School system leaves out parents, advocates complain

Budget hearings and worksessions provided enough time for parent input, board members counter

The board held a daylong retreat last month where members discussed open communication with parents and advocates. During an informal breakfast with the school board last month, some County Council members said they hear about important initiatives from constituents before hearing from the board.

‘‘Why do you think parents are upset for so many different reasons?” asked John Garza, new president of the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, which has fought with the school system over revisions in the recently passed sex education curriculum. ‘‘Parents aren’t included. There’s a feeling in the school system that they know what’s best for the children.”

CRC, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays and the newly formed Family Leader Network have filed an appeal with the Maryland State Board of Education, claiming that the county school board released factually inaccurate information and did not put out material for public review before unanimously approving a revised curriculum.

If the state board does not throw out the curriculum, CRC will sue the Montgomery school board, Garza said. ‘‘I just wish they’ll pick up the phone and say, ‘Let’s sit down and work this out,’” he said.

Board member Patricia B. O’Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda, a member of the board’s communications and public engagement committee, does not agree with parents who claim they are not fully involved in school system’s decision making.

‘‘People believe that if their opinion is not adopted, then they didn’t have input,” she said. ‘‘Everyone in Montgomery County has their own opinion about everything.”

The communications committee has not met yet this year.

In a last-gasp effort to delay the school board’s adoption of schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast’s proposed $1.98 billion operating budget, parents who disapprove of Weast’s plan to close the county’s secondary learning centers for special needs students met Sunday. Stephen N. Abrams (Dist. 2) of Rockville was the only board member to attend the meeting.

Secondary learning centers, with a slower pace and smaller class sizes, helps special-needs children master the county’s general education curriculum.

Weast believes the centers do not work and wants to include at least 80 percent of the county’s special education students in regular classrooms. Advocates have repeatedly complained about Weast’s proposal, saying the school system wants to move forward with the closures, even though parents still have questions about the plan.

‘‘I think that parents both want and need to be involved in decisions of Montgomery County Public Schools that affect our children, especially when dramatic changes are being proposed,” said Lyda Astrove, an advocate whose son spent seven years in the county’s secondary learning centers. ‘‘I think parents have the right to be in on the discussions from the very beginning. MCPS is a public agency funded with tax dollars. There was no legitimate reason not to disclose to parents back in the summer that MCPS was considering closing the secondary learning centers.”

Board President Nancy Navarro (Dist. 5) of Silver Spring wrote a letter to Astrove last week, saying that the other board members would not attend Sunday’s meeting because of ‘‘short notice and Board members’ prior personal commitments.”

In the letter, Navarro pointed to the two public hearings in January, where special education advocates spoke on the learning center closings. Roughly 100 parents protested before the first hearing and flooded the room with signs and comments to blast the proposal.

‘‘There has not been a shortage of public comments on the superintendent’s proposal to phase out the learning centers,” Navarro wrote.

But as far as a lack of parent involvement, the school board has heard it all before, Abrams said. ‘‘You’re going to hear that any time people feel something is coming about very quickly,” he said.

‘‘I think there’s a renewed commitment to reviewing and exploring two-way communication” with parents and the community, said board Vice President Shirley Brandman (At-large) of Bethesda.