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The Gazette POTOMAC | NORTH POTOMAC
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
25 cents
Starr: $1.6 billion HE WILL GO ALL THE WAY needed for new school projects Devonte Williams of Potomac’s Bullis School finds an open lane on his way to a late first-half touchdown in Saturday’s 24-0 defeat of Landon School in Bethesda. See high school football coverage, Page B-3.
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GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
FROM POSTER CHILD FOR PEACE
TO TEAMMATE Teen survives Sierra Leone’s civil war to find a place in school community in Potomac
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BY
SARAH TINCHER
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
In talking with Memuna Mansaray McShane, a junior at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac with a bright smile and a positive outlook on the world, no one would immediately guess what she’s been through. Though you might be able to tell by looking at her. On Sept. 18, standing in the front of an auditorium with her teachers and classmates listening carefully, she finally revealed the answers to so many questions about her life. Why was she adopted? Where is she from? And what happened to her arm? Memuna’s story began 17 years prior in Sierra Leone. In 1996, Memuna was born amid a civil war between the government and anti-government rebels had already been violently tearing the nation apart for five years. At age 2, she and her family were hiding in a mosque in Freetown, the nation’s capital, when members of a rebel militia came in with guns and the intent to kill. The militants fatally shot Memuna’s mother and grandmother while she was in her grandmother’s arms. Bullets also shattered Memuna’s right arm, which doctors were later forced to amputate. Little did Memuna know that this would be the turning point in her life. She was placed into a refugee camp, but not for long. Little Memuna fit the description that the president of Sierra Leone was looking for — young, cute
See TEAMMATE, Page A-11
Will increase county supplement for poorer households BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County is restoring a tax break for low-income working families. The Montgomery County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a bill requiring an increase in the county’s
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr said he prioritized adding classroom space in his newly proposed $1.55 billion Capital Improvements Program for fiscal years 2015 to 2020. “We are bursting at the seams,” he said Monday at Highland Elementary School in Silver Spring, which is at maximum capacity. Starr said the school system needs $2.2 billion to cover all of its capital improvement needs for the six-year period. He is proposing a $1.55 billion program, he said, because the county is currently facing “fiscal restraints” and the school system is not getting the funding it deserves from the state. The proposed program is about $184 million higher than the current program, which cov-
ers fiscal years 2013 to 2018. Starr said the program addresses the school system’s ongoing, significant enrollment growth with a recommendation for 14 new classroom addition projects. The plan also maintains schedules for other, previously approved capacity projects, including five new schools. Since 2007, he said, the school system has grown by 14,000 students; another 11,000 are expected over the next six years. Even if the program were fully funded, Starr said, 13 school clusters are expected to be over capacity in fiscal 2020. Fifteen school clusters in the system are over capacity this fiscal year. Most of the school system’s growth has occurred in elementary schools, he said. Of the 14 classroom addition projects, 12 are proposed for elementary schools. Starr recommended five addition projects at elementary schools in the Downcounty
See STARR, Page A-16
Parents, students air concerns on proposed changes to start times n
First of four forums held Monday at Paint Branch High BY
ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Memuna Mansaray McShane is a varsity athlete at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac.
Council OKs bill to help low-income families n
Superintendent says enrollment growth fuels space crunch
Working Families Income Supplement, which provides money to taxpayers working at or near the poverty level. The increase could help people make a car payment they otherwise might have missed, which could have jeopardized their ability to get to work and put their job at risk, said Councilman Hans Riemer (DAt Large) of Silver Spring, who sponsored the bill. Many community groups in the county strongly supported the bill, Riemer said.
FALL BACK This Sunday at 2 a.m., set your clocks back one hour for the end of daylight saving time.
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RECYCLE
A county memorandum on the issue reported that representatives of Catholic Charities, the Justice and Advocacy Council of Montgomery County, Progressive Maryland and Maryland Hunger Solutions, among other groups, supported the bill at a July public hearing. Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) of Garrett Park said she’s always voted for a full match by the county, and
See COUNCIL, Page A-11
More than 150 people attended the first of four community forums about changes to school start and end times held Monday at Paint Branch High School in Silver Spring. Parents, students, and teachers were given the opportunity to share their opinions about Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s recommendations to move the start time for the school system’s high schools back 50 minutes, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m.; move the middle school first bell from 7:55 a.m. to 7:45 a.m., and keep elementary school start times the same, but extend the day by 30 minutes. “We can’t charge up and make changes without hearing people’s opinion and how it
impacts them,” said John Matthews, chairman of the 2013 Bell Times Work Group. The group, formed in December 2012, studied the bell times’ impact on students’ sleep habits. “First we want to find out what they think. Then next, we want to find out what is the impact on them,” Matthews said, adding that the goal is to find out if the impacts are going to be significant enough to “make us want to do something different or supportive enough to make us want to continue with a plan like this.” During the meeting, some of the challenges mentioned by the community were the impact on parents who rely on older children to take care of their siblings before they come home from work; loss of family quality time for very young children; parents of high school children who will have to stay home for an additional hour, and safety issues with more adolescents driving
See SCHOOL, Page A-16
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