FOWL AND FELINES TO THE FORE Rockville hearing focuses on hens and cats. A-3
The Gazette
SPORTS: Good Counsel junior one of the top wrestlers in the nation for his weight class. B-1
ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | POTOMAC | OLNEY DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
25 cents
Split board agrees to change bell times n
Middle and high school days to start 20 minutes later BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County middle and high school students can sleep in another 20 minutes starting next school year. Following another round of heated debate on the issue, the school board voted 5-3 Tuesday to shift bell times. High schools and middle schools will start and end 20 minutes later. Elementary schools will start 10 minutes later and end 20 minutes later. School officials said the extra 10 minutes of the day will be for longer lunches and recesses. High schools currently start at 7:25 a.m. Middle schools start at 7:55 a.m. and elementary schools, which are split into two tiers, start at 8:50 and 9:15 a.m. At the board’s request, Superintendent Joshua P. Starr presented a range of options for a possible change — some that would cost a few million dollars, some that wouldn’t cost anything. Board President Patricia O’Neill said after Tuesday’s vote that Starr’s proposal made in 2013 would have been the best solution, but its $21 million price tag wasn’t possible for the district to take on. O’Neill said the 20-minute shift is “a step in the right direction.” “You just have to do what you think is right and I became convinced, and some of my other colleagues did, that we need to give our high school and middle school kids a bit of relief and this is as good as we can do given the fiscal
See BELL, Page A-15
At Bethesda meeting, residents express a mix of opinions about higher charges n
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
The National Park Service is scaling back its plans to increase user fees at the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park. The park still proposes raising
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Lisa Silverberg (left) and son Jesse, 12, who attends Takoma Park Middle School, chant with other Montgomery County Public Schools students and their parents, most wearing robes and pajamas over winter clothes, during a demonstration Monday outside the Carver Educational Services Center in Rockville.
current entrance, campground and pavilion rental fees, but only at park locations where those fees are now collected. “We have seen the great passion we all share for this park displayed over the course of three public meetings and have three more scheduled,” Superintendent Kevin Brandt said in a news release issued late Friday. “At this point we’re modifying our proposal and will continue public dialogue.” At a public meeting Thursday at
the Washington Waldorf School in Bethesda, feedback was mixed. Some expressed concern about the hardship that more and higher fees might cause users, while others emphasized the need to raise money to care for the park, which stretches from Cumberland to Washington, D.C. The park service recently announced that it was considering raising fees at the C&O Canal park, to bring it in line with other parks in its category, such as Antietam National
North Bethesda site hosts tours, history and spoken word events BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
HERITAGE MONTGOMERY
Josiah Henson Park in North Bethesda is hosting a series of events for Black History Month in February.
Battlefield. Brandt said at Thursday’s meeting that the Park Service has been deferring maintenance projects because of federal budget cuts, which puts some areas of the park in danger of deteriorating beyond repair. “We are living on borrowed time, because we aren’t doing the maintenance,” he said. Brandt said people at previous public meetings near the western
See FEES, Page A-15
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RYAN MARSHALL
A historic park in North Bethesda is hosting a series of events to mark Black History Month. Every Saturday in February, the Josiah Henson Park is offering free guided tours and showing a documentary about archaeological research at the park. The month’s events finish up with a spoken word poetry event Feb. 28. The park is named for the Rev. Josiah Henson, who was a slave on the Riley farm in what is now
See VOTE, Page A-14
A safe place for abused seniors ElderSAFE Center offers temporary shelter for vulnerable, older population n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
North Bethesda in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Henson escaped to freedom in Canada, and his autobiography probably inspired the abolitionist novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” according to the Department of Parks. The Henson park still has the Riley farmhouse and historians are still researching the site. On Feb. 28, people can celebrate Black History Month by presenting their compositions at a spoken word poetry event, “Lyrical Rhythms: The Sounds of Freedom.” At the event, which runs from 3 to 4 p.m., people can contribute original poetry, songs or other forms of artistic expression. This Saturday and Feb. 21 and 28, the park of-
See HISTORY, Page A-15
See SENIORS, Page A-15
B-E-E SPELLS T-R-O-U-B-L-E
Kensington Arts Theatre presents musical “25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
B-5
After weeks of debate and public hearings on a controversial proposal to change how the city balances development with growing school enrollment, Rockville’s mayor and council were set to vote Monday night. But they didn’t. Instead, they decided to wait until they see what happens at a county meeting on the subject next month. The mayor and council voted, 3-2, to postpone the vote on whether to tie the city’s school standards to Montgomery County’s, with no clear idea of when they would revisit the issue. Supporting the postponement were Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton and Councilwomen Beryl Feinberg and Virginia Onley. Councilman Tom Moore and Councilwoman Julie Palakovich Carr opposed the delay. The proposal would have raised Rockville’s threshold for cutting off development in an area when the local schools reached 120 percent of their programmed capacity — the county’s threshold — from the current standard of 110 percent. Capacity also would have been measured across all the schools in a given high school
Senior citizens who become the victims of abuse now have access to a special, temporary shelter through a new program run by a Rockville organization that provides housing and services for seniors. The ElderSAFE Center, established within the Charles E. Smith Life Communities in September, offers “a full panoply” of senior-focused medical services that other shelters might not be able to provide, said Tovah Kasdin, a former prosecutor who is now the director of the center. An inaugural celebration for the center was held Jan. 28. The abuse encountered by seniors can be physical, psychological, sexual or even financial, Kasdin, said. Since the center opened in September, Kasdin has offered admission to three seniors, but for various reasons those people did not come to the shelter, she said. In one case, a woman was being
A&E B-15 A-13 A-2 B-11 B-5 A-12 A-16 B-1
City postpones vote on changing its standards, pending March meeting STAFF WRITER
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Automotive Business Calendar Classified Entertainment Obituaries Opinion Sports
Rockville deferring to county for now BY
Black history comes to life at Henson park this month
INDEX
Schools vs. development
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C&O park pulls back on plan to raise fees BY
NEWS: Neighbors wary of big retailer at former BAE site in Aspen Hill. A-3
Volume 28, No. 6, Two sections, 36 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
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