Parents Asked To Support the RM Cluster Testimony
Nov 10, 2010 21:18 - 13 Comments
RPES Photo by Cindy Cotte Griffiths
Many parents have voiced their concern about school overcrowding in the Richard Montgomery Cluster during public meetings in Rockville. Now the time for testimony to the Board of Education regarding the Superintendent’s Recommended FY 2012 Capital Budget and Amendments to the FY 2011-2016 Capital Improvements Program has finally been announced.
Representatives from the Richard Montgomery Cluster will be testifying before the Montgomery County Board of Education on Thursday, November 11, 2010. The time frame for testimony is from 6:45 until 8 PM. The hearing begins at 7 PM. At Monday night’s Mayor and Council meeting, Mayor Marcuccio and Councilmembers Britton and Pierzchala indicated they were willing to provide testimony, so these elected officials will speak first followed by the Cluster Representatives.
The Richard Montgomery Cluster includes Ritchie Park Elementary, College Gardens Elementary, Twinbrook Elementary, Beall Elementary, Julius West Middle School, and Richard Montgomery High School. The testimony will include comments on the MCPS proposal to study the creation of a new school in the RM cluster and the expansion of Julius West. The testimony will also focus on the additions planned for Ritchie Park, Beall, and Twinbrook, as well as the transfer of the Chinese Immersion Program from College Gardens to the new school when it is built.
Cluster representatives have been encouraging parents to attend and show the Montgomery County Public Schools and Board Of Education that the community is very concerned about the growth in enrollment. All of the Cluster’s elementary schools are over capacity. Parents will be advocating for a plan to alleviate overcrowding in the schools within the City limits.
The testimony will be given at the Carver Center Auditorium (850 Hungerford Drive in Rockville, next to Montgomery College). Parking is available in the lot on the Rt. 355 side of the building and the North entrance is on the right set back slightly from the flagpole entrance to the building. Parents are encouraged to wear or carry their school’s spirit wear, or to bring a handmade sign the size of a piece of paper to show support. Of course, everyone attending is expected to remain quiet during the testimony and leave quietly at the appropriate time.
Many have hoped that the energy recently revealed in meetings at the schools will result in a strong showing before the Board of Education during this opportunity to testify.
Please join us to show support for the Richard Montgomery cluster. A strong showing is important for the BOE to see that the community supports its schools.
The hearing begins promptly at 7:00 pm and we expect to testify — a whole five minutes! — between then and 8pm. Plan on arriving early to get into the room. We hope you will come showing your school spirit in one way or another and stand quietly at the beginning of our testimony.
Hearing etiquette dictates that attendess stay for the testimony of all four clusters (Churchill, RM, Rockville and Wooton) in our quad cluster and until after the brief BOE comments, which sometimes they make and sometimes they don’t. it. Then it is usual for attendees to quietly file in and out as the additional clusters prepare to testify.
See you there.
i am an RM parent and there hasn’t been a word about this on our PTSA list serv. would have been good to know more than 1 day in advance. thank you for your efforts!
can anyone speak or have designated speakers already been selected and arranged? is there a sign-up for additional speakers allowed?
The exact time for the RM Cluster testimony was not known until the last minute and word went out yesterday. We’ve all been waiting to find out.
This is not a public hearing. People cannot sign up to speak. Each cluster has a very strict, short time limit for each section of their testimony.
thanks for clarifying. my other interest is to try and represent the needs of Edison, which does not fall into a “cluster.”
on the RM cluster issue — still- if they are asking for “bodies” to show up- we must know in advance, with a time to follow when known.
i’m not upset with you, cindy, but with the failure of the RM PTSA to communicate with our parents via the list serv. that is our only source of contact. many parents at RM DO have kids at the lower grades.
This is a BOE public hearing-people can sign up to speak, but they must do so in advance. I don’t know if any spots are still open for tonight or if the sign up period has passed.
These take place over two evenings every fall. Each Cluster is assigned a day and time and the MCCPTA Cluster Coordinators are given 5 minutes to speak, unless the cluster has a boundary study, in which case they get longer (e.g., Bethesda-Chevy Chase Cluster this year.) Following those MCCPTA cluster testimonies come individual testimonies, which must be 3 minutes. While these are often individual PTA presidents and neighborhood association representatives, they are also individual parents and occasionally students. Elected officials may also speak and they usually do so at the beginning of the evening or are worked in according to their schedules.
BOE Operating Budget hearings are scheduled for 1/12/11 and 1/19/11. If you did not heard about these hearings from your PTSA listserv, please contact your PTSA officers and let them know this kind of information is important to you. RM’s next PTSA meeting is next Tuesday, 7:30pm in the cafeteria.
thank you, cheryl. i am now on the agenda-but for 9:30.
We’ll be there to hear all the testimony presented tonight. Yes, Theresa, we are still hoping for STRONG community support for dealing with the overcrowding of our schools.
See you all then.
Thanks for clarifying about the ability to speak tonight. When I answered, I was referring to the time period highlighted in the article. During this time period, parents are encouraged to attend and show support without speaking. Of course, the entire evening is a public hearing.
I’d like to thank all the PTSA volunteers from all the schools who have been working tirelessly to coordinate the testimony from all our schools for tonight. This has been a tremendous effort which includes getting the word out to all the parents at the last minute either last night or this morning. My intent when making my earlier comment was to make sure the volunteers are not criticized.
Update:
The Richard Montgomery Cluster will be testifying for 15 minutes beginning at around 7:40 pm. Preceding us will be elected officials including Rockville Mayor Marcuccio, Councilmembers Britton and Pierzchala and Delegates Simmons and Gilchrist, as well as other officials. Following us will be the Rockville cluster and the Wootton cluster, and then Board comments, if any..
Please plan on arriving early — the room will be crowded. If all goes according to schedule, we should be able to leave after Board comments expected between 8:05 and 8:10 pm.
Should have said above that some of us will be staying to listen to ALL the comments provided tonight and that you are welcome to do so too!
i don’t have a way to check-can anyone tell me if my time (9:30) has been changed? thank you!
Too much fuss is being made about the temporary classrooms MCPS uses to manage the overcrowding school problem. Even with all the justifications to expand or build a new school; relocate and transport kids to another school, or change the school boundaries, progress is slow especially with lack of funds. All schools’ requirements need to be carefully addresses without emotion.
Last night many people spoke to the MCPS Board some without children in the school system. Priority should be given to the parents who currently have children in the schools. I believe if you gave the parents a choice of sending their children to another school they would prefer staying at their school in a temporary classroom, especially if there is a special program in that school.
Listening to all the testimonies for all the Montgomery County schools gave me an even more appreciation what the problems are. I remember the many years of parents fighting hard for Richard Montgomery High School. It took a long long time before it got the attention it needed to keep it from being closed. It is unfortunate that schedules can’t be accelerated but there are constantly new requirement and beauacracy does not operate fast.
I applaud all the hard work of the clusters in organizing their parents to speak to the MCPS Board, but I caution everyone to keep the emotion out of the equation and realize that a schedule must be made and not everyone can be first.
Although it was nice to have the City of Rockville Mayor and Council support the Rockville schools, they must also realize it is the MCPS who has final jurisdiction of running all the county schools. Superintendent Dr. Jerry Weast made a compelling statement about our county generating more tax revenue than what we get back. It is Annapolis that we need to lobby. Because of smart growth and all the development our county should be getting more school funds.