The cluster is forming a committee to discuss the Summer Academy (which helps elementary school students who are below grade level). Only a very small portion is funded by MCPS, the rest comes from the PTAs in the cluster. It is held at several elementary schools for 2 weeks in the morning and transportation is provided. This past summer was the second year. If you are interested in being on the committee, please contact Paula Ott, PTA President at StassiOtt@aol.com
Gyms: The Board of Education has voted to create a 6-year plan for building gyms in all elementary schools. North Chevy Chase and Westbrook are currently without gyms. To voice your support write the County Council at 100 Maryland Ave, 6th floor, Rockville 20850. To fund this, and other capital issues such as additional classrooms for BCC and Westland, there is a proposal to create an impact tax on new development dedicated to education; and to raise the recordation tax on real estate transactions, with the increase to be dedicated to education.
Also, the County Council will be holding hearings on the Annual Growth Policy on Sept. 16 and 18 at 7:00. Among the issues that impact the policy are traffic congestion, overall development and school overcrowding. There will also be a hearing on the county affordability guidelines on Sept. 23 at 1:30 pm. For details go to the Montgomery County council website: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/
Town hall meeting. There will be a town hall meeting with county council members at Westland at 8:00 on September 24th (reception starts at 7:30).. For more information contact Patrick Lacefield 240-777-7939.
Ellen Gerecht, cluster rep (along with Nancy Wolfe and Joanne Waiters)
The B-CC Cluster is working on many issues this year, beginning with laying the groundwork for next year’s Cluster Summer Academy. ( This is a 2-week summer session to help elementary and middle school students identified as being a year or more behind in math and/or reading). The Academy, begun by the principals of the 9 cluster schools, has been run with a combination of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and cluster PTA funding for the first 2 years of its existence. Next year, due to state budget cuts, no county money is expected and the Cluster is currently forming a committee to look at obtaining corporate and grant funding to help ease the burden on the individual PTA’s. Anyone interested in working on this committee, please see me. It will be interesting and rewarding work. The successes reported after the two years of the Academy have been significant, giving the Cluster group, PTA’s and principals reason to justify continuing it’s work.
In addition, a surplus of about $10,000 exists from last year’s contributions to the Academy. The Cluster PTA’s have agreed to roll these funds over for use next year Another current issue is the CIP–Capital Improvement Program, which will be voted on by the County Council in May, 2004. There are long-delayed capital improvements needed in many of the cluster schools, most important to B-CC being the completion of 5 already roughed-in classrooms on the ground floor that were until recently used by the construction company that renovated the school. With a current population of 1620 students and growing, 5 additional classrooms could make a big difference in the amount of classroom space available, reduce the number of “floating” teachers who must carry their materials around on carts, and help prevent increased class size. Economically, finishing these rooms sooner rather than later would ultimately save money. In addition, the BOE (Board of Education), has voted to build gyms in all elementary schools over a 6-year period and place all-day kindergartens in elementary schools still lacking. In the B-CC cluster, N. Chevy Chase and Westbrook do not have gyms; and all-day kindergartens would be phased in to all cluster elementary schools with kindergartens by 20008.
Hand in hand with the CIP are several revenue enhancement proposals supported by the BOE since other funding for these needs is not available. Superintendent Weast has proposed an approximately $1billion budget for the next six years. The school system proposed to help pay for this through increased bonding authority (requesting $170-$175M per year over 6 years) and from designated funding from certain taxation on development, including a recordation tax. The County Council, on Sept. 30, voted for the recordation tax, with revenue dedicated to education, as well as for bonding authority of $190 million for each of the next 6 years. (The bond money is general and not dedicated to any one sector.)
The CIP will be presented to the County Council at the end ofOctober.Key dates are: 10/29-FY CIP presented by Superintendent; 11/12-13 - CIP Testimony to the BOE by clusters, MCCPTA and others; 11/20 – BOE adopts CIP; 1/15-04 –County Exec. makes CIP recommendations; Feb.-Mar. CIP testimony to County Council; 5/31/04—budget adopted by County Council.* [1] Parents may want to follow these issues on the local and state level as each agency fights for state dollars.
Other Cluster issues include: Special education policy –By state mandate, 80% of SE students should be in their own schools 80% of the time. There are various ramifications of this being discussed.
· Cluster objective – Emphasis is being switched from writing across the curriculum to math
· New BOE policy on travel/study programs – The tentative revised policy provides guidance for planning, approving, implementing, and evaluating various types of schools trips, and the revisions reflect a strengthened emphasis on the relationship between the purpose of the proposed trip and instruction.
· New Grading and Reporting Guidelines – As you may know, due to conflicts and confusion in the implementation of this proposal, the county has postponed it pending clarification of how it will work, especially regarding special education students and English speakers of other languages (ESOL). The new guidelines will go into effect for the 2004-2005 school year instead. MCPS’ goal of creating more standardized grading remains. Controversial issues include under what circumstances homework and classroom participation count towards a grade as well as how to fairly treat special education , GT/LD, and ESOL students. Related to this are issues of conflicts within the Federal law regarding standardized testing for these student under the Federal “No Child Left Behind” law that are causing difficulties throughout the country. This will be a hot topic for parents, students and educators.
Enclosed is a list of your local elected officials for your information. Let your voice be heard!
301-320-7600
boe@mcps.k12.md.us (for all Board members)
Michael Subin, President
240-777-7900
http://www/montgomerycountymd.gov
county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov
Tel. 240-777-2500
Fax 240-777-22517
410-974-3591
You may find your state legislators at: www.state.md.uswebsite
Other Important websites:
MCPS (Montgomery County Public Schools) – http://www.mcps.k12..md.us
Cluster Calendar – ( events in all the schools) – http://www.localendar.public/bcccluster.com If you would like a B-CC event listed on the cluster list-serve, contact Nancy Wolfe hfavila@erols.com
[1] * Information from the MCCPTA