C(L^^- ^olcr Sayers, Margery From: becki gershman Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 10:49 AM To: redistricting@hpcss.org; CouncilMail Subject: School Redistricting and Resolution 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Good Morning, I am a resident of Howard County in the subdivision ofWoodmark in Ellicott City. I am sending this email to strongly object to redistricting our children from the current high school of River Hill to Wilde Lake. I strongly feel that other resources need to be used and practices put in place to improve performance at Wilde Lake; a change of building is NOT the route to go. Also, why should the citizens of this area be subjected to having their children in a school that hasn't performed well or possibly doesn't attract the same caliber of teachers as River Hill? There is no valid reason to punish the children of our community with busing them to a school geographically quite out of the way that has a subpar/lower academic performance. On the flip side of the coin, why should some of the children in Wilde Lake be discriminated against and NOT redistricted to River Hill? They are being de-selected to have the opportunity for an improved academic environment. I would posit that other issues are at play here; social issues that affect the Wilde Lake high school district are dissimilar from those in this area, and simply relocating some of the Wilde Lake students to River Hill will not solve these issues and, in fact, may exacerbate them. Expectations at River Hill will be more demanding, and relocated students acting out in frustration/rebellion may result. I hope you will hear my voice and consider my concerns. Thank you. Rebecca Gershman 12318 Benson Branch Rd Ellicott City, MD21042 BECKI GERSHMAN, GRI, SRES Long and Foster Real Estate, Inc. 10805 Hickory Ridge Road Columbia, MD 21044 410-730-3456 (ofc)/410-715-7394 (direct) 410-730-7186 (FAX) 410-913-8345 (mobile) beckigershman@yahoo.com Sayers, Margery From: Raymond Donaldson Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 10:42 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Support CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Please support CR112-2019 and implement a lawful multi-year Integration Plan to ensure that Howard County Public Schools are integrated by socioeconomic factors. My wife and I have lived in Howard County since 1972. Both of our children went to Howard County schools from kindergarten through high school. My wife, Fran, was an elementary school teacher and principal for many years. It has always been my belief that all Howard County schools are excellent schools. The main difference is the social and economic backgrounds of the students attending each school. To ensure the best experience for all students/ the socioeconomic factors at all schools should be as equitable as possible. The various ethnic and economic level communities in the county that are trying to isolate their children from others who are "different" from themselves are doing a disservice to their children, to the county, and to the legacy of James Rouse and Columbia. Please support CR112-2019. Ray Donaldson Sayers, Margery From: Miriam Walter Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 9:30 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Good morning, I am a Howard County resident and parent of three children who attend public schools. I am in favor of CR112-2019 and integrating our schools by income. All children deserve the best education that we can give them! Thank you for your time, Miriam Walter Sayers, Margery From: Lili Shippe Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 9:25 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose CR112-2019 A RESOLUTION requesting HCPSS to integrate by socioeconomic factors [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council Members, Howard County is among the top areas of diversity in the whole country and the whole world. There is no segregation issue. Also, we voted in County Council, Board of Education and County Executive to do their own jobs, to serve tax payers and all residents. This resolution is an overreach of County Council to put your hands into education. If you sponsored the resolution, please withdraw. If you didn't sponsor, thank you! And please vote NO. Thanks, Lili Shippe Resident of District 2 Sayers, Margery From: Deborah Toppenberg-Pejcic Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 8:35 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: support for CR-112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council Members, Integrated schools are important for our children's development, and that means for children from socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds, as well as those less privileged. It is important to understand that our personal experience is not the only way life is experienced, and to learn to understand the perspectives of others. John Forbes Nash Jr., the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician whose life story is celebrated in the film A Beautiful Mind, noted that the best course of action is not mere self-service, it is what is in one's self-interest AND the best interest of the group. We as a society at large suffer when we let particular segments of our society suffer. Socioeconomic integration of our schools fulfills these criteria. Please vote in support of CR112 to help Howard County move toward what is best for us as individuals and as a group. Sincerely, Deborah Toppenberg-Pejcic Sayers, Margery From: Thomas Paul Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 7:32 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose Res 112 Redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I and my family oppose redistricting. It affects children. You have to do something else rather than disturbing kids. Bring up standards and dedication of below average performing teachers and staff or grown ups responsible. Have parent teachers meeting if kid is not coming up to standard. Give additional classes to children not performing well. Improve! Thanks Thomas Paul 12593 Vincents Wav Clarksville, MD Sayers, Margery From: L C Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 6:46 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Support CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.1 I support this resolution. It is time we all work together to do the right thing for all our children. In addition, I look forward I seeing the council move forward in reigning in developers and supporting affordable and subsidized house across the entire county. Laurie Chin 4618 Roundhill Road E II icott City, M D 21043 Sayers, Margery From: Sonia Hoffman Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 6:15 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Vote NO on 112/2019!!!! [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Sonia Hoffman zip code 21042 Ellicott City Sent from my IPhone Sayers, Margery From: Mark Kassir Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 1:33 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Redistricting our Students [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I am very much against this proposal. Our kids will be on the Buses much longer and lose out on the community we have built. This will cost a lot of money and increase pollution and traffic. Take the money you want to spend on this terrible proposal and use it directly for those kids who need it to prosper instead of penalizing the other children. Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device Sayers, Margery From: Shelli Jin Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 12:50 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose Resolution 112 —-Low income students need more funding, not school redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Councils, I, Xiaoli Jin, am the resident at 12312 Wake Forest Road, Clarksville, MD 21029, planning polygon number 1189. I am against the school redistricting proposal because it actually really hurting low income students education. I moved into Howard county from Prince George County because of Howard county's good public school reputation. However I was very disappointed. Prince George county public school had helped my younger son's ADHD problem much better than the elementary school in Clarksville area did. I also heard my several neighbors' complaining about that the elementary school in Clarksville area did not help their kids. Many parents in Clarksville spent lots money for outschool private turtorings to let their low performance kids catch up class. If county does a statistical research for how much money that Clarksville parents spend for their kids outside of their high school, the county will find that the parents play more actively roles outside school for their kids' high school education than the kids' own high school does . Because of students' parents efforts, Riverhill high doesn't need to provide additional help to the low performance students. For helping the low performance students' needs, Riverhill High is ranked at the bottom score in Howard County school system. Riverhill high students' good SAT should give much more credits to their parents other than Riverhill High itself. Will low income family students improve their grade when they enroll Riverhill ? Probably not. The high school in low income area, does need to get more fund than ihigh school in high income area, to provide additional public help to the low performance students there, because low income students' parents could not afford outside private tutoring. We could distribute more resources to low income school districts and to help low income students to succeed academically. Busing low income students to Riverhill will not help their academically, waste resources and student's valuable time. It will only hurt poor students. Howard County and county school executives should put kid's future first instead of their political gain first. Xiaoli Jin Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad 10 Sayers, Margery From: Maryann Santolaja Samonte Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 6:20 PM To: Contact@maryland.gov; redistricting@hcpss.org; superintendent@hcpss.org; Yungmann, David; CouncilMail; katiefry.hester@senate.state.md.us; trent.kittleman@house.state.md.us; warren.miller@house.state.md.us Subject: LETTER FROM A CONCERNED HOWARD COUNTY PARENT ON HOWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOL REDISTRICTING [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] There are some in the Howard County community (most notably the Superintendent, several County Council members, and the County Executive) that subscribe to the notion that the county is segregated, and that clearly this is having an adverse effect on the education of the county's children. Their solution is to further divide communities and play musical chairs with 1 in every 7 county school children. From the other side of the Howard County management's collective mouths, we are told at every opportunity (particularly campaign stops) that EVERY school in Howard County is a great school. So which is it? The only thing blatantly clear is that we, the taxpayers that all of these officials supposedly represent, are collectively confused by their mixed messaging. If the collective political body is truly interested in equity, then the FAIR and EQUITABLE course of action is to determine what the actual situation of education in the county is. If Howard County management wants to mitigate any inequities in the system, they must first understand what level of equity they are starting from. There is only one way to do that, and it has nothing to do with FARM percentages. Before any redistricting is enacted, the baseline must be understood by all; particularly the population that Howard County management works for and is ultimately accountable to. This includes EVERYONE, not just select segments of the population. After all, that is the basis for equity, fairness, diversity and inclusion.....isn't it? It's time for the Howard County Public School System budget tobe independently audited. The audit firm must be selected by an independent (preferably the Governor), and should be tasked to deliver a full report on the Howard County school system. Most importantly, the full report with supporting detail must be made available to the public. Among other things, there are two key pieces of data that must be reported: An accounting of all the funding sources of the Howard County education budget. It should be visible to all where the dollars are coming from, and who is providing them. Any demographic discriminators that will be used to determine potential changes must also be represented as discriminators in this accounting. An accounting of the distribution of those funds across the school system, BY SCHOOL. It should be visible to all where and how these (OUR) dollars are getting spent. The budget summary that is currently made public to the taxpayers is woefully inadequate in this regard. Any demographic discriminators that will be used to determine potential changes must also be represented as discriminators in this accounting. Along with this information, we need answers to some key questions: Is the curriculum in high % FARM schools different than low % FARM schools? Are the teachers in high % FARM schools less qualified? Are the staff in high % FARM schools working off a different pay scale? Are the opportunities in high % FARM schools somehow less? Do extra-curricular opportunities vary across the county? Is the grading structure different? Does a 4.0 at one high school not equal another? Are SAT and ACT scores from certain county high schools somehow de-rated on college applications? Do high % FARM schools have an asterisk next to them somewhere with a caveat that reads "this is not really a Howard County school" If the answer to all of these questions is "NO", then I ask our elected officials to explicity detail how we currently deviate from the professed HCPSS Definition of Equity: "Providing the access, opportunities and supports needed to help students, families and staff reach their full potential by removing barriers to success that individuals face. It does not mean equal or giving everyone the same thing." If the answer to any of those questions was "YES", then that would lead me to believe that there is indeed inequity in our school system. Since Howard County taxpayers are all treated equally, (ie: percentage of property taxes we pay) then this inequity can only be created by the operators of the school system themselves. If this is the case, then we should be addressing this as our collective problem, and require our elected officials to do their jobs as opposed to obfuscating the issue by gerrymandering the school districts of the constituents they are supposed to serve. For starters, one could imagine a useful portion of the $43M transportation budget required to bus our children past the schools in their neighborhoods could instead be utilized to directly support the teachers and the schools that demonstrate a need for it. I live in polygon 195. My family is not directly affected by the redistricting proposal by the superintendent but many of our friends and their children are. As I read thru the proposal, there are just many red flags that went up and sounded the alarm. Mary Ann Clapper Polygon 195 Sayers, Margery From: Chip Jones Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 5:37 PM To: CouncilMail; Ball, Calvin Cc: Walsh, Elizabeth; Jones, Opel; Rigby, Christiana; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; Jones, Diane Subject: Written response to CR 112-201 9 Attachments: Response to Council resolution 112 2019.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Executive Ball and Council members, Please see the attached as a response to the proposed resolution 112-2019. While a Howard County property owner and taxpayer, I still work out of state and am unable to attend Wednesday night's meeting. Thank you, Charles W Jones Fulton Sent from Mail for Windows 10 September 15, 2019 Dear County Executive Ball and members of the Howard County Council, I am writing in opposition to Council resolution 112-2019. While the stated goals may be appropriate, I believe the resolution fails to accurately and completely portray the current situation in Howard County's public schools and reassigns its own responsibility and ownership of addressing concerns of socio-economic integration. Given the current climate and emotion over the Superintendent's redistricting plan, it also appears that the Council is injecting itself into a process which is clearly the Board of Education's to manage. The resolution, in its current form, should be defeated or withdrawn. Effective problem resolution requires clear identification of the problem and its root cause before addressing potential solutions. This first entails a complete, objective, and honest review of the broader issue - in this case, underperforming schools and declining test scores. In reading the resolution, there is little evidence that this has been done. Instead, the presented context has little relevance to the issue of today's achievement gaps in Howard County, ischockful of divisive rhetoric and political ideology, and leaps to a presumed solution. Howard County is rich with cultural diversity. In a recent interview on WBAL radio, County Executive Ball stated that we have citizens representing 149 countries speaking 117 languages. The county consistently receives accolades for excellence across a wide array of regional attractiveness criteria. Columbia and Ellicott City have been ranked among the best places to live in the US. Community building was part of Jim Rouse's master plan for Columbia with, as some claim, "Its mix of residences apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes - promoting socio-economic diversity." Shani Ball, our County executive's wife, has been quoted saying "Diversity is not only tolerated here, it's celebrated." As the likely envy of civic leaders around the country, is this the same Howard County portrayed in Resolution 112-2019? Unlike in other jurisdictions, I'm reasonably sure Howard County doesn't withhold resources from schools with high FARM scores. In fact, those which qualify receive significantly increased Title I financial and program support. I would hypothesize that the teachers at these schools are every bit as qualified as the teachers at lower percentage FARM schools and I'm also sure it's NOT a question of student raw intelligence. What then drives the differences in achievement? An honest and objective resolution would discuss this, or at least the process to get those answers. I won't argue that there aren't pockets of economic challenge and poverty in the county today. I would hope however, that the Council would acknowledge that Councils past and present share much of the responsibility for creating the situation it currently abhors. Re-zoning commercial land into residential property without a master plan, creating pockets of low income or affordable housing in localized areas, and approving development plans in districts where schools are already facing overcrowding are just a few examples. Rectifying this is the Council's responsibility. The Board of Education should be focused on educating our youth and not solving socio-economic concerns it didn't create or in which it has little ability to influence a different outcome. There are real issues to address in Howard County public schools today. Overcrowding in certain facilities and underutilization in others could be at the top of the priority list. The situation is exacerbated when the capital budget for expansion and renewal is reduced and relief is delayed while housing development continues unchecked even in areas which have schools straining with students. If the Council wants to tackle the issue of socio-economic balance in schools, it needs to establish and implement a coherent zoning, housing, transportation, and services plan first. Asking the school system to go beyond educating students equitably countywide in the schools in closest proximity to where they live is abdicating the Council's responsibility. Relative to redistricting, Dr Ball reminded his WBAL audience that we have a county school 'system' serving "58,000 students and that all Howard County schools are good schools. He further stated that because of school overcrowding, comprehensive redistricting is required and that the Board of Education would thoughtfully consider the Superintendent's proposed plan with an attempt to keep neighborhoods together wherever possible and that there should be a consideration of diversity, not only racial, but socio-economic. If a school is having difficulty, he wants to invest in making that school better. Fair enough - Let's get the capacity and utilization balanced and align the resources accordingly. If one is to solve a problem, the first step in doing so is to 'do no harm' with the proposed solution. Just as with Superintendent Martirano's plan, Resolution 112-2019 does exactly the opposite. Not only does the proposal not solve the problem, it essentially designates the students in Howard County as elements in socio-economic experimentation by moving them around the county and further away from where they live. Many are harmed. There is no 'equity' in that. The issues facing Howard County's public schools need to be addressed and the Board of Education needs Council support - not distraction. Real solutions exist. The Superintendent's plan and this resolution fall well short. We can do better! We are stronger when we unite as a community and build on the strengths of our neighborhoods. Howard County will continue to be an attractive place to live if we respect a home buyer's prerogative in choosing a location with an assurance of school assignment. I urge the Council to defeat or withdraw this resolution, engage in real problem definition, and solve the issues in which it has the authority and responsibility to fix. Respectfully submitted, Charles W Jones Fulton Sayers, Margery From: kiju Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 2:47 PM To: Sayers, Margery Subject: Re: Public Hearing - Affidavit to Speak [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Hi Margery, I have changed my mind and would like to speak as an individual rather than group. Kind regards, Julie Kim, M.D. On Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 10:36 AM Sayers, Margery wrote: Good Morning! You have signed up to testify on behalf of a group for the Public Hearing before the County Council. Please fill out the attached Affidavit to Speak and return to councilmail@howardcountymd.Rov. