Village Green/Town²

What a relief to read Doug Miller's piece on Friday. Finally we have someone who is willing to go on the record to speak to this insanity at the Board of Education. (A hat tip to candidate Bess Altwerger as well, who ran Facebook ads supporting Cindy Vaillancourt last weekend.) The Board of Education missed a teachable moment here. It is fine for a student to feel uncomfortable and speak up about it. It is fine for a parent to come to the Board. The breakdown comes when the Board doesn't do its job in handling the matter. "We are sincerely sorry that your child felt uncomfortable in this situation. We do want to assure you, however, that nothing Ms. Vaillancourt said was inappropriate in any way. Her concern for public health issues is in line with the Howard County health curriculum." I wish this were truly about the student. The way it has been handled makes it clear that it isn't, and that really is a shame. We are left thinking that a) the Board lacks the bas...

Vaillancourt 'harassment' flap says more about school board [ Commentary ] by Doug Miller I had a long conversation on Facebook last weekend about what constitutes bullying in the workplace. I think Doug Miller has a pretty good grasp on this. Just read it. We'll talk more tomorrow. Posted with Blogsy

I wrote on August 17th about the response of the PTACHC Board to BOE member Ann DeLacy's wild accusations. Remember that? They wrote a letter to the entire Board of Education and the Superintendent asking to open a dialogue about this issue. Their letter is dated August 8th. Today is October 3rd, and there has been no response. Nothing.   If you want to refresh your memory about what Ms. DeLacy said, check this out. At the first PTACHC meeting of the year, Board Members Ellen Giles and Sandra French brushed aside Ms. DeLacy's actions as unofficial as she was "clearly acting alone" and therefore her words carried no official weight. They also said the Board could not have responded to the PTACHC Board letter because the Board of Education doesn't meet over the summer. Funny thing. Due to all this craziness at the BOE about Cindy Vaillancourt, we now know that just isn't true. The Board met on July 11th, and then again in August, after receipt of the PTACHC le...

My day began with a terrible experience at Floyd's on Route 40 where I had gone in hope of getting a long-overdue haircut. Assured that the wait would be fifteen minutes, my daughter and I took a seat. We were still there over a half an hour later and in that time no one spoke to us, no one made eye contact, and I'm not sure anyone noticed when we walked out. They were not busy, by the way. It was just weird. So off we went, and I decided to pop on over to Old Ellicott City to take a look into Green Row Books , which was having their soft opening yesterday. As disappointing as my first experience of the day had been, the Ellicott City experience was equally rewarding. We easily found parking, noodled around in Vintage Bliss (sadly moving out) chatted up the owner of the new bookstore, and had a delicious lunch at Portalli's. Day rescued. Although I do still need a haircut. Later I attended the HoCoCivil blog party at Seasons 52. A joint venture of both The Howard County L...

There's a new kid in town: @macsmom: We think #OaklandMills is Awesome--do you? https://t.co/vwWdbo2fCH #columbiamd #HoCoMd In sharing the new page, Mary Kate Murray stated: This page, not affiliated with the official Oakland Mills Village page, has the sole purpose of increasing the love and good will in OM, Columbia, MD! In only one day the page is close to has reached 100 likes, and it is filling up with good news about the Oakland Mills community. For example: the award-winning Stevens Forest Elementary PTA, improvements made to Talbott Springs Elementary on the Green Apple Day of Service, the upcoming Oakland Mills Cultural Arts Festival, and more. How often in life do we get an invitation to speak up for the good? These days it seems as though much of social media is focused on the negative. And I have noticed a trend in my own village to highlight every perceived flaw. When complaint is piled on complaint, it is enough to make some people think that our whole villag...

Last night I started making plans for December. I have reached the point of complete overload with this election and I wanted to find a point on the horizon far beyond November 4th. We are all inundated with mailings, television ads, requests to volunteer, and friends and acquaintances "having it out" over candidates and issues. In December I will be wishing for snow. I will be wondering if my teen will still get the sled out and go careening down the awesome hills in our neighborhood of Cinnamon Tree. In December I will yet again be making a crazy Advent calendar with activities for every day until Christmas. I will be planning Christmas dinner with Alice as we look forward to the first Christmas in their new house. I will be going to concerts. I will be soaking up the music. In December I will be looking at baby pictures, amazed that what seemed like the worlds longest election season could produce such a tiny, miraculous " bébé ". In December I will be counting ...

Long ago my father asked me if I knew what earning a bachelor's degree would qualify me for. I floundered around with the typical answers: the right to get a better job, the qualifications to apply to graduate school... No, he said. It earns you "the right to ask a question." Apparently that is the case, if you go back to much older educational traditions. I did some cursory digging around for this blog post and I can't find anything, but my dad was pretty convincing. It has stuck with me all these years. I raise this concept today because what is going on right now at the Board of Education is just that: will Board member Cindy Vaillancourt be permitted to retain the right to ask a question? It is pretty clear that the Board is attempting, through a pattern of behavior, to discredit her in an effort to prevent her re-election. So, let's look at the kind of questions Mrs. Vaillancourt has asked while on the Board: Why, after firing in-house attorneys, did the scho...