‘MAKING A DIFFERENCE’ Germantown Library books special events for February. A-7
BUSINESS: Forum helps companies seeking assistance in growing their exports. A-11
The Gazette
SPORTS: Quince Orchard senior one of the state’s best in the shot put. B-1
GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
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Public safety academy breaks ground n
Gaithersburg facility to be complete in 2016 BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
County officials and public safety officers came out to Gaithersburg on Feb. 11 to take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new, all-encompassing Public Safety Training Academy. The new $69 million facility, part of the Montgomery County Multi Agency Service Park, will be at 8751 Snouffer School Road. The facility is another project from County Executive Isiah Leggett’s Smart Growth Initiative, which is aimed at revitalizing a former industrial area into an urban village, plus using county-owned building sites to their greatest potential.
See ACADEMY, Page A-9
Montgomery County schools BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Twila Kimbrough Taylor of Laytonsville sells assorted sweets at her bakery, The Last Crumb of Cake, in Gaithersburg.
Good to The Last Crumb Gaithersburg resident recently opened sweet shop BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
When the door of The Last Crumb of Cake in Gaithersburg swings open, customers are immediately hit with the sweet smell of freshly baked desserts transporting them back to their childhood. That aroma is what owner Twila Kimbrough Taylor grew up smelling when her mother and grandmother baked. The recipes that Kimbrough Taylor uses today are
the ones passed down to her by the women in her family. “The basic recipe is the same, I just tweaked it to stay current,” said Kimbrough Taylor, who lives in Laytonsville and has been in the area for more than 25 years. For Kimbrough Taylor, staying current means offering more than 30 cupcake flavors, ranging from the classic red velvet to the unique lemon lavender. All of her cupcakes are pound cake-based while her custom layer cakes are in the traditional style.
She also sells cookies, cake pops and, both in store and through the mail, regular pound cake. A few years back, Kimbrough Taylor quit her day job and decided to follow her dream of opening her own “brick and mortar” bakery. Though she had already been selling her creations on the side, running a small, order-only business out of a commercial space near the Montgomery County Airpark, she
Poder encourages students to break the trend BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
At Gaithersburg High School, a group of young men have come together to help reduce the high dropout rate among Latino males with their group Poder, which means “to be able” in Spanish. Brett Morales, the teacher sponsor of Poder, has been with the school for four years and is currently a ninth grade English teacher as well as the senior class sponsor. He explained that every year teachers are presented with the statistics regarding academics and dropout rates among dif-
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ferent student populations. He noticed Latino males had some of the highest numbers. “I wanted to see that stop, I wanted to see that trend reverse. I figured the best way I could do that is to get students involved. I think they are the most effective at that, they are the best to get this resolved because they see it and they feel it every day,” Morales said. He decided to reach out to some of his students and see what they had in mind. Senior Nathan Mejia, 18, is the current vice president of Poder and has been with the group since its inception during his freshman year. “The first meeting he had, the way he showed us was saying the Latino male population in the school had the highest
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drop out rate. Me, being a Latino male, I never thought about it. I never realized we were the biggest group,” Mejia said. With that information, Mejia wanted to get involved. “Mr. Morales told us the pitch, what he wanted to do, what he thought it meant and why,” Mejia said. “I think the mission is basically helping not only Latino males, but males in general to graduate not only high school, but secondary education.” Morales said that although the group is predominantly Latino, “anyone who cares about making the school a better place” should get involved. “We realize from the start that this is a really complex problem,” Morales said. Morales said that the group
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$10 million cut from Starr’s original proposal BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County school board has approved a fiscal 2016 operating budget $10.2 million lower than what Superintendent Joshua P. Starr proposed in December. The county school system’s proposed operating budget for next year now stands at $2.39 billion. The budget moves next to Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and the Montgomery County Council for approval.
See SCHOOLS, Page A-10
See BAKERY, Page A-10
Gaithersburg students combat their dropout rates n
Budget passes, reflects funding
Local officials want more budget power
does a lot of goal studying and self awareness, as well as character building, leadership training and providing academic support. Poder helps students figure out how to use the school’s class registration website as well as the website that their homework is posted on. Because it is important to have after school jobs to make money, Morales said that they have also spoken about how to write a resume. Poder meets every Thursday during the school day and also travels to area middle schools to tutor young men. Morales said that the group believed they had to “get to the kids sooner” in order to convince them that education is important.
Two Montgomery County state senators want to change Maryland’s constitution to give the legislature more budget power. For the last century, Maryland law has allowed the General Assembly to only cut the budgets proposed by the governor — lawmakers cannot increase spending. In his first budget, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has proposed cuts to taxes and revenue, a 2 percent across-the-board reduction in spending, cuts to employee pay and other cuts, including halving a program that provides additional education funding. Hogan’s plan has received strong criticism. Some
See PODER, Page A-9
See BUDGET, Page A-9
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Madaleno, Manno part of push to amend state constitution BY
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
WINTERIZE YOUR HOME
Farcical play “Boeing, Boeing” follows a jet-setting playboy’s exploits in Paris.
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