Congratulations, Frank! An Update From The Pond

Congratulations to >Rockville Central friend and contributor Frank Anastasi, whose update of his sad story a year ago of finding fish carnage strewn about his outdoor pond ran in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Here’s a link to the article.

Way to go, Frank! We love it when Rockville Central friends make the news!

Congratulations Kari Keaton

Hearty congratulations to >Rockville Central friend Kari Keaton, founder of the Metro DC Food Allergy Support Group which meets in Rockville. Kari was recently featured as a guest on Rockville Central Radio.

But, more recently and far groovier, Kari features as the lead voice in today’s front page Washington Post article on how food manufacturers and grocers are responding — or trying to respond — to the growing number of Americans who have food allergies and sensitivities:

Kari Keaton is the sort of customer most businesses used to hate. The Rockville mother lingers at the grocery store, poring over ingredient labels. She calls food manufacturers and interrogates their customer service representatives about what sorts of foods get processed in the same facility and probes them on the meaning of “natural flavoring.” And after all that effort, she still may not buy their product.

Indeed, Kari is tireless when it comes to raising awareness about food allergies (and is tireless in her support of other important causes too, as those who know her will attest). Her efforts in this area are a linchpin for so much that is going on. It just makes perfect sense that the Post would turn to Kari to lead off this article.

Read the whole article here.

Way to go, Kari!

Washington Post on Rockville Election

Judging by the cryptic comments I received over the last two weeks from all manner of candidates and partisans-of-candidates (from all sides of the fence, I might add), the recap of the Rockville campaigns in the >Washington Post’s “Montgomery Extra” was highly anticipated. Many (again, from all sides) told me it would blow the lid off of something.

Well, I guess the pot is going to have to keep simmering. In terms of lid-blowing, the Post’s piece told us that there is a divide between one group of candidates supported by outgoing Mayor Giammo, and another group of candidates supported by Real Rockville:

During Rockville’s election campaign this year, the outgoing mayor posted a notice on his blog urging voters to kick out three council members. There’s a chilly relationship between the incumbents and a fourth council member who is running for mayor. And some residents are bothered by what’s going on.

We knew that.

But, as a quick roundup of where things stand in the election, it is pretty good. After you are done reading and listening to our election recap, you may want to take a look at it.

Sorry I did not post a link to it yesterday, when it came out. But, here you go today.

A Fine Ending At Maryvale ES

As many >Rockville Central readers may know, it appeared for some time that fourth-grade families in Maryvale’s well-regarded French immersion program were, according to the Washington Post, perhaps about to get short shrift:

[B]ecause only 77 fourth-graders had enrolled in Maryvale Elementary School, one of the two French immersion teachers at that grade level would have to be dropped and some students shunted into a combined fourth- and fifth-grade class.

This had parents in the immersion program, understandably, quite worried and up in arms. The network began to do its work, sending concerned letters to officials, and stonewalling letters expressing optimism that “all Maryvale students will have a successful school year” began to be received back from said administrators.

But there is a happy ending to this tale. As the WaPo piece makes clear, through patient, persistent, and civil conforntation, the standoff was averted. Both Maryvale administration and parents stuck to dialogue, even when a solution seemed unlikely.

Finally, a couple of new students appeared on the scene and the administration was able, under its guidelines, to add a teacher. French immersion students at Maryvale have a 20-1 student-teacher ratio, not too shabby.

Of course, each side says it thinks the other blinked. Parents say the new students were a fig leaf to allow the administration to change its course without losing face. The administration says that, throughout, it was just following guidelines.

What is important, though, is that through it all a healthy dialogue was maintained. This is something to build on when, inevitably, the next confrontation arises. There’s a precedent set now, at Maryvale, whereby opposing sides can talk things through, without papering over their differences and without automatically coming to loggerheads.

Bravo.

Deafening Silence From Schools

There’s a troubling >Web-only story by Jay Mathews in today’s Washington Post about some events at Maryvale Elementary School. Taking as its departure point a story of abuse by a teacher who is no longer at the school, Mathews illustrates how hard it is for parents (and anyone outside the school building, for that matter) to get information about incidents that occur in the classroom.

The instinct of school administrators to keep parents ignorant of allegedly unpleasant or controversial behavior by teachers is backed by state regulations, union rules and fear of lawsuits. The administrators who refuse to answer parental questions say there is nothing they can do. But the anger felt by parents . . . is often not eased by the recognition that the administrators would like to tell them more, but are not allowed to. . . .

It’s important to note that the story is not an indictment of Maryvale and Mathews goes out of his way to praise the principal at the time, Eric Davis. (There is a different principal now.)

The point, though, for parents to take away is that it is important to pay attention to what our children say to us about what goes on in classrooms, and important to be involved in such things as the PTA and other groups. Communicating — with one another and with school administrations — is critical:

Both educators and parents are caught in a web of fear and inertia that so far has left both dissatisfied with the outcomes. There is not much educators can do about what school district lawyers tell them they can and cannot say, but parents might find that legislators are more willing to consider revising the offending regulations if they were willing to speak out more about their experiences. . . .

Congratulations Andrea!

>Congratulations to Rockville Central contributor Andrea Jarrell, whose moving essay, “Neighbors Can Be the Strangers Next Door,” appears in today’s Washington Post, where she asks: “[I]f someone is drowning and calls out for help, you save them. But what if they jump in of their own accord with rocks in their pockets? Do you try to save them anyway or just let them slip under quietly?”

Way to go!

Congratulations Frank!

Congratulations to Rockville Central contributor Frank Anastasi, whose excellent piece on >discovering a dead fish in his backyard fishpond appeared in Monday’s Washington Post!

In Defense of Rockville; Thanks Bill Hickman!

You might have missed a letter to the editor in Saturday’s Washington Post. Bill Hickman, a fan of >Rockville, rose to the defense of our fair city (Rockville Rocks All Year Long). Bill didn’t agree with a Post writer’s suggestion that The Fantastic Four movie was “as grim as February in Rockville.” Damn right, Bill.

Bill pointed out many cool attributes of Rockville in the dead of winter, like Upper Watts Branch Forest Preserve; music at Strathmore; taking in a Maryland Nighthawks basketball game; and artwork on display at Glenview Mansion.

I’d like to add that a visit to any snowy slope in town , mobbed by out-of-school kids and parents alike, would tell even a casual observer that February in Rockville is far from grim. Not to mention Cub Scout Pack 928′s Blue & Gold Banquet, where more than 100 scouts, family and local celebrities dine on a Rockville restaurant’s fabulous barbecue at a local church hall. We could go on and on, couldn’t we?

Thanks, Bill. And Washington Post beware – we won’t let such slander go unanswered!