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Ride On buses to offer free Wi-Fi for passengers The Montgomery County Ride On bus system announced it will offer free Wi-Fi access for all passengers by Jan. 2018. Ride On has begun a pilot phase to introduce the new technology, with four buses already equipped with WiFi, and 12 more to come in the next month and a half. The cost will vary depending on which plan the system chooses, but John Van Eck, an Information Technology (IT) manager for Ride On, estimates that it will cost around $1,200 per bus. According to Van Eck, the company will be gathering data throughout the pilot period to determine the strength of coverage and to see if any problems arise. “We are going to encourage people to write in or call in or send us emails or text or whatever, to get their feedback,” he said. “But, we’ll also be watching the traffic and how it’s used. We’ll have a good idea both what people are looking for and what people are actually doing.” For example, if passengers are using the Wi-Fi to watch Netflix or stream videos, Ride On might block streaming sites, so that there are no issues with connectivity.
County Council approves vending machine bill The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a bill on April 18 to increase the number of healthy snacks in all vending machines on county property. The bill requires that half of all snacks have no more than 200 calories, half a gram of trans fat, and 200 milligrams of sodium. Drinks must be fewer than 250 calories and be no more than 20 fluid ounces. These nutrition requirements will go into effect for any vending machines entered in contract after the bill’s passage. Half of all snacks and drinks being sold must also have no more than 35 percent of calories from fat or sugar, and no more than 10 percent of calories from saturated fat. This second set of standards must be met by service contracts entered on or after July 1, 2017. The legislation, sponsored by councilmember George Leventhal (at-large), was first introduced on Feb. 7, and sets a goal of requiring 90 percent of all items to meet standards by the end of the vending machines’ five year terms. Additionally, the director of the county’s General Services Department must submit a report on Sept. 30 of each year describing the successes and challenges of the law’s implementation, as well as recommendations for improvements.
School bus rear ended
A car swerved into the back of MCPS bus number 5993 at 7:10 a.m. on April 20 at the Falls Road– Montrose Road intersection. The bus was transporting middle and high school students from Cold Spring Elementary School to Blair, Eastern Middle School, and Takoma Park Middle School. No injuries were reported, according to Debbie Bitonti, who works in the health room. At 8:10 a.m., a second bus arrived to bring the students to school. When students arrived at Blair, all bus passengers had to sign in with the school nurse, tell her where they were sitting during the accident, and undergo an injury check. Once cleared, students were permitted to go to class. Newsbriefs compiled by Olivia Gonzalez
silverchips
April 27, 2017
Maryland General Assembly wraps up legislative session
A roundup of new state bills affecting students and schools By Henry Wiebe
The Maryland General Assembly’s 437th legislative session concluded on April 10. Over the course of the 90-day session, House delegates and state senators budgeted and lobbied for 2,861 different bills, passing 935 into law. High school students in particular will be affected by the state budget, the expansion of the free and reduced meals program, increased fines for school bus stop signal infractions, and a ban on expulsions for students in pre-K through second grade. State budget The new state budget, passed unanimously by the Senate, allocates more funding for public school systems than in the past, according to Senator Will Smith (D) from District 20. “We invested over 6.4 billion in K-12 education, which represents the largest investment in public school education in Maryland history. It’s an increase of almost two percent funding compared to what we did last year,” Smith said. Smith also said that the tuition policy for the University of Maryland school system would more closely resemble the standards set by the previous Democratic gubernatorial administration. “We also invested more in our higher education, meaning that public school tuition won’t go up more than two percent, which was something that
O’Malley had when he was governor, but was something that didn’t happen in the first two years of Governor Hogan’s administration,” he said. Senior Theresa Guirand hopes that the extra funding for public schools will help give students the resources that they need in order to succeed in the classroom. “A lot of kids don’t have… opportunities in general if their school has a low budget,” she said.
