this black history month, think about the power you wield

When little kids learn about Martin Luther King, Jr., they usually hear a version of this story: when Dr. King was a child, a white friend says they can’t play together anymore because his parents won’t let him play with a Black child. It’s the inciting incident in Dr. King’s story, what inspires him to fight for justice.

Students organized this Black Lives Matter protest in Bethesda last summer. Photo by the author.

King came from a relatively comfortable family. He grew up in a large Victorian house originally built for a white family. Both of his parents went to college, as did he and both of his siblings. His sister was a professor. None of those things could protect him from the whims of a white person defining where, when, how, or even if they would engage with him.

Decades after the Civil Rights movement, segregation and discrimination persist because that power imbalance still exists. This Black History Month, if you’re planning to do a day of service or support a Black-owned business, I encourage you to take it a step further and examine the power structures in your community.

14 years!

As longtime readers know, I started this blog 14 years ago last Friday, June 26, at the age of 18. I was passionate about this place, but it was a lonely effort. Most of my friends had other things to worry about, and they were tired of me ranting in class or at parties or at shows about the Purple Line.

I wish 18-year-old me could see how much things have changed!

A socially-distanced protest at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, organized by two recent graduates. Photo by the author.

This spring, I've had the chance to meet a number of young people in Montgomery County who are leading the fight for equity and justice in our community, from the MCPS school boundary analysis to over two dozen Black Lives Matter protests that have happened here since May. They live in all parts of the county. They come from a variety of different backgrounds. What unites them is their energy, their persistence, and their willingness to say what needs to be said.

Zoe Tishaev, a graduate of Clarksburg High School, organized a two-hour discussion on exclusionary zoning in Montgomery County called A Legacy of Segregation, where I spoke along with Jane Lyons from the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Planning Board member Partap Verma. You can watch it here:


Last weekend, I had the honor of speaking at a BLM protest at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda organized by Matt Garfinkel and Nat Tilahun, two MCPS grads who understood the power of making yourself heard right here at home.

These are just two examples, but I'm constantly inspired by the hard work of our student activists - and challenged to push harder for what's right. As grown-ups (am I a grown-up yet?) we would do well to listen to them.

Anyway, here's the text of my speech on Saturday. Here's to 14 years of Just Up The Pike, and here's to 14 more years:

this questionnaire shows MoCo school board candidates' commitment to equity

As we speak, voters in Montgomery County are receiving ballots for the June 2 primary, which includes a crowded and often nasty race for school board. To help voters learn about the candidates, a group of progressive organizations put together an "Equity Questionnaire" on major issues affecting students.

Click to see the entire questionnaire.

Montgomery County Public Schools is the largest school system in Maryland, and its Board of Education is responsible for 165,000 students and a nearly $3 billion budget. It's a very diverse system and a fast-growing one, which raises questions about how MCPS should best use its resources.

While this year's school board race has largely revolved around a sometimes-controversial look at school boundaries, there are other big questions, like whether MCPS should do more for LGBTQ students or place police officers in schools.

There are also a lot of candidates in the primary, from which the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election in November. Thirteen people are running for the at-large seat, which is vacant.
Incumbent board member Shebra Evans has two challengers in District 4, which covers Silver Spring and Wheaton, while fellow incumbent Rebecca Smondrowski has a challenger in District 2, which covers Gaithersburg and North Potomac. (Since there are only two candidates running in District 2, it won't appear on your primary ballot.)

To help voters understand the issues, over a dozen progressive organizations in the county teamed up to make the "Equity Questionnaire," which asks candidates about everything from school boundaries to teacher hiring. Those organizations, which include SURJ (Standing Up for Racial Justice), Impact Silver Spring, the LGBTQ Democrats of Montgomery County, Jews United for Justice, and One Montgomery, aren't making any endorsements but share a commitment to social justice. There's a chart showing the candidates' answers to 12 yes/no questions, followed by more in-depth answers on specific topics.

This questionnaire only reflects the candidates' answers, which don't always line up with answers they gave to other organizations or public statements they've made. If you're really interested in digging into this race, you can also check out the League of Women Voters' voter guide, which includes all of the Montgomery County school board candidates.

battles over school boundaries divide candidates for montgomery county school board

Most years, school board races in Montgomery County can be pretty quiet. This spring, a study about school boundaries in this affluent yet diverse county have made the Board of Education election an explosive debate about race and class in public schools. It may be the most important race on the ballot.

