The school’s arts department sponsors the event, which this year will include food from the GoFish food truck, Carmen’s Carts, BGR The Burger Joint, Armand’s Pizza, Ben & Jerry’s and the Stix food truck.
The event runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. today and tomorrow in the school’s gym.
Bethesda High Schools Make U.S. News List
Two Bethesda high schools achieved gold medal status in the latest rankings from U.S. News and World Report, with Walt Whitman ranked No. 59 on a list of best high schools in the country.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was ranked No. 128. The top 500 high schools get gold medal status.
MCPS had six schools in the top 500, led by Winston Churchill in Potomac (No. 52). Poolesville (No. 99), Thomas S. Wootton in Rockville (No. 105), Richard Montgomery in Rockville (No. 106) and Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring (No. 247) were also on the list, as well as Wheaton (No. 1,032).
MCPS had the six top schools in Maryland and seven of the top 10.
“The schools on the U.S. News Best High Schools list should be proud of the work they have done to serve their students and prepare them for college and the workplace,” MCPS superintendent Joshua Starr said in a statement. “I am pleased with the work that all of our high schools are doing, and we must continue to focus on meeting the needs of all students so we can prepare them for the future they want.”
Schools were judged on student to teacher ratio, college readiness as indicated by participation in Advanced Placement courses and proficiency in Algebra and English.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Team Wins Physics Olympics
A team of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School physics students won a contest of physics-related challenges called the Physics Olympics last weekend at the University of Maryland.
The B-CC team, led by physics teacher Matt Jacobs, had to accomplish a number of tasks including the “Egg Drop,” “Balloon Car,” “Laser Bulleye,” “Projectile Contest,” as well as two mystery projects.
The Egg Drop for example required teams to prep an egg containment chamber that would preserve the egg’s unbroken state during and after being dropped from the roof of the University of Maryland’s Physics Building onto the cement at ground level.
The teams were maxed out at 12 students each and the event was judged based on scores in all the events.
Photo via Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Judge Throws Out Suit Against Kensington Middle School
UPDATED 1:35 p.m. on Friday A judge today threw out a lawsuit from nearby residents who hoped to block MCPS from reclaiming a local park and building a middle school on it.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ronald Rubin ruled in favor of the school system, which wants to build a second middle school at Rock Creek Hills Local Park (3701 Saul Rd.) to accomodate overcrowding at Westland Middle School and the planned reassignment of Grade 6 students from Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase Elementary Schools.
Members of the Save The Rock Creek Hills Park group and the surrounding Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association have sought to block the school and maintain the 13.4-acre park that the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) acquired from the Board of Education in 1990.
School opponents argued that the use of Program Open Space funds to improve the park was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which the M-NCPPC took title to the property. The Planning Board also recommended against placing the school on the site of the park.
Rubin issued a declaratory judgment, stating ”neither the deed or the transfer agreement violated federal or state law. No statute has been violated.”
“This suit always struck me as incredibly frivolous,” said Rafe Petersen, a PTA Board member of Rosemary Hills Primary School with three kids in the school cluster. Petersen was also part of the original site selection committee. “A lot of us think it’s a little bit selfish of the people in that neighborhood. This after all is public land.”
MCPS is planning for the middle school to open in August 2017.
“This is really about our kids and any other further delays are only going to harm our children,” said Fritz Hirst, a cluster parent and another member of the site selection committee. “But I think all people of goodwill should realize that this school should move forward.”
John Robinson, president of the Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association, said his group was disappointed by the decision and is considering an appeal.
Photo via Montgomery Parks
Kensington Middle School Site Battle Resumes Thursday
A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge will resume a hearing tomorrow on the school system’s controversial plan to build a middle school in Kensington’s Rock Creek Hills Local Park.
Neighbors of the park (3701 Saul Rd.) and members of the Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association have vociferously challenged the MCPS decision to build there at virtually every step, prompting superintendent Joshua Starr to start a new site selection process, filing an unsuccessful appeal with the Maryland State Board of Education and last September filing suit in county court.
MCPS claims it can build on the park because the Board of Education owns it. It is the site of a former MCPS school, but the school system transferred the land to the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC).
In November 2011, Starr said one of the reasons for starting a new site selection process was concern about the M-NCPPC’s use of open space funds to improve the park in the early 1990′s:
When the M-NCPPC developed the park in the early 1990s they accepted funds from the Program Open Space (POS). This is a program managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to distribute funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve open space.
The use of Program Open Space funds was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which the M-NCPPC took title to the property. This was the case since use of these funds places restrictions on future public use of parks, in contradiction with the terms of the original transfer agreement.
After the second site selection process, Starr recommended the site and the Board of Education approved it in April of 2012. The Save The Rock Creek Hills Park group then filed the suit that will again be discussed tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Circuit Court.
Opponents of the middle school on the park site want to preserve the land for park uses. In 2011, the Montgomery County Planning Board raised concerns about using park land for new school sites.
As the episode has played out, Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster parents foremost concerned with overcrowding in the cluster, have seemingly grown weary of the process. At a Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board meeting on Monday, one was dismissive of the lawsuit when discussing overcrowding with MCPS planner Bruce Crispell.
MCPS is planning for the new middle school to open in August 2017 to deal with over-enrollment at Westland Middle School and the reassignment of Grade 6 students from Chevy Chase and North Chevy Chase Elementary Schools.
