Village Green/Town²

This just in (as they say)--Bill Woodcock notes on The 53 that: ....also in the world of Christine O'Connor, apparently my blog escaped her lips at Thursday's Board of Education meeting, as she said that she was not the "Christine" who commented upon my filtration of truth of her letter. If Ms. O'Connor did not write that comment, then the post I wrote yesterday is wrong. There's no way around it. I reached out to Mr. Woodcock and, after discussing this with him, all I can really say is that we don't know. She says she didn't write it, but at this point there's no way to verify that. Here is the post Ms. O'Connor left on my blog in 2014: I truly hope that those few who read this blog will take the time to find out more actual facts about ALL of the candidates, even those who did not get endorsed by the HCEA. This "summary" of the candidate forum leaves MUCH to be desired. Also, I highly recommend using spell check when you call you...

This week the Howard County Times extended a professional courtesy to Board of Education Chair Christine O'Connor by publishing her 'letter to the editor' which was, at 583 words, more than twice the allowed word limit. As an elected official, she may feel that it is her due, but it was, in fact, a courtesy. The Howard County Times has guidelines, space considerations, and time constraints for a reason. Newspapers--their editorial staff and journalists--live by a set of guidelines and principles meant to serve the spreading of news first and personalities second. It makes for better journalism. Shortly after Ms. O'Connor's letter appeared local blogger Bill Woodcock wrote a response piece on his blog, The 53. While Ms. O' Connor's letter chided those in disagreement with the board as failing to Choose Civility, it was interesting to note that the very first comment to his blog post was this snippy rejoinder from Ms. O'Connor herself: Maybe get the fact...

The first time I ventured into the residential part of Maple Lawn I was entirely creeped out. It reminded me of trailers I had seen for The Truman Show. So evocative, so derivative, so many perfect details that reminded one of real places without actually being a real place. At least that is how it felt to me. Like a movie set: beautiful, but fake. If there is such a thing as being the victim of emotional architectural manipulation, that is how I felt. I have since met real people who live in Maple Lawn, and who are quite happy to live there. And I am also keenly aware that my personal experience doesn't automatically translate into the truth for all people. I'm sure there are people who venture into Columbia who have similar feelings about our neighborhoods, with the added discomfort of feeling that this is a movie set that's getting rather worn around the edges. A less-than-important back lot, perhaps. Anyway... Last night, after saying we would for almost a year, my husb...

Saw this tweet last night: @iankennedy7 At this #downtowncolumbiamd transportation demand management meeting and someone legitimately just called for a #monorail. #HoCoMD Monorail ? Monorail. In a 1997 article in the Washington Post about Robert Tennenbaum's book, "Creating a New City: Columbia, Maryland", reporter Anna Borgman notes: Public transportation was considered essential (Rouse hoped for a monorail system), and Columbia's planners expected many residents to use bicycles and scooters. Most of us think of Disney when we think of monorails, unless we have lived in a place that actually has one. We think of Walt Disney the man, the seemingly limitless horizon of the 1960's, Tomorrowland, and it feels nostalgic and a bit dated. The world of tomorrow--yesterday. Plenty has been written about the connection between Rouse and Disney. There seems to be a consensus that both men were visionaries of their time, admired eachother, perhaps. And yet when plans for ...

Used with permission from Howard County Parent Kim Bir: I'm fuming at Superintendent Foose's misrepresentation of facts here . ("Supporting Special Edcation", by Superintendent Renee Foose.) This post is thinly veiled attempt to discredit the criticism regarding special needs funding. It is a complete and utter misrepresentation of the facts. Four Million dollars has been directed out of special education (money that is in the budget, but gets moved around later) in the four years she has served, while the student and special needs population has been rising. Additionally, she fails to acknowledge that the 2014/15 special needs budget was reduced by over twenty-five per cent from the previous year. So the modest increases each year since then still do not have us at the levels we were a few years ago. This has had terrible consequences. The school system now feels their money is better spent fighting parents than providing services - notice how the legal budget ha...

The Keurig has stopped working. I haven't had any coffee. My daughter isn't feeling well and is staying home from school. I sliced the tops of two of my fingers trying to cut a sandwich roll yesterday. Last night the pizza place sent my Greek salad with ordinary black olives rather than the Kalamata olives advertised on the menu. The weather report for the day predicts more gloom. It is not shaping up to be the best day ever. First world problems , I haz 'em. So let me yield some space here for something positive. Yesterday the Chair of the Howard County Council, Dr. Calvin Ball, stopped by my husband's Music Technology class to present him with a resolution honoring his semi-finalist status in the Grammy Music Teacher Awards and his commitment to teaching music in Howard County. (Photos by Eric Solomon, Sam McCready, and Donna Pidel.) What a wonderful thing for the County Council to have done, not just for one teacher, but for the students who were the...

