Community of Action Invites You to Act!

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT SUMMER 2020 CAMPAIGN

WRITE THE COUNTY COUNCIL
to Fund New Construction
for South Lake NOW

Does your child’s school look like this?

We are asking congregants to email personal letters to their county council representatives. These letters do have an impact and will be important for council members to receive before their August 24 special session. Find your county council member here.

What to Write: Tell YOUR council member about YOUR connection (or your congregation’s connection) to South Lake, mention anything you have done to help the school and let them know why funding a new building is important to YOU. If you believe strongly in equity in education, stress that they should fund on this basis.

Please let us know if you send a letter (optional)!

More Background

MCPS Superintendent Jack Smith listed South Lake as a number one priority and the Board of Education publicly announced (late 2019) that South Lake would be funded. A majority of County Council members made individual public promises to the community that if the Board of Education put South Lake on its Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) schedule, they would fund it. Yet, in May when the County Council considered the CIP they turned their back on South Lake and voted to fund other school projects over South Lake’s WITHOUT GIVING A REASON. Yes, budget cuts were required because of COVID, but construction at OTHER less deserving schools was funded. For example, another construction project for Poolesville High School.

Following intense advocacy, the Council agreed to a special session at the end of the summer to reassess funding for South Lake.

This is all the more outrageous because two years ago construction funding for South Lake was deferred pending the Board of Education’s adoption of a more evidence-based approach to decision-making for school construction projects. That process implemented a series of KFI’s (Key Facility Indicator’s) schools must meet. The Board of Education determined that based on the KFI’s South Lake was at the top of the list. Council Members told us that they did not consider the KFI’s in reaching their decisions and do not prioritize one school over another.

If you would like to see a more detailed PowerPoint about South Lake, learn more about the years of advocacy for a new building, know of media contacts who might be interested in this story, or receive more guidance in letter-writing, please let us know.

South Lake Principal Wins Prestigious Principal’s Award!

Celeste King Selected as 2019 Shirley Award Recipient

The Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) is pleased to announce that Ms. Celeste King, principal at South Lake Elementary School, is the 2019 recipient of the Dr. Edward Shirley Award for Excellence in Educational Administration and Supervision. This prestigious award, given by the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals, is presented annually to an administrator or supervisor who exemplifies outstanding leadership and accomplishments in the areas of purposeful leadership, instructional or system-wide leadership, human resources development, resource management, interpersonal skills, professional involvement, and community and stakeholder involvement.

For nearly 45 years King has devoted her life to education. She began her career teaching grades 5-8 and served as a reading specialist and curriculum specialist before becoming an administrator in 2006. After six years as an Assistant Principal she became Principal of South Lake Elementary School where she has been for the past eight years.

King is known by her colleagues as a passionate advocate for students. She knows no barriers and will not accept “no” for an answer when it comes to her students, staff and the community. She is often an early adopter of programs that will support student learning. A staff member noted that she is “a passionate, vision-driven, student centered instructional leader who has created a community school culture and serves the South Lake community with the utmost professionalism.” King is described by colleagues as having a personality that is magnetic, spirited, caring, direct, respectful and honest. When she sees a problem, she confronts it head on, digs deeply to identify the root causes and uses of all her available resources to find solutions. Her open door always has a steady stream of staff and students waiting to spend a little time together.

Parents shared that King empowers those around her to reach individual goals and success, while ensuring that these accomplishments better the community as a whole. King is not interested in praise or recognition, only results. Students and families know they are safe because King and the staff at South Lake will do anything they can to help.

A community leader described King as an effective advocate for communities that have been marginalized by bias, discrimination and poverty. She collaborates with organizations, community-based groups and religious institutions to promote effective educational strategies, resources and critical thinking in a collaborative effort.

King has forged partnerships with a multitude of organizations including the local police department and faith-based organizations to bring resources to the children and their families — backpacks with supplies for every student at the beginning of the school year, monthly Family Market Days to combat their families’ immediate needs for food with over 100 individuals lining up for help, mentoring programs, afterschool art and photography classes and much more.

King will be among the honorees at the annual Champions for Children Celebration on April 25, 2019. She will also be honored by the MCAAP membership at the spring meeting in May 2019. In addition, King’s name will be inscribed on the perpetual Shirley Award commemorative plaque prominently displayed at MCAAP.

Jean C. Rosen

Executive Director

Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals

Ongoing Support for South Lake Families

During the Covid-19 crisis, Community of Action has been continually supporting the South Lake community. We heard from the principal, Ms. Celeste King and the parent coordinator, Dary Herrera, that South Lake parents needed masks. In May, 2020, members of the Community of Action delivered 425 surgical and cloth masks to the school for distribution to parents.

