‘TRUE HERO’ Rebuilding Together awarded for heroic work. A-3
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NEWS: Gaithersburg offers numerous events to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. A-4
GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
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Gaithersburg teacher finalist for award n
Ridgeview Middle School educator is up for Teacher of the Year
BY LINDSAY A. POWERS AND SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
Three Montgomery County Public Schools teachers are in the running for an annual award that honors one of the area’s top educators. The finalists for the county’s 2015-2016 Teacher of the Year award can be found in classrooms at Chevy Chase Elementary School, Ridgeview Middle School in Gaithersburg, and Damascus High School. The teachers received a Veteran Teacher Award, making them eligible to be Teacher of the Year. The veteran award from the Marian Greenblatt Education Fund comes with a $1,000 prize. The next teacher of the year will be unveiled April 21 at the Champions for Children Awards Celebration. The nonprofit Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education hosts the event. Award finalists include Ridgeview Middle School sixth-grade English teacher Jill Raspen, Chevy Chase Elementary School fifth grade teacher
Achievement gap, state tests and social-emotional learning discussed BY
Ridgeview Middle School teacher Jill Raspen works with pupils on Monday in Gaithersburg. Josephine Luster and Damascus High School social studies teacher Joseph Gannon Jr. Raspen said she first studied to be an accountant in college, but found her passion in teaching. “It was what I was meant to do,” she said. “It’s what I find joy
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
“Willy Wonka Jr.,” the classic tale about Charlie Bucket, a mysterious candy factory and its eccentric owner, is coming to the Arts Barn stage March 14 through March 29. Produced by Kensington Arts Theatre 2nd Stage and directed by David Fialkoff, “Willy Wonka Jr.” tells the condensed,
in, it’s what I find purpose in.” Raspen, 40, of Rockville said she enjoys interacting with the students, helping them learn at high levels, and seeing them “get joy out of the English language.” One great moment for her as a teacher, she said, came when
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she helped one of her students — who had never finished a novel — find a book the student couldn’t put down. Michael Doggett, a sixth grade English teacher and team leader at Ridgeview, explained
See TEACHER, Page A-13
child-friendly story of Roald Dahl’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” with music from the 1971 movie by the same name. The play follows a group of children invited into the usually private factory of chocolatier Willy Wonka as he looks for an heir to the business. “What we’re doing is making it not scary,” Fialkoff said, explaining that the original movie was a little creepy at times, but this version is light and happy. The cast is made up of about 18 children, the youngest of which is four years
old, with adults playing the roles of the children’s parents and Willy Wonka. “I like working with kids, it takes a lot of patience, but in the end it’s always a lot of fun,” Fialkoff said. “You can see it on the stage that they are having fun.” Laura Andruski, the theater program coordinator at the Arts Barn, explained that the Arts Barn put a call out to local arts organizations to propose shows for its season. Andruski then reads through scripts and listens to the music in order to choose
See WONKA, Page A-12
Biotech founder honored as community innovator Graham helped grow the industry in Montgomery County n
BY
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
Solomon Graham, 72, founder of Gaithersburg’s Quality Biological Incorporated, was honored on Feb. 28 as a community innovator at Verizon’s statewide Black History Month celebration in Baltimore. Graham, of Rockville, founded Quality Biological, which provides supplies for cellular and molecular biology labs, in 1983. Its headquarters in Gaithersburg was built in 1986 and was in use by 1987.
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Graham
“ I guess you could say I’ve been a part of the biological industry here in the county from the beginning,”
Graham said. Graham was stationed by the Navy in Montgomery County and attending the Navy’s tissue culture school, and explained that when he first became involved in the industry there was only one company making all of the lab supplies. Four years later when he left the military, there were two in the area.