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly. Sincerely, Margery Margery sayers Exec-i^Uve AssLstfl^t f-t-owflrol C-oi^ty c.oi^.iA,&t.L 410-313-0g32 Sayers, Margery From: kiju Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 2:03 PM To: Williams, China Cc: Boe@hcpss.org; CouncilMail; superintendent@hcpss.org; contact@maryland.gov; howardcountydems@gmail.com; guorong01@yahoo.com; Ball, Calvin; katiefry.hester@senate.state.md.us; Yungmann, David; Shawna Frazier; Maria J. Gutierrez; yinqi zhang; Kelly Cao Subject: Fwd: Howard County redistricting plan divides a multi-ethnic Clarksville Attachments: 20190903_134101.jpg; redistricting_letter_Yinqi_Zhang.docx; Redistricting letter FINAL_Gutierrez.docx; Redistrictingjetterjulie Kim_final.doc; Guojetter.pdf; CouncilJestimonyJK.doc [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Ms. Williams On behalf of CouncilmemberJung, thank you for listening to our concerns with Resolution CR112-2019 and the superintendent's redistricting proposal in a teleconference held 9/10. We represent a multiethnic coalition of Clarksville parents in polygons 1186, 28, 1085,187, and 186. As we discussed the current resolution appears to ignore Asian Americans and partnership with parents. Revision is desperately needed. We would like to clarify that we agree that excess capacity in Clarksville schools could be offered to FARM students who wish to come here, but it is unclear why FARM students are not more equally distributed to less ethnically diverse schools west of us. Clarksville Elementary is already using all available classrooms and the physical plant is strained; the cafeteria doubles as an auditorium and different grades take shifts as late as 2:00 for lunch. More importantly, we do not want to break up our existing community and be forced to send some of us elsewhere for Middle School and High School. We are active parent volunteers at school, cub scouts, and church and we have come to rely on each other. Our children are friends and already well-integrated ethnically (see attached photo). As we discussed, it is concerning that some board of education members might abuse their public office to send their children to schools that others are being forcibly kicked out from. Please advise on an ethics check to ensure the process is transparent and fair since we do not know these individuals as well as you do. Would an ethics panel request in HCPSS be appropriate: https://www.hcpss.org/f/aboutus/form advisorvopinion.pdf Thanks again for your prompt attention. Please see below and attached for our redistricting letters to the BOE and my draft council testimony planned for 9/18. Feedback and next steps would be appreciated. Kind regards, Julie Kim, M.D. Forwarded message From: kiju Date: Wed, Sep 4, 2019 at 7:00 AM Subject: Howard County redistricting plan divides a multi-ethnic Clarksville To: , , , Cc: , , , , Shawna Frazier , Maria J. Gutierrez , yinai zhang , , Christian Cao , , Kelly Cao Dear all, Many of us in Clarksville do not agree with the redistricting plan, as proposed. Please consider letters from concerned parents and a photo of our children. See attached. Kind regards, Julie Kim, M.D. YinqiZhang, Ph.D. 6133 Rippling Water Walk Clarksville, MD 21029 September 3, 2019 Dear Dr. Martirano, Thank you for reading this letter. It was my pleasure seeing you at RHHS on Aug 27. Thank you for getting out of the car and talking to the crowd. I am a resident of Riverhill community and our family resides in polygon 188. Although my family is not redistricted under the proposal, I am writing this short letter to second all of Mrs. Julie's points in her letter to you. In addition, I hope you will consider the impact on commute time for those students who are redistricted to a school further away from home (and higher transportation cost) as well as the emotional impact on many young children who are going to be separated from their friends as a result of the current redistricting plan. My son is very sad that nearly all his friends will attend a different middle school under the proposal. Thank you for your time! Yinqi Maria J. Gutierrez, M.D., M.H.S. 5896 Indian Summer Drive Clarksville, MD, 21029 Septembers, 2019 Dear Dr. Martirano, Thank you for your constant efforts to improve our children's education in Howard County. I am a resident of the River Hill community. Our family would be redistricted under the proposed Attendance Area Adjustment Plan and I share the concerns of other parents in our neighborhood (outlined in Mrs. Yinqi Zhang and Mrs. Julie Kim's letters). I also wanted to mention a few additional points that I hope are considered during upcoming discussions. First, as families at Clarksville Elementary School (CES) and neighbors of River Hill, we build friendships and community ties due in large part to interactions at our elementary school where we are a diverse and engaged community. As a result, our kids benefit from this environment inside and outside the classroom. Dividing CES graduates between Clarksville and Harper's Choice Middle Schools would disturb our neighborhood dynamics. I invite you to please find solutions that do not disrupt the healthy social dynamics of naturally-established communities. Second, please consider that uprooting students from their childhood friends and community during pre-adolescence exposes them to adolescent health problems. The middle school years (puberty and early adolescence) are a period of special vulnerability to mental health issues (e.g. depression, suicide), substance abuse and other dysfunctional behaviors. Risk factors for these problems include low neighborhood attachment, transitions and mobility and low commitment to school. On the other hand, protective factors include strong attachments to school, community and positive peers. Therefore, is it really necessary to disjoint wellfunctioning pre-teens at CES from many of their neighbors and childhood friends during this vulnerable time? Having fun and spending the adolescence years in their community and with childhood friends "vaccinates" our kids against these problems and yields many other positive outcomes. Please take into account the special developmental characteristics of our children's growing minds when redrawing school boundaries. There is also a risk of decline in parental involvement and community disengagement if our students are forced to attend schools away from their community and friends. In an era of strong advocacy to decrease funding and find alternatives to public education, the fragmentation of parental support and disengagement from our schools may debilitate our public school system for years to come. Please consider this potential unintended outcome of your plan before implementing changes that lack community support. Finally, while trying to foster integration among our students is commendable, redistributing the demographics of our schools as proposed would disjoint communities like ours where minority children (like my family) and students from very different backgrounds have established friendships and feel that they fit-in. Preserving bounds and community attachment is a very effective way to foster the development of your minority and disadvantaged students. Please do not dislodge them from communities where they have been successfully assimilated. In summary, unfortunately, I cannot support your plan in its current form as it divides my community and it is unnecessarily burdensome for children in my neighborhood and my family. Nonetheless, I am confident that meaningful alternatives exist. Consider enlisting us,your community, to brainstorm, plan and act in creating innovative, less disruptive solutions to advance our children's education. We want to help! Thank you very much for your attention. Sincerely, la' Maria J. Gutierrez, M.D., M.H.S. Julie Kim, M.D. 5910 Perfect Calm Court Clarksville, MD 21029 September 3, 2019 To Whom It May Concern, It was a pleasure seeing Superintendent Martirano at the River Hill Protest 8/27/19 and watch him engage with the crowd. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to his Superintendent's Attendance Area Adjustment Plan (see attached). I am a concerned Clarksville Elementary School parent, resident of polygon 187, and prospective homebuyer. As a transplanted New Yorker, I was delighted to see the value placed on socioeconomic diversity. We can learn so much from people different from ourselves and there is a tendency in the suburbs to live in a homogenous bubble. I am also a child of immigrants who emphasized education and hard work to live the good life. My conception of the good life is to raise my children in a safe, healthy, diverse environment in which to grow and maximize their potential. It is why I moved to Howard County, despite the cost, commute, and my own cosmopolitan tendencies. I represent a multi-ethnic coalition of public school parents opposing redistricting, as it is currently proposed. As a clinical trial reviewer, I see the following concerns generated by the report: a. The report indicates (page 10/34) that Clarksville Elementary (with a maximum capacity of 543) will receive 161 students, more than tripling the proportion of Free and Reduced-Priced Meals Program (FARM) recipients from <5% to 17%. However, it will not send any out. Since this school is using all available classrooms, it appears class size and studentteacher ratios will have to increase to accommodate the proposed change. The physical plant is already strained; the cafeteria doubles as an auditorium and different grades take shifts for lunch because its capacity is limited. I am concerned that Clarksville Elementary is being overly burdened if the goal is desegregation and equally distributing the FARM burden across the county. Other less ethnically diverse elementary schools (i.e., Lisbon, Bushy Park, Dayton) have larger or similar capacity but are receiving 0-47 students with minimal increase in FARM percentage (either staying at <5% or maxing at 12%). It is unclear why more FARM students aren't being transferred to those particular schools to better equalize the FARM and racial proportion across the county. To distribute ethnic diversity and FARM students more evenly across the county and minimize undue stress on Clarksville Elementary, please consider sending more students to other elementary schools and decrease the number of students received in Clarksville Elementary. b. The report indicates (page 21/34) that test scores will decline from base-to-proposed at Clarksville Elementary by approximately 10% in PARCC-Read (from 83%-74%) and PARCC-Math (from 89%-79%). 1 However, we are preparing our children to enter global hyper competition in the future. It appears as though the unfortunate by-product of the plan is reduced academic excellence and rigor. I am concerned with mediocrity and teaching to the test. We must maintain a challenging academic environment. With a large influx of low-scoring students (averaging an alarming 50% below the current norm), it seems most of them may be a grade level or more behind their peers. I am concerned that advanced learners will be ignored and left to stagnate, while others are struggling to remediate the bare minimum of skills needed to pass standardized tests. To ensure the highest levels of academic engagement, please provide recommended strategies on how slow and advanced learners would be integrated in the same school. For instance, will there be intensive remediation efforts prior to redistricting to ensure a smooth transition for those behind grade level? As a former SAT and TOEFL instructor, can I and other Howard County residents volunteer for Saturday tutoring of students with failing test scores? Since the upgrade in academic peers constitute a de facto scholarship for those who might not be able to afford to live in Clarksville, can the students selected to go be FARM students within 1 standard deviation of the current PARCC average to permit more effective skills transfer? Will we be able to reinstate our technology teacher full-time (whose position was reduced to half-time) next year? Will classes be tracked? As a graduate of one of the top magnet schools in the country (e.g., Hunter College High School), I would also like to recommend designating one of the centrally located high schools into a magnet once the new high school (HS 13) is in place. Unlike traditional exam schools, if there were a quota system (i.e., top 10% from every feeder school and historically marginalized population, such as FARMS), advanced learners of all backgrounds across the county would have an opportunity to interact meaningfully. We already see a successful version of this each summer at the Howard County Gifted and Talented Summer Institute, when children all over the county congregate at Wilde Lake Middle School. In the DMV region, Fairfax and Montgomery counties have enjoyed reputable magnet high schools (i.e., Thomas Jefferson High School) that feed into top colleges and universities for some time. , c. It is of concern, as a prospective homebuyer, that many neighbors in Clarksville have dashed expectations for desirable middle and high schools after signing on mortgages for expensive homes. I am reluctant to invest more time and money in a community that does not value my contribution or respect prior commitments. Moreover, it stinks that some board members might stand to gain from redistricting by transferring their children into the desired schools and possibly increasing their property values. Such blatant conflicts of interest and apparent abuse of public office should not be tolerated. To minimize corruption, please request that such board members be recused. lhttos://www.niche.com/kl2/search/best-maenet-hiBh-schools/s/virRinia/ 2 https://www.niche.com/kl2/search/best-maRnet-hiRh-schools/s/maryland/ Finally, I am concerned with the tenor of the debate. Councilmembers Rigby, Jones and Jung recently publicly stated: This socioeconomic and racial segregation in the school system is contributing to increasing achievement gaps and decreasing graduation rates for low-income students and students of color. Historic systems have created these achievements gaps [SIC] and it is incumbent on the County to introduce new systems that foster necessary change.3 It is important to acknowledge that de facto segregation is a stubborn stain that persists in our country due to the legacy of slavery since 1619. However, it appears that Councilmembers Rigby, Jones and Jung are defining segregation too narrowly. There seems to be a flawed working assumption that Asian Americans do not count as students of color or experience setbacks due to exclusion and underestimation. Please note that the report indicates (pages 26-27/34) Clarksville Elementary and Clarksville Middle are already ethnically diverse schools with over 50% students of color (e.g., Asian American, African American, Latino). I am also aware that Clarksville Elementary serves a disproportionate population of disabled students. Unfortunately, the proposed plan penalizes many students of color (i.e., Asian Americans, African Americans, Latinos) and Whites in Clarksville with relocation to less desirable schools to remedy a wrong they did not commit. While diversifying socioeconomically is a worthy goal, disruption and anguish for those currently in Clarksville should be minimized because we are in this together. As you may already be aware, Howard County leads the state of Maryland in public school quality.4 Currently, it is uniquely poised to lead our nation in achieving intelligent integration, equal opportunity and academic excellence, which I believe are values consistent with Columbia's founders and unite us. Let's not squander this historic opportunity and expand the pie for all. Our community can do better than fight over scraps, be divided, and repeat mistakes of the past. Thank you for your time and attention. Feel free to contact me for any questions or comment. All the best to you, Julie P.S. Please see the attached photo of my son with his friends; multi-ethnic students on their first day of school at Clarksville Elementary. With the proposed plan, they would be zoned to separate middle schools. CC: Shawna Frazier, M.B.A. Maria Gutierrez, M.D. Clauctia Palmer, R.N. Christian Cao Yinqi Zhang, Ph.D. Rang Guo, Ph.D. 3https://cc.howardcountvmd.Kov/Portals/0/Documents/CouncilMain/Press%20Releases/2019/CMR OJ DJ%20Desef=;reKati on%20Press%20Release.pdf 4 https://www. niche.com/kl2/d/howard-countv-public-schools-md/ To whom it may concern, I am writing this letter to oppose Dr. Martirano's school redistricting proposal. The proposal is based on spending more money on busing students to farther schools. My family has been in Clarksville for more than 10 years. My older daughter graduated from Clarksville Elementary and Clarksville Middle. We have been always proud to be part of the river hill community. We live in polygon 1085 (Chapel Woods neighborhood), 0.7 mile away from CES and Riverhill Highschool. The current proposal will move us from CMS to Harpers Choice Middle School, and from Riverhill High to Wilde Lade Highschool. I think the proposal is insane. 1.) Proximity - we are 0.7 miles to River Hill HS, and 4.6 miles to Wilde Lake High. Our neighborhood is the closest to river hill high among all affected polygons. our neighboring Polygon #185 (Meadow Vista neighborhood) is still zoned for River Hill. Not all Affected polygons can say that they neighbor a Polygon that is zoned for RHHS. I would be willing to bet that the number of kids being affected in Chapel Woods is a fairly small portion of that 478 number. It does not make any sense to redistrict our neighborhood who goes to CES which is right next door to RHHS, to a much farther away Wilde Lake High. Instead of attending the school less than one mile away, our kids will have to take school bus to a much farther school. Right now, with 0.7 mile, my daughter has to take the school bus at 6:50 am to catch school time at 7:25 am. With FIVE times of longer distance, I cannot imagine how early she needs to get up to take school bus, and how long she will spend on the bus. a. For highschoolers, sleeping is very important. Now with longer bus time, they will have to sacrifice precious sleeping time. I doubt our kids will perform well with lack of sleep. b. Longer bus time will increase chance of traffic accidents and make traffic on 108 worse. c. More practically, the proposal will make our afternoon pick up more difficult. Like other high schoolers, my daughter has a few after school activities. As working parents, we cannot leave work early to pick her up from her activities every day. My daughter has been asking her friends to give her a ride, or parents arrange carpools, or she walks home on 108. With the only neighborhood being taken out of RHHS, it will be really hard for us to find carpools. We do not have the luxury to quit job and stay home taking care of kids. We need our paychecks for our mortgage and to raise kids. d. The county will spend a much higher budget on transportation. Two years ago, some concerned parents were complaining their kids get up too early and not get enough sleep. The school start time survey the county did never took effect because we do NOT have enough budget for more school buses. With Dr. Martirano's school redistricting proposal, where will the extra transportation money come from? Instead of using this extra money to delay high school starting time to make sure students have enough sleep, Dr. Martirano's school redistricting proposal will force students to get up early and take longer bus ride. 2.) Student performance - the Proposal has 478 kids moving from River Hill to other schools (Wilde Lake and Glenelg), this represents nearly 35% of the total current enrollment at the high school a truly staggering number. High school students already spent a lot of efforts on their school activities, clubs, athletic teams. My daughter is in River hill marching band. And she put a lot of efforts on her club which she will elect to be president. With the new proposal, my daughter wilt have to give up what she built at RHHS and start from scratch at a new school. My daughter is just one out of the 478 who will be taken out of RHHS. With lack of sleep, adjusting to a new environment, they will not perform well. This is not fair for high school students who will apply college soon. 3.) Student numbers-The reason for redistricting is to solve the overcrowd of some schools. River hill high is under capacity. Moving students out of river hill is not making any sense. 4.) Factor-Dr. Martirano's school redistricting proposal is aiming for equity. With the proposal, FARM rate for river hill high school will be from less than 5% to 5%. The proposal with all this insane upheaval that will devastate the community does not even achieve the "equity" goal. It is not making sense to move students out of river hill. 5.) Temporay nature - with the new high school ready in 2023, there will be another major redistricting of high schools in 2 years. Stability is very important for high school students. 6.) Community - with the proposal, the entire pheasant ridge community will be divided into Clarksville middle and Harpers Choice middle. My neighborhood (polygon 1185) will be the only neighborhood that will not go to RH among the CES students. Our kids will no longer go to the same schools together with their friends one block away. We will be isolated from river hill community. Community cohesion and parental involvement have a much bigger impact on a school's performance than money redistribution and attempts for social reforms. Back in July this year, I attended the neighborhood meeting for feasibility study. The top most important factors that the vast majority of the community believes are "transportation considerations", "keeping feeds of students together from one school to the next", "maintaining contiguous communities or neighborhoods" and "frequency with which any one student is reassigned". Dr. Martirano's school redistricting proposal did NOT consider any of these factors. We should have the right to go to school next to our neighborhood! That is why we are here, living less than one mile away from RHHS. Thankyou! Rong Guo Polygon 1185 September 18, 2019 Dear Council Members, I commend Councilmembers Rigby, Jones and Jung for starting the conversation on improving public schools. It is important to acknowledge that de facto segregation is a stubborn stain that persists in our country due to the legacy of slavery since 1619. Thanks to the efforts of courageous Americans before us, we no longer have de jure segregation since 1954. What the Council resolution should also acknowledge is increased immigration from Asia since 1965.1 I am part of a community of multi-ethnic parents in Clarksville. I have served as Chair of Cub Scout Pack 737 and I currently volunteer at a megachurch in Fulton to minister to children of single parents from all over the county. I regret to inform you that Resolution CR112-2019 ignores Asian Americans. At last count, Howard County was comprised of 19% Asian Americans.2 Clarksville Elementary School is 56% Asian and 27% White. However, your resolution (page 1) defines school segregation when schools are <40% White. Does Clarksville Elementary need to import more Whites? It is absurd when its test scores are the highest in the county, and possibly state. Middle-class white students described in the resolution (page 3) are the minority here. With all due respect, it appears that segregation and diversity is being defined too narrowly. There seems to be a flawed working assumption that Asian Americans do not count as students of color or experience setbacks due to exclusion and underestimation. I ask the Council to carefully consider the effect of forcing high-performing Asian American students to lower performing schools. Opportunities to excel should be available to all and we should beware of closing the achievement gap by bringing the top end of the curve down. These are the future inventors and innovators that will propel our economy in the 21st century when American dominance is not what it used to be and artificial intelligence threatens to disrupt human employment. At the current time, it is clear the Superintendent is not ready with a plan suitable for all. Under his proposal, Clarksville Elementary School would be cut in half for middle school and high school. Right when our kids enter adolescence, the public school system would kick out our cub scout chief, den leaders, room parents, PTA moms, and even a board of education member. It appears that most of my son's ethnically diverse friends (i.e., African Americans, Latinos, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indians) would be forced to attend lower opportunity schools. If it takes a village to raise a child, our village is being broken up, which does not make sense. https://en.wikipedia.orE/wiki/lmmigration and Nationality Act of 1965 2httDS://www.baitimoresun.com/marvland/howard/howard-maBazine/bs-mfi-ho-diversity-data-20190109story.html Even more puzzling is hearing politicians preach diversity and equity to the middle class, when we see party leadership choosing to live in upper class enclaves that are >90% white and sending its children to wealthy private schools where Asians are scarce.3/ What I love about Clarksville though, is that it is not provincial and stuck in the past. Parents here are incredibly solution- and future- oriented. I request that the Council resolution be revised to partner with