silverCHIPS
NEWS 11
February 9, 2011
Ride-On introduces tracking features for commuters Customers soon to be able to call and text for bus arrival information By Philipa Friedman By the end of the summer, Ride-On, Montgomery County’s bus transit system, will have instituted the fully operational Smart Traveler system, which will allow commuters to check locations and arrival times for buses due to arrive at specific stops, according to Montgomery County Public Information Officer Esther Bowring. According to Bowring, each bus is equipped with an automated positioning system which can give its exact location at any given time. Patrons of the bus service will be able to call Ride-On and ask for the location of their bus and the time at which it will arrive at their stop. “They’re going to be replacing every single bus stop pole,” said Bowring. “Each one is going to be a unique number.” Commuters will then be able to call or text Ride-On at a phone number which will be posted at every stop, supply their stop number, and receive the time of the next bus’s arrival. Arrival times for each bus will also be available for 24-hour access online. In addition, significant changes will be made to the county’s 311 operation, a general call center available for patrons of county services to call with questions or complaints. The complaints are then investigated by a county staff member. “[The 311 line] operates from seven to five on weekdays,” said Bowring. “That’s why we’re trying to expand the availability of this to 24/7 with texting, calls and Internet.”
According to Bowring, the entire program will be phased in over the course of about six months, beginning with changes to the 311 line. “Within the next few weeks, people will be able to start calling 311 and get information about when their bus will be arriving,” she said. The entire system, including texting, calling and internet, will be fully operational by the end of this summer. Sophomore Rachel Mussenden, who uses the Ride-On bus system several times a week, said that the upcoming changes would make her commute easier. Although she said the buses showed up on time fairly regularly, there are times when buses are late or do not arrive. “Sometimes [the bus] just doesn’t show up at all until the next scheduled stop,” Mussenden said. Mussenden has called the 311 line to find out m ore information about the bus schedules on two occasions, but she did not find it useful. “It’s really unhelpful because it tells you just to look at bus schedules online,” she said. Mussenden reported that she would take advantage of the improved 311 service when it is available to her. According to Bowring, the implementation of this system is the conclusion of a multiyear project. Consequently, the majority of the funding for this system has already been spent. According to Bowring, the project cost a total of $220,000, spent over a threeyear period. This funding originally came from the county’s operating budget and was already allocated for the project.
INFORMATION COUTESY OF THE RIDE-ON TRIP PLANNING SERVICE
According to Community Relations Manager Tom Pogue, Ride-On also received some federal stimulus money in order to enhance technology for bus dispatching. President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated federal
PHILIPA FRIEDMAN
grant funds to local communities for specific purposes, including the improvement of transportation infrastructure. The $350,000 dollars supplied to Ride-On by this act were used to purchase buses and improve bus dispatching.
USDA revises school lunch nutrition standards By Eliza Wapner
PHOTOS BY ANDREW KIRWAN
At left, Wheaton High School is home to several unique vocational courses. At right, Edison students assemble in the café to enjoy food prepared by students participating in Edison’s cooking program.
Edison and Wheaton possibly to merge Commitee decides on the future of vocational programs By Claire Koenig
MCPS is examining potential plans to combine the Thomas Edison High School of Technology with Wheaton High School. According to Edison Network Operations teacher Jesse McGee, no conclusions have been reached yet, but if an arrangement is approved by Superintendent Jerry Weast and the Montgomery County Board of Education (BOE), Wheaton may offer a new vocational magnet program through Edison. Officials hope this arrangement would simultaneously allow more students to participate in the popular Edison program and solve under-enrollment issues at Wheaton. McGee is a member of a roundtable advisory committee comprised of Edison and Wheaton faculty who will provide a collection of their suggestions for the superintendent to consider. The committee has had five meetings in the past year to discuss options, according to McGee, and will give a final report of their comments to Weast in February. Weast will
then read the recommendations and make his own proposal to the BOE, who will approve or refuse his decision by March 8. McGee said that a number of combinations are being considered, some more realistic than others. Some suggestions have Edison remaining at its current location within the Wheaton building and creating an exclusive magnet program in which students must attend Wheaton to take Edison classes. Others recommend moving Edison to a more central location in the county. Debate regarding the creation of a new “high-tech high school” through integration of Edison into Wheaton, making them one school with a largely career-based agenda, began in April of this year. But the BOE denied a request for a $3.2 million grant, and MCPS officials had to re-evaluate the situation. Discussion continued on a series of different approaches to the combination with the most recent meeting of the advisory committee on Jan. 19. According to McGee the meeting was not intended to finalize deci-
sions regarding the future of the schools, only to discuss options and suggest the best methods of combination. “It’s all really in the hands of the superintendent and the MCPS administration now,” he said. Because Weast has not yet released his own recommendations, it is unclear how the new program would affect Blair students who attend Edison currently, or students that would like to attend Edison in the future. According to McGee it is possible that only Wheaton students would be allowed to take Edison classes, but nothing will be set in stone until the BOE the proposal. Yoshi Yui, a Blair junior who attends Edison’s Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, said that an integration of Edison into Wheaton would be a problem for potential Edison students; especially those that don’t want to go to Wheaton. “I like Edison and I like Blair,” he said. “I don’t want to have to go to Wheaton.” Yui said that most of the Edison students he had spoken to felt the same way.
the Institute of Medicine recommendations that the USDA used The United States Department to create its new guidelines, acof Agriculture (USDA) proposed cording to Marla Caplon, director new guidelines for public school of the MCPS Division of Food and meals on Jan. 13. The initiatives Nutrition Services. Thus, Caplon would require healthy food choic- said that there would only be a few es, including more fruits and veg- minimal changes made to MCPS’s etables in every meal and snacks meal plan. One of these changes for after school activities. The new would require that fruit be eaten regulations are based on recom- at breakfast by obliging students mendations made by the Institute to take one-half cup of fruit at of Medicine and are updating the breakfast. National School Lunch and School Because MCPS already comBreakfast program as part of the plies with the rules, the changes H e a l t h y, also will Hunger-Free not have a Kids act of significant 2010, acimpact on cording to a the cafeteUSDA press ria budget. release. “The only In the impact will press release, be always Agriculture having the Secretary fruit and Tom Vilsack veggie opstated that tion and the the new inibreakfast tiatives are change, so in response it’s no big to the growdeal,” said ing rate of INFORMATION COURTESY OF DAILY NEWS Caplon. NATALIE RUSTCH obesity in She exschool-aged children. plained that by using commodity The new school initiatives products, such as grains and meat would attempt to lower the obe- that can be bought in bulk, and sity rate by requiring that caf- revenues from student meal buyeterias offer low-fat and non-fat ers, the MCPS cafeteria division milk, creating calorie maximums is self-sustaining. “We take care of and minimums to restrict satu- [the budget]. We don’t charge anyrated and trans fats, constraining one for it,” according to Caplon. starchy foods and decreasing sodiBlair cafeteria director, Maddum levels in schools. They would alena Bianchini, thinks that school be adding more fruits and vegeta- meals are not causing the obesity bles, increasing the availability of trend in students, at least at Blair. products made with whole grains “Students cannot possibly get and calling for a grain and protein obese from a small lunch that they to be served at breakfast across eat,” she said. “I think it’s what the country. In breakfast, for in- they’re eating outside of school.” stance, the rules stipulate that the However, Bianchini believes that fruits and vegetables requirement the new school meal guidelines in school lunches will increase by will benefit the country. “It will approximately a cup and a half encourage new people to try [the each day. healthier school meals],” said MCPS has always followed Bianchini.