Free and reduced meals The free and reduced meals program, commonly referred to as the FARMs program, was one of the main education-related topics addressed in the previous legislative session. The Maryland Cares for Kids Act and The Hunger-Free Schools Act of 2017 both expanded free meals for students who may not have access to food at home. The Maryland Cares for Kids Act sets guidelines for low-income students to receive free school lunches, according to Smith. “[The bill] basically allowed for free meals for students who come from families with household incomes between 130 and 180 percent of the poverty line. And that basically amounts to about 50,000 kids in Maryland,” he said. “That was a great bill that we passed to help some of our most financially struggling families, to ensure that they have free meals in school.” The Hunger-Free Schools Act of 2017 allows Maryland to opt
WILL SMITH
into a previously existing federal program that grants free breakfast to more students. “Senate Bill 361 built on the community eligibility program which basically gave free breakfast to students and that allows us to help 10,000 more students a day,” he said. Senior Prim Phoolsombat is the president of the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association, a countywide student leadership organization that appears before the Board of Education and county councils to represent the student voice. Phoolsombat describes how important the FARMs program is to students who depend upon it. “There are a lot of kids that actually need this program just to subsist, so it’s really crucial that the FARMs program is expanded, which I’m delighted about,” she said. “We can support the kids who really don’t have any other option.” Bus stop signs Senate Bill 154 established a larger fine of up to $500 for ignoring bus stop indicators while students board school buses. When a school bus stops to pick up students, cars on both sides of the street must wait until the bus resumes driving before they may continue. Legislators passed the law to ensure that students are safe from any oncoming traffic as they get onto buses. According to Smith, studies
COLE GREENBERG
found that this law was broken more often than had been previously anticipated, resulting in a need for an increased fine. “We found more evidence that people were just ignoring those things and blowing by them,” he said. Junior Ben Abramson said that he commonly observes drivers breaking this law. “On my bus, I see people driving past the stop sign all the time,” he said. “Luckily, they have never run anyone over, but I think it’s important that you keep all the kids safe.” Elementary school expulsions
State legislators also passed a bill, Senate Bill 651, creating a policy that prevents schools from expelling pre-K, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students. The law also makes it more difficult for schools to suspend students in these grades. “This bill essentially says that you can’t suspend them unless there are some extreme things going on there or unless they have a gun, and that you can’t expel them,” Smith said. “It’s pretty much a prohibition on expulsions, and some limited exceptions for suspensions. It’s basically designed to curb the school-to-prison pipeline.” The school-to-prison pipeline is a concept that the disciplinary actions taken by educational systems negatively affect low-income and minority students and set them up for a path that leads directly to the criminal justice system. “Last year we suspended over 2,300 students in pre-K. That had a disproportionate effect on students of color. AfricanAmericans, in particular, were suspended 64 percent of that time, even though they make up less than half of that in the school population,” Smith said. Junior Chas Goldman, the Deputy for Legislative Affairs for MCR, is in concurrence with this new policy. “I agree with the notion that students that are between the ages of three and eight shouldn’t be expelled from public school,” he said. According to Goldman, elementary school expulsions and suspensions affect minority students and students with disabilities at much higher rates. “Not just with out of school suspensions but with in-school suspensions as well, we see a major disparity in what groups of students are receiving those suspensions,” Goldman said.
BOE alters MCPS student transfer policy By Hermela Mengesha The Board of Education adopted revisions to Policy JEE, Student Transfers, on Dec. 13. This policy sets the conditions under which a student can obtain a school transfer, which is referred to as a Change of School Assignment. In the spring of 2018, the county will implement a weighted lottery process for admission into language immersion programs. The lottery will be weighted by socioeconomic status, as well as whether an applicant has a sibling in the immersion program. Under the previous policy, siblings of immersion students would automatically gain entry into the program. “My older brother got into Sligo Creek’s French immersion program. That allowed me and four of my other brothers in,” junior Lien-Dai Cao said. “That was great because all our mom had to do was drop us off at school and
pick us up at the same time.” The revised policy also allows students to transfer schools to take certain academic courses identified by the superintendent, such as Career and Technology Education programs. According to Patricia O’Neill, Board of Education member and chair of the policy management committee, the purpose of this change is to provide career options for students. “You would take not just one course, but a whole series of courses in that [field],” O’Neill said. For students who are currently in a language immersion program, the new policy will not apply to their siblings. “It is important that people understand it is grandfathered. If you are already in the program and your sibling applies, they’ll have the sibling link,” O’Neill said. This revision came as a result of a study of the county’s choice
programs conducted by Metis Associates, a research and consulting firm that works with public and private organizations to improve performance. “One of their recommendations was to make a change in the lottery process for immersion programs,” O’Neill said. According to O’Neill, the purpose of the weighted lottery process is to increase diversity in the immersion programs. “In an effort to have more fairness and more equity … we will be phasing out the sibling link,” O’Neill said. The decision to revise the policy was made in a seven to one vote. The policy was opened up to public comment more than three years ago. “We had 235 comments and about [68] percent of those wanted to maintain the sibling link,” O’Neill said. The majority of commenters in favor of keeping the sibling link identified as parents of students who are or have been in an immer-
sion program. Junior Madeleine Allou, along with her sister, attended the immersion program at Sligo Creek Elementary School. “If [my sister] had gotten in and I hadn’t, that would have been an inconvenience,” Allou said. Allou opposes the changes made to the sibling link. “I feel like they could have figured out another way to increase diversity, while still keeping siblings together. Splitting them up, I don’t think was the best idea,” Allou said. Throughout the county, there are 12 Chinese, French, and Spanish immersion programs in elementary and middle schools. The French immersion program at Sligo Creek Elementary School, the Spanish immersion program at Rolling Terrace Elementary School, and the Spanish and French immersion programs at Silver Spring International Middle School feed into Blair.