Skip to main content

Par-tay! And Other Things

Tonight there's a party for local bloggers and their readers from 5:30 - 7:30 pm at Nottingham's. Tickets are free, and include some free food and one drink ticket. (!) Sign up here. I have to confess I have never been to Nottingham's, so I'll finally get to rectify that. Advance reports suggest you'll be able to catch HoCoHouseHon, Marshmallow Man, and possibly even the elusive Eric Freed. Join us.

Wednesday night there's a Board of Education Candidate Forum at the Jeffers Hill Neighborhood Center, hosted by the Columbia Democratic Club. I can't be there because of Back to School Night (there's that delicious irony again) but you should definitely go. It begins at 7:30 pm. I have it on good authority that all but one of the candidates will be in attendance.

Each will make a brief (2 minute) introduction. The moderator will get the discussion going with one initial question, then they will be taking questions from the floor. So, come and bring your questions! Remember, the Board of Education race is a non-partisan race. Everyone needs to be concerned about it. Even if you are not a Democrat, you are welcome to attend this forum.

A little follow-up on yesterday's post. I scanned Twitter for local responses to the Confederate Flag incident at Fridays's football game at River Hill. Of the responses I found, all but one were from teens. Of those (between 10-20) all but one roundly condemned the action. I also found several of what look like cell phone pictures of the actual event.

The Superintendent posted a statement on her blog. I didn't find it to be remarkably helpful, but I'm linking it here so you can make up your own mind. Speaking of which, I enjoyed the discussion in the comments yesterday. I know everyone didn't necessarily agree, but the tone remained civil. I do wish that everyone were willing to post under their own name. It would provide a more level playing field, in my opinion.

See you tonight at Nottingham's?

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Columbia Chance Connection

  Last night, as my husband and I were about to sit down to dinner, our front door swung open and a cheery voice announced, “I’m ba—ack!”  We weren’t expecting anyone. Clearly the only people who’d walk right in to our house would be one of our offspring. I had my reading glasses on so I wasn’t seeing too clearly. It seemed too tall for our youngest, but we knew our eldest was at work. I took off my glasses to see a friendly but confused face scanning our living room. When her gaze landed on us we all had a sudden realization. We didn’t know eachother. “Oh I’m so sorry! I’m in the wrong house! My daughter just moved in and she needed hooks for the kitchen so I ran out to get them.” She waved the package. “All these houses look the same and I don’t know the neighborhood yet. I thought this was my daughter’s house.” We were all getting a bit giggly. “That’s okay. For a quick second we thought you were our daughter,” said my husband. I told her our names and said she should defin...