Village Green/Town²

Today the Board of Education will vote on next year's budget directly after a hastily-rescheduled work session which begins at 8 am. Although so much has happened since this time last year, in many ways we are exactly where we were. Do we have any reason to believe that this year's vote will be different? Last night I re-read Board Member Bess Altwerger's statement on the occasion of last year's budget. It's chilling to me that absolutely no progress has been made on any of her points of concern. Take a moment to read it. It's a beautiful combination of respect, courtesy, and dissent. And it floors me that our board as a whole hasn't addressed any of these concerns. Not one. As a community we have worked to make changes for our schools, most notably at the polls and in Annapolis. Parents, teachers, and community members are awakened and engaged and active in the cause of improving our schools. Our County Council is responding to issues of accountability and...

Jason Whong works for The Maryland Daily Record. He also lives in Columbia. While I follow him on Twitter because of his news connection, a recent theme has emerged in his Twitter stream that bears sharing with my readers. Removed from stream in #ColumbiaMD #HoCoMd.: plastic, polystyrene, metals. Please don't litter! (May 22nd)   Here's what I am picking up today from this stream bed in #ColumbiaMD #HoCoMd. It never ends.... (May 24th)   Today's #cleanup from a stream in #ColumbiaMD #HoCoMd.: blue ribbon, polystyrene, plastic spoon. #dontpollute (May 28th)   If you're wondering why I'm often cleaning this stream in #HoCoMd., here's why:   These days I read a lot of complaints about what's wrong with Columbia which center around making demands and railing against the evils of change. Demand that the noise at Merriweather stop. Demand that commercial development stop. Demand that no trees are ever to be cut down. Demand that CA's Open Space be contro...

Quadroplexes. It's a word I had never heard until I moved to Columbia. I live in a community of homes which are four houses stuck together, dotted across the rolling suburban terrain in that peculiar Columbia way. I've heard that Rouse wanted the natural topography of the land to be left untouched as much as possible. For us this means some great sledding hills and some terrible runoff issues every time it rains. But I digress. Each little house has its own fenced-in patio. Some have small yards, some none at all more than a tiny flower bed out front. It just depends on how the building is situated. The grassy areas all around are common area. I'd love to see them used more and enjoyed more, but usually they're just green, well-mowed, and empty. The house at the top of the hill, on the corner, is a bit different from the rest. Long ago an owner removed the fencing around the patio so their back yard opens up into the common space. Something about that layout has made th...

I work in an afterschool program in an independent school. Each day follows a general overall pattern: snack, time for indoor play/reading/homework, some sort of activity for the day, outdoor play. We've done everything from building and decorating a cardboard city, going on nature hikes, having a scavenger hunt, planting seeds and caring for them, making gak, making homemade ranch dip for trying lots of raw vegetables for snack...you get the picture. Probably the best part of this program to me is how different it feels from the standardized approach of most childcare and school programs. It is the closest thing one's child could have to playing in a home neighborhood with neighborhood kids and plenty of supportive adults on tap to support their play and keep things safe. Many of us had this experience as children but have seen it disappear from modern life. Wednesday's activity was making popsicles. The kids prepped and sliced strawberries, squeezed oranges for juice,...

I spent most of the day yesterday out of the house and away from social media. By the time I got home at seven, I had missed all the excitement of the County Council meeting. Thank goodness I had two articles in the Howard County Times plus eyewitness accounts on social media to bring me up to speed. If you haven't already, you might want to read: "Howard County Council adopts $1.8 billion budget for fiscal year 2017 " by FatimahWaseem "Ahead of Howard school budget adoption, financial audit, oversight committee proposed" by Fatimah Waseem The most immediate takeaway is that the County Council unanimously passed the County Executive's budget for the school system, not the substantially larger one submitted by Central Office. It maintains the specific allocations for negotiated compensation for teachers, for special education, and for the hiring of necessary new teachers. In addition, [County Council Chair] Ball's proposed [budget oversight] com...

