SPENDING POWER County senators want change in state budget balance. A-5
The Gazette
A&E: Montgomery Playhouse’s “Boeing, Boeing” leaves main character jet-lagged. B-4
SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | WHEATON | BURTONSVILLE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
School board approves budget
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$10 million cut from Starr’s original proposal LINDSAY A. POWERS
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County school board has approved a fiscal 2016 operating budget $10.2 million lower than what Superintendent Joshua P. Starr proposed in December. The county school system’s proposed operating budget for next year now stands at $2.39 billion. The budget moves next to Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett and the Montgomery County Council for approval. The amount cut from the original proposal roughly matches the $10.3 million Montgomery County would lose in projected state education funding, under Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposed budget. Starr revised his original budget request following the release of Hogan’s budget. The main loss of state money for Montgomery comes from Hogan’s decision to cut the Geographic Cost of Education Index in half, a $17.7 million loss for the county. The index is a formula that directs additional money to counties where the cost of living and education are higher. The governor is not required to provide funding based on the index. School officials said on Feb. 10, when the budget request was approved, that the district could face further budget cuts from the county. The proposed school system operating budget marks an increase of 5.1 percent compared to the district’s current budget. Under the revised budget, the school system would cut $1.8 million, mostly by reduc-
See BUDGET, Page A-10
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
The Harper cabin at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton came from a post-Civil War African-American community in western Montgomery County that the Harper family built in 1870.
Council planned to meet with remaining three bidders in closed session n
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
And now there are three. Washington, D.C.-based Community Three Develop-
INDEX B-11 A-11 A-2 B-8 B-4 A-7 A-12 B-1
The county planning board unanimously approved on Thursday a review of a project providing 21 transitional apartments for the homeless near a Georgia Avenue fire station in the southern edge of downtown Silver Spring. The board also voted 5-0 to approve a sketch plan for a nearby mixed-use project called Ripley II, with up to 419,286 square feet of residential and other uses on Dixon Avenue near Ripley Street. The homeless project is for Progress Place, a county-owned facility that provides job training, meals and other services for the homeless. The facility on Colonial Lane would be moved about a block away near Fire Station 1 under the proposal.
Eileen McGuckian, president of Montgomery Preservation Inc., a nonprofit historic preservation organization, said her group had not been notified of the process, which has been going on for several years. The organization runs the Historic Silver Spring B&O Railroad Station next to the proposed Progress Place project. The group will lose numerous parking spaces, and delivery and other services will be affected, McGuckian said. “We need to be part of this process,” McGuckian said, adding that she is not opposing the new facility. “We need to survive, and we are losing our land in all directions.” Planning board Chairman Casey Anderson asked that McGuckian and staff meet to share drawings and other information. The planning department still has to make sure developers of Progress Place meet obligations under the forest conservation plan, and building permits
See HOMELESS, Page A-10
Wheaton cabin a glimpse at early African-American life BY
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KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
hile Montgomery County is widely seen as a progressive area, it had a considerable number of slaves in 1864, when Maryland outlawed slavery toward the end of the Civil War. Montgomery had 5,421 slaves in 1860, about 30 percent of the county’s total population, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Montgomery possessed the fifth most slaves among the state’s 21 counties, with only Prince George’s, Charles, Anne Arundel and St. Mary’s having more. There were also 1,552 free blacks in the county, many of them in Sandy Spring, where
Quakers had begun to free their slaves decades before. With freedom came a central challenge for many former slaves — how to make a living. In the half-century following the Civil War, African-Americans established some 40 settlements throughout the county, according to “Community Cornerstones,” a publication by the Heritage Tourism Alliance of Montgomery County. Most of these communities had a church that served not just as a religious center, but a meeting place and school. While many were in the northern and western sections of the county, some were in the Silver Spring area.
See CABIN, Page A-10
Developer withdraws Takoma Junction bid
Automotive Business Calendar Classified Entertainment Obituary Opinion Sports
Railroad station official says her group wants to be part of process BY
STAFF WRITER
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25 cents
Planners OK homeless plan in Silver Spring
A testament to survival
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SPORTS: Takoma Academy upgrades basketball schedule to become elite program. B-1
ment has pulled its proposal to redevelop some city-owned land around the intersection of Carroll and Ethan Allen avenues. That leaves three bids for Takoma Park officials to consider in a process that began a little more than a year ago. Grant Epstein, president of Community Three, wrote in a Feb. 13 letter to the city that
“increased workload on other efforts” wouldn’t let the developer “exert the level of attention this project and the city deserve to fully realize the potential of this site.” “This decision does not come easily for us as we truly believe in the potential a redevelopment of this site has to spur a renewed sense of place
for this intersection and provide the community with an urban environment it can enjoy for generations to come,” Epstein wrote. On Tuesday, the City Council was scheduled to meet separately with representatives of the remaining three Takoma
See WITHDRAWS, Page A-10
NEWS
CRITTERS’ BEST FRIEND Silver Spring girl declines gifts for herself in favor of supplies for Humane Society.
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Volume 28, No. 5, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
MONTGOMERY COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT
This illustration shows the proposed first-floor plan of the Ripley II project in Silver Spring.
Partners will expand job training program Director says there are more opportunities, guidance services n
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
A national job training nonprofit with a Silver Spring office is expanding a program that provides training and career development services to unemployed and underemployed people. Per Scholas, based in New
York, provides the eight-week training course through scholarships valued at $7,000 each to participants to prepare them for industry-recognized information technology certification. The certification aids people in getting such jobs as IT support analysts, desktop support specialists and field technicians. An expanded partnership with Hanover, Md.-based TEKsystems will greatly aid students going through the training, said
See JOB, Page A-10
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