Community of Action has also delivered Giant, Walmart and Target gift cards as well as art supplies and books.

Donations of masks, and small denomination gift cards to Giant, Walmart and Target are still needed! If you would like to collect in your neighborhood, run a drive or donate yourself, PLEASE DO!

Questions? Want to get involved but not sure? Want to work at the food pantry at the school? Susan Fox will help you and answer your questions. Call, text or email. 301-461-0917 foxdsgcc@aol.com
Volunteer Opportunities at South Lake Elementary

After school art club for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders-no art experience necessary but a willingness to engage with children and have fun is required!

Mommy and Me parenting class for moms of young children up to 4 years old. Teaching basic parenting ideas, play ideas, songs, nutritions and how to have fun with your child!

Reading with a child at lunchtime – volunteer is paired with a child through the reading specialist and meets with the same child weekly or more often to read individually and give extra help during the lunch period.

Do you have an idea for an after school club that you think children at South Lake would like? Would you like to run this club? Maybe with a friend or two? South Lake students are waiting for you!

Want to get involved? Questions? Call, text or email Sue Fox: 301-461-0917 foxdsgc@aol.com

Community of Action in Action

COMBAT VOTER SUPPRESSION
IN VOTING RESTRICTIVE STATES

We are participating in the Reclaim Our Vote campaign (through the Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center). This is a well-coordinated, proven to be effective POSTCARD writing campaign to help RE-REGISTER millions of voters from communities of color who have become DE-REGISTERED (for example, voters moved off voting rolls because they have not voted in a particular number of consecutive elections).

We are distributing Toolkits of 30 Postcards Each.

Get your toolkit delivered to you at home, complete with instructions and stamps. You will not be on your own: you will be trained by video and we will follow up with you.

Watch this video to learn more and then click on this sign up to order postcards or to get more information! (Please don’t post this video on social media).

MARYLAND VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVES

This summer we will be working to get out information about voter registration and voting by mail to help compensate for the loss of an estimated 2 million new voter registrations per month (nationally) due to closures of the MVA and other government offices.

We will also be participating for the third year in a row in National Voter Registration Day ( September 22).

Contact Sue Wohl to get involved.

Check back here for information about vote by mail for the general election!

Interested in working with a cross-section of MOCO residents on EQUITY issues?

JOIN AIM’s (Action in Montgomery) new equity in health care team working LOCALLY to plan for distribution of future COVID-19 vaccines, antivirals, and other pressing health care needs. Contact Tanushree Dutta Isaacson for more information.

JOIN AIM’S new team working on job creation in MOCO. Contact Cynthia Marshall for more information.

Year in Review: Partnering with the Literacy Council, MCPS Equity Coalition, MD Blue Print for Education
Community of Action Update: FY2019-20

The four areas of focus for the Community of Action these past 12 months have been:
1. programming support and advocacy for South Lake Elementary School,
2. civic engagement,
3. the achievement gap in Montgomery County Public Schools, and
4. Maryland’s Kirwan Commission’s Blue Print for Education.
Clearly in each of these initiatives is seen the Community of Action’s commitment to social justice and equality.

Civic Engagement: National Voter Registration Day remained a key focus of members’ efforts in 2019. Working with the Literacy Council of Montgomery County, members presented a PowerPoint to 74 ESOL students, representing 31 countries, September 24. The presentation covered basic civic information, the importance of completing the 2020 census, and how to register to vote. During the same period of time, a cadre of members from Temple Beth Ami and Kol Shalom manned tables at Montgomery College and Wooton High School to register young voters.

Continuing the connection with the Literacy Council, the Community of Action sponsored two events in November. The first of these featured Gabriel Martinez Cabrera, Council Executive Director, who provided an information session for persons interested in volunteering to become a mentor/tutor for adults. The second of these was a training session. Several congregants have become literacy council tutors as a result of this program. If you would like to speak with a congregant doing this work to learn more about it, please contact Brad Harvey.

An important part of the connection with the Literacy Council was creating awareness among Temple members of several basic facts about Montgomery County: 1) 1 in 7 County residents struggle with low literacy, 2) 30 percent of County adults face language barriers to employment, 3) Over 100,000 County residents do not have a high school diploma, and 4) less than 50 percent of the County’s working black and Hispanic families earn a living wage.