parents and speak out against coercive redistricting. I would like to ask the Council to consider alternatives to the superintendent's proposal: • If they wish to go, how about sending FARM students to the less ethnically diverse Western county schools? • Where is the intensive remediation urgently needed for students who do not appear to be performing at grade level? • If they wish to go, can top-scoring FARM students be tracked to higher scoring schools for more efficient skills transfer, integration and upward mobility? • Finally, to stay competitive academically, I recommend a county-wide magnet high school in District 4 which feeds from the top 10% of each middle school and historically marginalized population (i.e., FARM). As you may already be aware, Howard County leads the state of Maryland in public school quality.5 Can Clarksville parents count on you to keep it that way, hear our voices and revise CR112-2019? Thank you for your time and attention. All the best to you, Julie Kim, M.D. 3 http://www.usa.com/school-district-2507380-population-and-races.htm 4 http://www.usaschoolinfo.com/school/sidwell-friends-school-washinKton-district-of- Columbia.114701/enrollment 5https://www.niche.com/kl2/d/howard-county-public-schools-md/ Sayers, Margery From: Liebskind, David (Synchrony) Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 1:48 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR-112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] DearCouncil/BOE, I am not opposed to the idea and purpose of the CR112 to eliminate the income gap, however this cannot achieved through the goal of redistricting. There is a plethora of research that supports that moving children to other schools actually has diminishing returns. These children actually perform worse, rather than the intended consequence to help them. Their grades go down/ there is less acceptance and more segregation actually permeates. One of the worst impacts of this resolution is that children are being used as pawns. Is there any concern for the students welfare and the fact that they have to travel far from their home to school? Are transportation costs being considered when there is a budget deficit? Does the board realize that traveling further distances leads to less school involvement? These distances make it harder for students to attend post school activities and also leads to emotional impacts? There are studies that show the increased likelihood of these psychological issues that form and the potential threats of suicide. The children are real and these are real issues that could affect their well-being. In many cases, their academic performance can also decline. Solving equity is a larger social issue that needs to be addressed above the county level. The existing proposal is actually creating more of a divide and breaking up communities. Some solutions include appropriation of funding to develop more school/after school programs, early health education intervention and parental involvement and community programs and outreach. In closing/ please consider the welfare of our children on both sides of the issue. Everyone loses with the current proposal. Sincerely yours, David Liebskind Sayers, Margery From: Jared Hoffman Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 1:14 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Vote NO on 112/2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Jared Hoffman 21042 Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: Suryakant Patel Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 12:47 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Resolution 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] We oppose this resolution Suraykant Patel Parul Patel 11918 Evening Ct, Clarksville, MD 21029 Sayers, Margery From: Xianghua Yin Sent: Sunday, September 15, 2019 12:36 AM To: CouncilMail Cc: g^ Subject: Oppose CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council, I oppose CR112 for the below reason. The proposed plan has a fundamental flaw that it is based on a wrong assumption. This assumption is that poor family students will be benefited by moving to higher rank schools. However, the main factor affecting a school rank is its students per se instead of school infrastructure and teachers. In other words, if school rankings are mainly determined by its hardware such as its infrastructure and teachers, then the poor family students will be more benefited from allocating more government funding to improve their local school infrastructure and increasing teachers salaries to attract more experienced teachers. On the other hand, my kids will be strongly negatively impacted by this plan as all other families living in the same community. The kids will spend more time on traveling and have significantly less time to sleep and participate in after school programs. The plan sacrifice our kids education and breaking down community!!! All in all, as all others living in the Village of River Hill, we need "IMPROVE, NOT MOVE "!!! Thanks for your time and understanding. Xianghua Yin Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: ' Bryan Snow Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 9:47 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: HCPSS Redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Bryan Snow to redistricting, councilmail I am a resident of Howard County since 2001. I came from Montgomery County looking for a better location to work, raise a family and find a better school system. We found it, right here in Polygon 296. My name is Bryan Snow. I am NOT in support: of another school redistricting. This will be my family's third redistricting since 2001 and THIS time it makes no sense. Busing children to find social-economical equities does not work. Take a look at history and you will see the result. Show me where busing of children has endured and made an impact. The only result you will find is children spending more time commuting to school, humiliation and intimidation. Busing children WILL NOT increase individual grade point averages, SAT Scores, nor will it increase a family's social or economical well being. In fact, it may decrease alt those objectives. I believe children should attend the public schools that are closest to their homes. They should have the ability to walk or be driven a very short distance and share the same common threads of their neighbors. I was bused 45 minutes to the nearest middle school and high school during my public school days in the early 1980's. I was an outsider to all the "walking" students. It was difficult to fit in when the majority of the students lived close to the school and shared commonalities that I did not. I believe there is a better way than what the BOE has recommended. It will take time, energy and cost $ to fix the issue. But, have you asked All Howard County residents to help and contribute more to the school system? I think you'd be surprised that we would step up and support because the majority of all who live here came for our children and the HCPSS!! Let Howard County MD thrive. Do Not Divide! Thank you. Bryan Snow Sayers, Margery From: lan Dombroski Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 1:05 PM To: Rigby, Christiana Cc: CouncilMail Subject: Re: Objection to CR1 12-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Good Afternoon, Thank you for responding so quickly. You are the only one who has actually written a personal response. For that I thank you and it tells me you care. As far as the statement you quoted, the plan and resolution are intertwined and obviously timed to support each other. Please understand what is perplexing to us. We live in polygon 1256 and my young children were selected to move. The move creates far more harms than goods. And the "good" is purely theoretical. I'm perplexed why values of the "Community Stakeholders" to include the AAC, Community Sessions, and Online Responses from slide 9 of the Superintendent's presentation, are being ignored. Each one stressed "Neighborhood schools, walkable distances" or "Limit student travel time." My children cannot walk 5.4 miles across two highways. They could walk, and have walked the approximate mile to our current neighborhood schools. Travel time increases tremendously for my children and for my family when participating in school related functions. "Boundary continuity" is also not achieved. Our boundary with Fulton Elementary is broken. The boundary option to the north of 1256 is ignored. The boundary immediately to the east is ignored. The boundary next to the east is ignored. All in favor of a school farther than 8 closer Elementary schools. I'm perplexed about the metrics set forth in School Board Policy 6010. My children move from one majority minority school to go to another majority minority school. No improvement. My children go from one overcrowded school to another overcrowded school. No improvement. My children go from a neighborhood school with a short travel time to a school many neighborhoods away with a travel 3x to 4x farther. Worsened. Fulton Elementary and Laurel Woods Elementary go from two schools in areas made of contiguous communities to one school made up of contiguous communities, as Laurel Woods becomes an island school. Worsened. Frequency in which a student is reassigned attempting to not move a student more then once in 5 years is NOT achieve for my children in this plan. Worsened. FARM % at LW decreases from 63% to 49%. Improved. The harms far outweigh the perceived good. I have found numerous alternative solutions to address the capacity at Fulton Elementary School, while also addressing the high FARM % at LWES. These solutions eliminate the countless harms created in the polygon 1256 portion of the superintendent's plan. His plan, as it stands, in conjunction with CR112, leads us to believe that there are interests at play that have nothing to do with the well being of the children in our area of the county and are purely political. If this is true, it is deeply disturbing and hurtful that you are using my 6 and 8 year old as political pawns. The most innocent and vulnerable in our community. Asking them to theoretically fix what adults should fix, having them waste an extra hour a day of their young lives traveling to and from a distant school. Tearing them from existing friendships and established school related programs. While simultaneously stuffing a well functioning school to 115%, pushing class sizes to 30 and watering down title one resources designated for those in need. I am also perplexed why the Superintendent and elected officials constantly say that every child in HoCo is currently getting an excellent education, that every public school is providing an excellent education. If this is true, why so aggressively disrupt? If its not true, and some schools are struggling, then say so. And if we can agree that some are struggling, then provide help to the adults that are responsible for doing a better job. It is not a young child's job to provide help. If LWES was in our community and not planned to be pushed to 115%, I'd be happy to send my children there. If current LWES polygon(s) want to come to FES to decrease their FARM number, we would welcome them with open arms. We fully understand your important goals. But there are various alternate solutions which achieve those goals without creating numerous other harms. I am sorry if my tone is agitated, but the Superintendent admittedly ignored the values of the community, and CR112 is clearly being timed to support him. On Sat, Sep 14, 2019 at 9:29 AM Rigby, Christiana wrote: Good morning lan, Thank you for reaching out lan, I am perplexed by your second to last paragraph. "The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. " The resolution came into existence as a response to the feasibility study, not the superintendent's latest proposal. I hope this helps clarify a few things. Thanks! Christiana Get Outlook for iOS From: lan Dombroski Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 9:41:28 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Objection to CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I am writing to register my objection to CR112-2019. I am objecting not because I disagree with the ultimate goal of the resolution: socioeconomic integration of the Howard County Public Schools, but because the current resolution as written neither considers or reflects the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers, nor offers or recommends any protections against integration plans that severely negatively impact Howard County children, families, and taxpayers. I would like to direct you the text of the Superintendent's presentation: https://www.hcpss.org/f/schoolplanning/2019/mim-boundary-review-presentation-text.Ddf in the section Stakeholder voices: Below are the clear preferences expressed by the community public stakeholders, in the words of the Superintendent: 7 "Other priorities held more weight in the feedback expressed by stakeholders participating in our community input sessions and online survey. Over 800 participants took part in four community input sessions representing various regions. Overall, these stakeholders preferred options that limit student travel times and boundary continuity, and preserve the concept of neighborhood schools wherever possible. Socio-economic impact was also expressed as a priority consideration among participants at one of the four sessions. Our online feedback survey received 2,176 responses, and 276 alternative scenarios were submitted. This feedback leaned heavily toward limiting student travel times, maintaining walkable distances, and boundary continuity." However, the Superintendent instead went with the preferences of a non-elected, 100% appointed by him Area Attendance Committee: "The committee's consensus was that achieving socio-economic balance, represented by schools' FARM proportions, should be the driving factor for all attendance area decisions. The AAC also recommended that we do more extensive reassignments at once, rather than more limited boundary adjustment processes more frequently. Other AAC priorities were to provide for neighborhood schools with walkable distances as much as possible, and to avoid the use of retocatable classrooms as a long term solution for school crowding.Overall, the AAC recommended that we take dramatic action to make schools more equal social-economically, despite what would be a consequential doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands with feeder patterns distributed throughout the county." The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. I strongly urge the County Council to vote to REJECT or AMEND the current legislation to better reflect the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers. Thank you, lan Dombroski Howard County Council District 4 Sayers, Mlargery From: B Chwieroth Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 11:10 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: I oppose CR112 and the school redistricting proposal [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I am writing to express my vehement opposition to CR112, the catalyst legislation underlying the School Redistricting Proposal which was submitted by superintendent Martirano. I am in polygon number 1187. While under the proposal, my polygon would retain the same school assignments, I am outraged at the impact to which others across Howard County would be subjected. We have paid a significant premium on our housing costs to place our children into the schools we are currently districted. The proposal is unfair to all of us who have saved, worked, and sacrificed to pay these premium values, while others under the proposed plan would reap the benefits without paying the cost. The Baltimore Sun has lauded superintendent Martirano and the County Council as "courageous". You have not earned this accolade. You are using my neighbors sacrifices, and eroding our property values, for his own accolade. If so courageous are you, write a check to every single family who is paying the housing cost premium. Put your money where your mouth is. Dr. Brian Chwieroth 5946 Gentle Call Clarksville, Maryland Sayers, Margery From: Rigby, Christiana Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 9:29 AM To: lan Dombroski; CouncilMail Subject: Re: Objection to CR1 12-2019 Good morning lan, Thank you for reaching out lan, I am perplexed by your second to last paragraph. "The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. " The resolution came into existence as a response to the feasibility study, not the superintendent's latest proposal. I hope this helps clarify a few things. Thanks! Christiana Get Outlook for iOS From: lan Dombroski Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 9:41:28 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Objection to CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I am writing to register my objection to CR112-2019. I am objecting not because I disagree with the ultimate goal of the resolution: socioeconomic integration of the Howard County Public Schools, but because the current resolution as written neither considers or reflects the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers, nor offers or recommends any protections against integration plans that severely negatively impact Howard County children, families, and taxpayers. I would like to direct you the text of the Superintendent's presentation: https://www.hcpss.org/f/schoolplanninR/2019/mjm-boundarv-review-presentation-text.pdf in the section Stakeholder voices: Below are the clear preferences expressed by the community public stakeholders, in the words of the Superintendent: "Other priorities held more weight in the feedback expressed by stakeholders participating in our community input sessions and online survey. Over 800 participants took part in four community input sessions representing various regions. Overall, these stakeholders preferred options that limit student travel times and boundary continuity, and preserve the concept of neighborhood schools wherever possible. Socio-economic impact was also expressed as a priority consideration among participants at one of the four sessions. Our online feedback survey received 2,176 10 responses, and 276 alternative scenarios were submitted. This feedback leaned heavily toward limiting student travel times, maintaining walkable distances, and boundary continuity." However, the Superintendent instead went with the preferences of a non-elected, 100% appointed by him Area Attendance Committee: "The committee's consensus was that achieving socio-economic balance, represented by schools' FARM proportions, should be the driving factor for all attendance area decisions. The AAC also recommended that we do more extensive reassignments at once, rather than more limited boundary adjustment processes more frequently. Other AAC priorities were to provide for neighborhood schools with walkable distances as much as possible, and to avoid the use of relocatable classrooms as a long term solution for school crowding.Overall, the AAC recommended that we take dramatic action to make schools more equal social-economically, despite what would be a consequential doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands with feeder patterns distributed throughout the county." The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. I strongly urge the County Council to vote to REJECT or AMEND the current legislation to better reflect the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers. Thank you, lan Dombroski Howard County Council District 4 11 Sayers, Margery From: SagarGhamandi Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 9:00 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Sagar Ghamandi - Opposition to Resolution 112 (the catalyst to redistricting) - Polygon#187 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Hello, We recently moved to Howard County merely for these schools for my 2 children age 6 and 2. Such a redistricting move not only affects the moral of children who are susceptible to constant changes around them but also affects the housing prices of the neighborhood. As responsible parents, me & my wife spent our life's earning on being able to afford and purchase a house in this preferred school district. Such redistricting affects residents in multiple ways: 1) Parents lose their life's savings on housing values crash. 2) Children lose their friends due to such redistricting. This is specially true for my older child who is hyper sensitive to changes and a consistent environment is necessary for her mental health. Thanks, SagarGhamandi 12 Sayers, Margery From: Joseph Pavlovsky Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019 8:18 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR 112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Do Not Approve CR 112-2019. I have no "skin" in the game. This is just a very bad idea which will result in negative affects. Sent from AOL Mobile Mail Get the new AOL app: mail.mobile.aol.com 13 Sayers, Margery From: LinZhou Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 10:16 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: NO CR112_Lin Zhou_Polygon 1028 Attachments: written testimony_No_CR112.