No More Rubber Stamps!

Lyda Astrove: Board Must Consider Fiscal Realities

Gazette, Wednesday August 25, 2010, by Andrew Ujifusa, Staff Writer:

"A special-education advocate for 15 years, Astrove said she was motivated to run this year in part due to the conflict between the school board and the County Council this spring, when the board threatened to sue the council over $33 million in cuts proposed by the council. Although the situation was resolved without the lawsuit being filed, Astrove said it showed board members' inability to deal with new, more austere fiscal realities and its detachment from the rest of the community.
"I don't think really they understood the significance of the county's very valuable triple-A bond rating," Astrove said, referring to the rating that allows the county to borrow money at low interest rates."

(...)

"In addition, Astrove said the Board of Education has spent too little time debating budgets and contracts presented by Weast, and also has failed to adequately consider public input and concerns. In contrast, Astrove said she preferred the approach used by former board member Blair Ewing (a school board member for 22 years). She recalled watching him and others debate fine points on the budget for hours at a time."

To read the complete article, click HERE.

Jerry Weast Retires

Today, Superintendent Jerry Weast announced that he will be retiring when his contract expires at the end of June 2011. I wanted to hear how he would summarize his tenure at MCPS: the aspects he was proudest of, whether he had any regrets, and his advice for the next superintendent. Therefore, I went to the press conference at the Carver Center. Never one to miss an opportunity to hold a press conference, Jerry Weast spoke about his service for thirty years as a superintendent, and repeatedly expressed pride in his employees. He stressed that he felt like he had empowered staff to have the commitment to close the achievement gap, and that while we were not there yet, the staff was ready to go to the next level. He advised the next superintendent to “fight for every dollar you need, and fight hard.” If critics disagree, Weast said, “quit responding to everything that comes at you.”

I waited to hear Jerry Weast mention the 12% percent of MCPS students who receive special education services. One student out of every eight in MCPS has an Individual Education Plan. But while Weast touted his accomplishments with students of every race, ethnicity, and poverty status, he was silent as to special education students. Why? Perhaps it is because his record doesn’t stand up to scrutiny in that area. Of the schools that failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), most of them fell short because of special education. During his tenure, Jerry Weast decimated the full continuum of special education programs and services while the current Board of Education stood by and let it happen. It is not surprising, therefore, that he didn’t mention progress for students with disabilities among any of his accomplishments.

The lagging achievement of students with disabilities is a problem that our county cannot afford to ignore any longer. We need to establish a true continuum of high quality special education programs and services. We must involve parents and families in the decisionmaking process about the education of their children with special needs, and our schools must be held accountable for providing the required services. And the new Board of Education needs to find and hire a superintendent that will give special education the attention it has long required.

Gazette Endorsement

Thank you to the Gazette for recognizing me as one of the "clear choices to move on" through the Primary Election on September 14!

With two children with disabilities having attended county schools, Astrove is a strong advocate for those students. She also says the school board must mend its relationship with the County Council after the threat of a lawsuit over the schools' budget.

You can read my "candidate profile" and watch the one minute video HERE.

The MCPS Budget

Over 2 Billion dollars. Montgomery County residents are spending over two billion dollars a year on our public schools.

Everyone says they want more money for our schools, but the current economic realities are that there will be no more large increases like there were in past years. These are tough financial times in state and local government, and relief is not just around the corner. In the past, MCPS always threw more and more money at problems, but this solution is no longer available. We need to spend SMARTER. The incumbent school board knew that Mongtomery County faced a billion dollar budget deficit, and their solution? To sue the citizens of Montgomery County: a shakedown of our citizens for more money to spend on a bloated bureaucracy, robbing ordinary citizens of money desperately needed for other county services. The incumbents refused to do the hard work of carefully examining expenditures, and instead voted unanimously to take the easy way out and sue the citizens. I’ll do the hard work on your behalf, and insist that MCPS be more responsible with your tax dollars.

To that end, I also pledge to bring forth a topic at the Board table that has been swept under the rug by the incumbents: the crushing, and ever increasing, cost of employee benefits. Today, more than one in every five dollars spent by MCPS goes to pay for employee benefits. There is room to save money while at the same time ensuring a healthy workforce.

In addition, no sitting Board member has ever questioned the necessity of the 1,400 American Express Purchasing Cards held by MCPS employees, or demanded answers as to why these credit cards are being used to throw office parties and luncheons for administrators. Why are tax dollars are paying for meals at expensive restaurants like Addie's and Il Pizzico for central office personnel? Wasteful spending by MCPS is the FIRST place cuts should be made, and the current Board members haven't done the work to root it out, and stop it.

Teachers spend too much of their own money on classroom supplies. We owe them an appropriately stocked classroom, with the tools their students need. We don't owe the Executive Leadership Team catered lunches once a month. If we "spend smarter," we'll have the money for things we really need for our schools.

I Support School Vegetable Gardens

According to the Washington Post:

"Last October, Donna Marchick, a program administrator at the Department of Facilities Management, informed teachers at Maryvale Elementary School that food was not permitted to be grown on school grounds.

"As you know," she wrote, "food-bearing plants attract pests. Maryland law restricts the use of pesticides on school grounds. Therefore, planting of food bearing plants is prohibited by MCPS."" To read the full article, click HERE.

The "vegetable garden ban" is just another instance of the incumbent Board of Education failing to show common sense! MCPS allows teenagers to play school-sponsored tackle football, but won't allow elementary aged children to grow some fresh tomatoes and peppers, citing "liability concerns?" Ridiculous!

There are no good reasons to ban school vegetable gardens, and many, many good reasons to support and embrace them. The Montgomery Victory Gardens group has sent a letter to Dr. Weast, outlining the health and educational benefits of vegetable gardens to our students, and offering help and assistance. Our schools should be in the business of promoting healthy nutrition. What better way to start than with vegetables children grow themselves?