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Kipling classic takes a tour through South Asia. A-10
The Gazette OLNEY
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Wednesday, April 2, 2014
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Montgomery prepares second snow waiver request Parents, students unclear when summer vacation starts n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County Public Schools on Tuesday prepared a request to waive four days of instruction lost due to wintry weather, after its five-day request was denied Monday. State Superintendent of Schools
Lillian M. Lowery denied the school system’s original request in a March 26 letter because it “does not demonstrate an effort to modify the school calendar to make up for lost instructional time.” In a Tuesday letter, Starr submitted a modified, four-day waiver request that, if accepted, would involve the school system adding one day to the school year and changing Easter Monday from a holiday to an instructional day. Starr sent another letter to Lowery
had asked the state to waive five days — the maximum number of days the state allowed school districts to request. The system had planned to add one day to its calendar if the waiver was accepted. Dana Tofig, a county school system spokesman, said the school system weighs the effect of adding school days when considering a waiver request. “It is a balancing act between wanting to make up meaningful instructional time and respecting the existing
on Tuesday asking for permission to make Easter Monday an instructional day. Lowery said in her March 26 letter that she would consider a modified request from the school system. The state requires school districts to hold 180 instruction days. While the school system built four snow days into its calendar, county students have had 10 days off this school year because of snow. In its first request, the school system
County’s goal is to distribute antibiotics to 1 million people in 24 hours n
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VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
The county’s public health scenario assumed a crop duster plane had flown low over Montgomery County, releasing deadly white clouds of anthrax spores in a bioterrorist attack. In response, officials organized teams of people to dispense antibiotics — doxycycline and ciprofloxacin — to 1 million people within 48 hours. The exercise involving about 100 county employees and volunteers Friday at Damascus High School was to test the logistics and timing of dispensing life-saving antibiotics to people in cars and on foot. “The winds take it and pretty much cover the whole county in a very short time, and it can infect you very quickly, but you can survive,” said Cindy Edwards, senior nurse administrator for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services. “We were trying to get the medicine into the hands of everybody.” The county distributed vaccine doses during the H1N1 swine flu spike in 2009 but had not simulated a drive-through situation, said Chris Voss, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. “It’s a way to test some of the theories
See DRILL, Page A-9
See WAIVER, Page A-9
Planners unveil vision for Sandy Spring center
In mock attack, they know the drill BY
schedules that our students, staff, families and communities already have in place, including jobs, internships, camps, and more,” Tofig said in an email. As of Tuesday, Lowery had responded to waiver requests from four counties, including Montgomery, Anne Arundel, St. Mary’s and Carroll, said William Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Educa-
Next step: Presentation to Planning Board on Thursday BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Nancy Reynaud of Gaithersburg assembles bags of medicine for other volunteers to hand out to drivers during Friday’s bioterror exercise at Damascus High School.
The Sandy Spring Meetinghouse was built in 1817 on land that had been conveyed in 1753 by James Brooke to Roger, Richard and Basil Brooke in trust for the Society of Friends. And while it is unlikely that the Brookes could have envisioned the building hosting a PowerPoint presentation by county planners centuries later, it has always served as a community hub, which made it an appropriate setting for the March 19 gathering. That’s when the planners laid out their vision for a thriving village center in the heart of Sandy Spring, featuring new residential units, retail and office space, on- and off-street parking, sidewalks and bike paths. Planner Kristin O’Connor and other planning department staff briefed residents on the updated Rural Village Center plan they are scheduled to present to the Planning Board on Thursday.
Much of the plan was created during the four-day community workshop held at the Sandy Spring Museum in early February. “The meetinghouse was a very interesting venue and the first time we have ever held a meeting in a place of worship,” O’Connor said. “We asked a lot of questions about what we could do there, because we wanted to be respectful.” The presentation included drawings and computer-generated graphics of what the village center might look like, in terms of density and building heights of one to three stories. About 55 people attended, including all the major property owners in the village center. The visuals spawned a lot of questions about parking and zoning, O’Connor said. The plan addresses parking with some on-street spaces, plus a proposed parking lot behind the buildings that will line the north side of Md. 108 in the village center. She said planners are working closely with Sandy Spring Museum officials to ensure the new zoning allows for artisans
See SANDY SPRING, Page A-9
200 animals rescued from puppy mill n
Animals seized in Arkansas arrive in Gaithersburg for adoption BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
When Tia Pope visited a suspected puppy mill in Jefferson County, Ark., in late January she noticed a small, red 10-year-old Italian greyhound living in deplorable conditions. Pope, manager of the Puppy Mill Response for the Humane Society of the United States, said she wasn’t sure if the dog
was going to survive. “At the time, it was 20-something degrees and she was outside in a chain link concrete pen with really no shelter,” Pope said. “For a dog of her size, she had no body fat and there was nowhere for her to stay warm. She was shaking.” Now, thanks to the efforts of the Humane Society, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and other organizations, the dog has been given a second chance at life. All of the animals at the mill — 121 dogs, 20 horses, 19 chickens, 11 exotic birds, and multiple bunnies, turtles and cats — were
seized Feb. 27 by the Humane Society of the United States. On March 26, 55 of the dogs, including the Italian greyhound, nine bunnies and three birds were brought to the society’s Gaithersburg office, where pet adoption agencies eagerly waited to pick them up and begin the process of finding them new, loving homes. The Gaithersburg office is at 700 Professional Drive. “It was nice to see that she was one of the ones who made it back to the Washington
SPORTS
Conservation efforts credited with boosting numbers in area.
Hearing Olney baseball player thrives at a deaf school.
A-3
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DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
See RESCUED, Page A-9
NEWS
BLUEBIRDS FLOCK TO OLNEY
Jen Koca of Herndon, Va., an intern for the Puppy Mill Rescue Campaign of the Humane Society of the United States, holds a 14-year-old Yorkshire terrier from a transport truck that had just arrived from a puppy mill rescue in Arkansas.
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