Clash in Annapolis over school air conditioning

A debate over whether Baltimore-area schools can spend money on portable air-conditioning units has mushroomed into a power struggle involving some of Maryland’s top elected officials.

The Board of Public Works, which oversees state funds for school construction, voted 2-1 Wednesday to withhold $15 million in capital funds for schools in Baltimore city and county until those jurisdictions produce plans to use window-box air-conditioning units as a short-term fix to address a lack of cooling systems in their schools.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) voted to withhold the money, over objections from fellow board member and state Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp (D).

In a separate 2-1 decision, the panel voted to finalize a rule change that would allow school districts to buy portable air conditioners despite a state policy that prevents the use of state or federal money for such purchases, in part because of energy-efficiency concerns.

Franchot blasted Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) for trying to prevent the rule modification by passing legislation earlier this year that effectively nullifies any Board of Public Works decision on school construction funding-policy made after Jan. 1, 2016.

Franchot called the legislation a “highly charged, highly irregular, highly unusual intervention by the most powerful politicians — other than the governor — in the state.”

Busch pushed back Wednesday, saying it is the state legislature’s job to set policy.

“The Board of Public Works’ job is to do procurement, so I think it’s clear that policy initiatives come from the General Assembly,” he said.

Attorneys for the Board of Public Works and the legislature have traded letters arguing their positions on which body has the final say in the matter.

Hogan and Franchot described the stifling heat in Baltimore city and county schools — the only jurisdictions in the state that have a significant number of classrooms that lack air conditioning — as an issue that could affect students’ health and ability to concentrate.

Teens testifying at Wednesday’s board meeting agreed.

“It’s hot, and it’s hard to learn,” said Keami Sullivan, 17, who attends Baltimore County’s Kenwood High School.

Kopp accused Hogan and Franchot of using “fear and demagoguery” to affect local decisions. “It may be good theater, but it’s a very bad mistake,” she said.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz (D) has rejected plans for using $10 million in county surplus funds to install portable air conditioners.

He insists that the money would be better-spent on a plan he laid out for adding central air conditioning to all of the jurisdiction’s schools by the end of 2019.

Via Washington post

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Opponents to hold Common Core protest at MSDE…

…as part of national event.

Opponents of Common Core and takeover of schools in Maryland will be holding a protest on Monday, November 18, 2013 from 10am to noon at the headquarters of the Maryland State Department of Education at 200 West Baltimore Street in Baltimore.

The event is part of a national protest against Common Core and public corruption in Education that will take place in states across the country. Some parents are against common core and others are driven by the fight against public corruption in Education here in Maryland. The chosen date has significance to the movement, being not only the first day of American Education Week, but also Revolution Day.

Organizers are encouraging parents, students, teachers, and others to attend.  More information, will be posted as it becomes available on the Facebook page “Stop Common Core in Maryland”. This is a bipartisan event involving people of different diverse backgrounds who mean well for their communities and the United States.

Above all, they want to see a greater level of accountability and transparency involving the Maryland state Board of Education which yields a lot of power. Many homeless students and other unfortunate students in the system are being left behind by the unmonitored standards.

The problem was created by a top-down philosophy; the solution will come from the bottom up. Many parents in PG County are supportive of  president Obama and Maryland Governor O’Malley but they want to see an end to corruption within Prince George’s County public schools and Maryland. Maryland state has  senior officers involved in discrimination starting with Dr. Charlene Dukes President of Maryland State Board of Education and Dr. Lillian Lowery Maryland State superintendent of Schools pictured below.  Please help spread the word and join us on November 18, 2013.

To join the fight against public corruption in schools, join the Facebook pages: Call your elected officials now and demand changes within the top school system leadership in Maryland. We must create accountability and transparency. Say “No” to corruption. This is because of entrenched ethnicisation and political manipulation, the ugly face of repression is raising its head. The system and its hirelings are already working hard to prop up a repressive system. Just like it happened many years ago in the state, the democratic ideals enshrined in the constituton are being betrayed by the conscienceless and unashamed clique of usurpers who are remnants of the former repressive regimes of Jack Johnson era. To them, the constitution is just a piece of paper which they embrace when it suits them and discard when it does not. People can no longer express themselves freely anymore and give proper solutions to society. This is not the Maryland we want our future generations to inherit.

In Maryland:

Dr. Lillian M. Lowery Maryland State Superintendent  of schools has been criticized for showing very poor leadership skills in various ways including discriminatory conduct and received an F grade for Common Core meetings so far.

In our opinion, We aver and therefore believe Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene Dukes shown here has demonstrated a culture of corrupt leadership style and continues “an integrated pattern of pay to play” and manipulation during her tenure.

Our children cannot live on election promises, expensive hairdo’s, decorated buildings with their names and top of the line auto imports. Please let us focus on where our bread is battered. Performance, integrity and high values. When our kids succed, then you can go get your hairdo on – until then, please refrain from this unagreeable behavior.

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PGCPS Board of Education partners…

…with Panasonic Foundation

According to Washington Post, The Prince George’s County Board of Education, facing a rocky start in a new era of school governance, has entered into a short-term agreement with a corporate foundation to help ease its transition from an elected board to a hybrid board with government oversight.

Board Chairman Segun Eubanks said the school board voted Thursday night during a closed session to partner with Panasonic Foundation, which works with urban school districts to implement education reforms. He said the partnership is designed to “move [the county’s] agenda forward. “Reports reaching reform Sasscer Movement  according to Mr. Edward Burroughs (District 8), said,  “the new structure has created a situation where there is no accountability to the board because board leadership is appointed.” He said, “for example, that a member of Baker’s administration received a presentation from Panasonic, but most board members were excluded. Still, the board was asked to vote on the agreement.”  Further Mr. Edward Burroughs’s District 8 lost substantial funding due to recent corruption in which money ($1.4 Million) was sent back to Annapolis.  Reform Sasscer movement is against side deals being conducted at night and away from the public. This is the reason why we lobbied lawmaker to create the current Board with a great hope things were going to turn out for the better >>>Read more Washington Post

OPINION:

Without mass media, openness and accountability are impossible in democracies. Our prayer is make sure that, what we advocated for is a dared to within the school system. We want the medium to be transparent to vision so that we can accurately view what is on the other side. As articulated before, Mr. Rushern Baker’s biggest test is creating a smooth transition within the schools to include transparency and avoid appointing leaders from the old regime who caused problems in the first place. However, if he wants to pass this test, he must persuade every single PG County citizen that he has sincere intentions that transcend his own political interest, for the wellbeing of the County to include other groups into the change management with the New CEO. One can well understand why politicians would want to divert attention from information that is detrimental to their interests as open expressed by Mr. Burroughs and others recently. Our interest as media blog is very different as we are interested in transparency and accountability issues on behalf of everyone.  Indeed, the media’s interests are quite different from those of politicians. Nevertheless, the media’s collective efforts also subvert the political values of transparency, even – and perhaps especially – when media and politicians view each other as adversaries.  BOE members who caused problems in the first place must be encouraged to resign to create a smooth transition.

Most individuals have only limited time and attention to devote to public issues. Political values of transparency do not demand that citizens spend all of their time on public subjects. Rather, they make information available to individuals so that they can use it if they so choose. But when there is too much information, filtering necessarily occurs. This filtering occurs both in terms of what media decide to cover and what individuals decide to watch. Media companies must pick and choose among hundreds of possible subjects to discuss especially as we move forward in the new era of accountability. Individuals must choose among thousands of hours of potential coverage of public events and we plan to do this in the future.

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Mr. Edward Burroughs whose district is affected by corruption