Save Rock Creek Hills Park? Well, we sure tried!: Quick question:

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Quick question:

"MCPS demonstrates commitment to continuous improvement by reviewing, evaluating, and improving our work..."

– A "Core Value" from "Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence. The Strategic Plan for the Montgomery County Public Schools."

Quick question: When you find out that you've done something that is apparently illegal*, does that suggest that you should quicken the pace of your efforts to review, evaluate, and improve your work?

Quick followup: Would you also slow the pace of your efforts to follow through on the decision that appears to have been illegal?

________

*The Montgomery County Board of Education did not consult with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission before their arbitrary and unreasonable April 28th proclamation that they would take the site of Rock Creek Hills Park to build a middle school, in apparent violation of §4-116 of the Maryland Education Act, which states:

(a) (1) If there is a commission or agency with legal responsibility for county planning for land use, the county board [of Education] shall:
(i) Consult with the commission or agency; and
(ii) Ask its advice in choosing land for a school site.

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Who Said That?

"When the [Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission] developed [Rock Creek Hills Park] in the early 1990s they accepted funds from the Program Open Space. This is a program managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to distribute funds from the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve open space. The use of Program Open Space funds was inconsistent with the reclamation terms of the transfer agreement under which the M-NCPPC took title to the property. This was the case since use of these funds places restrictions on future public use of parks, in contradiction with the terms of the original transfer agreement..."
– Dr. Joshua Starr, Superintendent, Montgomery County Public Schools.

From the MCPS Site Selection Advisory Committee Minority Reports:

The B-CC High School NAACP Parents' Council wrote that they "... cannot support the recommendation to build the new middle school in a potentially racially divisive and socially isolating location. ... We, therefore, ask the Superintendent and the Board of Education to decline to adopt Rock Creek Hills Local Park as the site for the new middle school."

The Lyttonsville Civic Association wrote that "...MCPS staff set inappropriate boundaries for discussion... ...MCPS staff cut off discussion to insist that a vote be taken before the committee had finished considering all their options. Staff ... made procedural rulings that affected the ability of some representatives to speak freely. Some representatives voiced concerns that they were being led to a predetermined conclusion."

Ms. Brooke Farquhar (Parks Department) wrote: "Costs were not thoroughly evaluated in the process and misinformation may have prejudiced the votes of committee members.... The process lacked a robust analysis. The potential sites should have been analyzed more thoroughly, based on detailed information that would allow consistent comparison across the sites."

Mr. Frederick V. Boyd (Planning Board) wrote: "[T]he rating process used for selecting sites did not provide a real opportunity to consider the community character and quality of life consequences of choosing a candidate site. ... [D]escriptions appear to have been written to enable easier consideration of some public sites..."