MOVING DAY Home offers independence to Jubilee clients. A-3
SPECIAL PUBLICATION
The Gazette
SPORTS: More former county athletes returning to coach softball. B-1
GERMANTOWN | CLARKSBURG
INSIDE TODAY
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
25 cents
At session’s end, key education funding up in air Montgomery awaits outcome of budget tussle n
BY
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
About $35 million in state funding for Montgomery County Public Schools remained in limbo Tuesday after the Maryland General Assembly wrapped up its 2015 legislative session. Lawmakers passed a budget Monday that fully funds education according to formulas under state law, including one known as the Geographic Cost of Education Index. The index provides additional money to school systems where the cost of education is higher. Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr.
(D-Dist. 18) of Kensington said the index has been fully funded since 2010. Whether the index money reaches local school systems is up to Gov. Larry Hogan. Hogan (R) warned Monday that he might not disperse the funds. The governor and the legislature battled in the closing days of the session over the budget — particularly Hogan’s cuts to education funding to reduce the structural deficit. “In all likelihood, I will have to use the money to fix the problem they created,” he said. Instead of a surplus, Hogan said, “we have to make up ... $202 million and we have to find a way to restore the money from
See SESSION, Page A-12
Bottle bricks, plastic bottles stuffed with plastic bags, make up portions of the cob seat of the Black Hill Regional Park’s new Earth Bench, which is decorated with a mosaic and various wildlife shapes found in the area. Pictured: Black Hill Regional Park naturalist Lynette Lenz.
Park celebrates renovated Visitor Center MCPS will consider ‘range of options’ for Ewing center home n
Special programs planned for Saturday in Boyds BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
There is a lot to see at the newly revamped Visitor Center at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds. There’s so much that the park is hosting a free Family Festival from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday to show off the remodeled and now designated “green” center. The changes are both inside and outside the center and along the park’s 505-acre Little Seneca Lake. “It needed some love,” said Jennifer
Miller, facility and nature program manager at the park. “We started going through the process to become a green center and used those guidelines.” Among the changes Miller said were made in the Visitor Center was to open up the main room so the lake was immediately visible. A kids corner was created, with toys, games, puppets and books about nature. It is surrounded by rocking chairs for relaxing. “It’s great to see families hanging out,” Miller said. “Lots of people aren’t comfortable heading out to the woods, so they can be comfortable here.” Woodstock, the center’s milk snake, is on display, as is a giant stuffed eagle overlooking the room.
The center was named a green center by the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Educators, which recognizes facilities for their efforts in environmental education, conservation and sustainable practices, as well as community engagement, according to MAEOE’s website. Outside, park naturalists have worked to increase interest in the center’s outdoor classrooms. To do that, they, with the help of 300 volunteers who worked 1,200 hours, created the first Earth Bench in Maryland, said naturalist Lynette Lenz. “We wanted something to draw people over here,” Lenz said. “To see our meadow
See PARK, Page A-12
Teen competes to show others they can, too Germantown girl to vie for title of Miss Jr. Teen Washington n
BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
Though only 15 years old, Serena Dalzell of Germantown feels she has been through some hard times. She is dyslexic and talks about the struggles that come with a learning disability and finding the right school program to meets her needs. She is in ninth grade at High Road Academy in Laurel, a school that specializes in individual remedial programs for students with learning disabilities. “Reading was tough for me over the years,” she said. “Not getting the proper education and being told I could not do
things.” More than “her struggles,” as she calls the years before her family found the right educational placement for her, Serena wants to talk about the possibilities she sees for her life and the hope that other teens will learn by her example. This month, Serena is competing in the 2015 Miss Jr. Teen Washington pageant, hoping to represent the Washington area at the national competition in Orlando in December. Serena said she never planned to enter a pageant competition, her mother submitted her name for the preliminary round and, after an in person interview, she was accepted. “It was really just to [have her] meet other girls her age, to socialize more with people her age,” Serena’s mother, Elaine Richardson-Dalzell, said. “I thought it would be fun.”
1930816
See PAGEANT, Page A-12
B-4 B-11 A-11 A-2 B-8 A-12 A-13 B-1
Volume 28, No. 13, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
Please
RECYCLE
School board votes for one feasibility study, other reviews
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Board of Education decided Tuesday the county school system will look beyond just two recommended sites as it continues to consider where its alternative education programs should be housed.
Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers had recommended that Montgomery County Public Schools conduct two feasibility studies: one of the Blair G. Ewing Center on Avery Road and another of an Aspen Hill site that formerly was English Manor Elementary School. The idea to possibly move the Ewing center to the English Manor site has sparked opposition from some area residents. The center houses alternative education programs for students
See EWING, Page A-12
Literary festival brings words to life in Bethesda Damascus biographer among writers discussing their works this weekend n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY ELAINE RICHARDSON-DALZELL
Serena Dalzell, 15, of Germantown will compete April 26 in the 2015 Miss Jr. Teen Washington pageant.
SPECIAL SECTION
INDEX A&E Automotive Business Calendar Classified Obituaries Opinion Sports
Serena said the tryouts were low-key. “[The judges] were very polite, they made sure you answered the questions,” Serena said. “They asked why I wanted to be in the pageant and I said, ‘to improve my self esteem.’” She also said she cares about representing her state and representing who she is. “I’m trying to follow my dreams and to give back,” she said. One of Serena’s dreams is a program she started, Chance to Dance, to teach kids with cognitive development issues to dance. The group now meets in the basement of her home, she said, but she dreams of turning it into a nonprofit organization with its own space and an expressive therapist to help. “I want to encourage kids to
n
ACTION FOR ANIMALS
Learn about the Spay It Forward campaign and how you can help. ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT INSIDE SELECT EDITIONS
Washington may have its cherry blossoms every spring, but the written word will be in full bloom this weekend in Bethesda at the Bethesda Literary Festival. The festival will feature events around Bethesda Friday through Sunday. Since its start in 2000, the festival has hosted a number of
prominent authors and journalists, said Stephanie Coppula, a spokeswoman for the Bethesda Urban Partnership, which manages and organizes the festival. The festival’s location just outside Washington makes it “ideal for this type of event,” Coppula said. Many of the authors live in Bethesda or the Washington area, and the festival has drawn many White House correspondents and nationally known journalists, she said. For example, Jonathan Allen, who recently became the
See FESTIVAL, Page A-12
SPRING CLEANING, DOWNSIZING, SIMPLIFYING? Let us help you sell your items and turn your
Clutter into Cash! CALL TODAY 301-670-7100