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] To whom it may concern, I am writing to urge that CR112 to be withdrawn. There is no easy solution in education. CR112 will destroy neighborhood schools! Please see attached for my letter. Thank you for your time! -Lin Zhou Resident of polygon 1028 Opposition to CR112 To whom it may concern, I am writing to oppose CR112 and urge council members to withdraw it. Here are the three main reasons, First, the County council members cross the line in resolution of CR112. It is NOT the duty of county council to direct the activity of staff in the Board of Education or Executive branch of government. BOE and the public schools in Maryland is governed by State law, which is clearly stated in the county council website (httDS://cc.howardcountvmd.gov/Online-Tools/FAQS). The questionable conduct of council members in CR112 not only embodies their unprofessionalness in their own legislation field, but also reflects their disrespect for other offices. Had this resolution been passed or even discussed in the council meeting, it would set a bad example for the Howard County. The overstepping conduct is unconstitutional and disrupt ideology of the separation and balance of power. Secondly, CR112 is recklessness and wishful thinking. It attempts to close academic achievement gap with a multi-year integration by socioeconomic factors. There are numerous research studies that demonstrate the uncertainty between integration of socioeconomic status at school and academic achievement of low-income students. Professor Sean F. Reardonat Stanford University indicated "It is not clear, however, how much of the association is due to differences in the quality of schooling, or in the opportunities children have to learn and develop outside of school, in their homes and neighborhoods,", and "Again, it is not clear whether this results from differences in the quality of schools in high - and low - income communities, or because of differences in children's outside of school opportunities to learn," Third but not the least, Samuel Casey Carter, a Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, published his book No Excuses: Lessons from 21 High-Performing Schools. The author documents 21 high-performing high-poverty schools across 11 states. The principles, staffs and students refuse to make poverty an excuse for academic failure. These schools achieve more than 65% or even 80% on national academic achievement tests, while 75% of their students qualify for federal lunch program. His findings are consistent with other independent researchers, e.g. ReynetcVan Ewijk etc. and Russel Rumberger etc. All these studies reveal key characteristics for the successful achievement, such as use measurable goals to establish a culture of achievement, and foster parental accountability extending the mission of the school to the home. Education is the most complicated job. It is much easier for council members to point out one possible factor in the process and delude themselves that they find the easy button. There is no easy button in education. I ask CR112 to be withdrawn. Lin Zhou, resident of Polygon 1028 Sayers, Margery From: lan Dombroski Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 9:41 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Objection to CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I am writing to register my objection to CR112-2019. I am objecting not because I disagree with the ultimate goal of the resolution: socioeconomic integration of the Howard County Public Schools, but because the current resolution as written neither considers or reflects the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers, nor offers or recommends any protections against integration plans that severely negatively impact Howard County children, families, and taxpayers. I would like to direct you the text of the Superintendent's presentation: https://www.hcpss.orR/f/schoolplanning/2019/mjm:boundary-review-presentation-text.pdf in the section Stakeholder voices: Below are the clear preferences expressed by the community public stakeholders, in the words of the Superintendent: "Other priorities held more weight in the feedback expressed by stakeholders participating in our community input sessions and online survey. Over 800 participants took part in four community input sessions representing various regions. Overall, these stakeholders preferred options that limit student travel times and boundary continuity, and preserve the concept of neighborhood schools wherever possible. Socio-economic impact was also expressed as a priority consideration among participants at one of the four sessions. Our online feedback survey received 2,176 responses, and 276 alternative scenarios were submitted. This feedback leaned heavily toward limiting student travel times, maintaining walkable distances, and boundary continuity." However, the Superintendent instead went with the preferences of a non-elected, 100% appointed by him Area Attendance Committee: "The committee's consensus was that achieving socio-economic balance, represented by schools' FARM proportions, should be the driving factor for all attendance area decisions. The AAC also recommended that we do more extensive reassignments at once, rather than more limited boundary adjustment processes more frequently. Other AAC priorities were to provide for neighborhood schools with walkable distances as much as possible, and to avoid the use of relocatable classrooms as a long term solution for school crowding.Overall, the AAC recommended that we take dramatic action to make schools more equal social-economically, despite what would be a consequential doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands with feeder patterns distributed throughout the county." The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. I strongly urge the County Council to vote to REJECT or AMEND the current legislation to better reflect the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers. Thank you, Ian Dombroski Howard County Council District 4 Sayers, Margery From: no-reply@howardcountymd.gov Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 8:43 PM To: kmack57@aol.com Subject: District 5-CR 112 First Name: Kevin Last Name: McLaughlin Email: kmack57@aol .corn Street Address: 13014 Twelve Trees Ct City: Clarksville Subject: CR 112 Message: I oppose CR 112 and expect you to oppose it as well. Sayers, Margery From: Darlene Affinito Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 6:23 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Fwd: Resolution for redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Darlene Affinito daraffinito@verizon.net On Friday, September 13, 2019, councilmail@howardcountymd.gov wrote: As an overburdened taxpayer, I am so tired of you deciding what you think is best for me We moved here because of the school district. Also, the reason my neighbors and I are paying exorbitant taxes etc. We have rights also. As a responsible citizen when do I get heard I do NOT support this decision of busing. Do our taxes get lowered if we get rectistricted? They should. Think about why we have worked hard and done without to move in our districts. Stop all the redistricting and busing. It has solved nothing ever for anyone but politicians. Here's an idea. Stop building. Darlene Affinito daraffinito@verizon.net Sayers, Margery From: Darlene Affinito Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 6:05 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Resolution for redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] As a overburdened taxpayer, I am so tired of you sill deciding what you think is best for mr. I moved here DarleneAffinito daraffinito@verizon.net Sayers, Margery From: Jim Shell Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 5:44 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: School Resolution [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Vote against the school resolution sponsored by Jones Rigby Jung. Please quit trying to redistribute the wealth and push us further towards Socialism. People should WORK for what they get! Sent from my iPad Jim Shell Sayers, Mlargery From: B lllum Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 5:24 PM To: CouncilMail; redistricting@hcpss.org Subject: I support CR-112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council and Board of Education, I am writing in support of Dr Martirano's plan. I support socio-economic integration. I'd like to see it be a bit more ambitious as the NYU sociology professor R. L'Heureux Lewsi McCoy suggested in this Baltimore Sun article from 9/6/19: https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-howard-school-redistrictinB-20190906- xhzkmkf2zvgcxdkbd3vqdanblmstorv.htmt?fbclid=lwAR25vRYiw2hBldl9DDOinbW04HaSomnzRTsNetlce46MHfONXbYG6WM7Kqw He argues going for 35-40% max FARMS makes more sense than trying to do it incrementally. He said "If you are going to catch hell for 50 percent, then at least go to 40 percent" I agree with that. An improvement I would like to see is more stable feeds from elementary to high school. I know it'll be challenging but I think it's possible to create stable flows that also produce the equity this resolution is aiming for. I know there is a lot of fear out there. People want the best for their own kids but your job is to look out for all children. We are so fortunate to live in a county with such strong schools and communities that have so much to offer children of all economic backgrounds. Study after study shows all kids are better served by integrated schools. The more affluent parents and homeowners may have more time to get organized and protest these needed changes but I trust that you will remember those tax payers of more modest means who might not have the same opportunity to express their views. They are also an important part of our community. Thanks for your time and attention, Buffy lllum Polygon 149 Sayers, Margery From: Kim Bakhtiar Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 3:20 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR 112 Testimony Attachments: County Council Testimony.docx [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council, Attached is my testimony in opposition to CR-112. Sincerely, Kim Bakhtiar I am opposed to County Council Resolution No. 112-2019. The council, along with Planning and Zoning, has worked together to develop our county in such a way that affordable housing is not available county wide. Together, the mission was to "shape the future of Howard County by facilitating the development of safe, healthy, equitable, connected and sustainable communities, while concurrently respecting individual rights. This mission and what it's based upon is not supported by the resolution, nor Dr. Martriano's redistricting proposal from which it was created. Instead of correcting the mistakes of this Council and others, past and present, the Council is over reaching in its power by influencing the Board of Education to focus primarily on only one standard of Policy 6010, the socioeconomic composition of the school population as measured by participation in FARM. Here are a few statistics from the Superintendent's Redistricting Proposal. 757 elementary school students will be sent from Title 1 schools to current non-Title I schools. A majority of these students will be losing resources, including but not limited to Family Math and Reading Nights, additional teachers, additional materials for instruction, before school after school and summer programs to reinforce and extend the regular school curriculum. Alternately, approximately 1003 elementary school students will be sent from non-Title I schools to Title I schools. Many of these students will be non-FARM students and take the space of FARM students who benefit from Title I services. We are swapping numbers to balance discrepancies on paper and not addressing and directing funds and actions into solving the societal issues at play. I was a child of a single teenaged mother who for several years received federal assistance. I met with success because of a strong family unit and the support of my community. Our entire community attended Arbutus Elementary (Title I,) Arbutus Middle and Lansdowne High School; they weren't considered elite schools in Baltimore County but set me on a path of higher learning. I truly reflect upon what it would have been like to be separated from my community based on the fact that some of us were poorer than others; that alone would have made me feel inferior. You would have torn apart our community, when community and family was what we depended on. We needed one another to be involved in all that school had to offer before and after "business hours." Those before and after school activities are the ones that allowed us to grow not only academically but shaped us as people, involving us in sports, the arts and student government. If I had been uprooted from community schools based on my family's earnings, I can unfortunately imagine the continued "socioeconomic segregation" in schools. Many students would still not be able to enroll in higher level classes or achieve increased test scores because core societal issues are not addressed simply by displacing children based on socioeconomics. In the Superintendent's redistricting proposal born from County Council Resolution 112,the displacement of children based on economic need or lack of need sends them to schools that do vary in classes and support. There are discrepancies in JumpStart/college credit, Teen Parenting Leaders and Daycare Providers, teachers for Hispanic Achievement and Black Achievement, teachers for Alternative Education (academic and behavior support with an emphasis placed on organization strategies, classroom behaviors, study skills and conflict resolution,) and significant differences in numbers of Special Education Teachers from one school to the next. I taught for almost 13 years in the Baltimore County School System. In order to earn my masters from Johns Hopkins in School Administration, I created and set into action a program called "School Within A School" to support at-risk children inside of our school community. This group faced a variety of challenges; poverty, substance abuse, behavioral issues and lack of family support to name a few. We hand selected teachers, including myself, to teach these young people together in their core subjects. With a smaller class size we were able to give them more individualized and personal instruction. We were aware of their challenges and worked to address them. Bonds were formed and specialized support was given both in and out of school. We didn't spread these kids out to be lost in the system; we invested in them and their families within the community to help them meet with success. I would be remiss not to add that the path of this resolution has become ugly. I am married to a man of Persian descent and am angered by some of the racial implications and charged language used and/or supported by some of our leaders in local government, anct/or those appointed to help promote this resolution and the redistricting plan born from it. So many decisions are happening behind closed doors and at the eleventh hour involving some members of this council, select members of the Board of Education, our county executive and our superintendent. It's disgraceful and many are looking into the legalities, not to mention large scale movements of how our votes will be cast in upcoming elections. CR-112 promotes a redistricting plan that devastates communities. The movement of 7,396 children under this proposal creates a false sense of accomplishment. Moving children from THEIR social support in pivotal years is overwhelmingly negative. I borrow my closing testimony from something I've read over the past several weeks. We must stop politicizing our children, our families and our communities. Howard County must provide for EVERY child in EVERY school with the same sense of self-worth and empowerment. All children must be treated equally regardless of race, gender, economic status or any other classification. The only classification all of us should be using is Howard County Public School Student, which is not supported by CR-112. Sayers, Margery From: Paul Gani Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 2:01 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Objection to CR11 2-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I am writing to register my objection to CR112-2019. I am objecting not because I disagree with the ultimate goal of the resolution: socioeconomic integration of the Howard County Public Schools, but because the current resolution as written neither considers or reflects the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers, nor offers or recommends any protections against integration plans that severely impact Howard County children, families, and taxpayers. I would like to direct you the text of the Superintendent's presentation: https://www.hcpss.org/f/schoolplanninR/2019/mim-boundary-review-presentatip_n-text.pdf in the section Stakeholder voices: Below are the clear preferences expressed by the community public stakeholders, in the words of the Superintendent: "Other priorities held more weight in the feedback expressed by stakeholders participating in our community input sessions and online survey. Over 800 participants took part in four community input sessions representing various regions. Overall, these stakeholders preferred options that limit student travel times and boundary continuity, and preserve the concept of neighborhood schools wherever possible. Socio-economic impact was also expressed as a priority consideration among participants at one of the four sessions. Our online feedback survey received 2,176 responses, and 276 alternative scenarios were submitted. This feedback leaned heavily toward limiting student travel times, maintaining walkable distances, and boundary continuity." However, the Superintendent instead went with the preferences of a non-elected, 100% appointed by him Area Attendance Committee: The committee's consensus was that achieving socio-economic balance, represented by schools' FARM proportions, should be the driving factor for all attendance area decisions. The AAC also recommended that we do more extensive reassignments at once, rather than more limited boundary adjustment processes more frequently. Other AAC priorities were to provide for neighborhood schools with walkable distances as much as possible, and to avoid the use of relocatable classrooms as a long term solution for school crowding.Overall, the AAC recommended that we take dramatic action to make schools more equal social-economically, despite what would be a consequential doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands with feeder patterns distributed throughout the county. The County Council passing a resolution which supports a redistricting plan which *openly* declares that doubling or tripling of transportation costs, significant increases in student travel time, and a need to create islands are necessary and acceptable to achieve socioeconomic integration is a slap in the face to all public stakeholders and taxpayers. I strongly urge the County Council to vote to REJECT or AMEND the current legislation to better reflect the priorities of community public stakeholders and taxpayers. Thank you, PaulGani Howard County Council District 4 Sayers, Mlargery From: Thomas Liu Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 11:31 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Opposition to CCR 1 12 Attachments: CCR Letter.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council Members, I am writing here to oppose the proposed County Council Resolution No. 112 (or "CCR 112"), not as a disgruntled parent whose children will be impacted by Superintendent Martirano's Attendance Area Adjustment Plan, "incidentally" released in conjunction with CCR 112, but as a proud American who feels it is his civic obligation to speak against it. I acknowledge this resolution has a good intent to achieve equity in education, however, the ideology and political motivation behind it are simply false. As one Councilmember said, "the resolution is aspirational and not prescriptive." Nevertheless, it is intended to put political pressure on the Board of Education when it deliberates over the Superintendent's Plan. First on Diversity. I am offended by accusations that we do not have diversity in our schools. Diversity was the very goal on which Columbia, the home of James Rouse, was founded 50 years ago. When we moved to Maryland about one year ago, we decided to live in the River Hill Village of Columbia for the very reason of its diversity, its tradition in honor of civility and openness, and its top-rated public schools. Diversity is far beyond seeing the world in the lenses of two colors. Diversity is about embracing different races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, political briefs, socioeconomic status. Diversity is about accepting coexistence of different opinions, experiences and backgrounds. The truth is River Hill is a diverse, multi-race, and multi-culture community. My children go to River Hill schools and every day learn from their peers of all colors, ethnic and cultural identities. But I also acknowledge that diversity today is a journey not a destination. There is certainly more we can and should do with this respect. Second on Equity in Education. Prejudice is appalling when people living in the River Hill community are being called "wealthy" or "rich" people. As far as I know, most of my friends and neighbors, including myself, are hard-working middle class or professionals, who work hard to support our families, pay our mortgage and property tax, and make every effort to ensure our children have a quality life and education. As an immigrant and a citizen, I embrace and cherish the American values that emphasize equal opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for everyone, all achieved through hard work. Socioeconomic disparity among different schools may exist in Howard County like everywhere else in terms of household income gaps, but this is a result of years of negligence and mismanagement with community planning and housing development. Achieving equity in education is a noble cause, but our children should not pay the price. There is no justice or moral high ground to achieve equity at the expense of others, let alone children. Instead, equity in education should be achieved in progressive, prudent and thoughtful ways. Equity will never be achieved through redistribution. Social engineering with the goal to achieve socioeconomic equity only creates the monster of its own inequality. Most part of the 20th century saw this type of social engineering started and failed in other parts of the world. Thirdly, the right to choose which community to live in and which neighborhood school to go to is a common sense and a fundamental civil rights issue. School redistricting, as outlined in the Superintendent's Plan, calls for massive students swaps between school polygons - forcibly taking 7,400 students away from their neighborhood schools and sending them miles away, doubling or tripling bus transportation time. This is a classic example of social engineering and governmental overreach, and infringement upon individual civil rights. Finally, the underlying assumption of CCR 112 is that socioeconomic disparity in the school system contributes to increasing achievement gaps and lower graduation rates for students who participate in the FARM program. It was proclaimed in the news release that "numerous academic studies indicate that diverse, integrated classrooms lead to 1 better academic outcomes for all students, while increased segregation leads to greater achievement gaps for low-income students and students of color". While the correlation between socioeconomic disparity and school achievement disparity exists, this may not be a direct, causal relationship. Several important factors other than income level may influence or determine school performance, such as community environment, family environment, parental involvement, cultural perspective, and personal accountability. A forced separation of children from their neighborhood schools and putting them on a long bus commute will make closing school achievement gap even more difficult. In an ideal world, every child should have equal access to every opportunity in a wonderful school with equally wonderful outcome. But that only exists in Utopia. Instead of making a political statement, the County Council should work closely with the Board of Education to take realistic and effective actions to advance equity in education. While this testimony is not intended to offer alternate solutions, a few considerations may apply: 1) expand voluntary participation programs, such as Jumpstart, and provide bus transport so that more FARM students will have the opportunity to participate in high-performing schools at their will; 2) create or expand magnet programs or create a magnet or charter school in Howard County so that all students, regardless of their income or polygons, will be attracted to attend together; 3) invest in schools that are desperately in need of infrastructure upgrade or special programs to help the students in need; 4) build more affordable housing so that more low-income family students will have access to high-performing schools, and do so while keeping a hard fiscal discipline with respect to school funding. With that, I respectfully implore Councilmembers Ms. Rigby, Dr. Jones and Ms. Jung to withdraw County Council Resolution No. 112. I respectfully implore the County Council to vote against this resolution. Sincerely, Jiong Liu September 13, 2019 Subject: Opposition to County Council Resolution No. 112-2019 Dear Howard County Council Members, I am standing here to oppose the proposed County Council Resolution No. 112 (or "CCR 111"}, not as a disgruntled parent whose children will be impacted by Superintendent Martirano's Attendance Area Adjustment Plan, "incidentally" released in conjunction with CCR 112, but as a proud American who feels it is his civic obligation to speak against it. I acknowledge this resolution has a good intent to achieve equity in education, however, the ideology and political motivation behind it are simply false. As one Councilmember said, "the resolution is aspirational and not prescriptive." Nevertheless, it is intended to put political pressure on the Board of Education when it deliberates over the Superintendent's Plan. First on Diversity. I am offended by accusations that we do not have diversity in our schools. Diversity was the very goal on which Columbia, the home of James Rouse, was founded 50 years ago. When we moved to Maryland about one year ago, we decided to live in the River Hill Village of Columbia for the very reason of its diversity, its tradition in honor of