Yesterday my social media feed was dominated by this photo: Why? Some people mentioned possible costs, in light of the current budget crisis, but overall the reaction was not to money but to message: how does this look? What does it say to the community? On a day which should be about young people graduating and beginning new lives we are dumbstruck by another moment of institutional disconnect. But let's move on. As parents we know that these days should be about the kids, and about the families who have supported them in their educational journey. Four years ago Tom Coale wrote this post about commencement speeches on HoCo Rising. It's especially relevant to me today. He quotes a speech by writer David Simon: So for God's sake, fight. And get angry if you need to get angry. A little anger is a good thing if it isn't on your own behalf, if it's for others deserving of your anger, your empathy. And if you see the wrong around you getting bigger and uglier, then spe...

This Thursday. 7:30 PM. Board of Education Budget Adoption. Teachers will be present wearing red, parents in support will be wearing blue to support the adoption of a fair and equitable budget. Never mind, Scratch that. That meeting was canceled yesterday. It's been rescheduled for 8 am Tuesday. If you're a teacher? Can't go. If you're a parent? You're either getting a child off to school or on your way to work. Can't go. Aw...too bad. I'll bet there are plenty of employees at Central Office to fill those seats. Transparency. Accountability. Responsiveness. Collaboration with stakeholders. Nope. When I learned of this last-minute switch yesterday I was, as my mother would have said, "fit to be tied." So I thought. And I thought. Who might be available at 8 am on a Tuesday morning the day after the Memorial Day? Dear ___________, I have just received word of the following schedule change: The BOE final budget approval meeting scheduled for Thursday ...

Magic. Right now it feels as though we need some. So when I saw this on Twitter I jumped on it. The magic returns to Howard County's Enchanted Forest --WTOP, Michelle Basch If you need a lift, take a moment to click on the link and enjoy. There's a story, several photo galleries, and a short video. And if nostalgia alone isn't enough to lure you in, there are goats. Baby goats. Lots of them. The Clarks of Clark's Elioak Farm invested time, money, and labor over a period of years to make this recreation of the Enchanted Forest go from a wish to a dream come true. As I look out the window and see rare blue sky and sun I almost wish that I could call in sick to work and just go hang out with storybook scenes and adorable animals. I think it might be soul-restoring. Why am I feeling so in need of recharging and renewal? Well, its going to take time, money, and hard work to restore our school system to one we can trust and be proud of. The closer you are to what i...

This year's Wine in the Woods was a little bit less Brigadoon and a little more Okefenokee Swamp . I felt a little sad as I made my way downtown to volunteer at the Inner Arbor Trust booth. In my imagination I saw a sparsely attended event, with locals scared off by the dismal weather. I wasn't sure there'd be anyone there at all to stop by and chat about Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods. I was wrong. You cannot stop these people from their annual Spring Rite. They were there with their camp chairs, listening to music. They strolled on muddy paths in rain ponchos, munching on turkey legs. They waited in line for a taste of wine and again for funnel cake. It was pretty amazing. People stepped into our tent, out of the drizzle, to look at drawings of the park. Some had heard of it. Some hadn't. Everyone knew about Merriweather, many knew about the renovations there. Once we started talking, they always had good questions. "What will the pathways be made of?...

Today is a very special day for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Columbia. ( UUCC ) They are dedicating their new worship space, and celebrating the transformation of their entire building. There is a special service at ten am, and a concert at five pm. The seeds for this transformation began in the gathering of "desirements" in 2010. Six years, a lot of work, and a dedicated capital campaign have made this day possible. This quote from Andrew Michael's HoCo Times article shows that members of the congregation were considering their options as early as 2007: By 2007, Executive Director Maureen Harris said the congregation began questioning whether to expand or move to another location to accommodate the congregation's growth. With a desire to stay at the interfaith center, members knew something had to change when each service ran out of seats, and members frequently had to stand. In a time when many churches were dealing with the challenges of declining me...

Here's what we know: The HCPSS budget survey was unethical, inaccurate, and manipulative. The response to the survey was 1,104: 171 employees-only, 93 employee/parent and 748 parent-only. (We know employees were threatened and coerced to take part.) HCPSS sent out a press-release style announcement which was big on spin, short on facts, and hailed the public response as "unprecedented." Give me a break. More people engaged in The People's Voice petition asking that the Board not renew the Superintendent's Contract. In short, the warning "don't take the survey, it's a trap" was completely justified. Who believes all this stuff? Central Office, perhaps, and members of the public who don't follow the school system and think it's safe to believe what they send out. They should be able to. We all should we able to. Sadly, that's not the case. Who doesn't believe all this stuff? The County Executive and the County Co...

