&
ALL HAIL
SLAYER The Gazette Fillmore welcomes the enduring sound of metal royalty. B-5
OLNEY
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
25 cents
County teacher launches MSA petition drive
Close, but no title Jonathan Wanat of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney runs for a touchdown against DeMatha High School in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference semifinals Sunday at the University of Maryland’s Byrd Stadium in College Park, but it wasn’t enough for the Falcons, as they fell 29-28 in overtime, ending their four-year reign as conference champs.
Though hundreds sign, state officials say testing must happen n
BY
STAFF WRITER
See story coverage online and playoff previews on Page B-3. TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Rockville firm part of $1.6 billion deal Brickman has 10,000 employees nationwide
n
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
The Brickman Group has agreed to be bought by global investment firm KKR & Co. for $1.6 billion in a move made to position the Rockville commercial landscaping company for further growth, executives said Monday. The deal is a strict ownership change that will retain the headquarters of Brickman — one of the nation’s largest landscaping companies — in Rockville, said LaNella HooperWilliams, a Brickman spokeswoman. Los Angeles private equity firm Leonard Green &
LINDSAY A. POWERS
Andrew Kerin Partners is now privately held Brickman’s largest investor, acquiring a majority stake in 2007 for $847 million. “It will be business as usual,” Hooper-Williams said. Brickman was founded in
1939 in the Chicago area by Theodore W. Brickman Sr., a horticulturist for the Chicago Park District. His son, Theodore “Dick” Brickman Jr., joined the family business in 1954, and the company started opening branches on the East Coast in the 1970s. Scott Brickman of Potomac, Dick Brickman’s son, joined in 1986 and became CEO in 1998. Former Aramark Corp. executive Andrew Kerin took over as CEO in 2012, while Scott Brickman became board chairman, the position his father had held. Brickman Group has some 10,000 employees nationwide, with about 100 at its Research Boulevard headquarters and 1,600 in the Maryland-Virginia region, Hooper-Williams said. The company recently
moved its headquarters from Gaithersburg to Rockville, and there are other offices in Montgomery County and Frederick among more than 160 branches nationwide. Kerin said in a statement that the deal will allow Brickman to “accelerate our growth.” Last year, the company had revenue of about $900 million, second among landscaping companies nationally behind TruGreen of Memphis, Tenn., according to industry publication Landscape Management. That was about double the $454.5 million that Brickman reported for 2005, according to a statement the company filed in 2006 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
See DEAL, Page A-10
A petition started by a Montgomery County Public Schools teacher calling for the state not to administer the Maryland School Assessment tests this school year has gained hundreds of signatures from around the state. Tiferet Ani, a social studies teacher in the Quince Orchard cluster, said that with the county — and state — implementing the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers test and no longer looking to the MSA tests to track student progress, she thinks it is a waste
of time and resources to administer the annual test to elementary and middle school students this year. PARCC, which aligns with the Common Core State Standards, will be fully implemented in the school system next school year. As of Tuesday evening, about 600 people had signed the Moveon.org petition titled “Cancel the MSA.” Ani, in her seventh year of teaching in the school system, said she has administered the test four times. The test is administered over a two-week period during which teachers lose instructional time, Ani said. Ani said she wants to see the state choose not to administer the test — which she said
See MSA, Page A-10
Brookeville raises stink over sewage n
Wants inspection, possible replacement accelerated BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
Brookeville’s town commissioners remain concerned that more than 2 million gallons of wastewater have flowed into Reddy Branch Creek after two breaks occurred on an aging sewer main within the past eight months. The Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission crews repaired a broken 16-inch pressurized sewer main on Oct. 30, after a resident walking his dog the day before noticed the ground was unusually saturated and alerted the commission’s crews who were working nearby. The broken pipe was located in a heavily wooded area near the 200 block of Market Street, just a few hundred feet from the Reddy Branch Wastewater Pumping Station on Brighton
See SEWAGE, Page A-10
Critics unhappy over school project list Many make passionate funding pleas; second hearing is Thursday n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Damascus High School senior Morgan Johnson held up a green fragment of tennis court surfacing to show the Montgomery County Board of Education on Monday night. “Tonight, I brought a piece of Damascus High School with me,” said Johnson, the school’s student government president. “Tonight, we have a symbol of what is happening outside and inside of my school.” Johnson was one of a slew of speakers at the first of two public hearings before the
school board on Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed $1.55 billion Capital Improvements Program budget for fiscal years 2015 to 2020. The speakers included students, local government officials and parent-teacher association leaders who called on the board to address immediate needs at schools they described as old, deteriorating, overcrowded and unsafe. Many testified against delays to revitalization and expansion projects in the proposed program, including a large group protesting the delay of a new Poolesville High School building. Starr recently said his program addresses the school system’s ongoing, significant enrollment growth with a recommendation for 14 new classroom addition projects. The
plan also maintains schedules for other previously approved capacity projects, including five new schools. The plan, however, pushes back the timeline of 20 revitalization/expansion projects. Dozens of people testified on behalf of schools waiting for these projects, as well as for other schools in need of capital funds. Reading a list compiled by her fellow students, Johnson said Damascus High’s current building has a leaky ceiling, rats, roaches and odd-smelling and -colored water. “We have made friends with the critters in our school, but it’s time for them to graduate,” she said.
See LIST, Page A-10
NEWS
SPORTS
Group works to stock shelves, bring in donations to brighten holiday season for area families.
Clarksburg football returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
STEP UP FOR OLNEY HELP
A-3
PAST STRUGGLES JUST THAT B-1
Around the County Automotive Calendar Celebrations Classified Entertainment Opinion School News Sports Please
A-4 B-13 A-2 A-13 B-10 A-5 A-14 A-12 B-1
LINDSAY A. POWERS/THE GAZETTE
Students from Poolesville Elementary School protest against a possible delay of a new Poolesville High School. Poolesville residents were among those who testified Monday night against school construction delays in Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed Capital Improvements Program budget.
See Our Ad Inside!
RECYCLE
1906187