Month: September 2015

Board of Education meeting (FYI: our community is awesome)!

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publicschool
Psssst…it should have the contraction “it’s” instead of the possessive “its” here. We didn’t make it. Education matters, evidently!

We were afraid that last night’s Board of Education meeting was going to turn into an ugly us vs. them shame fest.( If you want to watch the meeting, click here to get to FCPS’s TV channel). Thankfully, we were all so very wrong. First off let’s give an old yokel tip of the hat to Board of Education President Brad Young for setting the tone of last night’s meeting:

There has been a misrepresentation that this is an either/or situation. I don’t want to see this as one vs. the other. Both schools are needed.

This entire board 150% agrees that both schools are needed.

Just for you Mr. Young. Thank you for setting the tone for what could have been a very contentious meeting.
Just for you Mr. Young. Thank you for setting the tone for what could have been a very contentious meeting.

County Executive Jan Gardner also spoke:

We need to advocate together for our community’s needs. We are all in it together.

The Frederick News Post also reported that the speakers also kept that tone of togetherness. At the end of the meeting, it was reported, that the PTA Presidents exchanged contact information. Way to go ladies!

Brad Young, and others, have told us the main reason that we have these money problems is due to the prevailing wage. Back in 2014, the State passed a law that if they provided more than 50% of the school construction bill, wages need to be set at a certain level. This is why Frederick High’s costs have skyrocketed and also why these construction projects are in jeopardy. Now, before anyone villianizes the prevailing wage, let’s all remember to look at the big picture. We have a huge problem in this country of  good folks working hard and not having enough money to pay their bills. If the prevailing wage measure helps with that, then it’s a good thing. We need to find a way to pay people well and get what our school system needs to educate our children properly.

So what can we do?

As we reported yesterday, we can petition Governor Hogan to release some of the education funds that he’s been holding on to. Click here to get to the petition.

Jan said she is going to work on raising the impact and school development fees so the developers pick up their fair share of the price tag. These builders shouldn’t be allowed to come into our county, make huge profits, and then leave us with clogged roads and overcrowded schools. When her bill comes to the county council, make sure they hear your voice. We suspect there may be, umm let’s see, at least three people who will be against this.

Email, call or visit our state and local officials. Here’s a nice list of all of them. Make sure they know how you feel about school funding in our county. Because……..

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Nobody should be at the bottom of this totem pole

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Frederick County residents ought to be very concerned with what is going on with our schools. Teachers are leaving because the salaries here are not competitive, and do not align with the workload. The state under Governor Hogan’s leadership is no help, withholding funds from communities all over the place. Sign the petition, please.

Schools are crowded. Crazy crowded. Certain people (for same, for shame) want to build houses willy-nilly while we pit communities against each other in a frankly disgusting way, because everyone is so desperate. No one wishes for their kids to attend schools under these conditions. Adding portable classrooms does not add toilets and gymnasiums and computer labs and libraries. Who is going to sashay into a neighborhood with a trailer park for an elementary school and spend $500,000 on a house? (Not this guy, tell ya that for sure.)

Butterfly Ridge Elementary is intended to relieve overcrowding at Hillcrest Elementary School, which in June was at 144 percent of its state-rated capacity. Waverley Elementary School, also in that area, was rated at 149 percent capacity.

Urbana Elementary School and Centerville Elementary are at 138 and 152 percent of state-rated capacity, respectively. (Frederick News Post, September 5, 2015)

Do we need to point out that homeschool is not a realistic option for that many people? For some we probably do…

The Board of Education is holding a public hearing on the FCPS master plan of capital projects at 7:30 today (that’s Wednesday evening, Sept. 9th, at 191 S. East St., Frederick). They will be working to decide the outcome here, and boy we do not envy them, not one little bit. Everyone should be getting treated better, especially in a matter that is so critical to nearly everyone involved, whether you have kids or you don’t. Schools are the cornerstones of our communities. They prepare our children for their path forward in life. They protect your real estate investments. (TLDR: there is a correlation between per pupil spending and property value). In low income neighborhoods schools feed kids and do what they can to provide opportunity. In communities of recent immigrants, they teach English as a Second Language (something we apparently as a county feel PATHOLOGICALLY PASSIONATE about; Local Yokel has written volumes on this, rivaling the length of the Oxford English Dictionary maybe).