When I arrived home last evening from a concert, I was startled to see this remark from the Board of Education meeting documented on Twitter by HoCo Times reporter Lisa Philip: French again, "we have to say these things now for individuals to understand. People blogging out there looking for any way to criticize us." Good grief. There's a completely manufactured budget crisis out on Route 108. HCPSS leadership is attempting to blame it all on the County Executive, but wait. Let's take a moment to take a potshot at local bloggers. I must admit I felt an immediate and rather odd kinship with Alan Kittleman. The work I do is on behalf of the community, but this negative and false statement made it feel intensely personal. It clearly behooves Central Office and certain Board Members to demonize anyone who stands in their way. Some examples: The so-called "selfish" music parents who fought reduction in music and art instruction. "Greedy" teachers who wa...

Ugh, ugh, ugh. This would be a great day for a lighthearted post bursting with local color. Something quirky and fun. A bit of human interest. Historical anecdotes or perhaps a walk through one of Columbia's villages with an eye to something unexpected. Don't have it. What I do have: A County Council bogged down in the weeds of the hcpss budget, stuck in a position they never should have been in. A special education teacher describing the horrifying effects that cuts to in-classroom staff are having on students and teachers. An article about "noise at Merriweather" in which complainants "make demands" even though all collected data says noise didn't exceed legal levels, and that even drags out Barbara Russell. (What year is this?) We're still finding mold in our schools. CA had to cancel Dog Day Afternoon because of all the rain we've been having. Give me a break! Here are a few crumbs of happiness that are keeping me going this morning: my neig...

I attended the PATH IAF/HCEA meeting last night at UUCC. It was my first full-scale PATH event, and it gave me a glimpse at why this community organizing group has been so successful. I'm going to have more to say about the theme of the evening later in the week. It's going to take some time to process all the information and do it justice. Today I want to talk about one of last night's speakers. I know her on Twitter as @llurking . I started following her in the aftermath of the turmoil caused by the racist video posted by a Mount Hebron student. While the administration was instructing all of us to look away, Lina was challenging us to look at it and own that this ugliness was also a part of the Howard County experience. Lina and her friend Sara (@saracherni ) worked together to mobilize students and the community to support a student-led walkout. They created the hashtags #stopthesilencestartaconversation and #hocostudentwalkout and used them on Twitter to spread their ...

Tonight! 140 meetings with 1400 students, educators and parents later, we have an agenda for the schools we all deserve. Do you want less testing and more staff to work help students learn? Do you believe the role of special education staff and the services that students receive should improve? Do you want schools free of racial discrimination against students? Do you want kids to have access to better food and after school activities? If you said yes, we'll see you 7 pm, at Owen Brown Interfaith Center. This post, on the HCEA Facebook page , is your invitation to participate in a one-of-a-kind experience to shape the education of our children in Howard County. Tonight's meeting is the culmination of months of listening to students, parents, and community members. Now the results will be shared and participants will help to choose an agenda for positive change. A reminder as to what this is all about: PATH (People Acting Together in Howard) and HCEA (Howard County E...

If you want something done right, they say, do it yourself. I've been waiting for someone, anyone, to fact check the Howard County Times article about the Board of Education meeting Thursday night. I've read the comments. I've looked for a correction to the article itself. Nothing. Here is the statement, from Superintendent of Schools Reneé Foose, that bears additional scrutiny: "Optimistically, we will have to make decisions that honor the contracts. We've never suggested we weren't going to do that." Wait a minute. Back up the truck. "We've never suggested we weren't going to" honor the contracts? As I said the other day, these words do more than strain credulity. Exhibit A: The "Cut or Keep" survey pushed out to parents, teachers, and staff, which included salaries in the list of things to cut or keep. Exhibit B: The list of Talking Points given to administrators to disseminate through emergency "stand-up...

This year's Wine in the Woods is next weekend, May 21-22. Come see me at the Inner Arbor Trust booth. We've got some pretty sweet surprises in store for you. ***** Breaking the Spell (originally posted May 19, 2014) Deep in the heart of Mr. Rouse's created city hides a mysterious secret: an ordinary plot of land where nothing ever happens. Yet once a year, out of the mists, a vibrant park arises full of life--music, people, dancing. Then, just as quickly as it has come, it disappears. For only two days in the year this park exists. It is Columbia's Brigadoon . In the Scottish town of Brigadoon, legend has it, the local minister prayed to God that his home would not be cursed by the evils of the outside world. He struck a bargain with the Almighty that, in order to maintain Brigadoon and its people in their state of innocence, never changing, all would disappear and sleep, awakening for only one day every hundred years. In our town of Columbia we...