An Open Letter to Howard County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Renee Foose and the Howard County Board of Education from a former Chairman of the Board of Education February 16, 2016 Dear Dr. Foose and Members of the Howard County Board of Education, I write this open letter in response to recent actions by the Board and HCPSS, the disturbing approach to governing that the Board and Superintendent have adopted , and the completely unprecedented alienation between you and the citizens of Howard County and elected officials at the highest level of state office. The time for silence is over. T he time for hoping that you will come to your senses and see how bad things have be come is also over . Each of you (Dr. Foose and the Members of the Board), must take immediate and dramatic action or see the school system that you claim to hold dear enter into a period of significant decline, lack of parental involvement and rapid departures of your best teachers, administrators an...

At five forty-five our coffee maker goes off like a dentist's drill, grinding the coffee before brewing. At six I wake everyone up. By six-twelve I'm making my daughter's breakfast. There's time for a pause with a cup of coffee, then by six-thirty I am making lunches for my husband and daughter, filling a travel mug with coffee, or counting out lunch money on "buy" days. At six forty-five the door closes and they are off. Every weekday follows this pattern. All the tiny pieces of each routine are followed: the knock on my daughter's door, followed by a gentle patting and rubbing of her back and shoulders until I am sure she is really and truly awake. Feeling guilty because it is far too early for her and she is miserable. "I know," I say, stroking her back. "I know." When you love someone you want to be able to make things better for them. You can't always. Sometimes there are life experiences that they legitimately must face, and y...

Let's get right to it. My to-do list: Figure out how to fix the problem where comments show up as white lettering instead of black. They are fine on my iPad. On my phone, I can get them to read correctly if I scroll down and click "view web version." But readers continue to be flummoxed by this, so I am guessing it is a problem on laptops and/or desktops? Time to get someone more tech-oriented on the case. Thanks for your patience. Write a letter to the HoCo delegation and the State Superintendent of Schools, Jack Smith, regarding the approval of the Superintendent's contract. In order for the contract to be enacted, it must be ratified by Mr. Smith. Under normal circumstances, this approval is essentially a formality, but Dr. Foose's contract was pushed through under extraordinary conditions. If you have concerns about this, join me in writing a letter before Tuesday, February 24th. jack.smith@maryland.gov Edward.Kasemeyer@senate.state.md.us Trent.Kittleman@hous...

Just a friendly reminder that yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of my most-read blog post , "Howard County Music Changing?" (5536) The only other post that has come close is the recent "These Doors Are Shut" about the Superintendent's contract renewal. (5355) The two pieces might almost serve as bookends around a period in time when stakeholders' input was deemed unnecessary and unwanted. In outlining the changes that were being made to music and art education by the implementation of the Elementary Model, I presented this list: Data presented on Duckett's Lane model: None (still in first year) Data presented about new program: None (no official announcement to stakeholders) Data presented on how reduction of music and art affects students: None Input sought from the Instructional Facilitator of Music in Howard County: None Input Sought from affected principals: None Input sought from Music and Art Teachers: None Input sought from...

Telephones and I just don't mix. Sure, there were those fleeting teenage years when we were besties, but that didn't last. Anyone who has known me longer than five minutes knows that I will go to great lengths to avoid talking on the phone. I'm perfectly happy to make do with texting and email. For me, Caller ID is a boon. There's absolutely no reason to pick up the phone if I don't know who's calling. Which brings me to the recent poll by the Kittleman folks. They didn't call me. Or maybe they did and I just didn't answer the phone. My dislike of telephones means that I am, pretty much, self-selecting out of any sort of poll. Oh, well. I don't think I represent a very large group of people who loathe telephones, so it's no loss to the overall validity of the venture. But what about people who don't have land lines anymore? Do telephone polls and surveys account for them? And am I correct in assuming that, for the most part, the larger chunk ...

Columbia received a belated Valentine yesterday from the Inner Arbor Trust--an update on the progress of the Chrysalis project. Click through the link to see photos, video, and read the information for yourself. Long story short, the work will be finished within this calendar year and the Chrysalis will make its debut in Spring of 2017. This timely update makes it abundantly clear that, while a small group of naysayers are trying to undercut the work of the Inner Arbor Trust, folks over there are just continuing to do their jobs. And, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Michael McCall's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Yesterday's report gave me a chance to see that a bigger opponent of the plan may be how little many residents know about it. Pictures of the Chrysalis on Facebook prompted comments such as the following: Aren't they going to have pavilion seating anymore? Don't tell me it's really going to look like this. This is why we're cutting down al...