Westland received a six-classroom addition in the 2009-2010 school year, but as the only middle school in the cluster was 136 students over its 1,063 capacity this year. Crispell said MCPS is projecting 1,600 middle school students in the cluster when the Grade 6 reassignments are made.
MCPS Planner Talks Overcrowding In Bethesda Schools
Housing trends in the Great Recession, not new apartment development, are what’s behind surging enrollment numbers and over capacity schools in Bethesda’s three school clusters, the Montgomery County Public Schools director of long range planning said Monday.
Bruce Crispell, who made a presentation and answered questions at a Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board committee meeting, also said he did a survey of 3,632 high-rise and mid-rise units in downtown Bethesda in October and actually found fewer school-aged children than a Planning Department-generated formula would indicate.
Crispell, who spoke with us in November, said he found 74 elementary school-aged children attending MCPS schools, 43 middle school students and 54 high school students. That works out to a ratio of 20 elementary students per 1,000 units, well below the 42 elementary students per 1,000 units that Crispell and MCPS have assumed to determine which schools need additions and which clusters need boundary changes or new schools.
“I know the skepticism when I quote these rates. It seems awfully low,” Crispell said. “But [these units] are expensive. When a project is using structured parking, the land is extremely valuable. That really raises the cost for that development and that project.”
Many residents have expressed concern that MCPS is under-projecting enrollment growth, which they say leads to situations like the current one at overcrowded Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. The school system is awaiting funding for a school addition that would be done in 2017, just 15 years after the entire school was modernized and enlarged.
Enrollment at the 1,665-student capacity school is projected to hit 2,099 by 2016. The addition would provide for a capacity of 2,400.
Starr Holds Community Day Today In Bethesda
Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent Joshua Starr will be in Bethesda schools today (around a County Council budget hearing at 9:30 a.m.) to hear from staff and parents in a series of meetings.
The day ends with a town hall meeting for parents and community members at 7:30 p.m. at Walter Johnson High School (6400 Rock Spring Dr.)
Starr stopped by Ashburton Elementary School this morning to speak with staff.
Also tonight, a committee of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board will hear from MCPS long range planning director Bruce Crispell about overcrowding in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman clusters.
MCPS is planning an addition project at B-CC that would be ready by 2017. Crispell projects the school will be 600 students over its current capacity by 2018. Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman High Schools are also at or projected to go over their enrollment capacities.
Many parents are concerned with additional students who might come from new development. Some also have questioned the procedures which Crispell and his staff use to project additional enrollment.
The meeting with Crispell is set for 7 p.m. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center (4805 Edgemoor Lane).
Flickr photo via Montgomery College
MoCo Police Chief Talks Gun Control, School Safety
As support for gun control on the national level appears to wane, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger spoke to County spokesman Patrick Lacefield about his desire for a ban on internet ammunition sales and high-capacity magazines.
(See video, after the jump.)
Manger said he’d also like to see a database of people with mental health issues that aren’t allowed to purchase or possess guns, similar to an existing database of convicted felons Manger said allows police to more effectively keep the community safe.
Manger also spoke about the effect of School Resource Officers, Montgomery County Police officers assigned to specific high schools, and called the idea of outfitting teachers and school staff members with their own weapons, “ludicrous.”
Manger said the School Resource Officers can develop relationships with students that help solve or prevent other minor crimes, and they provide a sense of safety in the buildings. Montgomery used to have SROs in every high school. Because of budget cutbacks there are now six, though in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shooting Manger and other county officials have said they would like to see a restoration of some of those positions.
High School Baseball Teams Raise Money For Cancer Research
Bethesda’s three public high school baseball teams got together off the field on Sunday to raise money for cancer research by shaving their heads.
The 1st Annual St. Baldrick’s Battle of Bethesda Tournament was set for today before an unusual spring snow storm dumped about three inches on Bethesda. But players, coaches, parents and others from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman High School communities still came out to Tommy Joe’s on Sunday for the kick-off event.
First-year Walter Johnson head baseball coach and Social Studies teacher Chris Murray came across the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which encourages people to have their heads shaved in support of cancer victims, while at a baseball conference in Chicago.
The organization has helped organize dozens of similar events with college and minor league baseball teams across the country over the past few years.
Parents pledged money for participants who had their heads shaved on Sunday and some pledged money per run, hit and strikeout during the round-robin tournament. The team that raises the most money will be announced in April.
Bethesda High School Baseball Players To Shave Heads For Cancer Research
Players from Bethesda’s three public high school baseball teams will shave their heads in support of cancer research later this month.
It’s part of the 1st Annual St. Baldrick’s Battle of Bethesda Tournament, set for Sunday, March 24 and Monday, March 25, in which the baseball teams from Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman High Schools will take part.
St. Baldrick’s is a child cancer research foundation that raises money through pledges made for people who get their heads shaved, a show of solidarity with cancer victims.
Donations and pledges can be made using this form. Players will get their heads shaved at the Tournament Kick-Off event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 24 at Tommy Joe’s (4714 Montgomery Lane). The event will include a buffet for $20 and 20 percent of the proceeds will go to St. Baldrick’s.
Then, on March 25 at B-CC, the teams will play each other in a one-day spring break tournament with three games starting at 9 a.m.
Pledges can also be made per hits and runs in the tournament, as well as per strikeouts and the number of players on each team who sport shaved heads. The team that raises the most money will be crowned champion in April.