civility and openness, and its top-rated public schools. Diversity is far beyond seeing the world in the lenses of two colors. Diversity is about embracing different races, ethnicities, cultures, religions, political briefs, socioeconomic status. Diversity is about accepting coexistence of different opinions, experiences and backgrounds. The truth is River Hill is a diverse, multi-race, and multi-cutture community. My children go to River Hill schools and every day learn from their peers of all colors, ethnic and cultural identities. But I also acknowledge that diversity today is a journey not a destination. There is certainly more we can and should do with this respect. Second on Equity in Education. Prejudice is appalling when people living in the River Hill community are being called "wealthy" or "rich" people. As far as I know, most of my friends and neighbors, including myself, are hard-working middle class or professionals, who work hard to support our families, pay our mortgage and property tax, and make every effort to ensure our children have a quality life and education. As an immigrant and a citizen, I embrace and cherish the American values that emphasize equal opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for everyone, all achieved through hard work. Socioeconomic disparity among different schools may exist in Howard County like everywhere else in terms of household income gaps, but this is a result of years of negligence and mismanagement with community planning and housing development. Achieving equity in education is a noble cause, but our children should not pay the price. There is no justice or moral high ground to achieve equity at the expense of others, let alone children. Instead, equity in education should be achieved in progressive, prudent and thoughtful ways. Equity will never be achieved through redistribution. Social engineering with the goal to achieve socioeconomic equity only creates the monster of its own inequality. Most part of the 20th century saw this type of social engineering started and failed in other parts of the world. Thirdly, the right to choose which community to live in and which neighborhood school to go to is a common sense and a fundamental civil rights issue. School redistricting, as outlined in the Superintendent's Plan, calls for massive students swaps between school polygons - forcibly taking 7,400 students away from their neighborhood schools and sending them miles away, doubling or tripling bus transportation time. This is a classic example of social engineering and governmental overreach, and infringement upon individual civil rights. Finally, the underlying assumption of CCR 112 is that socioeconomic disparity in the school system contributes to increasing achievement gaps and lower graduation rates for students who participate in the FARM program. It was proclaimed in the news release that "numerous academic studies indicate that diverse, integrated classrooms lead to better academic outcomes for all students, while increased segregation leads to greater achievement gaps for low-income students and students of color". While the correlation between socioeconomic disparity and school achievement disparity exists, this may not be a direct, causal relationship. Several important factors other than income level may influence or determine school performance, such as community environment, family environment, parental involvement, cultural perspective, and personal accountability. A forced separation of children from their neighborhood schools and putting them on a long bus commute will make closing school achievement gap even more difficult. In an ideal world, every child should have equal access to every opportunity in a wonderful school with equally wonderful outcome. But that only exists in Utopia. Instead of making a political statement, the County Council should work closely with the Board of Education to take realistic and effective actions to advance equity in education. While this testimony is not intended to offer alternate solutions, a few considerations may apply: 1) expand voluntary participation programs, such as Jumpstart, and provide bus transport so that more FARM students will have the opportunity to participate in high-performing schools at their will; 2) create or expand magnet programs or create a magnet or charter school in Howard County so that all students, regardless of their income or polygons, will be attracted to attend together; 3) invest in schools that are desperately in need of infrastructure upgrade or special programs to help the students in need; 4) build more affordable housing so that more low-income family students will have access to high-performing schools, and do so while keeping a hard fiscal discipline with respect to school funding. With that, I respectfully implore Councilmembers Ms. Rigby, Dr. Jones and Ms. Jung to withdraw County Council Resolution No. 112. I respectfully implore the County Council to vote against this resolution. Sincerely, Jiong Liu Sayers, Margery From: Rigby, Christiana Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 10:25 AM To: Sayers, Margery Subject: FW: CR 112 Comment testimony Felix Facchine District Aide, Districts Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby Howard County Council 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City, MD 21043 ffacchine@howardcountvmd.gov 0:410.313.3108 M: 443-945-7202 BQ Sign up for our newsletter! From: Jacqueline Eng Sent: Friday, September 13, 2019 8:54 AM To: Rigby, Christiana ; Yungmann, David Subject: CR 112 Comment [Note; This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council Chair Mercer-Rigby, I write to express my support for CR 112. Socio-economic equity across the Howard County Public School System is essential to ensuring the academic and life-long success ofaN our community's children. Ensuring people of all economic situations and cultural backgrounds have the opportunity to know each other and learn, work and play together are values we tout; CR 112 will help ensure that we, as a county and a community, practice what we preach. Thank you. Jackie Eng District 5 Resident Sayers, Margery From: Julia Ju Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 11:04 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Opposition to CR112-2019 Attachments: Opposition to CR112-2-19 council members.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear council members, Attached please find my strong opposition to the CR112-2019. I urge you to withdraw or discard it immediately as this will destroy our beautiful and peaceful Howard County! Thank you, Julia Ju Opposition to CR112-2019 Dear County Council Members, I am a Howard County resident since 2004 and I am writing to you to voice my strong opposition to the county resolution CR112-2019. Ever since you were elected to be the county council, I have put my trust in you that you will make sound decisions solely for the best interests and well-beings of ALL Howard County students, families, and residents. I am stunned to find that the CR112-2019 was proposed by three council members that we voted in the office. To say disappointment is the least. Below are my deep concerns about the CR112-2019: • It is baseless to state that "even in Howard County, Maryland, where diversity and inclusion are touted by many, there is growing evidence that these desirable characteristics have declined in individual schools in the Howard County Public School System". o The truth is that all HCPSS public school students are representative of the diverse community and neighborhood we live around the school; o No students have been rejected from enrolling in HCPSS schools based on his/her race, gender, or socioeconomic status; o In contrary to the false statement in the CR112-2019, students in HCPSS schools are growing in diversity and their embracement, inclusion, and contribution to the diversity. There is no decline in desirable characteristics in individual schools in the HCPSS. • It is baseless to state that "the Howard County public school system affirms that there are concerns about access and equity in the school system by declaring in their equity report's "strategic all to action" a charge to "... ensure(s) academic success and social-emotional well- being for each student in an inclusive and nurturing environment that close opportunity gaps" o Based on publicly available data, ALL HCPSS schools have equal access to the education programs set up by HCPSS. The superintendent and BOE members said multiple times at public settings that ALL HCPSS schools are excellent. So there is no base for the claimed concerns about access and equity in the school system. • It is a Wrong conclusion based on Baseless concerns: "Now, Therefore, be it resolved that the county council of Howard County, Maryland,,... supports the Howard County Board of Education and Howard County Public School System in their lawful efforts to integrate Howard County public Schools through the redistricting and boundary review process and focus additional efforts and resources on addressing the achievement gaps and racial and socioeconomic disparities in the Howard County Public School System" "And be it further resolved that the County Council of Howard County,, Maryland, calls on the Board of Education and the Howard cCounty Public School system to draft, approve, and implement a lawful multi-year integration Plan to ensure that Howard County Public Schools are integrated by socioeconomic factors and remain integrated in future years" o Improved educational programs and meet EACH student's educational needs is the only way to improve education and address achievement gaps o Social engineering failed before and it will fail again! Never Social Engineering! o The county councils should focus on improving the job opportunities for families to improve their socioeconomic status. Integration schools through redistricting and boundary reviews can NOT solve any racial or socioeconomic disparities or address the achievement gaps! Students and Families will suffer emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially! o Racial and socioeconomic disparities are not caused by HCPSS. So why does anyone expect HCPSS to solve them?! HCPSS can NOT solve racial or socioeconomic disparities that are caused by complex and multiple factors! o No County Council or BOE should dictate or force any students out of their neighborhood schools! It is NOT lawful! o The three council members who proposed CR112-2019 Failed to disclose any risks and harms that CR112-2019 will do to students, teachers, families, communities, environment, and the entire county o Failed to provide any evidence to show any potential benefits to anyone. The only one study cited is flawed and cannot be applied in Howard County with Forced shuffling children around! o Will create significant issues emotionally, mentally, socially, physically, and financially all students and families It could not be stressed enough that ALL children should be protected from any harm and No children should suffer! Here is a good example of protecting children. For any new drug to be approved for use in human, the sponsor of the new drug development must provide evidence to support that the drug is safe and effective. In other words, the drug will do no harm to human and on top of that requirement, the drug is required to do something good to patients. In the US, we require safety data first. Only drugs showed no harm to people will be allowed to proceed to the next stage of drug development program to test its effectiveness. If a drug causes significant harms to human regardless if it will help to relieve some symptoms, it will be discarded and stopped from any further development. Please note that the requirements for developing drugs for pediatric use are extremely strict. Children are usually excluded from clinical trials for reasons of protecting them from any known, uncertain, unknown, or unpredictable risks. I believe that this is a great model for any program. Children are very precious and particularly vulnerable. Please do NOT use our precious children for the risky and harmful social experiment that suggested in CR112-2019. In clinical trials, the sponsor is required to fully disclose any risks and harms to any participants and requires both children and parents consent in the case of pediatric trial. Otherwise, the sponsor will be liable for any harms that the experiment has done to the participants. In this case, none of the risks and harms are disclosed to our children and families. I ask you, our County Council Members, to use the same principal and standard to protect our precious Howard County children from any risks and harms entailed from the social engineering experiment as currently proposed in the CR112-2019. CR112-2019 must be discarded because it details so much harm to students, families, communities, environment, county, and all taxpayers. As we know the number one cause of death for those ages 15 to 19 in Howard County is suicide due to mental health issues. Who will be liable for the increased risks to our students, particularly the mental health issues, caused by this baseless CR112-2019 and its serious consequences? The followings are lists of good and harm that CR112-2019 will do: Good: None! There is no evidence to support any benefits to the students, families, and communities, fromCR112-2019! Harm: A ton! The harmful and disruptive effects of this proposed CR112-2019 include, but not limited to the following: Harms specific to students from low-income families: • Lost access to current supporting resources for FARM students, such as the special meal/food program, that have been set up within their current schools that receiving Title 1 funding • Lost access to special education programs that have been set up in their current schools • Lost chance to participate in after school programs due to lack of transportation or lack of family support • Lost support from existing support from their current school, neighborhood, and local programs • increased risk of school absence and school drop outs Harms to ALL students, including students from low-income families: • Increased risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide o Forced separation from friends, classmates, teachers at current neighborhood schools o Lost support from existing friendships and support systems already established with counselors, teachers, coaches, and mentors o Increased stress to survive in new schools, especially for high school students o Forced long ride in school bus every school day o Lost opportunity to play school sports, clubs, bands, and other after school activities due to transportation constraint and switching schools o Sleep deprivation as students have to get up earlier to catch the school bus due to the forced longer school bus rides • Increased risk of injury/harm due to prolonged forced school bus rides every school day o Injury/death from car accidents o Sleep deprivation o Back injury o Fatigue and inability to perform at school o Increased blood pressure o Increased cardiovascular risks o Reduced physical activities and fitness o Reduced time with family o Increased risk of depression and anxiety Increased risks of school absence and school drop cuts o Transportation was reported as a significant contributing factor for 39% of chronically absent high school students. Students from low income and single parent families are particularly at risk of school absence if they miss the school buses. o Lack of neighborhood schools is another significant contributing factor for school absence and drop outs o Lack of family and neighborhood support that supports social and emotional well-beings of students is another significant factor o Very importantly, student mental health significantly contribute to school absence and drop out Increased risk of worsening performance academically o Students suffer academically due to the prolonged forced bus rides, sleep deprivation, forced separation from existing friends and supporting groups, forced adjusting to new school, new classroom, new schedule, new social environment, injuries, fatigue, depression and anxiety, reduced physical fitness, and increased school absence and drop cuts Increased risk of not being prepared for college application o Forced separation of students from their counselors and teachers at their current schools who have known the students for years and can provide guidance and write them recommendation letters will make student suffer in their college application and very likely make them lose their opportunity to get into the college that they deserve Harms to Teachers: Increased burden to develop teaching materials, paces, and approaches to meet different needs for all students in the class. It is very challenging if not impossible when the student levels are very different Increased stress and anxiety from not able to give full attention to any one group since the skill level are very different Increased stress and anxiety seeing all students suffer when students are forced together in attempt to flatten test scores Increased burden with less support due to the budget cuts that reduce the number of educators who would be required to support the more complex classrooms Harms to Families: Increased stress and anxiety due to frequent disruptive school redistricting that CR112-2019 entails Increased child care costs Increased transportation costs due to prolonged commute time to schools Increased driving time which will increase their risk of injury, blood pressure, depression, anxiety, fatigue, cardiovascular risks, and physical unfitness • Increased stress and anxiety to send or pick up students to or from schools for a long distance • Increased risks of injury from car accidents in the forced commute to drop off or pick up students at schools at distance • Reduced family time with students • Increased anxiety and stress worrying about the challenges and sufferings the children have encounter at new schools • Increased depression and anxiety being forced to separate from community • Increase burden due to forced separation from current support system in the neighborhood, such as car pooling Harms to Environment: • Increased traffic due to additional and longer school bus rides every school day • Increase road maintenance costs • Increased air pollution Harms to the County: • The increase in several million dollars in the transportation costs alone is harmful to Howard County • Additional costs, such as administrative transition costs, additional resources costs, opportunity costs due to the redistricting will be too huge to bear for all taxpayers in the county • The performance of all affected schools will be reduced because of the forced redistricting. As a result, Howard County will lose its leading place in Education in the country • Other programs will suffer from the over-costly HCPSS budget • Families will choose to leave Howard County to avoid constant and significant disruptions and serious harms that will be done to their children and increased burden if CR112-2019 is passed. As in the medical filed and any other public services, one would promise that "first, do no harm". I urge our County Council members to apply the same principle to withdraw or vote Against the CR112-2019 to avoiding doing harm to thousands of children, teachers, families, environment, and our county. There are better ways to improve the education and "... ensure(s) academic success and social- emotional well-being for each student in an inclusive and nurturing environment that close opportunity gaps": • Build and expand high schools and set this as high priority over other developments • Feasible and responsible development planning for the county • Provide choices to families, such as the magnet schools, charter schools, and school vouchers to go to private schools • Provide needed resources and programs to schools that have higher percentage of FARM students, such as special educational programs after school or summer school, more teachers and supporting staff, vocational training programs, etc. • Keep all students in under-capacity schools together! • Keeping feeds of students together from one school to the next! • Maintain contiguous communities and neighborhood and NO forced redistricting or integration! Lastly, I want to say that multiple factors affecting students' school performance. We do not expect County Council or BOE or HCPSS to solve racial and socioeconomic disparities in Howard County through BOE and HCPSS because a lot of these factors are out of the scope ofBOE and HCPSS. I appreciate your focus and dedication on providing better education to all students so that ALL students will have opportunities to thrive and reach to their full potential in HCPSS and keep our diverse and peaceful Howard County the best place to go to school and live! Let BOE be Board of Education and Not Board of Social Engineering!!! Build up! Don't divide or tear down our neighborhoods and communities! Withdraw CRH2-2019 immediately! Provide tailored opportunities and educational programs to meet EACH student's educational needs, such as, the Magnet schools, charter schools. Vocational training programs, and school vouchers! Sincerely, Julia Ju Sayers, Margery From: Jianningzeng Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 5:46 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Fwd: Strongly against CR1 12 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council, Since when do equity and integration become your top agenda at all cost including huge cost of busing around and sacrifice the interest of the majority middle-class? What makes you think that students with negative attitude, behavior and habit in learning will turn around simply because they move to a better/low FARM rate school district? It takes about 10 to 30 years to build a good school district. Conscientious parents, diligent students and teachers are key factors that contribute a good school. Good schools also attract like-minded families who set education as the top priority. Housing prices, being sensitive to school qualities, reflect efforts being sowed and fruits being reaped of the communities. Some low performance schools were formulated not because the community's socioeconomic status or income level is low. There is no statistic proof that children from poor or disadvantagect families will necessarily do poorly in school. Often times it's the opposite. Dr. Ben Carson is a good example. Kids do not perform well in school is largely due to the fact that communities do not have strong values in healthy family structure, education, or beliefs in raising kids with responsibilities, perseverance and devotion. Don't punish our hard-working parents and our children and mess up our County by shuffling them around. Equity and integration can only occur organically when low performance school communities and families come to realize their root problems and make efforts to overcome them by establishing values, beliefs and culture and by IMPROVING K-12 education in school and after school. Social Marxism or Socialism never works! It did not work and never will anywhere in the world. Social engineering never works either! It only makes everybody equally poor and equally dumb. So don't do it! That's why I strongly oppose CR 112. It will ultimately bring disaster to Howard County! Best Regards, Jianning Zeng EllicottCity, MD Compose: New Message Sayers, Margery From: Wenzheng Hu Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 4:51 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Objection to CR11 2 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council, Since when do equity and integration become your top agenda at all cost including huge cost of busing around and sacrifice the interest of the majority middle-class? What makes you think that students with negative attitude, behavior and habit in learning will turn around simply because they move to a better school district? It takes about 10 to 30 years to build a good school district. Conscientious parents, diligent students and teachers are key factors that contribute