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‘Bring It On: The Musical’ somersaults into Strathmore. A-13
The Gazette DAMASCUS | CLARKSBURG
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Wednesday, March 26, 2014
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Parents and students trudge through the snow to Bethesda Elementary School on Tuesday. Only a couple of wet inches fell and county schools opened as usual — unlike the 10 times when snow has prompted closings this season.
Schools can ask state to waive five snow days Montgomery sticks to request for four days
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BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County Public Schools is sticking with its snow day waiver request — for now. The Maryland State Board of Education decided Tuesday that school districts can ask that up to five days missed due to bad weather be waived, but Montgomery is still asking for only a four-day waiver, according to Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the county school system. School officials are undecided
as to whether they will ask the state to waive the additional day, Tofig said. County students have had 10 wintery days off this school year — six days more than the four days the district built into the calendar. The state requires districts to hold 180 instruction days. Superintendent Joshua P. Starr sent the four-day waiver request to State Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery nearly two weeks before the state school board’s decision and a few days before the school system’s latest snow day on March 17. If the district were granted its current waiver request, it would need to make up two instruc-
Keeping tabs on the weather
tion days. As of Tuesday, officials planned to add one day to the calendar if the district is granted a waiver, but they weren’t sure about the second day. The school system will either ask that it be waived or decide to make it up as well, Tofig said. “Hopefully we will hear from the state soon and will be able to set a final calendar for the rest of the school year,” Tofig said in an email. Lowery will make the call on each school system’s waiver request, although no deadline has been set for those decisions.
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Damascus man reports daily data to National Weather Service BY CHRISTOPHER NEELY SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
This winter was one of the coldest and snowiest in Montgomery County in more than 30 years, and Robert J. Leffler has the stats to prove it. Leffler, 63, has been voluntarily running Montgomery County’s weather observation station in the backyard of his Damascus home since 1981. He said this
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Man’s death sparks defibrillator debate n
Montgomery County delegate: ‘Time is of the essence’
BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
The death of a Silver Spring man who collapsed in police custody and later died has sparked a debate over whether police officers should carry lifesaving devices to treat heart failure. “This should be a wakeup call to the county, that they should do something promptly,” said Mike Mage, chairman of the Montgomery County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Mage was talking about Kareem Ali, a 65-year-old mentally disabled Silver Spring man who died in 2010 after a scuffle with
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Principal Koutos leaving Clarksburg High School.
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police. Police claimed he was “unresponsive” in a stairwell and were trying to move him outside, sparking the conflict. Police used a Taser stun device and pepper spray to subdue him. He cleared an initial medical check with Montgomery County Fire & Rescue personnel, who left the scene after that. But Ali then passed out in the back of a police van and had to be hospitalized. He was pronounced dead on Oct. 14 at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. Ali’s official cause of death was schizophrenia-induced agitated delirium complicated by police restraint, an enlarged heart and obesity. The manner of death was ruled undetermined, said Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the state medical examiner’s office. On March 10, Montgomery
Ovid Hazen Wells Park considered for regional recreation complex
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‘Bottom line, both sides came to the conclusion that this was fair’ BY
BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD
A wrongful death lawsuit spurred by the death of Kareem Ali, a mentally disabled man who died after a scuffle with Montgomery County police, has resulted in a $450,000 settlement between the family and the county, according to a March 10 agreement filed in U.S. District Court. “Bottom line, both sides came to the conclusion that this was fair,” county attorney Marc Hansen said. Greg Lattimer, an attorney representing the family members who filed the civil suit, said March 19 the family was “re-
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Clarksburg in line for rec/aquatic center
County, family reach $450,000 settlement n
winter was one of the toughest he has experienced. “This winter was consistently cold and extremely snowy,” Leffler said. “The snow total was the third highest I’ve ever recorded.” Leffler said of the past 10 winters, eight have accumulated a below-average snowfall. The record-setting winter of 2009-10 and the 1995-96 winter are the only ones since 1981 that trumped the most recent total, he said. Only December was warmer than the
The Clarksburg area is slated to become the location for the county’s first combined regional recreation and aquatic center, according to the county’s Department of Recreation. “It would serve the heart of Clarksburg but also reach out to communities north and west of Clarksburg,” said Jeff Bourne, division chief for the department’s facilities. One possible site for the complex could be inside the 290-acre Ovid Hazen Wells
Park off Skylark Road in Clarksburg, or it could also be built somewhere else in the area, he said. “This is very preliminary work,” said Bourne, who is coordinating his department’s search for a site with Montgomery Parks, the division of Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission that oversees parks. Montgomery Parks is currently accepting public input on ideas as part of updating the 1995 Ovid Hazen Wells Park master plan. Planners expect to answer questions at the annual Kites Over Clarksburg family day at the park from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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