School Scene

A few days before the start of the school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Jerry Weast announced that he would, indeed, retire as expected at the end of his contract in June. The early announcement gives all of us more time to engage in the tremendously important process of picking the next Superintendent.

What should the search process look like? What kind of Superintendent are we seeking? These two questions are closely linked. The biggest frustration many parents have with MCPS is the lack of two-way communication. So we need to seek out a Superintendent who is going to restore parents to their role as full partners in education, dismantle the fortress that surrounds the inner-workings of the Rockville bureaucracy, release data to the public, and recognize that the Board of Education is elected to represent the taxpayers in a system of checks and balances.

We also need the incoming Board of Education (to be elected in the primaries in September and the general election this November) to step up and design a search process that will model the type of transparency, collaboration and accountability that we are seeking in new leadership for the schools.
So to kick-off a search process by the people and for the people, here are the ten qualities I am seeking in a new superintendent.

The Second Tai Lam Tournament took place on Saturday, June 12 in Downtown Silver Spring. The tournament was organized by David Mehler of the U.S. Chess Center in conjuction with All The Right Moves, a nonprofit created in 2009 to help children develop strategic thinking skills and habits of non-violence, mental focus and creativity.

Sam (center), 15,  deliberates.

by Sue Katz Miller

What is an Integrated Curriculum?

The most engaging educational experience my children ever had was probably in preschool. The theme-based "integrated curriculum" focused multisensory learning on one theme each month. When they spent a month studying the Old West, the students churned butter out of cream, dressed in pioneer clothing, learned Native American songs and stories, and forded Sligo Creek with their handmade covered wagons. When they got to kindergarten, this type of multisensory, content-rich learning was largely abandoned to begin the long climb up a double helix composed of repeating units of reading and math, reading and math, reading and math.

Now, Montgomery County Public Schools have begun to phase in an "integrated curriculum" in the elementary schools. Some county kindergarten classrooms piloted the program this past year. Unfortunately, any discussion of the actual content of the curriculum has now been overshadowed by a debate over the process through which this curriculum is being developed and funded. The Board of Education voted in June to approve a deal between MCPS and an educational publishing company called Pearson, in order to speed up the development of the curriculum and market it to other school districts.

Trying to follow the school budget as it flies from MCPS to the Board of Education to the County Council and back again, can feel like being in the middle of a game of keep-away. The temptation to walk away and ignore the whole thing is strong. That would be a perilous decision. Last week, I learned that my daughter's program, the Visual Art Center (VAC) at Einstein High School, was targeted for a 50% cut, even though the program only has two teachers to begin with. Students were shocked, weeping and hugging each other, when the cut was announced at the annual VAC art show (see the Kids Voice article on the show).

Miguel Lopez. VAC senior, poses in front of his artwork at the Einstein Art Show.

photo by Lauren Poor

My daughter made a bold decision two years ago to leave her childhood friends (all heading to Blair), turn down a slot in Blair's prestigious Communication Arts Program, take a longer bus ride each day, attend a high school that had just had a gun incident, and devote a huge portion of her high school career to an intensive drawing and painting program.

As parents, we were more than a little dubious, but ultimately we supported her decision. We were rewarded for our faith: our daughter adores Einstein, adores her new artist posse, and has truly found a home in a small program within our large school system. The VAC has nurtured a diverse stream of artist kids from throughout the county, some of them kids in danger of dropping out, and sent 100% of them to college, including some of the most prestigious art schools and liberal arts colleges in the country.

Unlike other selective magnet program, the VAC takes kids in sophomore, junior or even senior year who suddenly yearn for intensive art instruction. Unlike other selective magnet programs, the VAC has no transportation funding and no administrative funding, just two teachers who teach their hearts out while also serving as guidance counselors as they prepare portfolios and help students apply for scholarships, colleges, and competitions. This program has been the definition of lean, mean, and successful. Chopping it in half makes no sense.

Takoma Park swept the county's NAACP educator awards this year. Bertram Generlette of Piney Branch Elementary School won Principal of the Year. Holly Pasquale of Takoma Park Middle School won teacher of the year. They celebrated together at a countywide banquet at the end of April.

Generlette, known to all as Mr. G, is that rare combination: an excellent administrator who is also warm and fuzzy. As a schools activist, I have had occasion to butt heads with Generlette on a number of issues. But Generlette never takes this personally, he still greets me with a huge hug and a broad smile. "This community is very involved, very vocal and persistent," he says. "Look at the Young Activist Club! That's a good thing. It models for our children the real world, beyond book-knowledge."