“My early work in medical research really taught me that there was a large need for suppliers for the work that is being done,” Graham said. With that thought, Graham went on to make his own company to do just that. Graham explained that people saw that Montgomery County had to be more than just a “bedroom community” for the federal government and there had to be an industry. Now, Montgomery County is a hotbed for biotech companies. “I like to think I’ve had a hand in helping the industry get here,” Graham said. “It took a lot of work by both industry and government.” While his company grew, Graham gave back more and
more. After putting his own children through college, he helped create the Quality Biological Biotechnology Scholarship at Montgomery College, originally geared toward African-American men, now geared toward anyone in the science field. “Early on, one of the things which a lot of the businesses started here in the county recognized was that Montgomery College was the only higher education institute in the community. We realized if we didn’t get involved in helping the college develop its curriculum then we didn’t have a pool of employees to draw from,” Graham said. “It was natural to get involved.”
See INNOVATOR, Page A-13
A&E
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LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
‘Willy Wonka Jr.’ will grace Gaithersburg stage
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School community shares thoughts on next superintendent n
From Arts Barn to Charlie’s chocolate factory n
SPORTS: Tennis, gymnastics, golf, volleyball are underway. We preview spring sports. B-1
MORE THAN ONE WAY TO LOOK AT IT Silver Spring Stage play focuses on difficult parallels.
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Volume 28, No. 10 Two sections, 32 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
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RECYCLE
Montgomery County Public Schools community members contributed on March 4 to a wish list of sorts for the school district’s next permanent superintendent. About 30 people at a community forum at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda painted a picture of a leader who works to close the school system’s student achievement gap, considers the effects of state tests, and focuses on social-emotional learning. The county school board picked the firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to help find a permanent successor to former Superintendent Joshua P. Starr, who resigned in February. Larry Bowers, the district’s former chief operating officer, will serve as interim superintendent until he retires in June. The firm was set to host two community forums March 4 and 5. The March 5 forums were canceled after a snowstorm walloped the area. Instead, another forum was scheduled to have been held at Gaithersburg High School at 7 p.m. Tuesday. At Walter Johnson High, forum participants focused on three main areas: desired attributes, district strengths to maintain or build up, and issues and
challenges to address. The firm also asked people to submit on a form any specific individual they thought would fit the bill. Frances Frost, president of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, said she wants to see the superintendent value parent input, give “serious consideration” to closing the district’s achievement gap, and look at different solutions to address overcrowded schools. A man who identified himself as a biology teacher at Walter Johnson said he wants a superintendent willing to say the district can fulfill the Common Core State Standards “without stressing our kids out with the PARCC,” referring to Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers tests. “I want someone who’s brave enough to look at state’s and national standards and say, ‘I’m sorry, the PARCC test is 100 percent about learning how to play with a test format. It is not reading comprehension,’” he said. A parent of a middle school student said there are “a lot of issues” with PARCC tests, which disrupt multiple days of class instruction. “What are we about? Are we about testing or are we about the kids being able to learn?” she said. Clopper Mill Elementary School teacher Stacy Whipp pointed to several tests her kindergartners take that she said
See SUPERINTENDENT, Page A-13
Pedestrian killed in Montgomery Village n
Laytonsville driver taken into custody BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
A pedestrian was struck and killed by a car early Saturday morning in Montgomery Village. Police have identified the victim as Osmin de Jesus Montano Carrillo, 35, of the 19600 block of Club Lake Road in Montgomery Village, according to a police department release. Officers and fire/rescue personnel responded about 1:20 a.m. to a report of an injured man in the road near the intersection of Goshen Road and East Village Drive. Carrillo was taken to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, where he died about 2 a.m.
A preliminary investigation indicates that a driver was traveling south on Goshen Road in a white, 2015 Volkswagen Jetta. As the car approached East Village Drive, it struck Carrillo just north of the intersection, according to the release. Police have identified the Jetta driver as Helen Rommel, 18, of the 6100 block of Sam Riggs Road in Laytonsville. Whether police file charges will depend on the outcome of the investigation under way by the police department’s Collision Reconstruction Unit, according to the release. Anyone with information about the accident is asked to contact the Collision Reconstruction Unit at 240-773-6620. Callers may remain anonymous. vterhune@gazette.net