Closing the Achievement Gap: Learning more about the underlying reasons for the achievement gap in Montgomery County Public Schools was another focus. Members attended workshops and programming offered by the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence – a joint effort of the NAACP and Identity, a nonprofit group serving Latino youth in the County. Using data driven research completed by the Educational Trust, the coalition has argued that in MCPS Black and Brown students, particularly those from low income families, spend more time with novice teachers than do their peers. So too, lower income elementary and middle schools are much more likely to have novice principals. Both are seen as factors in creating inequities in delivery of academic programming. In addition, Black students do not always have access to the same programming as white students in Montgomery County, especially access to higher level math classes. Together, these forces perpetuate the achievement gap for Black students which begins as early as pre-K, and for many only widens with time.

Kirwan Commission and Maryland’s Blue Print for the Future: The Community of Action, in conjunction with Strong Schools Maryland, organized congregants to write letters to their state representative and senator asking them to support passage and funding for the sweeping recommendations of the Commission’s bold vision for the future of Maryland public education. Further advocacy included attending public hearings in Annapolis prior to the bill’s passage. The four pillars of the Commission’s report cover recommendations in the following areas: 1) early childhood education, 2) teacher pay and professionalism, 3) instructional anchors to enable most students to achieve college or career readiness upon graduation, and 4) expanded special education, ESOL and counseling services.

The bill and funding for it was passed by the state legislature but was vetoed by Governor Hogan amid the COVID-19 pandemic as deemed too expensive. The bill and its accompanying sister school construction bill will return to the docket when the legislature reconvenes either in the fall as an emergency session or in January 2021 where it is hoped there will be enough votes to override Hogan’s veto.

South Lake: Current advocacy work for South Lake is described elsewhere on the Community of Action website, including a letter writing campaign to support the re-prioritization of South Lake as number one on the County’s CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) list. Elsewhere, also on this website is information about how to support the school’s families during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically through donations of gift cards from local grocery stores.

In addition to these current efforts, during the past school year, the Community of Action supported the school’s afterschool programming, offering an art club twice weekly to over 30 students and a chess club to another 9 students. Temple members also volunteered as reading tutors and in Mommy and Me and ESOL classes. Donations of school supplies, coats and socks, and holiday gifts were coordinated with Tikkun Olam.

Individual members also advocated for construction funding for South Lake, meeting with state delegates in Annapolis and locally with several County Council members. They also spoke at open sessions of the Montgomery County Board of Education and attended County Council hearings where funding for South Lake’s building needs was on the agenda. Additionally, members provided support at AIM (Action in Montgomery) “actions” where commitment from County Council members to fund South Lake construction was front and center.

How We Got Started and What We’ve Done (2016 -2018)
The Community of Action grew organically out of a two-year URJ/RAC (Union of Reform Judaism/Religious Action Center) community of practice initiative: “Pursuing Justice: Becoming a Community of Action.” Our mission was to educate, act and advocate about a different social issue each year. Since 2016, we have endeavored to take the pulse of the congregation to learn what issue congregants care most about.
- Nothing But Nets – Anti-Malaria fundraising, education and lobbying campaign
- Action in Montgomery (AIM) – The Community of Action participated in interfaith AIM meetings, representing TBA and in many cases, the Jewish community. We advocated at the County level for increased funding for after-school programming. We learned about county government and met lay leaders active in congregations across Montgomery County.
- Listening Sessions – AIM conducted a Listening Session campaign across the county to see what issues residents cared most about. We committed to do listening sessions at Beth Ami and hoped we might be able to use them to select our next advocacy topic. After several months of planning, training (by AIM), and compiling materials (from URJ congregations), we conducted four listening sessions reaching more than 40 congregants in all. Although no one or two topics emerged, the sessions were beneficial. They provided opportunities for congregants to meaningfully connect. Most people enjoyed them and the feedback we received was “the temple should do more things like this.” Moreover, they confirmed what seemed apparent generally; that following the 2016 presidential election people were much more politically aware and seemed to be energized to do something, even if what to do was not always apparent.
- Candidate Forum – Building on the energy we sensed through the Listening Sessions and our greater awareness of the importance of county government, we decided to plan a candidate forum leading up to the June 2018 Maryland primaries. Our intent was to focus on the county council and county executive races. We reached out to other temple groups for partners. The Temple’s Critical Issues Forum was interested and thought it was important to focus on the state delegate races as well. We ran the event together. In all, we ran 5 moderated sessions with a total of 42 county executive and state delegate candidates participating. We secured 10 Jewish and interfaith co-sponsors, and pre-registered almost 400 people.
- Voter Registration – We developed a non-partisan program with the Maryland Board of Elections and trained 30 volunteers to register voters. In Fall 2018, we tabled at Montgomery College campuses and local shopping centers and registered over 100 new voters over two weeks.