Today is kind of a big day…the day we all hear what the recommendations are from Superintendent Martirano for redistricting (School Boundary Review Process) of Howard County Public Schools.

Now as our community has gone through this process over the last couple of months…the shocking announcement recently from some Howard County Council Members may throw a monkey wrench in the process (Councilmembers Rigby, Jones and Jung call on HCPSS to develop a plan to desegregate its schools). We do not know the specifics of the resolution they are planning or what that might do to this process..but it did enough to spin up the community just before they (some of the councilmembers) ran off to Ocean City for the MACo conference while on recess the end of last week.

In advance of the resolution…a MPIA (Maryland Public Information Act) request was made for the following information:

Under the Maryland Public Information Act Title 4, I request records the following records: Any emails with the subject line “Councilmembers Mercer Rigby, Jones and Jung Call on Howard County Public School System to Develop Integration Plan.”

Here is a link to that MPIA: https://mpia.hcpss.org/requests/2020-041

There is some interesting stuff in it…and may give you a look at the interactions between Howard County Board of Education members.

Here are some highlights that folks that have read the MPIA have sent to me about it:

This is some of the stuff sent to me…lots more is in the MPIA request….heck, there is even a Tweet from a local blogger (me) sent to board members….that was kind of funny to see in the PDF. I am now part of an official record in the local school system…because of a tweet…just funny.

Here is the one email that really stood out to me:

“Political coverage”…WOW!!!

One thing is certain…there were a number of board members and the HCPSS Superintendent that seemed to be shocked at the press release from the Howard County Councilmembers. While some were including in the discussion…the press release seemed to come out of left field to some.

This only goes to strengthen a statement that I made in a previous post: “Adversarial Environment – Is it just me or does there appear to be an outright adversarial environment in our county right now between the county elected officials (County Executive and County Council) and the school system? I mean we just got through the whole school audit issue that required legislation…and now this. Why does it take legislation for these folks to work together on important issues?”

I have seen what I believe is an early draft of the resolution from the Howard County Council related to the redistricting process …and worry not at this point…because if what I have seen is legit…then the resolution will do nothing to derail the current process. Actually if what I have seen is legit…then I will have a lot to say when it hits the street publicly.

This is all I have for this morning…I am sure I will have lots more this week when we get the plan from the Superintendent to the HoCoBOE. This should be an interesting week or month locally dealing with this issue. Lots to write about on the blog.

Scott E