The locals of your most devoted mommy blog are totally down with this very tired mommy crusader. Folks in the city government have given voice to the needs of the community in the western part of the city, and it is up to the people who have less representation down in the Urbana area to make their voices heard. Everyone deserves better. It is sad contemplating the outcome of this. No matter what, it ain’t gonna be pretty, but we particularly dislike the taste of what is going to inevitably look like class warfare, even if it is not.

 

Who is calling the county council rudderless?

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Right this way folks!
Right this way folks!

We are all familiar with last week’s county council meeting’s outcome. The Monrovia Town Center process is starting over from the beginning. We wrote about it, the Frederick News Post wrote about it and today Billy wrote about it:

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Great Gods on Mount Olympus hear our cries for mercy!!!! So many things to point out here folks. Let’s do a nice bullet list:

  1. Why is Billy using the Fox News lie “Fair and Balanced”?
  2. Paul Smith very specifically said in his letter that he WOULD not submit an affidavit. And refused to even talk about it with the Frederick News Post. Why would he come and testify before the county council?
  3. Then there’s Blaine who said it was a “boldface lie” that he was invited. But somehow his fellow BOCC member, David Gray, was able to find out the day of the hearing and had no problem standing in line to testify. Maybe Blaine feels as though he needs a special engraved invitation to speak.
  4. And Kirby…what the hell are you talking about rudderless? Perhaps he needs one of these:
It's under R.
It’s under R.

Finally Billy uses this quote from the judge’s order:

Read the Judges instructions on page 3, the last 3 lines: “Therefore, this Court must remand the matter to the County for further proceedings, including testimony, to resolve the issues raised in this Opinion“http://www.frederickcountymd.gov/DocumentCenter/View/280736

I don’t see how this proves his point. In fact it seems to support starting the process over. This is how the council has chosen to deal with the problems with the record, these two need to get over it and get on board. The vessel isn’t rudderless. Just because you don’t like the course, Kirby and Billy, doesn’t mean it isn’t going anywhere.

Maybe these guys need to stop using social media. Then again, it provides us with an endless source of information.

Let our funds go, Governor Hogan!!!

fclocalyokel2 Comments
It's curious how that happens isn't it?
It’s curious how that happens isn’t it?

It’s no secret that we are having problems with our public school funding here in Frederick County. Part of that problem is that the Governor did not release all of the money that the Board of Education was expecting. This is a statewide problem with far reaching consequences. Of this money Frederick County Public Schools was down about 3.2 million dollars. Not enough to eradicate all of our financial woes, but enough to make an impact. So if you have a moment please sign this petition:

https://www.change.org/p/lawrence-hogan-release-frederick-county-md-education-funds-totalling-3-2m

At last look it was nearing 500 people. Let our governor know that it is NOT okay to under-fund our public schools.

A county first and a very serious PSA about drug addiction

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I had a few extra moments this morning , so for the first time I was able to watch the county’s Public Information briefing broadcast on FCGTV. On this morning’s briefing there were two items to discuss. The first item was a county first! Jan and Bud held their first public bill signing.

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Congratulations Jan and Bud! Hopefully this brings some good opportunities to Frederick County so many of our citizens can stop that trek down 270.

The second half of the meeting was less celebratory. Jan and a representative from the county health department held a discussion about the heroin and opioid problem that is rampant throughout our fair state. We were made aware of these horrible statistics:

35 citizens of our fine county died as a result of heroin overdose last year.

Calls regarding heroin use have increased over 300%.

There are more heroin related deaths than homicides in our county.

Pretty terrible. What can be done? A number of suggestions were made.

First of all, if you have any prescription medicines, that you are no longer taking, you should bring them to one of these collection sites. I will take that even one step further. If you have been prescribed a medication that could become addictive, lock it up! Because honestly anyone can take it.

The county is also involved in a number of interagency partnerships in an effort to combat this problem. For example, the Frederick Police Department and the Frederick County Health Department. If the police come into contact with someone who appears to have an addiction problem they will be referred to a Peer Recovery coach who has been trained by the health department.  In fact, if you are interested in becoming a Peer Recovery coach they are having a training session in October.