a good school. Good schools also attract like-minded families who set education as the top priority. Housing prices, being sensitive to school qualities/ reflect efforts being sowed and fruits being reaped of the communities. Bad schools were formulated not because the community's socioeconomic status or income level is low. There is no statistic proof that children from poor or disadvantaged families will necessarily do poorly in school. Often times it's the opposite. Dr. Ben Carson is a good example. Kids do not perform well in school is largely due to the fact that communities do not have strong values in healthy family structure, education/ or beliefs in raising kids with responsibilities/ perseverance and devotion. Don't punish the good families and students and mess up our County by shuffling them around. Equity and integration can only occur organically when bad school communities and families come to realize their root problems and make efforts to overcome them by establishing values, beliefs and culture and by improving K-12 education in school and after school. Social Marxism or Socialism never works! It did not work and never will anywhere in the world. Social engineering never works either! It only makes everybody equally poor and equally dumb. So don't do it! That's why I strongly oppose CR 112. It will ultimately bring disaster to Howard County! Thank you/ Wenzheng Hu 05165:? .30 Sayers, Margery From: Hong Cheng Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 3:53 PM To: CouncilMail; Ball, Calvin Subject: Oppose CR 112-2019 "Howard County Public School System to draft, approve, and implement a lawful multi-year Integration Plan" [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Executive Ball and County Council Members, I have been monitoring and following upon the press releases and commentaries on "integration", "race" and "socioeconomics" in Howard County. I have learned different perspectives from many open-minded discusses. However, I am angered by some of the racial implications and charged language used by our elected officials, including member of our county council. This has been further inflamed by our Superintendent's recent redistricting proposal. "Howard County Public Schools have become increasingly segregated by race and socioeconomic status," Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby said. "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County, and it's time to take meaningful strides toward integration in our education system." These racial implications, charged language and the Superintendents' recent redistricting proposal have torn down the harmony of Howard Country communities and split the communities to be "them vs. us" or "wealthy kids vs. poor kids". The language offered by members of the county council in this resolution borders on racial hate mongering. I want to point out to the members of the county council that using "segregation" to spearhead school improvement is a wrongheaded plan and will do the entire county more harm than good!!! My family is a minority family and lives in perhaps the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the county. If you are not familiar, our neighborhood in Polygon 3176 is a majority-minority area that is represented by a mix of African American, African, Asian, Latino, White and Southern Asian families. We are a close knit community that celebrates our diversity. The racial implication and insinuations are frankly insulting. Poverty has been clustered in certain areas of Howard County due to poor decision-making in zoning by our county leadership. It is not due to inequalities in our education system or lack of access to education. Therefore, more rational future zoning and planning decisions are needed to address the root cause of this issue. Meanwhile, directly supporting students and parents with additional funding and resources in these clustered areas is crucial. Redistricting, swapping and busing kids all over the county as proposed in the Superintendent's redistricting plan will mask the real issue, but do nothing to help our most needy. Instead of spending money on busing and causing chaos for thousands of families, efforts and funds should be spent on the crucial social services that students and families need the most and not on masking the issues such as redistribution of FARM students. Some in our county government have stated that CR-112 may not directly be related to the current redistricting proposal, but that is obviously not the case. The CR-112 is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. In addition to that, certain members of the county council have even been so bold as to offer "political coverage" to members of the Board of Education. I urge county council members to always remember that BOE members are independently elected officials for a crucial reason - to keep our children out of politics. This CR demonstrates a gross overreach on the part of the county council. In response to Councilwoman Christians Mercer Rigby's comment "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County...", we are parents and the first generation of immigrants who came to this country with a belief that working hard is the only way to bring a better life to our family and child. We choose to live nearby schools so that our child can leverage the short commute to school to participate the school and extra-curriculum activities while both parents continue working hard outside home. Forcing our neighborhood kids to be bused to far away schools, instead of attending our neighborhood schools, will destroy the work and life balance that we have earned through our hard work. This seriously violate our civil rights! For the sake of those truly in need in our county and the harmony of Howard County, I urge you to reject this resolution and abandon this misguided endeavor and focus on realigning our budget with needs of Howard County's most vulnerable. The current proposals endorsed by certain members of our county council have no doubt played a role in the most recent misguided redistricting proposal. It pays lip service to equity but does nothing to improve our children's education. Equity is an important moral issue. Our budgets are not just financial documents but moral ones as well. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 2019 plan. It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the real issues facing our most vulnerable. Stop the hate mongering! Invest in the families and kids who live in low income communities, and give them the opportunities all children deserve! Sincerely, Hong Cheng District 5 Sayers, Margery From: The Jablonovers Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 1:34 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Support for CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council members- I am writing to you in support of CR112-2019 because we need to ensure that the HCPSS redistricting plan is completed with racial equity as a priority. Thank you! LisaJablonover 6429 Shannon Court Clarksville, MD 21029 410-531-6874 Sayers, Margery From: Shane L Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 1:33 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Strongly Oppose CR-112 Attachments: attachment t.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council Members, I am writing as a taxpayer and community member to strongly oppose the purposed resolution no. 112-2019 (CR-112), introduced by council members Rigby, Jones, and Jung. Coming from a socialist country, I am appalled to see such a reckless political agenda which would negatively impact our students and communities for years to come in the name of equity and integration. I respectfully ask you to withdraw or veto this resolution and develop more constructive solutions. First, I have to point out that the use of "segregated" in the resolution and press release is questionable. It sounds all about race and social-economic balancing in the name of "integration". It's disappointing that our own elected council members would issue such a negative, bigoted message regarding our inclusive county and our fantastic school system which is leading Maryland and the country. These inflammatory languages calls to mind the shameful period of illegal racial segregation and civil right movement in the old era and stir painful and unconstructive emotions. In the backdrop of a country already ripped apart by politicians, this resolution, willingly or unwillingly, is creating the same detrimental effect, directing one group of citizen's resentment towards another group of citizens and tearing this county apart in the name of race, privilege and poverty. This alarmist approach panders to political agendas which should have no place in our kids' education and future. We the people of Howard County can do better! Second, Trying to use the public-school system or redistricting to solve income and race imbalance is the wrong approach as it does not solve the underlining issues with poverty concentration, nor does it address the fundamental issues in underperforming schools. Bad county zoning and development, housing policies and deteriorating family values in certain communities over years are causes to blame. By forcing numerous working families to take on increased financial and logistical burdens, by robbing citizens of their freedom to choose where to live and where to go to school, and by separating friendships our kids established in their most formative years, this resolution and corresponding redistricting serves to rips our communities apart and creates animosity and class warfare among our citizens. Please have a different resolution or plan to fix these root problems instead of overstepping our publicly elected school board and reshuffling the students around to rebalance numbers which doesn't solve deeper underlining problems and can be counterproductive. Third, the resolution was drafted and released without proper consulting with the Board of Education, and - frankly anybody within the whole communities this resolution purports to represent was disturbing. I am sure high-priced attorneys are consulted so it sounds lawful and PR proof. I ask the council members to respect the BoE's independent jurisdiction and consult broader communities before introducing any such disturbing resolution. Last but not the least, Redistricting, and "student mobility" it creates, will hurt all students and communities, including these at disadvantage. There are tons of comprehensive researches on student mobility including redistricting which clearly shows it would negatively impact students' performance. Here is just one sample research:" Student Mobility and the Increased Risk of High School Dropout", Russell W. Rumberger and Katherine A. Larson, American Journal of Education, Vol. 107, No. 1 (Nov., 1998), pp. 1-35 (35 pages), Published by: The University of Chicago Press" which clearly underscores that schools can adversely affect "student mobility" when dealing with overcrowding and redistricting. It concludes that students who switched schools even once between eighth and twelfth grade were "twice as likely to not complete high school." I have attached a survey of dozens researches to show just that. I urge you to reject the CR 112- 2019 plan and abandon this misguided endeavor and instead focus on realigning our tax dollars with needs of Howard County's most vulnerable. Please fully fund the HCPSS budget and invest in the families and kids who live in low income communities and give them the opportunities and resources all children deserve! Sincerely, Shane Liu Clarksville, MD Sent from my iPhone EducationCounsel Policy Strategy . Law • Advocacy To: Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education From: EducationCounset Subject: Research Scan on the Impact of Student Mobility on Student and School Outcomes Date: June 21, 2016 To help inform the discussions and deliberations of the Cross-Sector Collaboration Task Force, this memorandum provides our review of existing research on the impact of student mobility on student outcomes (pp. 2-7) and on broader district/school performance (pp. 7-8). The Appendix includes a sampling of mobility rates from urban districts across the country (including notes about each state's calculation methods). Please note that this review was not comprehensive and does not include all research that could be relevant to the Task Force's discussions. We aimed instead to provide a sampling of leading studies on mobility to provide a baseline of information. We may do additional research based on specific needs of the Task Force, if requested. Based on this review, we see several potential takeaways for the Task Force: • Student mobility is a complex issue with a variety of causes and contributing factors, including student mobility due to voluntary (e.g., moving homes ) or involuntary factors (e.g., eviction). • Mobility is common. A national study found that a majority of students in the U.S. make at least one nonpromotional school change during elementary school with a sizeable minority making at least two changes. And a study of elementary schools in Chicago Public Schools found that only 50 percent of students remain enrolled over a three-year period in the typical Chicago elementary school. (Both studies are detailed later in this memorandum.) • Mobility can have an independent impact on student achievement and on overall school/district performance, even in the presence of other factors. • There is a particularly large body of evidence that examines the impact of mobility on studentlevel experiences and outcomes. As a result, we know that mobility appears to affect some student populations differently than others, especially those that may have fewer supports. o Young children, students experiencing homelessness, students in the foster care system, and students whose parents are migrant workers have been shown to have experienced especially negative effects as mobility tended to exacerbate other challenges. o Studies also showed that certain grade spans - Pre-K and early elementary, grades 4 through 8, and grades 11 and 12 - may be especially challenging times for students to move, particularly if the move occurs during the school year. o At least one study found that negative educational outcomes are more likely for intradistrict moves rather than moves between districts. o At the same time, another population of students with high mobility rates - students from military families - has regularly outperformed national averages on NAEP. • A smaller body of evidence also suggests that mobility can impact schools and districts as well. Studies have concluded mobility can impact class pacing, school disciplinary issues, and parent engagement. As a result, this can lead to diminished overall student performance, reduced teacher and staff morale, and increased teacher dissatisfaction. • Research has shown that schools and districts can reduce the impact of mobility through welldesigned engagement and intervention strategies. EducationCounsel Policy ; Strategy ; Law ! Advocacy Impact of Student Mobility on Student Outcomes This section reviews studies that found a connection between student mobility and student outcomes generally, followed by studies that examined the experiences of specific student populations (young children, students experiencing homelessness, students in the foster care system, students whose parents are serving in the military, and students whose parents are migrant workers). Studies are listed in alphabetical order by the lead author's last name. The following studies have found some connections between student mobility and student outcomes generally: • Eric Hanushek, John Kain, and Steven Rivkin, Disruption versus Tiebout Improvement: The Costs and Benefits of Switching Schools (2004) o This study found that the negative relations between school mobility and academic achievement are particularly pronounced among students from large urban school districts making intradistrict moves. • Janette Herbers, Arthur Reynolds, and Chin-Chih Chen, School Mobility and Developmental Outcomes in Young Adulthood (2014) o This study found that, while mobile students are more likely than their peers to experience other developmental risk factors such as economic hardship, student mobility is a unique indicator of certain developmental outcomes such as depression symptoms, failure to graduate high school on-time, and adult arrests. While a high frequency of school moves throughout a student's K-12 academic career is predictive of some detrimental young adult outcomes, school mobility between the fourth and eighth grades is especially predictive of negative outcomes. o The study recommends several inten/entions to lessen the occurrence of school mobility or at least mitigate its negative impact, including: district policies that promote flexible attendance areas, collaboration with other public service agencies to improve residential stability, and coherent organization structures like co-located or full-service schools. • Joseph Gasper, Stefanie DeLuca, and Angela Estacion. Switching Schools: Revisiting the Relationship Between School Mobility and High School Dropout (2012) o Though it is difficult to separate student mobility and low academic achievement/engagement as causes of student dropout, this report utilizes a "propensity score" to compare mobile and non-mobile children with similar academic profiles to show that student moves do account for some risk of dropping out of school. • Russell W. Rumberger, Student Mobility: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions (2015) o This policy brief reviewed two decades of research literature which found school mobility to have harmful effects on elementary school achievement, student test scores, and high school graduation, and also to affect most severely those students experiencing multiple moves for involuntary reasons such as financial necessity or family disruption. Research showed that mobile students are also likely to experience disruptions to their social development as they cycle through relationships with peers, teachers, and set routines. The brief also reviewed research that found that student mobility can be exacerbated by other factors such as low-income status and homelessness. Moreover, studies have shown that student mobility may also have an EducationCounsel Policy Strategy . Law ; Advocacy impact on the non-mobile students attending a school by introducing a "chaos factor" and disruption to previously established classroom flow. o Schools and districts can lessen the incidence of student mobility or mitigate its harmful effects with careful school closure policies, orientation activities and personnel support for transfer students, the inclusion of mobility rates in measurements of school effectiveness, and collaboration with other public service agencies to promote residential stability. • G.A. Simpson and Mary Glenn Fowler, Geographic mobility and children's emotional/behavioral adjustment and school functioning (1994) o This study found that students who transfer schools three or more times during their academic careers may be more likely than their non-mobile peers to repeat a grade, be suspended or expelled from school, and experience emotional or behavioral problems. • Jack C. Tucker, Jonathan Marx, and Larry Long, "Moving On": Residential Mobility and Children's School Lives (1998) o The study found that children who have moved an average or above-average number of times are not significantly harmed if they reside in families in which both biological parents are present; however, for children in other family structures, any move is associated with an adverse school life. • David Wood, Neal Halfon, Debra Scarlata, Paul Newacheck, and Sharon Nessim, Impact of Family Relocation on Children's Growth, Development, School Function, and Behavior (1993) o This study found that - though the measures of "child dysfunction" (i.e., delayed growth and development, learning disorders, school failure, frequent behavioral problems) are correlated with characteristics like poverty, race, and family structure that are linked to high rates oftransience - mobility had a measurable effect on each of the variables in question as well. • Zeya Xu, Jane Hanaway, and Stephanie D'Souza, Student Transience in North Carolina: The Effect of Student Mobility on Student Outcomes Using Longitudinal Data (2009) o This study found that student mobility can lead to lower math and reading scores on end-of-grade assessments and that school transfers are more frequent among low- income and minority students. It also found that intradistrict school transfers have adverse effects on student outcomes while cross-district moves may have positive or no effects. The following studies have examined how student mobility may uniquely impact younger children. These studies may be especially important given that data that show that majority of students in the U.S. make at least one nonpromotional school change during elementary school with a sizeable minority making at least two changes. • Alexandra Beatty, Student Mobility: Exploring the Impacts of Frequent Moves on Achievement, Summary of a Workshop (2010) o This summary of a workshop to explore the effects of student mobility highlights principle themes in research and found that school transfers during kindergarten may cause students, especially those from low-income backgrounds, to lag behind their peers in overall academic achievement and grade promotion throughout primary school. It also reviewed research that showed that school mobility between kindergarten and third grade may have greater consequences for English language Russell W. Rumberger, Student Mobility: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions 3(2015) EducationCounsel Policy Strategy ' Law : Advocacy learners, students receiving special education services, or children from low-income families. • Diana H. Gruman, Tracy W. Harachi, Robert D. Abbott, Richard F. Catalano, and Charles B. Fleming, LonRJtudinal Effects of Student Mobility on Three Dimensions of Elementary School Engagement(2008) o This study found that student mobility has its own significant effect on student outcomes, even though it is also associated with other pre-existing risk factors (e.g., coming from a low-income family). It also found that school mobility between second and fifth grades can predict declines in students' classroom participation and academic performance. The cumulative effects of multiple school transfers during elementary grades may have a greater effect on student outcomes than a single move. • Lisa Melman Heinlein and Marybeth Shinn, School mobility and student achievement in an urban setting (2000) o This study of a cohort of New York City kindergartners until sixth grade found that early mobility (prior to third grade) was a more potent predictor of sixth-grade achievement than later mobility. After controlling for socioeconomic status and other demographic characteristics, it concluded that "associations of early mobility with achievement were not enormous, but were large enough to cause concern." o The research also reviewed results from two longitudinal studies of European student populations which found that, after controlling for prior achievement, school mobility had no effect on student achievement. • Panayota Mantzicopoulos and Dana J. Knutsen, Head Start Children: School Mobility and Achievement in the Early Grades (2000) o This small-scale study found that frequent school changes in the primary grades were related to lower achievement levels in math and reading, even controlling for sex and the effects of achievement prior to the school moves. The following studies have examined how student mobility may uniquely impact students experiencing homelessness. • Martha Galvez and Jessica Luna, Homelessness and Housinfi Instability: The Impact on Education Outcomes(2014) o This brief reviewed a large body of evidence around school mobility and found that school mobility, particularly moves within the academic year, is linked to negative education outcomes. The brief also