Laurie Halverson
-
The Basics
-
Laurie on Patch
-
More Stuff
Comments
-
On the article Report Concludes State Law Will 'Straitjacket' County Spending
-
On the article Getting Serious About Starting School Later in Montgomery County
Laurie Halverson
8:55 am on Thursday, October 18, 2012
ReplyMy son is on a basketball team and some days, even in the off season, he has 4 hours of time devoted to work outs and basketball. He is also taking some very difficult AP classes in school and is often is up past midnight to complete his homework and studies. If school started later, then school would end later, resulting in less time for homework. He would just end up staying up until he gets it all done and would not get any more sleep. There are also teens who work to help their family pay the bills-they need time after school to help their families. If you polled the kids-I'm pretty sure they would all agree they need more sleep, but not at the expense of losing time in the afternoon. In the not to distant future, I hope schools will be offering online FREE courses as options during the school year, so students who want to sleep an extra hour could take a class at home online, and in this case, they would have to find their own transportation to school so it won't cost taxpayers more.
-
On the article Speak Out: Do You Continue to Feel Sting of Down Economy?
-
On the Blog Post MCPS Needs to Make Good on a 40-Year-Old Promise
Laurie Halverson
10:33 pm on Thursday, June 14, 2012
Joseph, It is my understanding from talking to MCPS staff that there were 30 expulsions last year. Even when students are expelled, they can return to school after the term has expired if they follow an appeal process. However, other school systems in the state may have a different process than MCPS. Expulsions are a level of punishment, a tool in the toolbox, that works well at MCPS and the state is trying to take it away. As far as data, I agree there isn't enough available, but the MCPS Safety and Security at a Glance Report has some useful data on suspensions and serious incidents that occur in each school, which can be found on the MCPS website.
-
On the Blog Post MCPS Needs to Make Good on a 40-Year-Old Promise
Laurie Halverson
10:40 pm on Sunday, June 10, 2012
ReplyIf the state BOE passes the proposed policy, there will be no expulsions, except in the case of firearms. Selling drugs to students? Attacking a student with a knife? Relentless bullying? Not eligible for expulsion. Plus, teachers would be required under a new mandate to meet with a deviant student (whether or not the student is willing) weekly at the additional expense of the taxpayer. Students would also be required to return to school on the 11th day after the deviant behavior if the school investigation is not yet complete, even if the reason for the delay in the investigation is not the fault of the school system. These are a couple of major changes that are not being highlighted by any news stories and the consequences of these changes will be costly and will hurt more than help our kids to be able to learn in a safe environment. Yes-there is a clear gap and MCPS has stepped up their game on this issue, but that's the least of the problems with the new proposed changes. Safety must come first and the proposed policy isn't safe. Please read the MCCPTA response:
http://mccpta.net/testimonies_dir/2011-2012/MCCPTA_PublicComments_COMAR_13.A.08.pdf -
On the article SPEAK OUT: Should MCPS Close Schools For Muslim Holidays?
Laurie Halverson
4:35 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
Wow-so many comments generated here! I think all religions should be valued and everyone should be allowed to practice and not have the learning suffer as a result -an observance of no tests on these two holidays is an example of MCPS's consideration for the growing number of Muslim families in our school system. However, when does it end? There are not just 3 religions with special days of observance. There are already so many days of disruption, that it becomes more challenging to provide a continuing routine that our kids need to learn. (State testing creates weeks of disruption as well, and may even create more days of disruption as common core state standards are tested in 2014/15). I think it is best to keep school open on days when most staff can be in the schools. If a majority of the staff is Christian then it makes sense to close schools on Christian holidays. Many of our teachers and subs (and I don't know the percent) are Jewish so it also makes sense to close on these days as well. Remember, the focus should be about learning. As long as there are MCPS policies that protect our families so they can observe their own religions, I don't think we need to add more days off. We can still observe holidays and respect other religions while keeping school open.
-
On the article Speak Out: Do Police Officers Belong In Montgomery County Schools?
Laurie Halverson
6:27 pm on Thursday, May 10, 2012
ReplyNote to Valerie Ervin who is looking for constituency feedback: MCCPTA, which represents nearly 50,000 members, has passed a resolution in favor of SROs in high schools as well as support for middle schools. Representatives from 200 schools county-wide voted on this. So Valerie can take the number of phone calls she receives opposed to SROs and compare that to the 50,000 parents, teachers, and students who support SROs.
http://mccpta.net/resolutions/2010-2011/Adopted_SRO_Resolution.pdf -
On the article Churchill Leads County in AP Exam Scores
Laurie Halverson
4:34 pm on Tuesday, February 14, 2012
ReplyChurchill not only led the county, they led the region and possibly the state on percentage of APs with a 3 or higher.
Laurie Halverson
3:45 pm on Friday, October 19, 2012
If we want to be serious about continuing to have a great school system that carries the state to it's #1 status as well as have all the other wonderful services our county offers, our county needs to start thinking about ways to attract businesses and become more business friendly-11,500 ex-Marylanders decamped to Virginia between 2007 and 2010-that is a loss of $390 million in tax revenue. The general fund budget for the state increased 15.5% between fiscal 2011 and 2013. Our state and county are pushing away the money makers and poverty continues to grow-we simply cannot sustain the status quo. Increasing taxes will only drive more people away. The MOE law is not really the issue we need to be discussing, is it? I would rather hear discussions about policy changes the county and state can make to attract and grow new business.