Big news. The sun is out and there's a bit of blue in the sky. According to my weather app, this may last until about 2:00 pm, more or less, so get out and enjoy it. Yesterday afternoon was glorious. Here's hoping we have more of the same today. Other big news: Coverage of budget hearing at hcpss, which contains a quote from the Superintendent which does more than strain credulity. You've got to look out for those low-life renters who will ruin your neighborhood... The beginning of a new venture in Oakland Mills revitalization. Let's hope it's not about displacing low-income and minority residents. There's actually a lot of big news. There's a PATH IAF meeting Tuesday night on a Community Agenda for Howard County Schools, based on a year of public input. The Planning Board voted on affordable housing plans for Downtown Columbia this week. There's something wacky going on in the relationship between the Governor and Comptroller vs. everyone else, it s...

HCPSS Board Chair Christine O'Connor would like you to pick up the pace, please. At the Board of Education Budget Meeting last night she can be heard whispering to Superintendent Foose, "Is this going to go on all night?" She was clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. Anywhere . She must have thought she was pretty clever when she instructed the timekeepers to begin timing public testimony from the moment the person's name was called, instead of waiting for them to actually come to the front of the room and sit down to testify. The timekeepers didn't agree, thank goodness. Ms. O'Connor may have been in a hurry but the public was not. Teachers, parents, families, and community members were there to ensure that their voices were heard in the budget process. One could see pride, exhilaration, determination, and, to be sure, frustration and indignation, but nobody was in a hurry to wrap up and be done with it. It was a moment to be savored. They came to have their ...

On Tuesday evening I participated in a three-person panel on the topic of blogs, bloggers, and how blogs can impact the local political scene and elections. Hosted by the Ellicott City and Western Howard County Democratic Club, the event, entitled " Meet the Bloggers ", was held at Kelsey's in the Normandy Shopping Center. Though you might suspect that events held in a private room at a place called Kelsey's were the stuff of wheeling, dealing, and secret handshakes, Tuesday evening was nothing of the sort. The folks from ECWHCDC are a friendly and humorous bunch. The meeting began with the usual sort of club business, discussion of upcoming events, allocation of ad purchases in event programs, and so forth. Dan Medinger presided over the proceedings with an easy, light-hearted touch. On the panel: Scott Ewart, of Scott E's Blog , Jonathan Shurberg of Maryland Scramble , and me. We each had an opportunity to introduce ourselves, talk about the origins of our blogs...

Meanwhile, back at the school system... From an HCPSS staff member yesterday: "All principals were called to the Board of Education this morning and sent back to schools to have stand up meetings to scare us into thinking that the budget crisis is dire and that we should all take the survey. The message was that things will be really bad if we don't get more money - larger class sizes, reduced staffing, etc." Since when is forcing people to take a "survey" required as a condition of employment? Shared on the Mold In Howard County Schools - Information for Parents FB Page: Clarksville and Fulton ES school staff will have their standup meetings tomorrow. I asked staff member what a stand up meeting meant. Answer: "A quick meeting. Usually it's some type of emergency info that needs to be disseminated - a death, something happening in the community, or I guess when your superintendent wants to use you for political purposes." Staff were told the the s...

I hate being wrong. Well, actually what I hate is unintentionally misleading people. I never, ever mean to do that. So let me begin today by making a correction. I said on Sunday that HCPSS Director of Communications John White had blocked school parent Christine McComas on Twitter. I did that based on her report. He denied it. Well right now she isn't blocked and she is willing to consider that she might have been in error: Update. I am horrible at Twitter. The hcpss communications director claims he did not block me....He didn't answer me but did answer another parent. I cannot know for sure and want to err on the side of fairness and take him at his word. I'm sorry if I made a mistake, especially to those who have lightened my load by listening and being openly supportive. Mrs. McComas is a truly gracious human being. As for Mr. White, this is what we do know: he has (verifiably) blocked other members of the community. And when asked about blocking Mrs. McComas he said: ...