Students outside Paint Branch High School in 2013. All photos by the author.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) comprise a very diverse school system: 72% of MCPS students are non-white, and the system has more students on free or reduced lunch than DC Public Schools has students. It is also growing rapidly. Although it is already the largest school system in Maryland and serves over 165,000 students, more than 2,000 additional students have enrolled each year for the last several years.

The Montgomery County Board of Education oversees MCPS and its nearly $3 billion budget. Eight of its board members are elected in something like a jungle primary: anyone from any political party can run, and the top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary will go to the general election in November. There are three seats up for grabs, one at-large seat and two district seats, which everyone votes for regardless of where they live. Meanwhile, middle and high school students nominate and elect a student as the ninth member, which they’ll vote for on May 20.

We’re talking about school boundaries

School board members in Montgomery County are considered part-time, and receive a very small salary to make decisions from the converted auditorium of what was the county’s black high school in the 1950s. But they have a lot of power. In 2018, student board member Ananya Tadikonda proposed that the school board look at school boundaries, which in some areas haven’t changed in 30 years. The school board hired a consultant, and their research  — which began last fall — affirmed things that many parents or students already knew or assumed:

ten very silver spring (and montgomery county) things that happened this decade

Clockwise from top left: "The Turf" in 2006, Veterans Plaza under construction in 2010, the first Fenton Street Market in the plaza that fall, and the 2019 Silver Spring Jazz Festival. Click for a bigger version.

If you’ve seen the "Woman Yelling at a Cat"meme, you’d recognize the mural that sat on Ellsworth Drive for all of one day this fall. Normally, the meme is a photo of one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, well, yelling at a cat named Smudge. Instead, the woman, surrounded by raging fires, has a speech bubble reading “I’M FROM D.C.!!” and the cat - now wearing sunglasses and a fur coat - has a speech bubble that just says “Silver Spring.”

this is the one we’ve been waiting for #silverspringwalls pic.twitter.com/3x3ll4Svnf

— dan reed, hot chocolate enthusiast ☕️ (@justupthepike) November 17, 2019

The mural was produced by DC-based artists No Kings Collective as part of Silver Spring Walls, a series of permanent and temporary art installations that went up in big-D Downtown Silver Spring this year, the first phase of a larger renovation project in the area.

But it also says a lot about Silver Spring at the end of the 2010s. It’s not just that Silver Spring had a big turnaround from the 1980s and 1990s, when the area was still in decline. It’s that Silver Spring came into its own as a place, with unique attractions and a distinctive culture.

People here might still say they're "from DC," but Silver Spring is giving them even more reasons not to. So, what do we have to show for ourselves after another decade? Let's take a look:

montgomery county is finally talking about its segregated schools. but can we fix them?

Montgomery County’s public schools are growing, and they’re also growing more segregated by race and class, which is hurting student performance across the board. As the county struggles to address these issues, a debate is raging about who belongs in our community, and who gets to benefit from its resources.

Students, parents, teachers, and community members filled the cafeteria at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda for last night's boundary study meeting. Photo by Mike H, all other photos by the author.

In January, the Montgomery County Board of Education hired a consultant to look at the catchment areas for each of the county’s 200-plus schools with a focus on diversity. Like the District, Montgomery County Public Schools hasn't done a county-wide boundary study in decades, due to resistance from parents who don't want their kids' school to change. (This often has to do with the relationship between school reputation and property values.) As a result, the Board of Education redraws boundaries rarely, like when a new school opens.

With the boundaries largely stuck in place, the majority of the county’s minority and low-income students have become clustered in East County and the Upcounty, while schools in the wealthier west side of the county remain predominantly white. Schools where enrollment is rising sit next to schools with hundreds of empty seats.