found that frequent moves are "particularly damaging" and that homeless children are more likely to be high-frequency movers. Included in the brief are specific examples in several urban school districts in Washington state. • John W. Fantuzzo et al., The Unique and Combined Effects of Homelessness and School Mobility on the Educational Outcomes of Young Children (2012) o This study about mobility and homeless students found that "homelessness had a unique association with problems in classroom engagement, school mobility was uniquely related to both academic achievement and problems in classroom engagement, and experiencing both homelessness and school mobility was the most detrimental for both forms of educational well-being." The following studies have examined how student mobility may uniquely impact students in the foster care system. Please note, however, that these findings are limited due to limitations in existing data and research. The role of school moves in poor school outcomes for foster children is not at EducationCounsel Policy Strategy i Law i Advocacy present firmly established empirically; most studies of school transitions in children in foster care have been based either on small samples with retrospective, self-report data or have relied on district- level records, which may only follow children's transitions as they travel within a district, leading to underestimation of moves. • Barton Alien and James S. Vacca, Frequent Moving has a Negative Affect on the School Achievement of Foster Children Makes the Case for Reform (2010) o This literature review include studies that found that children in foster care are faced with several challenges, including instruction that is often interrupted by frequent moves to different communities and schools, living in different foster homes with new families where academic are not a priority, a lack of parent support with the school, and a few opportunities to have consistent peer groups for interaction and socialization. Foster children, moreover, generally lack positive relationships with school administrators, support staff, teachers and classmates o When it comes to reading and other areas of academic achievement, the study found, that success of students in foster care is "generally affected by their frequent school and home mobility and a breakdown in communication and coordination among key people and agencies responsible for their education." Moreover, these students frequently do not have a consistent and knowledgeable advocate who can act on their behalf for special education and remedial reading services. The foster parents who are typically the most familiar with the needs of the children are unprepared to negotiate services (e.g., Special Education and Section 504 systems). Finally, frequent placement changes disrupt the authority of foster parents to represent children's educational interests. • Dylan Conger and Marni J. Finkelstein, Foster Care and Student Mobility (2003) o This study found that foster children may be more likely to transfer schools and experience longer delays during these transfers than their non-foster peers, but notes that "there is limited research in this area, in part because many child welfare systems do not systematically monitor the school outcomes of children in care. Delays associated with school movements for foster children, in part due to the heavy paperwork involved and lack of coordination between school and child welfare personnel." o For ideas on how to address these challenges, the study observes, "Research on interagency collaboration suggests that many child-serving agencies fail to ensure consistent and coordinated services to shared populations. The communication failures in the case of foster children often begin with notification of their status. Some caseworkers and foster care providers do not inform school staff of a child's custodial status, due to concerns about children being stigmatized by the foster care label or treated differently by their teachers and other school personnel." • Katherine C. Pears, Hyoun K. Kim, and Philip A. Fisher, Adverse Consequences of School Mobility for Children in Foster Care: A Prospective Longitudinal Study (2015) o This study examined the early school moves of a group of kindergarten children in foster care and compared their school moves to those of children from the same age and socioeconomic status groups. The authors found that children in foster care made more school transitions, were 6 times more likely to make multiple moves, and were 4 times more likely to move during the school year. o The authors also found significant total indirect effects for a mediated path from foster care placement to socioemotional competence. Children in the foster care group were positively associated with behavioral problems in kindergarten, and were negatively EducationCounsel Policy Strategy : Law . Advocacy associated with early learning skills and academic and socioemotional competence in grades 3-5. The following studies have examined how student mobility may uniquely impact the children whose parents are serving in the military. Notably, some research has found that these students can outperform their national peer groups on national assessments (e.g, NAEP), while other studies have noted some of the unique challenges that these students face. • Catherine Bradshaw and Richard Sechrest, Military Youth: A School Perspective (2010) o This study showed that students in military families can feel others view them (particularly non-military students) as different and are hesitant to extend friendships. Military students who attended schools on base tended to experience fewer stressors than students that attended schools in areas with a lower military student population. o Students have issues learning new school policies, procedures, and logistics, and miss opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities. They face difficulty transferring schools because of inconsistent policies regarding school credit requirements and paperwork. Finally, they can miss critical lessons or skills due to move, and special student populations (e.g., special education, gifted) can face even longer procedural and academic process constraints. • S. Beth Ruff and Michael A. Keim, Revolving Doors: The Impact of Multiple School Transitions on Military Children (2014) o In this literature review, the authors compiled a number of finding on the impact of multiple school transitions on military children. It reviewed studies that found that children whose parents are serving in the military are more mobile than their civilian peers, relocating every 1-4 years. These children also experience interstate relocation challenges, such as varying academic standards and graduation requirements. o Military adolescents experience common mobility challenges, such as slow transfer of school records and differences in curricula between schools, adapting to new school environments and making friends, limited access to extracurricular activities, but also unique challenges, such as a lack of understanding of military culture by public school teachers and staff and tension at home and parental deployment. As the authors observed, "School-age military children are especially vulnerable to the stress related to frequent transitions, as they must simultaneously cope with normal developmental stressors such as establishing peer relationships, conflict in parent/child relationships and increased academic demands." • Theresa J. Russo and Moira A. Fallon, Coning with Stress: SupportinR the Needs of Military Families and Their Children (2014) o This study found that children whose parents are serving in the military can show adaptability and flexibility to new situations and have learned coping mechanisms with each move or transition. • Claire Smrekar and Debra Owens, "It's a Way of Life for Us": High Mobility and High Achievement in Department of Defense Schools (2003) o This study found that students in the United States Department of Defense schools scored higher, when compared to the United States average, on the 8th grade writing and reading portions of the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The trend of students continued on the 2007 Writing portion of the NAEP and the 2009 reading portion of the NAEP. EducationCounsel Policy Strategy . Law ; Advocacy Finally, the following study examined how student mobility may uniquely impact the children of migrant workers. • Michael H. Romanowski, Meeting the Unique Needs of the Children of Migrant Farm Workers (2003) o Given the transient nature of migrant farm work, the author identifies several educational risk factors for children of migrant workers in labeling this population the "most disadvantaged student population in America" and the "most undereducated major subgroup in the United States." These include: (1) frequent and numerous move; (2) high risk of dropout; (3) low social status in receiving communities contributes to marginalization; (4) misidentification of special education services due to language barriers; and (5) racism and xenophobia. Impact of Student Mobility on School and/or District Performance As noted in the introduction to this memo, the majority of the existing body of literature on student mobility pertains to the impacts of frequent moves on a student's academic performance. However, what nascent research examining school and district impact exists indicates that the effects of student mobility are not limited to those students who are experiencing upheaval. From what was gathered, it seems that the effects of student mobility on schools and districts are realized via diminished overall student performance, reduced staff morale, and teacher dissatisfaction. • Scott R. Buchanan, The Relationship Between Mobility and Student Achievement (2015) o This broader report notes that, because mobile students may transfer into a school with knowledge gaps, they can affect the pacing of the classroom curriculum. • Nehati Engec, Relationship Between Mobility and Student Performance and Behavior (2006) o Researchers found that mobile students were at higher risk of poor academic performance and discipline problems that result in suspensions. • Eric Hanushek, John Kain, and Steven Rivkin, Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: the costs and benefits of switching schools (2004) o This study of student mobility across Texas found that student turnover, especially during the school year, adversely affected student achievement not just of mobile students, but everyone in the school "as increased time is spent bringing all students to the same point in the curriculum, developing normal procedures, integrating parents into school programs, and so forth." The study also found that the effects were larger for poor and minority students. • Kris Kase, The Impact of Mobility on Academic Achievement: A Review of the Literature (2005) o Research cited in this review indicated that students who experience greater levels of mobility tend to have lower academic outcomes, as well as negative behavioral and developmental traits. This negative impact is especially pronounced for children who experience moves in early grades, whose long-term reading and math skills are depressed as a result. o With regard to the school as a whole, high rates of mobility in individual students also bring down average school performance, as well as that of the students who are not mobile. In fact, researchers found a correlation between rates of student turnover and accountability rating. Looking at the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), this paper finds that schools with higher rates of student mobility were also rated more poorly than those with low turnover. EducationCounsel Policy Strategy i Law ; Advocacy • David Kerbow, Patterns of Student Mobility and Local School Reform (1996) o This report notes that classrooms are affected by the introduction of mobile students. Examples of their impact include: disruption of classroom instructional routines, use of discrete teaching modules (rather than "integrative instructional approaches"), and disparate levels of knowledge between children who enter at different points in time. The report also notes that there are certain administrative costs associated with incorporating mobile students into their new classrooms. On a broader level, the author notes that waves of student mobility have the potential to undo some of the gains made by schools that have made progress through reforms. • David Kerbow, Carlos Azcoitia, and Barbara Buell, Student Mobility and Local School Improvement in Chicago (2003) o This study found that only 50 percent of students remain enrolled over a three-year period in the typical Chicago elementary school. It also found that, though student residential changes account for the majority of cases, more than two fifths are schoolrelated. Moreover, many students were found to move within a small network of schools that share similar geography, racial/ethnic composition, and poverty. o To address this issue, Chicago aimed to increase awareness of the impact of mobility through parent brochures (focusing on their rights and responsibilities) and complementary materials for teachers and administrators. Also, though it had broader aims, a Comprehensive Community Schools initiative aimed to reduce the impact of mobility by opening school buildings beyond the school day and extending resources to families (e.g., medical care and other social services). • Virginia L. Rhodes, Kids on the Move: The Effects of Student Mobility on NCLB School Accountability Ratings (2005) o This literature review mines existing sources of information on student mobility to identify the following deleterious effects of transience on schools: (1) Non-mobile students experience negative impacts from mobile peers due to reallocation of time, attention, resources to newcomers. (2) Teacher morale suffers due to the extra work of bringing new students into the classroom community and up to speed, both socially and academically. (3) School staff morale also declines as teachers feel dissatisfied and view their jobs as undesirable; this, in turn leads to schools with a great deal of student mobility to be staffed by inexperienced educators. (4) There can be a lack of continuity in student recordkeeping and sharing. (5) Required testing windows can be affected by limited test administration time. • Russell W. Rumberger, Student Mobility: Causes, Consequences, and Solutions (2015) o This literature review includes information on the "demoralization, stress, and tension" felt by teachers in schools with high mobility when faced with a great deal of churn. Like others, this study also notes that the peers of mobile students also experience negative academic effects. • Donna R. Sanderson, Engaginfi Highly Transient Students (2003) o This study - a rare look at the impact of student mobility on teachers - uses interviews of educators near Philadelphia to identify three main areas of concern from teachers regarding their students, pertaining broadly to: (1) behavior and attitude; (2) academic foundations; and (3) issues of time related to teaching mobile populations. • Lisa L. Schulz and Deborah J. Rubel, A Phenomenology of Alienation in Hifih School: The Experiences of Five Male Non-Completers (2011) EducationCounsel Policy Strategy . Law i Advocacy o Focused on five young adult males, researchers conducted interviews to examine the causes of alienation that led to their lack of high school diploma. From these meetings, three central themes arose that may also relate to engaging students (especially those with mobility-related challenges) in general more effectively: (1) the necessity of relationship building; (2) loss of trust between students and school-based adults; and (3) fear offailure/disappointing self and family. Appendix: Student Mobility Rates in Urban Districts The following information uses public information from state education agencies about mobility rates in a variety of urban districts across the country. How the State Calculates Mobility Urban School System Its Mobility Rate Student Mobility Rate = [Unduplicated count of K-12 students who moved into, out of school or district in SY X] - [total # students that were part of same membership base at any time during SY X] Note: In the 2012-2013 school year the mobility calculation was modified. In the past, students who Denver Public Schools 17.5% transfer to a school within the same district over the summer were not counted as mobile students. This rule was expanded in the 2012-2013 year so that students who transfer over the summer (notice this is summer transfers only) to different districts also are not counted as mobile students. Mobility index: the frequency of students entering and leaving a school throughout the year. Miami-Dade County Public Schools Note: The index is not calculated as a percentage. 24 EducationCounsel Policy Strategy i Law • Advocacy How the State Calculates Mobility Urban School System Its Mobility Rate "To count as "mobile" for the purposes of this analysis, students must have entered or withdrawn from a school between October 2 and May 1. October 2 is the Georgia Department of Education's (GaDOE) fall enrollment count date. May 1 is used as a consistent date that is prior to the end of the school year in all Georgia districts. Students who withdrew and reentered the same school within seven days are not counted as mobile. To assess mobility at the school and district level, the Atlanta Public Schools Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) 29.8% calculated a churn rate for each school and district, which represents the number of student entries and exits during the school year divided by the number of students in the school on October 2. In 2012-13, the average school churn rate was 23.0%, but the median rate was 16.9%. The rates ranged from 1.1% (Newton County Theme School at Ficquett) to 756.3% (DeKalb Alternative School). At the district level, the average churn rate was 17.5%, and the median rate was 14.8%." Mobility rate is based on the number of times students enroll in or leave a school during the school year. Student mobility (turnover): any enrollment change between the first school day in October and the last day of the school year. It is calculated as sum of the students who transferred out and the students who transferred in, divided by the average daily Chicago Public Schools enrollment, multiplied by 100. Students are counted (Source #1, Source each time they transfer out or in during the reporting #2) year. (Individual students may be counted more than 17.5% 17% once.) • Transfers out: all incidents of students being removed from the enrollment roster for any reason. • Transfers in: all incidents of students being added to the enrollment roster. n/a lntradist.=8.2% Indianapolis Public Schools 10 Interdist. = 18.4% EducationCounsel Policy ; Strategy . Law ' Advocacy How the State Calculates Mobility Urban School System Its Mobility Rate The student mobility percentage is calculated by Elem.:31.3% dividing the sum of entrants and withdrawals by the average daily membership. • Entrants: # and % of students entering (transferring in or re-entering) school during Baltimore City Public Schools Middle: 27.9% High: 32.3% the September to June school year after the first day of school. A student moving from one school to another within the same school Elem.: 13.6% district as a result of promotion is not considered to be an entrant for mobility purposes unless the student entered school after the first day. Montgomery County Public Schools Middle: 10.2% High: 11.2% • Withdrawals: # and % of students withdrawing (transfers and terminations) for any reason during the September to June school year after the first day of school. Data are reported at elementary (K - 5), middle (6 8),high(9-12)schoollevels. ES: 23.5% Prince George's County Public Schools MS: 19.2% HS: 22.8% Reported since November 1990: System and State levels. Reported since November 1991: School level. Mobility: students transferring into or out of public schools, districts or the state. There are three different measures to capture mobility: Intake (Transfer-in) Rate; Churn Rate; and Stability Rate. • Intake Rate: # of students that enroll in the state, a district, or school after the beginning Boston Public Schools 20.6% of the school year • Churn Rate: # students transferring into or out of a public school or district throughout the course of a school year • Stability Rate: # students remaining in a district or school throughout the school year. Transiency rate: % students who do not finish the school year at the same school they started. Clark County Public Schools (Las Vegas 28.8% area) For additional information on Maryland, see the School Improvement in Maryland Web site at http://mdkl2.msde.maryland.govand the Maryland State Department of Education Web site at httD://www.msde,maryland.gov. For further details on Massachusetts: http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/reDOj-ls/mobility/ 11 EducationCounsel Policy Strategy i Law ! Advocacy How the State Calculates Mobility Urban School System Its Mobility Rate Student mobility rate is a measure of how many students are transferring in and out of a school during a given school year. CharlotteMecklenburfi Schools 19% Mobility rate formula: [[All children who enrolled after September 30] + [All children who withdrew before June 1] ] - [Total enrollment for school P rovidence Public School District 23% district.] Mobility (Campus Profile only) formula: [# mobile students in SY*] - [# students who were in membership at any time during SY] * A student is considered to be mobile if he or she has been in membership at the school for less than Dallas Independent School District 21.1% 83% of the school year (i.e., has missed six or more weeks at a particular school). This rate is calculated at the campus level. The mobility rate shown in the Profile section of campus reports under the "district" column is based on the count of mobile students identified at the campus level. That is, the district mobility rate reflects schoolto-school mobility, within the same district or from Houston Independent School District 19.6% outside the district. For 2011-12, district-level mobility has been added to the AEIS data download of district data. See also Campus Group. (Source: PEIMS, June 2011) Student mobility is a measure of change in student membership from the first official membership count (Septembers, 2014) through the last day of the school year. Fairfax County Public The mobility rate is expressed as the percent of a Schools 12.3 school's enrollment entering or reentering after September 8, 2014, or leaving school prior to the last day of the school year. Student mobility: This is a measure of how many students move in and out of the school. It is calculated by dividing the number of student entrances and exits at a school (excluding graduates) after the October 1 headcount by the October 1 student headcount. For K-8 schools, a single figure is reported for elementary and middle schools 12 Seattle Public Schools 6.7% Sayers, Margery From: Scott Anderson Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 12:46 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: opposition to resolution 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Hi, I would like to express my opposition to resolution 112. The Howard County public school redistricting policy for the 2020 school year is a cure that is worse than the disease. We are supposed to challenge ourselves to do better. Not go to the lowest standard. School standards in Howard County appear to be slipping. Too much of a focus is on money and not much focus is on execution excellence. My children are not directly impacted by the proposed changes. But many of my neighbors are. And I care deeply about my community. You may not care. But I do. The quality of life for many children in Howard County will degrade since many students will spend an average of 30 minutes extra time every day on a bus starting in 2020. That is 30 minutes