Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Drivers who pass stopped buses will face up to $250 in fines.
Drivers who don't stop for children getting off of school buses will soon face a fine of up to $250 under a law passed by the County Council on Tuesday. The council passed the measure unanimously at its Tuesday meeting, and Councilmember Valerie Ervin said it will send a clear message to drivers that Montgomery County is serious about children's safety. The bill, introduced by Ervin, does not specify a cost, fine amount or number of cameras. Instead, it authorizes Montgomery County Police to consult with the Board of Education on a plan to install cameras on certain buses. County Police Chief Thomas Manger, who joined Ervin and others at a news conference Tuesday, said there's no excuse for ignoring a school bus' stop sign and flashing …
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
The meeting is the last on the schedule before the superintendent weighs in.
Montgomery County Public Schools' site-selection committee will meet again tonight to discuss where to put a new middle school for the Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. Members of the committee will grade each site according to a list of criteria at Wednesday's meeting, inputting their scores into a spreadsheet that MCPS will use to rank the properties. The group's preferred sites will be sent to Superintendent Joshua Starr, who will submit a recommendation of his own to the Board of Education next month. At its last meeting, the committee narrowed down the list of sites to two public and three private parcels. Rock Creek Hills Park and North Chevy Chase Park …
Thursday, February 16, 2012
MCPS and the County Council are optimistic heading into budget season.
After weathering years of contentious debate and a threatened lawsuit, leaders of Montgomery County Public Schools and the County Council say they're ready to move on and work together to serve students during trying economic times. Members of the council and the Board of Education took questions from parents during Wednesday's Montgomery County Council of PTAs forum at Richard Montgomery High School, discussing the coming budget debate and the county's economic state. County Councilmember Marc Elrich said he's optimistic the two groups can put their past disagreements behind them, and he has been impressed with new Superintendent Joshua Starr's commitment to reason and transparency. "The tenor of the relationship has really changed," …
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Request will go to the county executive in March.
The Montgomery County Board of Education voted to approve a $2.13 billion fiscal 2013 budget request Tuesday, asking for a 2 percent increase from 2012. The extra $41 million is the smallest request in more than decade, Superintendent Joshua Starr said, and will mostly go toward handling enrollment growth, covering employee benefits and purchasing materials. The fiscal 2013 request includes about $8 million for employee raises, which Starr said is needed after staff has forgone cost-of-living and step increases for the past few years. MCPS is asking for $1.39 billion of the total from Montgomery County, matching 2012's per-student spending of $9,759 per pupil. That number falls in line with Maryland's Maintenance of Effort law, which …
Monday, February 13, 2012
School systems are reconsidering how—and why—they discipline students.
More than 6,100 elementary school students—including more than 50 pre-kindergarteners and 433 kindergarteners—were suspended from schools in the Washington metropolitan area last school year, according to a Washington Post analysis published Monday. Montgomery County Public Schools reported the lowest suspension rate of the seven Maryland school districts surveyed. The school system suspended 22 kindergarteners during the 2010-2011 school year, The Post reported. The 2010-2011 School Safety and Security at a Glance report from MCPS report, shows that students suspended from county elementary schools in 2010 and 2011 account for about 0.6 percent of all elementary school students. (Click on the PDF at right to read the School Safety and …
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Two parks and three private sites remain.
Montgomery County Public Schools has narrowed the scope of its search to site a new Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster middle school, cutting the list of locations to two public sites and three private ones at a meeting Wednesday. Rock Creek Hills Park and North Chevy Chase Park are the remaining public sites under consideration. MCPS has not disclosed the three private sites, in order to preserve its ability to negotiate a price should one be chosen. The current site-selection committee was convened after Superintendent Joshua Starr in November proposed re-opening a controversial site-selection process for a second middle school in the crowded B-CC cluster, responding to concerns about MCPS's transparency and civic engagement. Among the sites …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The County Council's Public Safety Committee unanimously endorsed the idea.
Drivers who don't stop for children getting off of school buses could soon face a fine of up to $250 under a bill moving through the County Council. The council's Public Safety Committee unanimously recommended the bill at its meeting Thursday, and the issue will go before the full council as early as Feb. 7. The bill, introduced by County Councilmember Valerie Ervin, does not specify a cost, fine amount or number of cameras. Instead, it authorizes Montgomery County Police to consult with the Board of Education on a plan to install cameras on certain buses. Councilmember Phil Andrews, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, said the county has issued more than 1,200 citations over the past three years for failure to stop at a bus crossing…
Friday, January 27, 2012
Schools would put $230K to other uses.
Superintendent Joshua Starr wants to stop administering the TerraNova 2 test to second graders next year, planning to use the money saved to fund other school programs. The proposed cut is part of Starr's proposed amendments to his fiscal year 2013 budget request, and he will present the additions to the Board of Education on Feb. 14. Montgomery County Public Schools already administers three assessments per year to all students from kindergarten to second grade, and eliminating TerraNova 2 will allow MCPS to put the $230,000 saved each year on programs like pre-kindergarten education and staff engagement, Starr said. “While the TerraNova does provide some useful information, I believe we can assess student progress with existing tools and…
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The two departments disagree on the use of open space.
Montgomery County Public Schools now considers Rock Creek Hills Park to be an available site for a new middle school in the cramped Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster, but the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission may need to lend its stamp of approval if the site is chosen. Officials discussed the potential school site Wednesday at a second meeting of the committee tasked with finding a site for a new Bethesda-Chevy Chase cluster middle school. Rock Creek Hills Park is just one of the 25 sites still under consideration by the site-selection committee. The Board of Education selected Rock Creek Hills, a Kensington park, in a site-selection process last year that lead neighbors and officials to question MCPS's transparency and …
Friday, January 20, 2012
Fifteen Montgomery County Schools students were awarded full-paid, four-year scholarships from the Posse Foundation.
Walter Johnson High School student Christian Mendoza will attend Lafayette College next year without having to pay the high pricetag that comes with this elite school. Mendoza is one of 15 Montgomery County students selected to receive full scholarships from the Posse Foundation. You can find the full list of winners here. The Posse program is aimed at public high school students who have extraordinary academic and leadership potential who may have been overlooked within the traditional college selection process. The Posse team is made up of 38 colleges and universities. Posse programs are located in eight regions of the country. Nearly 1,600 students were awarded Posse scholarships nationwide; just 61 to students in Washington, D.C.-area …
Crickey7
2:45 pm on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Yes, we get it that you don't like speed cameras. Not that this story was about speed cameras, at all. more ›