To avoid redistricting students to a "less desirable" school, MCPS has planned multi-million-dollar additions at Whitman and Bethesda-Chevy Chase high schools. Meanwhile, a few miles away at Springbrook High School, which has nearly four hundred empty seats, MCPS is taking away teachers because there aren’t enough students.

montgomery county says no new homes in silver spring because the schools are full

For decades, school planners assumed that families would move out to the suburbs once they had kids, and made projections for where and how to build new schools based on that. But as that trend begins to shift, Montgomery County is finding school enrollment harder to predict, which creates new challenges in and out of the classroom.

Paint Branch High School. All photos and maps by the author.

Like many places, Montgomery County Public Schools predicts how many students will enroll in local schools for the next several years, and if a school will have enough room or if it’ll be over capacity. Like many places, those projections, along with traffic predictions, can be used to stop new development.

This summer, Montgomery County’s planning department declared a “moratorium” in several areas, including Silver Spring, Wheaton, and part of Bethesda, because some schools are projected to have more students than there is space. This halts new development in those area until enrollment drops, the boundaries are moved, or additional classroom space can be found.

What families want is changing

How did this happen? In a recent Washington Post story, reporter Katie Shaver notes that Montgomery County Public Schools didn’t anticipate changes in how and where families want to live. The school system is seeing a lot of growth in close-in areas like Silver Spring and Bethesda, because more families want to live in urban, walkable neighborhoods where they can walk to shops, jobs, or transit.

These communities are also becoming very expensive because there’s a lot of demand to live there, and outside of a few areas, very few homes are being built there. As a result, many parents can’t afford to buy a house and are instead renting apartments, living with relatives, or even doubling up with other families to make ends meet.

this video shows you how to find the right MCPS school for your family

There are over two hundred public schools in Montgomery County, and if you're picking a place to live, it often means comparing the schools in different neighborhoods. How can you find the right school for your family? This video shows you how.

Recently, I interviewed Montgomery County board of education member Jill Ortman-Fouse about the best tools for learning about local public schools. While websites like GreatSchools.com assign each school a point rating based on test scores, they don't tell the full story.

Instead, Jill recommends taking a more hands-on approach. If you're curious about a school, schedule a visit, meet with the principal, or talk to neighbors whose kids attend that school. There are also a variety of online resources, including school websites, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages, that list events going on at each school and can provide a first-hand look at what happens there.

And of course, Montgomery County Public Schools has a website with lots of information as well. Schools at a Glance is their annual report of data about every school in the system, with everything from test scores to teacher statistics to building information.

Are you trying to pick a school in Montgomery County right now? Have you picked one in the past? What tools did you use?

it's true, I am applying for the montgomery county planning board

Awesome photo of me by Aimee Custis.

Some of you may already know this, but last month I applied for a position on the Montgomery County Planning Board. This June, there will be an open seat when current member Marye Wells-Harley must step down due to term limits.

I've spent a long time thinking about this. Over the past few months, I've traveled across the county, hearing from residents, community advocates, and business owners about the issues and challenges facing our county. If you've been reading this blog since the start (11 years next month!) you know that this county, and East County, is constantly evolving, and we have an awesome opportunity to make it a more inclusive and sustainable place. I hope to help our county leaders do that.

Next week, the County Council will interview me and three other applicants, all on live television. And sometime in May or June, the council will vote to appoint the new Planning Board member. If you'd like to write them a letter on my behalf, I'd be honored to have your support. You can send an email to county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov.

As part of my application to the County Council, I included this letter:

We are at a crossroads in Montgomery County. For decades, Montgomery County was a prosperous and largely homogeneous bedroom community for the nation’s capital. In recent years, that has changed. We are still prosperous, though many parts of the county struggle with poverty; we’re far more diverse, having become majority-minority in the 2010 Census; and we’re no longer a bedroom community, as according to the Census, 60% of employed Montgomery County residents work in the county.

Yet ahead lie big changes in how we live, work, and get around. The county is largely built up and there may not be opportunities to accommodate new growth simply by sprawling further out. There’s a growing demand for walkable communities with at least some urban features, not only from young adults but also from retiring adults, and from the county’s growing minority and immigrant communities.

Big employers seek smaller office spaces and are leaving office parks for Metro-accessible locations, while major chain retailers shrink or close altogether, leaving gaps in our malls and shopping districts. New technologies like bikesharing and ride-hailing are creating new ways to get around, but the looming threat of autonomous vehicles could totally disrupt the way we inhabit our communities altogether.

