SAFETY FIRST Program expands; all schools to get athletic trainers A-5
The Gazette
NEWS: As easy as pie. Local woman wins Olney competition. A-3
GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
SPORTS: Magruder basketball to rely on defense to score points. B-1 25 cents
Gaithersburg favors allowing write-in votes Majority clears way for ordinance, public hearing
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VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
Gaithersburg residents who would like the chance to vote for a write-in candidate during city elections may get the opportunity following the City Council’s decision to move forward with the idea. Currently, the city’s election laws do not provide for write-in candidates. “Something unexpected could happen after the filing deadline — we have no provisions for this,” said Councilwoman Cathy Drzyzgula, at the council’s July 7 regular meeting.
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Rodrigo Cornejo, 12, of Gaithersburg reaches to shake the hand of a competitor during the Montgomery Place-Edinburgh Village Marlins swim team meet against the Stratford Knolls Sharks of Germantown at the Montgomery Place Pool on Saturday morning in Gaithersburg.
A valuable lesson
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
Swimming for the Montgomery Place-Edinburgh Village Marlins team in Montgomery Village has been such a good experience for its children that coach Giovanny Fallas is thinking about starting a nonprofit to encourage more
families to join. “I don’t want it to cost them – I want people to feel free to do this,” said Fallas about the benefits of swimming with the team. Fallas, who has coached the Marlins for five years, said he also envisions the nonprofit raising enough to pay for indoor swimming during the winter and
for a place in Gaithersburg where students on the team could do their homework and get tutoring if they needed it. Based at the Montgomery Place pool on Centerway Road, the Marlins team draws from the Montgomery Place, Edinburgh Village and Walnut
Little Bennett Regional Park hosting free music, activities Saturday
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Satellite network company leases additional space in Gaithersburg VIRGINIA TERHUNE HUGHES NETWORK SYSTEMS
Hughes Network Systems, one of Montgomery County’s largest private employers, has leased additional space in Gaithersburg to help accommodate hiring 60 more engineers by year’s end.
See HUGHES, Page A-7
n When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday
VIRGINIA TERHUNE
Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg is a lot more than a big green blotch on a Montgomery County road map. The relatively undeveloped 3,700-acre park — the largest in the Montgomery Parks system — is replete with fields, streams and woodlands crisscrossed by walking, riding and biking trails. “It’s got ridges, hardwoods, savannahs and wetlands,” said Park Manager Andrew Simmons. Also flowing through the park is Little Bennett Creek, which drains into Bennett Creek, which flows into the Monocacy River on its way to the Potomac River. “It’s one of the most pristine in quality,” said Simmons about the Little Bennett stream. On Saturday, Simmons and Montgomery Parks staff will host
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STAFF WRITER
GREAT OUTDOORS FESTIVAL
STAFF WRITER
See SWIMMING, Page A-7
Hughes set to hire 60 more engineers BY
See ELECTIONS, Page A-7
Celebrate the great outdoors in Clarksburg
Coach envisions nonprofit to help expand swimming program BY
Most of the municipalities in Maryland allow write-ins, said City Attorney Lynn Board. If the city were also to allow write-ins, write-in candidates would need to register before an election so that officials would be able to verify that they live in the city and are registered to vote. Registering would also enable supporters to correctly write in their candidates’ names, which makes the votes easier to verify, Board said. Drzyzgula, who initially brought up the idea for discussion, asked if providing for write-in votes would delay the city’s vote counting process. Board said no, as the
Headquartered in Germantown (campus shown in photo), satellite communications company Hughes Network Systems has leased additional space in its Gaithersburg office/lab space to accommodate the hiring of 60 more engineers, most of them recent college graduates, in 2014.
n Where: Little Bennett Campground, 23705 Frederick Road (Md. 355), Clarksburg n Admission: Free, except for 4-H food n For more information: littlebennettcampground.com
their second annual — and free — Great Outdoors Festival at the park’s campground off Frederick Road (Md. 355) north of Clarksburg Road (Md. 121). “It’s to promote Little Bennett and to let people know we’re here,” Simmons said. “We’re especially trying to get youth educated about the outdoors and our environment.” Planned, rain or shine, are free
See CLARKSBURG, Page A-7
Student integration posed as a fix for the achievement gap issue n
Superintendent: Redrawing lines ‘not a panacea’ BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Redrawing school boundaries could help diversify classrooms and close the
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county’s persistent student achievement gap, some County Council members said Monday during a meeting with school officials. School officials pushed back against the idea, however, saying such changes involve many factors beside student diversity. New boundaries can exclude as well as include students, and they
ENTERTAINMENT B-10 A-2 B-6 A-12 A-8 A-10 B-1
would not be a “silver bullet” to the growing problem. The conversation, which also covered principal leadership and the role of tests in lessons, was spurred by a report in April that showed growing differences in academic performance and demographics between the county’s high- and low-poverty public high
LARGE AND IN CHARGE Imagination Stage brings Big Friendly Giant to life.
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schools. The council’s Education Committee held the meeting, and other members also participated. The report from the county’s Office of Legislative Oversight found that the county’s high-poverty high schools have most of the county’s black and Latino students — and increasingly so
Volume 55, No. 29, Two sections, 32 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
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since 2010. Most of the system’s white and East and South Asian students attend the low-poverty schools, also in growing numbers since 2010. The gaps have grown in recent years based on four of seven measures, including Advanced Placement test
See GAP, Page A-7