THEY’VE GOT GAME Silver Spring students win video gaming competition. A-3
A&E: National Philharmonic celebrates Strathmore anniversary. B-4
The Gazette
SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | WHEATON | BURTONSVILLE
SPORTS: Wheaton boys basketball doesn’t rebuild, they just keep on winning. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
25 cents
Starr steps down early as school superintendent O’Neill says board, superintendent agree that new leader needed n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Joshua P. Starr is stepping down on Feb. 16 as Montgomery County Public Schools superin-
tendent, four months before his four-year contract would have ended. The county school board unanimously approved on Tuesday an agreement that leads to Starr’s departure following public uncertainty of whether the superintendent had enough board support to renew his contract. School board president
Patricia O’Neill said Tuesday during a press conference that board members and Starr agreed that a new leader was needed to “carry forward the board’s vision.” “While I’m not Starr happy certainly at the way things have turned out, at the same time it is
absolutely the board’s authority to move in a direction that they see fit,” Starr said at the press conference. Starr said he is “very proud” of the work done in the district during his tenure, but sees more to be done. “It was my hope that I would
Forbes honors Silver Spring visionaries Co-founders of Food Recovery Network, Delta Produce named to list n
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
Ben Simon has seen a food recovery organization he helped found while at the University of Maryland, College Park, grow to national status. Kosta Dionisopoulos has seen a wholesale produce company he co-founded in his Silver Spring home grow to a large warehouse in Washington, D.C., that distributes produce to regional hotels, restaurants, caterers and even the White House. Now they are being recognized by a national business magazine. Simon, 25, a Silver Spring native, was recently listed among the honorees in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” feature for social entrepreneurs. Dionisopoulos, 28, was honored by Forbes’ “30 Under 30” for food and drink. The fourth annual feature recognizes 30 of the brightest stars under age 30 in 20 different fields, which also includes consumer technology, finance, health care, retail, science, sports and music. Silver Spring high school alumni who have made previous lists include Rebecca Sugar, creator of the Cartoon Network show “Steven Universe” and a Montgomery Blair High graduate. She was named to the “30 Under 30” entertainment list two years ago. Dionisopoulos, who could not be reached for comment,
be here to continue that work with our staff, our students, our families and our community,” he said. “However, I recognize and respect that the board has the right to choose the leader and the direction of the school system.” O’Neill and Starr didn’t elaborate on the reasoning behind his departure. O’Neill said the board “deeply appreciates”
Glenmont Fire Station construction delayed from late 2014 to April 2015 BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County’s fiscal 2016 capital budget proposal provides funding for numerous Silver Spring and Wheaton area projects, though some are progressing more slowly than an-
Ben Simon of Silver Spring, founder of the Food Recovery Network, at the organization’s office in College Park. co-founded Delta Produce in 2009 with Christos Marafatsos, with the goal of distributing the finest produce. The company operates six days a week, having built relationships with local and national farmers and suppliers. Simon, who graduated from Blair High in Silver Spring and now lives in Riverdale Park, founded Food Recovery Network with some Maryland classmates in 2011. The idea started by collecting unused prepared food from the college
dining hall and other places to deliver to local shelters and other organizations. It is now a national network at some 113 colleges and universities, leading to the recovery of more than 600,000 pounds of food, after Simon and others reached out to campuses such as Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley. The network’s College Park headquarters employs 12 full-time workers. “I had no idea it would grow so fast,” said Simon, the non-
profit organization’s executive director. An alliance with Gaithersburg-based Sodexo Foundation, which awarded the network its first large grant in 2013, helped boost the national outreach of Food Recovery Network. “They really took some good chances with us,” Simon said. Back in elementary school, Simon started regularly participating in an area walkathon
See VISIONARIES, Page A-10
See STARR, Page A-10
Budget slows Silver Spring construction n
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Starr’s work in the system. Starr told The Gazette in January that he wanted a second term and that he was “in it for the long haul.” He said at the time that he had done what the school board has asked him to do. Tuesday’s news came two
ticipated. A new Glenmont Fire Station at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road in Silver Spring is now planned to start construction in April, rather than late last year due to design delays, said Charles Edwards, project manager with the county. “We’re now looking at opening it in the summer of 2016,” rather than early next year, Ed-
See CONSTRUCTION, Page A-9
Delegation will pull transit bill Public outcry convinces county to step back and reconsider options
n
BY
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
Barely a week after a bill was introduced to help Montgomery County create an independent agency for transit projects, the
proposal is dead, at least for this year. “The plan is to pull the bill, which I think is the right move,” Del. Shane Robinson, the county’s delegation chairman, said Monday. Introduced Jan. 23 at the request of County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), the bill would enable the county to create an in-
See TRANSIT, Page A-10
Volunteers fan out in wee hours to count homeless population n
Annual effort helps determine how much public and private funding communities obtain BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
Nikki Stanaitis got up incredibly early Thursday morning to lead a group of volunteers who explored Metro stations, 24-hour restaurants and even woods in downtown
INDEX Automotive Business Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
B-12 A-11 A-2 B-8 B-4 A-12 B-1
Silver Spring and White Oak. The 4 a.m. sweep by volunteers was part of an annual effort to count and reach out to some of the more hardy homeless people who don’t seek emergency shelter on even the coldest sub-freezing nights. The count is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and helps determine how much public and private funding communities obtain to work against homelessness. “By doing this, you can see and understand how it’s hard work to be homeless and
survive out there,” said Stanaitis, clinical program director with Interfaith Works. The Rockville-based nonprofit agency and coalition of more than 165 churches and congregations provides shelter, clothing, food and other services for the poor and homeless. She works through the agency’s Community Vision program in Silver Spring, which provides an emergency seasonal shelter, as well as meals, showers, case management that can include referrals for men-
See HOMELESS, Page A-10
NEWS
HEADING SOUTH Minority Scholars program passes on its message to Chilean counterparts.
A-4
Volume 28, No. 3, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
Case Manager Blair Moorhead surveys a homeless person at an emergency homeless shelter in Silver Spring run by Community Vision, a program of Interfaith Works, on Jan. 28. BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
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