For the past eleven years, I have watched those trends as a community member and an urban planner, and I’ve seen how they’re already starting to transform Montgomery County. I have the experience needed to help this county meet these challenges head on. As a younger person who grew up in East County, I have the perspective to speak to the vast array of experiences Montgomery County residents have, especially those who do not always participate in local affairs.

I’ve spoken with so many people in this county who struggle to find housing they can afford with easy access to jobs, education, or loved ones. Aging Baby Boomers say they’re ready to downsize from their big single-family home, and unable to find an apartment or condominium nearby that meets their needs. Others say their kids moved to Frederick County or out of the region because they simply can’t afford it here. Many of my own friends, who grew up here and are now settling down and starting families, tell me that they can’t find the kind of housing they want.

This county has a responsibility to protect and preserve our neighborhoods, as well as our environment, our economy, and social opportunities. I learned from last year’s election that people in Montgomery County are excited to be engaged in their community, and I want to use this position to engage them.

We have the opportunity to create a stronger, more equitable, more vibrant county, and one that can be an example for communities around the nation. I would like to work with the Planning Board and the County Council to help accomplish that.

why montgomery county school board is the race to watch in 2016.

Montgomery County school board elections are usually pretty sleepy. But as the county's once-vaunted schools struggle to serve a more diverse population, the "achievement gap" is causing this year's race to heat up.

Montgomery County students marched to protest the achievement gap, which is an election year issue. Photo by the author.

Montgomery County Public Schools has grown rapidly in recent years, but has also become more segregated by race and class. Student performance is slipping, particularly in schools with a concentration of minority and low-income students. School officials have been reluctant to address the problem or even admit that it exists.

Schools make up half of the county's $5 billion annual budget, and the teachers' union's coveted "Apple Ballot" endorsements have had a big influence on local elections. But that's changed as the school system's performance has slipped. Jill Ortman-Fouse won a seat on the board in 2014 after campaigning to reform the system; three months later, superintendent Josh Starr resigned when he realized a majority of the board no longer supported renewing his contract.

Meet the candidates

There are three open seats this year, but two of them have two candidates, who will both go on to the general election in November. But a three-way race has formed for the at-large seat between incumbent Phil Kauffman, retired principal Jeanette Dixon, and former teacher and student board member Sebastian Johnson. One Montgomery, the school equity group I helped start, interviewed all three. (Full disclosure: we've endorsed Johnson.)

Kauffman lives in Olney and was a PTA activist before joining the board in 2008. His wife teaches at Blake High School, which both of his daughters also graduated from (full disclosure: I was friends with them in high school).

He ran as a reformer in 2008, calling for greater transparency in budget decisions and changes to the middle school curriculum. At the time, he said the school board was too cozy with the superintendent and needed to be more independent. Two terms later, he defended keeping Starr as superintendent, and as president of the board in 2014, he joined Starr in threatening to cut programs for high-needs students if the school system didn't get a $15 million budget increase.

Dixon, who lives in East County, is familiar with the challenges facing the county's majority-minority, high-poverty schools. She was principal at Paint Branch High School (and before that, my principal at White Oak Middle School) before retiring three years ago.

Since then, she's been an outspoken critic of the school system and proponent of big ideas. At a League of Women Voters forum on the achievement gap last fall, she said that students should be allowed to attend any high school in the county, regardless of where they live.

In January 2015, she published an open letter blasting Starr, calling him ineffective and saying he only cared about "protecting the MCPS brand." The letter may have helped turn public support away from him. (Inside sources say Starr has been quietly campaigning against her, calling her "dangerous" for the school system.) She's refused endorsements from elected officials, but has a long list of testimonials from faculty she's worked with and former students.

Johnson argues he can provide a new perspective to a board where members are often shut down for going against the grain. At 27, he's by far the youngest candidate, and describes himself as proof that schools can close the achievement gap. A former teacher and student member of the board, he grew up in a single-parent household in Takoma Park before attending Georgetown, Harvard, and the London School of Economics.

