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JINGLE BELL CLOCKED Adventure Theatre-MTC recounts classic Christmas tune. A-11
The Gazette POTOMAC | NORTH POTOMAC
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
C O U N T Y
25 cents
Ex-Potomac man behind website for insurance
T R U A N C Y
Site provides information on health exchange plans
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COURT-STYLE PREVENTION PROGRAM LOOKS BEYOND ATTENDANCE n
BY
STAFF WRITER
The Truancy Court Program is in five Montgomery County
About a month ago, three 20-something entrepreneurs launched a website that some users say helps them learn information about health insurance plans more easily than the federal government’s healthcare.gov site that an army of workers has developed for years. Co-founders of the privately run site, TheHealthSherpa.com, include Michael Wasser, who grew up in Potomac. The Seattle resident majored in computer science and economics at the University of Maryland, College Park. “We aren’t trying to compete with the federal government’s site,” said Wasser, 26. “We have different goals in that we are mainly providing information and don’t sign up people. You can’t really compare the two.” The site essentially takes government information on health plans and makes it easier for people to access, Wasser he said. The company doesn’t just rely on government sources but collects other information such as details on co-payments and deductibles, as well as provides information on insurers for users to contact directly. Since launching, the site has seen traffic rise dramatically, with about 2 million page views in the past three weeks, he said. Wasser and co-founders George Kalogeropoulos, 28, and Ning Liang, 27, have already been featured on CBS News, Fox Business News and other media outlets. Yale University graduates Kalogeropoulos and Liang live in the San Francisco area, where the fledgling business is based. “I can work fine remotely from Seattle,” said Wasser, who met his partners through a friend about nine months ago. A New Hampshire woman, who praised the site as “much easier” to use than the government one, said on the CBS newscast that she “was not sur-
See TRUANCY, Page A-10
See WEBSITE, Page A-9
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
University of Baltimore School of Law student Andrea Bento (left) and assistant state’s attorney George Simms listen to a student during Truancy Court at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Silver Spring.
students
seats
GETTING BACK IN
LINDSAY A. POWERS AND ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH
BY
M
STAFF WRITERS
ontgomery County students who repeatedly miss class are getting guidance from unlikely allies: local prosecutors and judges. In a program that spread to the county from Baltimore in 2010, Montgomery County prosecutors and a local judge meet with students facing a range of attendance issues, from persistent lateness to chronic absence. According to a report by Montgomery County’s Office of Legislative Oversight, “habitual truancy” is defined as missing 18 days in a semester or 36 days of school in a school year. About 984 county public school students were habitually truant in 2009, including about 627 in high school, the report
HABITUAL TRUANCY
Montgomery County Public Schools’ habitual truancy rate has increased slightly in recent years as Maryland’s rate has decreased. “Habitual truancy” is defined as missing 18 days in a semester or 36 days of school in a school year, according to a report by Montgomery County’s Office of Legislative Oversight.
2.5 2.0
STATE
2.32%
2.25%
1.93%
1.89%
1.80%
0.63%
1.13%
1.08%
2011-12
2012-13
1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0
MONTGOMERY
0.72% 2008-09
0.40% 2009-10
2010-11
SOURCE: MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, MARYLAND STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
says. The same year, more than 8,600 students were chronically absent, missing 20 or more days of school.
Montgomery County ranks in the middle of the pack among Maryland counties’ habitual truancy rates.
Once-in-a-lifetime holiday: Thanksgivukkah Convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah hasn’t happened since 1888 n
BY AND
TERRI HOGAN PEGGY MCEWAN
STAFF WRITERS
What do you get when you combine Thanksgiving and Hanukkah? Thanksgivukkah? Or maybe Thanks-
NEWS
ACCESS FOR ALL
County program aims to increase drastically the amount of public information available.
A-4
a-latkes? This is the year to make the most of the convergence of the two holidays. It hasn’t happened since 1888 and it will not happen again “in our lifetime,” said Rabbi Bentzy Stolik, director of Chabad of Olney. “It’s impossible to determine if it will ever happen again,” Stolik said. “Hanukkah follows the Jewish calendar, which is based on a lunar system, but the number of months changes every two or three years to catch up with the Gregorian cal-
PHOTO FROM CYNDI GLASS
Kyle Silberman (left), 5, and brother Michael, 7, of Silver Spring work on their “menurkey,” a turkeyshaped menorah they made out of clay and painted for a joint celebration of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. Their grandmother Cyndi Glass of Brookeville helped them with the project and will host the family’s Thanksgiving/Hanukkah celebration at her home.
endar.” With the annual changing of Thanksgiving Day, which is celebrated the fourth Thursday of November, it’s easy to see that the turkey might not catch up with the lighting of the menorah candles again for a long, long time. “I’ve heard it will next happen in about 7,000 years,” said Ruth Lamberty, director of jconnect, a service of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
See HOLIDAY, Page A-9
SPORTS
A PATH WITH MANY DETOURS
Magruder High School grad recovers from serious blood clot, pursues dream of playing professional soccer.
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