Morning Notes
Superintendent Talks Math Exam Failure Rates — MCPS superintendent Joshua Starr spoke about the county’s surprisingly high failure rates on math final exams and what the school system is doing to more effectively teach its students math. [Fox 5]
Josiah Henson Hearing Planned For June 6 — Those who want to testify in front of the Planning Board as it reviews the plan for a museum at the Josiah Henson house should sign up on the Planning Board website. The facility would include a welcome center, 60-seat multi-purpose multimedia room, new displays and the Riley Cabin. The Planning Board will review the plan during its Thursday, June 6 session at a to-be-determined time. [Montgomery Parks]
Bikeway Construction Starts On MacArthur Boulevard — Construction began last week on improvements to a new shared-use bikeway on MacArthur Boulevard from the Beltway to just south of Glen Echo Park. Construction is slated to be completed by early 2015, at which point Montgomery County will start work on improvements south of Glen Echo Park to the D.C. line. [Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center]
Morning Notes
Montgomery Students Are Failing Math Exams At High Rates, How Much Does It Matter? — Montgomery County Public Schools released data on its students’ high failure rates on math final exams, what some say is a result of students studying only to get the final exam grade they need to pass the course. In January, countywide stats show each non-honors math course except for Pre-Cal (48 percent) saw more than 50 percent of students get an E on the final exam. In January, 86 percent of Bridge to Algebra 2 students countywide failed the exam. [Washington Post]
Union Boycott, Protest Doesn’t Stop Money From Coming Into Local Democratic Party — A boycott and protest of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee Spring Ball meant some big names stayed away from the event, but it hasn’t hurt the party’s fundraising efforts. The group’s chairman said donations from people who did not attend the Ball have put the party over its $50,000 fundraising goal. [The Gazette]
Citizens Advisory Board To Talk Budget, Housing and Tenant Rights — The Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board will meet tonight for its monthly meeting. Councilmember Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda) will give an update on the recently agreed upon FY14 budget. The Board will see a presentation on the county’s Housing Policy and discuss tenants’ rights. The meeting is open to the public and will run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center (4805 Edgemoor Lane). [Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center]
Share Your Bethesda, Chevy Chase, North Bethesda and White Flint Photos With Us — Contribute to the BethesdaNow.com Flickr pool to see your photo lead off our Morning Notes or to show us what’s going on in your community. [Flickr]
Flickr photo by daveandraina
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.”
Morning Notes
19-Year-Old Chevy Chase Man Charged With Making Pipe Bombs — A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Kyle Druckemiller with two counts of manufacturing and possessing a destructive device on Thursday after investigators say the father of Druckemiller’s girlfriend discovered two pipe bombs in his duffle bag on April 12. Investigators say he learned to make the bombs on YouTube and that one of the bombs exploded when he went to South Carolina to buy fireworks to manufacture them. [NBC4]
County Council Committee Recommends Fulfilling Schools’ Budget Request — The Council’s Education Committee on Thursday recommending using surplus money to fulfill MCPS’ request for a $10 million budget bump in FY14. By using surplus funding, the county is not on the hook for the $10 million next year under the state’s maintenance of effort law. Superintendent Josh Starr’s request for $10 million more than required by the law initially worried some on the Council. [Washington Post]
$10 Million Home Includes Indoor Tennis Court — This six-bedroom, 125,000-square-foot house on Hillmead Road includes a gym, pool, fountains and a room outfitted with a tennis court surface. [Curbed DC]
Purple Line Update Set For Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School — The Maryland Transit Administration’s Purple Line project team will be on hand on May 14 at B-CC High School to give an update on where the light rail project stands and take questions and suggestions before submitting preliminary engineering plans to the feds late this summer. The MTA must have the entire Purple Line plan ready to present to the Federal Transit Administration by late winter or early spring of 2014 in order to get the matching federal funding it seeks for the $2.2 billion system. Expect staff and engineers to discuss a new proposal that would put a Capital Crescent Trail tunnel under a rebuilt Apex Building. The meeting starts at 5 p.m. [MTA]
Bethesda Row Cinema Reopens Today, Check Out The Photos — From yesterday evening, check out photos from the remodeled Bethesda Row Cinema, which after a month of renovations will reopen to the public today. [Bethesda Now]
Flickr photo by ehpien
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.