He talks about the "intersectionality" of schools and factors outside the classroom, pointing out that students can't learn if their families can't afford health care or stable, decent housing. He wants more "wraparound services" like health centers at schools, while increasing minority student access to the county's largely segregated magnet programs. He hopes his existing relationships with county councilmembers can smooth the often adversarial relationship the board has with other county agencies.

Incumbent's supporters don't have much to say

While Kauffman and Dixon have long histories in the county, and Dixon may most reflect voters' frustration, it seems like Johnson has the most momentum. He's raised over $20,000 (though his campaign stresses that most donations are small), an anomaly when most school board races are won for half that and incumbents barely raise money at all. He's gotten endorsements from several elected officials, including county councilmembers George Leventhal (who he once interned for) and Nancy Navarro (who he served with on the school board), and state delegate Marc Korman.

Kauffman's tried to pull support from his two black opponents by getting endorsements from black electeds like County Executive Ike Leggett, state delegate Al Carr, and county councilmember Craig Rice. But Rice has also publicly made glowing remarks about Johnson, saying, "We need more young people like Sebastian to step up and keep our county moving forward." Board of Education member Judy Docca, who also endorsed Kauffman, donated money to Johnson's campaign.

Normally, the Montgomery County Educators Association (the teachers' union) endorses the incumbent, almost guaranteeing their reelection. But they didn't endorse Kauffman or anyone else, suggesting that the union's members are split. That may reflect a broader disagreement about the school system.

Kauffman's supporters (like Starr's supporters) might argue that while things aren't perfect, the current leadership is doing a pretty good job. Dixon's and Johnson's supporters have a growing body of evidence to say that Montgomery County schools aren't doing enough to serve an increasingly diverse student body. If the 2014 election is a sign, this argument might be gaining ground.

here are 12 very silver spring things that happened in 2015

The revitalization of downtown Silver Spring has been going on for over a decade, but it seems like momentum has really picked up within the past year. No less an authority than Bethesda Magazine even called Silver Spring "Montgomery County's version of Brooklyn," noting all of the awesome locally-owned business that have opened here in the past year, from record shops to microbreweries.

Now I've been to Brooklyn, and I don't know if this is an apt comparison (though it's not the first time!). But it's pretty clear that 2015 has been a big, game-changing year for Silver Spring. Let us count the all of the people, places, and events that made it happen (in no particular order):

Hanging out at Denizens. All photos by the author unless noted.

removing josh starr won't fix the broken culture at MCPS

Montgomery County school superintendent Josh Starr resigned this week, and many community members are wondering what went wrong. While Starr had a lot of supporters, his role in a MCPS culture that didn't take criticism well may have been his undoing.

Starr (left) tweets a photo of the March to Close the Achievement Gap last spring. Photo by the author.

A week ago, Bethesda Magazine reported that four of the eight school board members didn't support renewing Starr's contract. Last weekend, Starr and the Board of Education quietly met to discuss his departure February 16, four months before his contract ends.

Some elected officials, along with parents and students were confused about what he'd done wrong, pointing to increased test scores since Starr arrived in 2011. Others felt that Starr didn't have a clear direction for the school system, and wouldn't listen to people he didn't agree with. Ultimately, that may have led to his dismissal. But the frustration with Starr reflects a larger issue with how MCPS deals with a rapidly changing school system.

looking back, looking forward to 2015

Happy new year! With 2015 safely in the door, it’s time to look forward and look ahead. In past years, I've done a MoCo version of the Post's In and Out List, but this year it seemed like there were plenty of Ins, but no Outs. So let's take a look back in non-list form.

Hanging out at Denizens Brewing Company, which opened this summer. Photo by the author.

2014 was an exciting year for East County, though not always in a good way. We marched in protest of the achievement gap, rode our bikes on Montgomery County’s first cycletrack, and tried to figure out where Silver Spring’s boundaries were.

We spent the summer throwing back Southside Ryes at Denizens Brewing Company’s biergarten and hanging out on the roof of Olivia’s View. As winter came, we celebrated the opening of Bump ’N Grind and wondered if Silver Spring was finally “hip.”

This year’s elections were a nail-biter, with close races for county council, board of education, and governor. Jill Ortman-Fouse beat back the teachers’ union to win a seat on the school board in a year when they didn’t seem to get anything right. And Governor-elect Larry Hogan won over disenchanted rural Marylanders with his indifference to Montgomery County and common sense in general.