There's a new pizza place in town. In a new strip mall in town. Grotto Pizza has come to Columbia. With an address on the 'other' side of Minstel Way, it looks more to be on Snowden River Parkway. I've seen some concern from long time local residents that increased development in this area is going to cause traffic headaches. Will Grotto be popular enough to test that theory? I guess we'll soon find out. I think of Grotto as something special one considers doing at the beach. I know loyalties tend to be divided between Grotto and Nicola, and I don't intend to challenge anyone's preferences here. But I am wondering. If I can get that Grotto experience any time I want in Columbia, why would I want to go there once I get to the beach? It almost seems as though they'll be cannibalizing their beach locations by expanding into local ones. So a Grotto's in Columbia may be new and improved, but will it make Grotto's at the beach feel same-old, same-old?...

Yesterday, while I contemplating Lincoln and unity, an older post of mine was on fire with belated debate in the comments section. One commenter, going by the name of "Thomas Diller" was systematically questioning everything I had posted and picking away at other commenters as well. As the name was not familiar to me, I attempted to do some research. I can't find any accounts for a local Thomas Diller. Not Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, no Google hits establishing this as a real person. But, I do find Mr. Diller in comments sections of Howard Public Ed and The 53, Bill Woodcock's blog--in 2012. I started asking around and it turns out he frequented the comments section of Patch around the same time, along with a companion named Robert Rhodes. In all cases he is addressing school system issues defending management and attacking anyone who is a challenge to management. He's left perfectly nasty diatribes against Board Member Cindy Vailancourt on Howard Public Ed. A...

The time of my usual blog posting has come and gone. My family slept in, the snow is falling, my mind is filled with a swirl of thoughts about the upcoming Board of Education race. I see an explosion of talk on social media about candidates and issues. That's good. I see any number of local bloggers and activists speaking out and getting involved. That's good. But something is nagging at me. One of the only positive things to come out of a truly disappointing state of affairs in the Howard County Schools is the truly bipartisan response from community members who see the truth and simply want to make things better. The work done by the Howard County Delegation is an example of that. I read this comment after an article in the Howard County Times: The Howard County School Board has done what was previously unimaginable - unite Democrats and Republicans. And it is not merely a uniting of Democrats and Republicans. It is also East and West, parents of African Amercian students, pa...

Have you seen the Baltimore Valentines, designed by Baltimore Sun reporters? Take a look . There are twenty six different Baltimore-centric cards, each playing with a well-known Baltimore theme, but in an old-school Class Valentine sort of way. Some examples: the runaway blimp, the Domino Sugar sign, a Bal'mer Hon with signature beehive hairdo, Edgar Allen Poe, the Orioles, and the Ravens. What if we had similar comedic Valentines for Columbia/Howard County? What well-known people, places, and stories should we feature? Some preliminary thoughts: Merriweather: They're playing our song, Valentine. Or perhaps, let's raise the roof on Valentine's Day. People Tree: You're my kind of people, Valentine. Pink Rabbit : Valentine, you make me hoppy! Snow Plow Tracker: I won't stop til I find you, sweetiepie. George Howard Building Vending Machines: I'm hungry for your craveable love. HoCo Unsweeted: You're sweet enough for me, honey. IAT Chrysalis: You put the Sy...

Friday evening found me prowling the prepared foods at Wegmans's for a quick dinner as a woman alone in the upstairs café. I can't always go to the Second Chance. Besides, dinner at the Second Chance means at least one Dogfish, and I had to be awake and ready to pick up the kid when she was done with her teen event at church. So Wegman's for dinner it was. First off, I was overwhelmed by the shrine to Valentine's Day at the entrance to the store. The flower display alone is rather breathtaking. If you haven't done your Valentine shopping--and if that is a thing that you do--let me tell you, Wegmans has flowers, cards, chocolate, stuffed animals, and any number of ways to express your (seasonal) love. Wow. One of the things I love about the market café is the selection of international offerings. Some days I go straight for comfort food like barbecued chicken and mac and cheese, but most of the time I have portions of Indian food jockeying for position on my plate w...

Yesterday, journalism. Today, the rumor mill. No, not that Rumor Mill. This rumor mill: Rumor mill -- noun phrase The source of rumors, especially those that seem to be deliberately passed along. Wednesday evening a former OMCA board member showed up with the stunning news that Michael McCall had resigned from the Inner Arbor Trust. Oh, and would they like to consider Cy Paumier's plan again? They declined . Still, that was pretty troubling news. What could it possibly mean that Michael McCall was leaving the Inner Arbor Trust? By the next day similar stories were swirling around town--Mr. McCall had resigned, Mr. McCall had been fired, and a lot of other things that don't bear repeating. There's just one thing. Michael McCall hasn't resigned from the Inner Arbor Trust, nor has he been fired or anything else of the sort. But someone, or rather someone(s), wanted the Columbia community to believe that he had. To sow doubt. To create discord. ...