Morning Notes
Councilmembers Want More Coordination Before They Add Police Officers In Schools — At a Council Committee meeting on Thursday, councilmembers said they want to see a memo of understanding between police and the school system before they approve County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommended bump to 12 School Resource Officers. There are now six, down from 27 in 2002. [The Gazette]
Gun Advocates Going To Courts, Not Referendum To Challenge New Md. Laws — Facing the likely prospect that Maryland voters would vote against rolling back recently enacted gun laws, gun advocates say they will challenge the bill in court. [The Gazette]
Adventure Theatre Offering Scholarships To Young Actors — The Adventure Theatre, with locations in Glen Echo and Rockville, plans to issue more than $25,000 in scholarships to young performing art students in Montgomery County and Washington, D.C. for its first ever Summer Musical Theater Training Program. Contact Jared Shotmeier, at jshortmeier
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
School Overcrowding, White Flint, Self-Storage On The Agenda
A busy slate of community meetings next week will touch on school overcrowding, White Flint development and one hotel’s pitch for a self-storage facility in Woodmont Triangle.
At 7 p.m. on Monday, April 8, a committee of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board will hear from Bruce Crispell, director of long range planning for Montgomery County Public Schools, on enrollments trends at local schools.
With a growing enrollment, especially at the elementary school level in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, 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.
MCPS is hoping for a an addition project at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School 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.
The meeting will take place at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center (4805 Edgemoor Lane).
The next morning, at 8 a.m. on April 9, is the first meeting for the newly formed White Flint Downtown Advisory Committee, which is charged with advising county policymakers on any issues that might arise while the White Flint section of Rockville Pike is redeveloped. That meeting will take place at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center (5701 Marinelli Rd.)
At 8 a.m. on Friday, April 12, the Woodmont Triangle Action Group will meet to again discuss a proposal from the owner of the DoubleTree Bethesda hotel to convert the old Yacht Club space on Woodmont Avenue into a self-storage facility that could be reserved for residents of downtown apartments. That meeting will take place at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center.
Finally, at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 15, the full Western Montgomery Citizens Advisory Board will meet to discuss a tentative agenda that includes an update on the county’s implementation of Capital Bikeshare and roadwork coordination between utilities and the county. That meeting is also at the Regional Services Center.
Check the Regional Services Center website for more information and a full schedule of events.
All meetings are open to the public.
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.
MoCo Asks About Bag Tax Changes, Donations To Schools
Through its engageMontgomery website, Montgomery County is asking residents to chime in on two issues that might inspire some form of County Council legislation in the next year.
County Councilmembers last week were very open with their distaste for certain aspects of the county’s roughly year-old bag tax, a 5-cent tax to consumers per plastic or paper bag used in all grocery store and retail purchases. While all agree the tax is important for grocery stores, Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Bethesda-Potomac) and others argued the tax hurts certain retail businesses.
Councilman Craig Rice (D-Upcounty) said the use of re-useable bags, which the tax is meant to encourage, leads to racial profiling because shopkeepers are wary of customers who use the bags to lift goods.
On Thursday, engageMontgomery added a bag tax prompt to the website: If the carryout bag fee law is modified, what are your suggestions to change it, or should it be kept as it is now?
So far, only user RichardH24 has responded and he says to keep the tax the way it is: “The five cents seems to make people use fewer bags. Leaving it alone makes sense to me. The level of accepted waste and trash is astonishing.”
The other question added yesterday deals with a recent debate sparked by the Council’s Education Committee on the fairness of allowing private donations to certain public schools through booster clubs. Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring) recently argued that allowing schools in wealthier areas to raise money for improvements to athletic fields or classrooms is unfair to schools in poorer areas.
EngageMontgomery asks: “Recently, public schools have purchased scoreboards and artificial turf using funds from booster clubs and private sources. Is this acceptable, and if so, what amenities should public schools be able to provide using private funds?”
Like the bag tax issue, no legislation has yet been proposed on public school donations.
Morning Notes
Some Say Private Donations To Schools Lead To Inequality — There’s no proposed legislation, but the County Council’s Education Committee recently sent a letter to the Board of Education citing concerns about public schools that get private donations from boosters to pay for new scoreboards, gardens, electronic signs and in-classroom equipment such as promethean boards. [Washington Examiner]
Town of Chevy Chase Budget Worksession Tonight — The Town of Chevy Chase Council takes a look at its FY 14 Budget starting at 7 p.m. at Town Hall (4301 Willow Lane). [Town of Chevy Chase]
Local Officials To Help Groundbreaking For New Scotland Rec. Center — The new Scotland Neighborhood Recreation Center in Potomac is scheduled to open in the fall of 2014. County Executive Isiah Leggett and County Councilmembers Nancy Navarro and Nancy Floreen will be on hand for a groundbreaking ceremony this morning. The Scotland neighborhood is one of the earliest black settlements in the county.
Whitman Girls Hoops Coach Named Coach of the Year — Longtime Whitman High School girls basketball coach Pete Kenah was named Montgomery County Coach of the Year by The Gazette. Whitman knocked off two-time defending state champ Gaithersburg on the way to the Class 4A state semifinal. [The Gazette]
Flickr photo by im_apatel