Meanwhile, as economic and racial inequality made headlines nationwide, we saw the disparities firsthand in our neighborhoods and our schools. And this spring, we lost one of our great community leaders, Richard Jaeggi.

Some things haven’t changed. The Silver Spring Transit Center still isn’t open. And the Purple Line, which was all but a done deal two months ago, remains a dream. If anything, we’ve got stuff to talk about in the new year. And for a blog, that’s always welcome.

if there's one person you should vote for this year, it's jill ortman-fouse

I started getting involved in Montgomery County school issues about a year and a half ago, and through that I got to know Jill Ortman-Fouse, who's one of the hardest-working people I have the privilege to know. She's been a tireless advocate for Montgomery County schools, not just for her own children, but for the thousands of kids and families who don't get a voice in school matters.

Montgomery County is one of the richest counties in the United States, but we also have growing poverty, and more students on free and reduced lunch than the DC Public Schools have students. MCPS is becoming increasingly segregated by race and income, and the achievement gap remains a persistent issue. While our school system as a whole has a great reputation, our schools aren't serving all students as well as they could be.

And that's a huge threat to our community's future success and competitiveness. Schools not only affect our property values, the stability of your neighborhood, and the strength of our local economy. The public schools also consume half of Montgomery County's nearly $5 billion annual budget. They're worth fighting for.

And that's what Jill has done. She successfully convinced her neighbors to forego private school and take a chance on a neighborhood school in Silver Spring many saw as undesirable. Meanwhile, she reached out to families already in the school to resurrect the PTA and make it a force for positive change. Her efforts helped revitalize that school, which is once again the cornerstone of its community. More recently, Jill has been an advocate for school issues throughout East County, working with parents and communities beyond her own to get the resources our students desperately need.

I've watched Jill at house parties and campaign events and school events and candidate forums, and I've consistently been blown away by her resolve in fighting for a more equitable school system. She has integrity and willingness to stick to her principles, something our Board of Education desperately needs more of. Jill knows East County schools and the challenges they face because she's a parent here, and I know she'll hold the Board of Education and MCPS accountable for our needs.

Today's the first day of early voting in Montgomery County, and if you're heading to the polls, I'd like to ask you a favor and support my friend Jill Ortman-Fouse for the Board of Education. Whether or not you have kids, this might be the most important vote you make this election.

If you'd like to learn more about Jill, you can visit her website or check out her list of endorsements, which include the Washington Post, the Gazette, not to mention One Montgomery, your advocate for strong schools and strong communities in Montgomery County.

You should also definitely check out One Montgomery's endorsements for the Board of Education, including Kristin Trible for District 1, Laurie Halverson for District 3, and Mike Durso for District 5, all of whom have been strong advocates for our schools. I'm very proud to vote for them as well.

if you haven't voted yet, you might as well do it now

A Capital Bikeshare rider passes by some big campaign signs in downtown Silver Spring. Photo by the author.

Tomorrow's primary election is a big one for Montgomery County, with contested seats in many local races, from school board to county executive and, of course, governor. These are the races that will have the biggest effect on your daily life, as the people who occupy these seats are the ones who decide everything from liquor laws to whether our neighborhoods remain affordable places to live to public school funding.

And as Montgomery County continues to grow and evolve into a more diverse, urban place, it's especially important that we have representatives at all levels of government who get that and are actually committed to making it a better place to live and work, instead of simply standing in the way. For the first time since at least 2006, back when this blog first started, voters can actually choose between candidates with very different visions for Montgomery County, so you might as well put your two cents in.

If you're still looking for some last-minute insight, there are lots of great sources for learning about the candidates, notably the non-partisan League of Women Voters guide. You can watch the candidates give video statements on MyMCMedia, the county's public access cable channel.

Of course, there are the endorsements from the Washington Post and the Gazette. But for me, the most powerful affirmations I've gotten have come from friends, family and individuals in our community whose opinions I deeply respect. If you read local blogs like the Silver Spring Independent, Another Day in Wheaton, and the Blog of Diminishing Returns, you should check out what they've got to say about this year's election.