Takoma Park Middle School is known and feared throughout the state of Maryland for the excellence of the two orchestras and four bands that dynamo instrumental music teacher Holly Pasquale leads in district, state and regional competitions. "We want as close to perfect as we can get," says Pasquale. "We set our own standard. We don't want just the superior rating, we want to be the best." And they are, winning first place in various competitions, year after year.

Never underestimate the Young Activists. At each turn, the Superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has blocked their efforts to replace toxic styrofoam lunchtrays with a dishwasher, despite the fact that the Young Activist Club is willing to cover all expenses for the pilot project. Refusing to back down, last month the club of nine-to-eleven-year-olds from Piney Branch Elementary spoke out at a "Resolving the Food Fight Forum." Veteran organizer Cindy Terrell of FairVote called it, "by far, the most inspiring political event I have been to in a long time."

The "food fight" panel included County Councilmember Valerie Ervin, parent advisor to the Young  Activists Brenda Platt, County Councilmember George Leventhal, Board  of Education member Chris Barclay, Bruce Burke of Burke Design and a representative of state senator Jamie Raskin who was in Annapolis for a vote. MCPS declined to send a representative.

County Councilmember Valerie Ervin announced a letter of support for the dishwasher signed the day before by six County Councilmembers (Ervin plus George Leventhal who also attended the event, Roger Berliner, Marc Elrich, Nancy Navarro and Duchy Trachtenberg). The letter urged MCPS to allow the dishwasher pilot to go forward so that they can "have access to data and information that will allow them to make an informed decision about whether this is a viable option."

Healthier school lunches are in the zeitgeist, the cause of the moment. Last month, Michelle Obama launched her "Let's Move" campaign, with healthier school lunches as one of the four pillars of the program. Following in the footsteps of celebrity chef Alice Waters, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver announced last month that he will spend his prestigious TED Prize money on a grassroots effort to reform the way American children eat, after his recent success in helping to inspire an overhaul of the British school lunch system. In neighboring DC, elementary school children are eating raw broccoli and cauliflower from a school salad bar. And Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids is the most popular science book among teenagers across the country, according to Amazon.

And here in Montgomery County schools? We have a token one-week program each year when local produce gets promoted in school cafeterias. We have an apparently unwritten, yet widely enforced, policy against vegetable gardens on school property. And last month, North Chevy Chase Elementary School parent Carrie Witkop, after four years of working with the county to try to improve school lunches, walked into the school cafeteria and found canned pineapple imported from China, and pears canned in corn syrup. "I thought we had an agreement to get rid of corn syrup. I am just so frustrated," said Witkop.

by Cara Hedgepeth

County Executive Isiah Leggett released his latest recommendation for the county's capital budget in February, and, to the dismay of many, funding for the deteriorating, Old Blair auditorium was not included.
The best hope for County funding now rests with District Five Councilmember Valerie Ervin, who represents Silver Spring and Takoma Park, and is fighting to include the auditorium in the capital improvements (CIP) budget

"This was one of the first things I got involved in when I was elected," said Ervin, a former Blair PTSA president. She previously was able to get the council to agree to a feasibility study, which estimated the cost of restoring the large 1,200-seat auditorium at $8 million.  "It's a significant amount, but in the scheme of the total CIP it's not that much," said Ervin.
Stuart Moore, president of The Old Blair Auditorium Project, said he believes Ervin is on the right track. "The operating budget for the county is very tight, but the capital budget is not subject to the same problems," he explained.

In this shortest month of the year, I am serving up some short updates on simmering school issues:  odds and ends spiced with a shot of activist hot sauce. Perhaps this hearty stew will fuel parents to greater action as we face a chilling budget battle in the depths of winter.

Meat and Potatoes: Funding Our Schools

The community is finding many of Superintendent Jerry Weast's proposed budget cuts to be tough and indigestible. Kids, parents, even teachers are organizing to save afterschool activities, magnet programs and academic support positions for poor and struggling students. Further cuts to many of the magnet programs will essentially kill those programs, and the community is puzzled that even the whole-school middle school magnet consortium (Argyle, Loiderman and Parkland), once hailed as a successful and "equitable" pilot program, is also being targeted for cuts. In testimony on the budget, Takoma Park Middle School parent (and Blair cluster coordinator) Susan Fleck asked the Board to "prioritize People over PCs, Teachers over Technology, and Students over Statistics."

But speaking of statistics, the Parents Coalition recently noted that "with more students, a higher percentage of ESOL students, and a larger Special Education population, Fairfax County Public Schools has less administration, higher SATs and smaller class sizes" than Montgomery County Public Schools. Something to chew on.