If you have children, make sure you talk to them early and often about the dangers of drugs. This website shares many personal stories of drug addicts and their loved ones. Because we all know that sometimes kids listen to others better than their own parents. Let’s tackle this problem together as a community. No more shaming and blaming. Drug addiction can affect anyone, and the reluctance to acknowledge and talk about that does nothing to help.

From the quill of #kirbydelauter

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We're with you Mr. Octopus!
We’re with you Mr. Octopus!

 

In the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt, #kirbydelauter likes to keep us informed of his thoughts through a monthly column on THAT website curiously named The Tentacle. Read it in full for yourself here.

Now sit down readers, because we aren’t in total disagreement with #. We think he makes some good points about the public comments. Has there been any good answer as to why they were taken away from the beginning of the meeting? We do agree that it is a little arduous to sit through what is sometimes a 4 hour and 40 minute meeting to get your chance to speak. Anyone with any insights on this please share, because it’s a worthy discussion to have.

HOWEVER, we do have some issues with what he had to say.  We do not agree with the council man’s assertion that the council should vote on an issue right after the public hearing. In fact we think he makes our point for us when he states:

Another change that should be made is that we should vote on the issue at the public hearing. This is when things like public comment are fresh in everyone’s mind, and when you can have the debate with concerned residents. As it currently stands, we vote at the third hearing, which could be as much as a month from the date of the public hearing. That makes it very difficult to remember all of the information gathered at the hearing; and one thing you lose, in particular, is the emotion that people had at that hearing. Even if you take copious notes, it’s still difficult a month later to capture all items of importance that the hearing displayed.

An issue SHOULD NOT be decided upon because of the emotion of the situation. And that is exactly why the council should be given the time to digest what has been presented to them. EXACTLY WHY. And Mr. Delauter, if you are reading this, the county records all of your meetings so you can click here to replay all the emotions you may have forgotten.

Kirby, of course, doesn’t miss an opportunity to mention the English Language Ordinance and Aurora because blah, blah, blah..who cares? But we do love this last line:

You have to keep in mind, we’re not elected forever, so how would we want a meeting to run if we were on the other side of the dais?

Oooh when, oh when is he going to be on the other side of the dais?

 

A win for the community

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So you might remember a few weeks back our own local he who shall not be named made a big stink about no longer contributing donations to location worthy causes.

The Go Fund Me Campaign was absolutely a success. At this point $2321 was raised and we are sure the totals are even higher as we know folks also mailed in fists full of dough.

The Go Fund Me Campaign said it was going to close on September 1st, but it is still open.

So go ahead and take this opportunity to donate.

Click here to donate. Just do it.

If you already donated, then thank you.

A tip of the hat from us to you.

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Thank you.

Recap of 9/1 meeting from the headquarters of Local Yokel

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Some stuff we said to each other yesterday evening during the county sponsored book club meeting and recipe swap.

It was a “true colors reveal” for Tony Chmelik–not that the layers of that onion weren’t already peeling back, but his usual respectful demeanor gave way to patronizing arrogance, and he did not manage to keep his temper from getting the best of him on more than one occasion. A quick glance around the social media tubes indicates a reputation for hypocrisy developing, as his constituents complain that he is not only tardy but unresponsive in communication, and only addresses their concerns when pressed repeatedly and publicly.

Never in our lives could we have imagined Republicans so hostile to a tax incentive for business development. Black is white, up is down, what the what? It took what we had to say about reality in our drinking game for the evening into a whole new dimension. ICYMI: Democrats are nasty tax gobblers = straw man position.

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Billy creates his own motif by giving the impression that he has scarcely ever read anything. Garfield allusion? They probably didn’t stock Garfield books at the long defunct Borders store on the grand opening day.

Tony knows that shall and may mean different things. Thanks be to Xenu and his disciples at Narconon, through the counsel of Mr. Chomel.

Does this Dunning-Kruger problem sound like it pertains to anyone?

Dunning and Kruger proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

  • fail to recognize their own lack of skill
  • fail to recognize genuine skill in others
  • fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy
  • recognize and acknowledge their own lack of skill, after they are exposed to training for that skill

Great. Now what do we do? We know: lets have a workshop!