Some organizations I'm involved with have weighed in too. The Action Committee for Transit has a scorecard ranking the candidates on how progressive they are on transit and land use issues. And One Montgomery, the group I helped start last fall to advocate for a more equitable and transparent public school system, released its endorsements for select local races.

Finally, working with some of my friends at ACT and Greater Greater Washington, along with John Gallagher, one of the smartest political minds in Montgomery County, I helped assemble a voters' guide for the contested County Council primaries:

At-Large (four seats representing the whole county)

District 1 (Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Poolesville)

District 3 (Rockville, Gaithersburg, Derwood, and Leisure World)

District 5 (Silver Spring, Takoma Park, White Oak, and Burtonsville)

Now that you've got some information, all you've got to do is find your polling place, which will be open from 7am to 8pm tomorrow. And tomorrow night, you can tune into MyMCMedia to watch the election night returns and hear me talk about the role social media played in this year's campaigns. You can watch the broadcast live online or on several local TV channels, including County Cable Montgomery (Channel 21).

RIP richard jaeggi

The foundation of a place is its local culture: the stories, struggles, and triumphs that those in a community share and cherish. But where does that culture come from? How do we encourage people to be self-aware about their surroundings, to document, create, and ultimately change the course of their world?

An art piece by the Gandhi Brigade on Georgia Avenue in 2007.

It's something that I've thought a lot since I began writing Just Up The Pike nearly eight years ago. But it's also the mission of the Gandhi Brigade, a youth media organization in downtown Silver Spring whose director Richard Jaeggi passed away yesterday. He was an adult with a strong voice in our community, but he gave it to young people who otherwise may not get heard.

The Gandhi Brigade started in 2005, right around the time the revitalization of downtown Silver Spring finally took hold. Their mission was to prepare young people to take part in their communities through the creation of art and media, hence the motto "Youth Media with a Focus."

It was good timing for them, and for Silver Spring, which had newly emerged as a hangout for teens from all over the region. With Richard's guidance, the organization gave those kids access to cameras, art supplies, training on how to use them, and a bully pulpit. From a storefront in the otherwise dead City Place Mall, the Gandhi Brigade has weighed in on everything from skateboarding to gun violence to national immigration policy.

Thus, Richard and the Gandhi Brigade became an integral part of the community and the ongoing debate over the place of young people in downtown Silver Spring. Their annual Youth Media Festival, with an art competition, live performances, and workshops, has taken over downtown streets for years.

There have been occasional missteps, like a 2009 concert on Ellsworth Drive that erupted in fights. But like any good teacher, Richard turned it into a lesson. “I also believe in making mistakes and not giving up and getting it right the second time, or the third time, or the fourth time," he told me.

For a kid, growing up is an iterative process, requiring a willingness to make mistakes and the resilience to get up and try it again. But it's also useful for a community constantly in flux, and sometimes quick to dig in its heels and simply accept things for how they are.

In a posting on the Gandhi Brigade's Facebook page, Richard's family members said that they'll be volunteering at the next Youth Media Festival, returning to the Silver Spring Civic Festival this Saturday, May 31. Silver Spring has a lost a giant, but one who laid the groundwork for more giants to follow. And it's up to us to make sure that happens.

students protest MCPS achievement gap in march on rockville

Several hundred students, teachers and school administrators, parents, and local officials marched on Rockville yesterday in a call to close the growing achievement gap between white and Asian and black and Hispanic students in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Several hundred people came to march in protest of the achievement gap in Rockville yesterday.

The Minority Scholars Program, a student-driven initiative to close the achievement gap, began organizing the march several months ago. The group began at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda eight years ago as a way to reach out to minority students, and has since expanded to 10 other high schools in the county, including Northwood, Springbrook, and Wheaton. Organizers say the program has “data to support its success” in increasing the academic eligibility and honor roll placement of minority students.

About 400 people marched from the Carver Center, once the county’s black high school under segregation and now the MCPS central office, down Rockville Pike and North Washington Street. Students chanted and held signs with slogans like “Close the Gap,” as drivers honked their horns in approval. The march ended at Courthouse Square for a festive rally on the steps of the county courthouse with music and dancing.

Organizers hope the march will raise awareness about the achievement gap and spur the community to action. “For years, we have been watching and waiting and hoping and wishing for something to change,” said Mike Williams, a teacher at Walter Johnson who helped start the Minority Scholars Program.

Marchers on Rockville Pike as Dr. Starr (left) takes a photo.

Several MCPS and Montgomery County officials participated in the march and subsequent rally, including school board president Phil Kauffman and superintendent Joshua Starr, who tweeted selfies with the crowd and even briefly danced with MSP members on stage. “We care about you and we love you,” he said. “Everything we are doing is about how we can work harder to close the gap.”

Speakers during the rally made repeated comparisons to other youth movements in history, from the East Los Angeles Walkouts in 1968 to the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa. Tim Warner, Chief Engagement and Partnership Officer for MCPS, urged the students to offer their input and ideas. “You are the solution…you are what Montgomery County looks like today and you are our leaders,” he said. “You all need to tell us what to do.”

Student leader Gabi Bianchi called the march “the beginning of a revolution to close the achievement gap,” adding, “We have been heard.” She said the Minority Scholars Program will advocate for “institutional changes” at the federal, state, and county levels to give students and schools the resources they need to succeed.

That will be a challenge for the organization. School officials acknowledge that minority students are lagging their peers, and MCPS does have many good programs in place to help close the gap. But the achievement gap continues to grow and appears to be a direct result of de facto racial and socioeconomic segregation in MCPS.

Yet in recent months, Dr. Starr has both rejected a recent report from the county’s Office of Legislative Oversight about the achievement gap, while Starr and Kauffman both threatened to cut funding for additional programs to close the gap if the school system didn’t get a raise in their budget from the county. These actions really raise questions about the school system's commitment.

Yesterday’s march was a great day for the Minority Scholars Project and for all of the hard-working students and staff who made it happen. But we all have to hold MCPS leaders accountable for their promises to listen to the community's concerns and make the school system more equitable for all students.

Check out this slideshow of the march.

montgomery county schools are segregating, but school officials won't admit it

A new report says that Montgomery County schools are becoming segregated by income, race, and ethnicity and that "white flight" is occurring in the system's lowest-performing schools. But officials deny that it's even happening.



This week, the county's Office of Legislative Oversight released their findings on the achievement gap in Montgomery County Pubic Schools. Researchers note that low-income, black, and Latino students are still lagging their more affluent, white, and Asian peers, but even more so now that both groups are increasingly concentrated in different parts of the school system.

While MCPS as a whole is a majority-minority school system and has been for over a decade, most low-income, black, and Latino students attend one of 11 high schools: the Northeast Consortium, with Blake, Paint Branch, and Springbrook; the Downcounty Consortium, with Blair, Einstein, Kennedy, Northwood, and Wheaton; and three schools in the upcounty, Gaithersburg, Seneca Valley and Watkins Mill. Meanwhile, higher-income students, as well as 80% of the school system's white students and 67% of its Asian students, are now clustered at schools on the western side of the county, including the vaunted "W schools" in or near Bethesda.

students, parents criticize MCPS online for opening today

These kids are in Indiana, meaning they're probably more accustomed to snow than we are in Maryland. Photo by Phil Dragash on Flickr.

Despite sub-freezing temperatures, Montgomery County Public Schools are open today. But students and parents didn't go without a fight, taking their concerns and their pleas to school officials on Twitter. Here's a Storify of what happened:

what if we ranked schools on their walkability?

Parents often choose schools for their kids based on test scores. But as more families seek out an urban lifestyle, what if we ranked schools on a kid's ability to walk there as well?

Locations of the region's most walkable high schools. Blue are schools in a "Walker's Paradise," red are "Very Walkable" schools, and green are "Somewhat Walkable." Click for an interactive map.

Studies show that kids who live in walkable neighborhoods get more exercise and are at reduced risk for obesity. Being able to walk to school teaches kids independence and a stronger sense of community as well.

So where are students most likely to be able to walk to and from school? One indicator is a school's Walk Score, a measure of its walkability. To find the region's most walkable schools, I looked at the Walk Score of 95 public high schools (both neighborhood and magnet) in the District, Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, and the city of Alexandria and Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia. Here's a spreadsheet of all of the schools.