less time for reading, writing, and arithmetic every day.That is 30 minutes less time for music or physical activity before or after school. Resolution 112 degrades their quality of life. Mandated school busing failed in the 1960s. Don't be stupid and repeat the same mistake. Furthermore, the redistricting fails to keep historical neighborhoods together. Columbia for example has 10 historic village neighborhoods. Instead of respecting them, you have gone off and decided that you don't care about the community. You only see polygons, we see communities. This is also true of other parts of the County for community neighborhoods. I attended one of the sessions this summer. About 40% of the attendees were local, the other 60% were from other parts of the County.The main outcome of every session is the community said we would like to minimize the changes in 2020.The latest redistricting plan ignores that community input. Instead it is the Tammany Hall politics that we see in Baltimore County and much of Maryland. It is an abuse of trust and an abuse of power. Howard County government should move to an open enrollment program to address issues. Let parents decide where their children go to school. Not every parent wants their children to go to their local school. Use a lottery system for open enrollment and list the number of openings per school. If a school is heavily overcrowded, then obviously parents cannot open enroll their children into that particular school. Another problem with this redistricting plan is everyone knows that there will another redistricting due to the opening of a new high school. Please strongly revise downward the number of students moving schools for elementary, middle, and high schools for 2020. We need to redraw boundaries when a school opens or closes. Get a new school superintendent. During the public forums, we asked you to not move large number of students. You are not doing that. You are not listening. Here are some of the facts: Howard County has done nothing to require developers to help pay for new school construction. Howard County has not thought through "The Downtown Columbia Plan" that the County adopted in 2010 to plan out the next 30 years. What is the point of a development plan if you are going to ignore school development? Why does Howard Hughes not have to pay? This lack of thought is true for Ellicott City and other parts of Howard County. If the County is going to approve the development of an area, it needs to account for required services such as schools. Howard County has done nothing to link public libraries in Howard County with public schools. If FARM children are falling behind, you need to focus on the real problem. And the real problem is the inability to read. If students are failing, then the schools need to mandate an extra hour of instruction for them. Don't pretend that somehow mixing different communities together is going to magically solve this problem. All that does is reinforce racist stereotypes. Resolution 112 was poorly thought out. The consequences of it are going to be negative. Regards, Scott Anderson 6104 Rippling Tides Ter Clarksville, MD 21029 Sayers, Margery From: Karen Barnes Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:38 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Polygon 1256 - BOE redistricting - please keep Maple Lawn together [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I am writing today as a constituent because I want to emphasize the anomaly of moving polygon 1256. This polygon is in Maple Lawn, one of 4 total polygons. In the recommended redistricting plan by the Superintendent, he moves polygon 1256 which separates the neighborhood. I ask for your support in keeping Maple Lawn community together (polygons 115, 1259, 259 and 1256). Moving one Maple Lawn polygons and splitting up the neighborhood would be devastating to our community. The elementary students residing in Maple Lawn are equally deserving of individualized support by attending school within their community and not being isolated from their community, neighbors, family and friends. Sincerely, Karen Barnes Howard County resident, Polygon 1256 Sayers, Margery From: paige getty Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:38 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: I support CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council: In my years serving as clergy in Howard County, during which I've learned more about diversity, equity, and inclusion, it has become abundantly clear that full integration is advantageous for ALL students and for our community as a whole. Therefore, I enthusiastically support CR112-2019, "A RESOLUTION requesting the Howard County Public School System to draft, approve, and implement a lawful multi-year Integration Plan to ensure that Howard County Public Schools are integrated by socioeconomic factors." Thank you, Paige Getty, resident of Council District 4 10318 Twinedew Place, 21044 Paige Getty p.gettv@Rmail.com Sayers, Margery From: Sayers, Margery Sent: To: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:25 AM CouncilMail Subject: phone call Greg Cooper 8924 Tawes Street Maple Lawn 20759 Strongly opposed to redistricting - they are polygon 1256 Call back number 703-675-8906 He and other parents in Maple Lawn will be writing in about how opposed they are to the redistricting plan but he asked that I send this email to everyone. Mflrgery sayers ^(.ecutive AssLstfliAt t-t-owarot C-oi^ty GOI^.I^C-I.L 410-313-02'32 Sayers, Margery From: chunxiao zhu Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 10:22 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: No to CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council members, I am deeply concerned about superintendent's proposal and CR112. It is not a little bit wrong, It is a total disaster! The current attempt to redistrict schools in Howard County is a political act. It does not solve poverty, dysfunctional homes and the difficulty children born into it, face. It is driven by words intended to placate some and comfort others, lending a false sense of accomplishment toward a noble purpose. The Superintendent of Howard County, who openly professed to be holding his "Dream Job," has made a bold statement with the initiative proposed in the redistricting of our schools. Actions speak louder than words and this initiative says: "Some kids matter and others don't." Under provisions laid out by the Superintendent a given child might, and I repeat might, be helped. However, redistricting will undoubtedly, hurt thousands of children. The Superintendent knows this very well. Prejudice was palpable when those attending the IndivisibleHocoMD meeting at Miller's Library on September 4threpeatedly heard the words "wealthy children". "Sending kids away from their community, "is good for them." Really? Who believes that? A woman professing to be a teacher, specifically referring to kids from River Hill HS unseemly loudly yelled with disdain, "Those kids live a mile away but they don't walk!" It sounded more like, 'Screw the rich kids of River Hill. Punish them! Take them away from their community, and put them into schools, which compared to River Hill, are failing.' Who cares? Is that how it should be? This is how I see it: All children should be happy, living in loving homes that nurture them and in a wonderful school. Schools which they can hardly wait to arrive at each day. Yes, a Utopia. It's what we all want, and wish everyone had. While we're at it, we should all have a Rolls Royce in our garage too! But equity (increased opportunities for some) is a folly. Equity for some, is folly for all. Why? Because equity cannot be created at the expense/injury of others. On the other hand none of us are equal. We are all different and because we are Americans, we have the inalienable right to be different. To imagine living in a world where everyone is the same. We can hardly do it, yet people in Russia know exactly what it is to lack identity and be a number. Anyway, children are children and I would hope to see every single one of them, everywhere, treated with care, respect and love. The Superintendent of Howard County has a golden opportunity to do good. It is his moment. Personally I wish him all the success in the world. He has the wherewithal to help those needing help and not hurting those who do not need him. Do not bus a single child away from their school and community. Instead, invite children from overcrowded schools who "wish" to travel further away to attend a more challenging school, to do so. Extend this invitation until school's reach their full capacity. If the Superintendent made this simple change he would profoundly affect the lives of a few that want the challenge and will work hard to succeed, as they come from a school less demanding of them. To take a child away from a first rate school, (for example let's use, River Hill HS rated second best in the state) and their community environment, is a sin committed against that child. It places the child in a "wait and see" situation, rather than the continuance of well-being the child was experiencing. In other words, the child is placed in jeopardy. Yes, to bring a child from a failing school to River Hill could possibly help that child, if the child is all in, but not vice-versa. In my mind, the well-being for the child in River Hill is just as important as the well-being of any other child anywhere. The discriminatory labeling of children by skin color or socio-economic status of their parents, is so ugly. When you vote or revise the proposal, please keep ALL kids in HC in mind. There are other ways of increasing resources for FARM recipients, They can come to RH to study if the family are willing to be bused here. But do not bus our kids out! Depriving a parent's basic human right to choose school for their kids is a sin and have legal consequences! We are individuals with wills and goals, not chess pieces for you to move around! So if you want to move hundreds and thousands of kid around every year, you are beyond crazy! You are destroying Howard County, middle class will move out, higher middle class will all move out and go to private school. You are losing lots of tax payers. When there are no area of HC that is attractive to people, what do you have left. Thanks for your attention. Chunxiao Zhu 1186 On Sep 12, 2019, at 9:57 AM, Walsh, Elizabeth wrote: Good morning, Thank you for taking the time to send in testimony. Feedback, opinion and concerns are welcomed and are considered while drafting legislation and ultimately, when determining the final vote. Please know that your thoughts will be shared with and considered by Council Member Walsh. In addition, we will ensure that your testimony becomes part of the public record for not only District One to review, but also the entire council. If you have questions or inquiries about the legislative timeline or process, please do not hesitate to call 410-313-2001. Sjori Thompson Administrative Aide, Council Member Liz Walsh (District 1) Howard County Council 3430 Court House Drive Ellicott City, M D 21043 Direct Office Line: 410-313-3302 sthompson@howardcountvmd.Rov -—Original Message—- From: Chunxiao Zhu Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 9:36 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: No to CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear HC Council, I understand there is a bill CR112 being introduced calling to desegregate HCPSS based on socioeconomic measures. Well, I have no problem with achieving social justice. However, redistricting has become so politically charged now that it is not really focusing on addressing real needs of the needed. I wonder why we need to do this from the Council and how you think this may help with the current situation. I would suggest facilitating and letting the communities to work effectively with BOE to address real needs. The political slogans and moves may only make things worse. As a person who grew up in the orthodox communist environment in China but now I am a proud American, I have seen all these political movements. The entire American society is becoming politically charged. China is becoming more practical and learned their lessons. Let me tell you this advice if I may, focus less on ism's and politically charged languages and actions, focus on real issues by working with and uniting people. Let us not waste our time on politics but rather focus on real work and excellent work that shows real benefits. Our country does not need more politics. Our country needs people who focus on real work and good work. Thanks. Respectfully, Chunxiao Zhu Clarksville, MD Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: Chunxiao Zhu Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 9:36 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: No to CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear HC Council, I understand there is a bill CR112 being introduced calling to desegregate HCPSS based on socioeconomic measures. Well, I have no problem with achieving social justice. However, redistricting has become so politically charged now that it is not really focusing on addressing real needs of the needed. I wonder why we need to do this from the Council and how you think this may help with the current situation. I would suggest facilitating and letting the communities to work effectively with BOE to address real needs. The political slogans and moves may only make things worse. As a person who grew up in the orthodox communist environment in China but now I am a proud American, I have seen all these political movements. The entire American society is becoming politically charged. China is becoming more practical and learned their lessons. Let me tell you this advice if I may, focus less on ism's and politically charged languages and actions, focus on real issues by working with and uniting people. Let us not waste our time on politics but rather focus on real work and excellent work that shows real benefits. Our country does not need more politics. Our country needs people who focus on real work and good work. Thanks. Respectfully, Chunxiao Zhu Clarksville, MD Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: David Thalheimer Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 9:06 AM To: CouncilMail Cc: David Thalheimer Subject: Testimony regarding "Integration Plan" Resolution Attachments: Testimony to the Howard County Council.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if -you know the sender.] In the attached PDF file, please find my testimony regarding the Howard County Council resolution to urge the HCPSS to develop an "integration plan." Thank you. David Thalheimer Columbia, MD Testimony to the Howard County Council regarding its "Integration Plan" Resolution The Howard County Council proposal by Councilmembers Mercer Rigby, Jones, and Jung to develop an "integration plan," as well as the corresponding redistricting plan ofHCPSS Superintendent Martirano, shows a complete lack of understanding of how to improve the performance of lower-income students and falls back on the use of racially-charged "desegregation" language to push a plan that is based on wishful thinking rather than sound educational strategy. They claim that busing kids from lower-income to higher-income neighborhoods, and vice versa, will somehow improve the performance of lower-income students and will do no harm to anyone else. This is magical thinking, at best, and mean-spirited, racially-charged, political posturing at worst. There are concrete steps that legislators and school administrators could take to understand and address the problems oflow-income families. There are difficult problems to solve that will require innovative thinking and proper allocation of funding. Examples include more support for before and after care for the siblings of low-income students, better support for after-school programs in the arts and athletics, after-school tutoring, and early and late transportation options for kids who cannot get easily to or from school. It might even require unlikely but important things that lower-income students may not have access to, such as laundry services, free private tutoring, mentoring to help with family issues, low-cost laptops, or stipends for clothing and supplies. The point is that educational performance is not as simple or easy as shuffling kids around. There is nothing magical about the buildings where students in higher-income neighborhoods go to school. Higher-income students have advantages such as more financial support for tutoring or after-school activities and, in many cases, parents who have a higher level of education and more free time to provide assistance. There is no basis in believing that moving kids to different neighborhoods will somehow inspire or motivate them to try harder or enable them to acquire the kind of assistance they really need. You simply propose to throw them into a different environment with no additional support. And even if that somehow worked for a few, what about the kids who were left behind? Where is the support that they need to better succeed and why can't they get it in their own neighborhood school? The county claims that all of our schools are excellent and brags whenever test scores show that our students perform better than the rest of Maryland and the nation. If this is true, then why the call for radical attendance area shifts? If you don't believe your own rhetoric about the quality of Howard County schools, then why should we believe that this plan is based on anything more than poorly-conceived, wishful thinking? If you don't believe your own rhetoric, then you need address the real issues by providing the support that low-income communities don't get—which is usually because their leaders either don't listen, don't care, or just don't know what to do. David Thalheimer Columbia, MD Sayers, Margery From: Ou Chen Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 7:27 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear HC Council, I understand there is a bill CR112 being introduced calling to desegregate HCPSS based on socioeconomic measures. Well, I have no problem with achieving social justice. However, redistricting has become so politically charged now that it is not really focusing on addressing real needs of the needed. I wonder why we need to do this from the Council and how you think this may help with the current situation. I would suggest facilitating and letting the communities to work effectively with BOE to address real needs. The political slogans and moves may only make things worse. As a person who grew up in the orthodox communist environment in China but now I am a proud American, I have seen all these political movements. The entire American society is becoming politically charged. China is becoming more practical and learned their lessons. Let me tell you this advice if I may, focus less on ism's and politically charged languages and actions, focus on real issues by working with and uniting people. Let us not waste our time on politics but rather focus on real work and excellent work that shows real benefits. Our country does not need more politics. Our country needs people who focus on real work and good work. Thanks. Respectfully, OpalChen Clarksville, MD Sayers, Margery From: Khalict Zirvi Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2019 12:30 AM To: Walsh, Elizabeth; Jones, Opel; Rigby, Christiana; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; CouncilMail Subject: HCPSS redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] School integration based solely on socioeconomic parameters is still controversial and not fully validated. I have attached an article from an actual expert who summarizes the actual studies/research for your review. A,ReaNtv_Check on the Benefits of Economic Integration I FutureEd A Reality Check on the Benefits of Economic Integration FutureEd School districts from New York to San Antonio are turning to a new strategy to improve student outcomes: ensurin... Khalid Zin/i Clarksville MD Sayers, Margery From: Stone Chen Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 11:19 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Howard county council, I am an Ellicott City resident, writing to oppose the CR112. Basic principle and common sense is to allow students attend a school that is close to their home, not to bus them to a distanced school. The new proposal would unnecessarily impose the safety risk to the kids, and waste time for all. Thanks for your time. Sigen Chen Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Mlargery From: Alice Marschner Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 10:08 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Council Resolution 112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] To the members of the Howard County Council: I would like to voice my thoughts on 112-2019. It is not the case that concentrations of FARM students in some schools has been caused by school assignments that this or any other school board has made. It is due to location of schools, housing and its affordability for different socioeconomic groups along with personal priorities and the desire to keep students close to home in their neighborhood schools. The FARM program is a voluntary one, and I am sure that there are people in the county who do not choose to sign up for the program for various reasons, which makes it very difficult to accurately determine the actual numbers and locations of lower income students. A plan based on incomplete data is not something we should be subscribing to. This resolution will result in busing children for what amounts to a social experiment. Although I have heard there are studies that show this forced busing will improve everyone's scores and achievement, I also know that there are studies of outcomes that show quite the opposite. As a child of the 60's and the busing at that time for racial balance, I do not believe that it is in any child's interest to be bused away from their neighborhood for schooling. The time lost in travel, the cost of providing the transportation, increased levels of traffic, and most importantly the wear and tear on the children should not be allowed. The negative effects will be felt by all children no matter what their socio-economic level may be. At every single redistricting meeting I have gone to in the last 27 years (and there have been a lot!), FARM is always a major consideration and receives a good deal of attention. The schools where the FARM numbers are high receive extra money, extra staff, and extra attention from the Federal and State governments as well as the county's school board. If these things are not working then instead of just putting hundreds of children on buses and driving them all over the county to hide the problem, we need to find better ways to aid these families in their own homes, schools and neighborhoods. If you want to decrease pockets of lower social-economic students then you as the County Council should be putting laws into place that will force the developers to build housing in such a way that this doesn't happen. Please read the current comments on the proposed redistricting, the number one goal for parents is to keep their children in the schools closest to their homes. Please help them do this. Please do not vote to pass this resolution as the premise is poor and it will harm rather than help our county and students. Regards, Alice Sayers, Margery From: panyongmei@gmail.com Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 10:05 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose CR112 [Note; This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] The CR112 resolution to integrate by social economic status causes a big concern since many kids could be assigned to a far away school instead of a nearby one. I agree with equity, and would like to help FRAM students. But equity is not at the cost of continuous community and student's access to nearby schools. All hcpss schools are great with reasonable distribution of resources from the county, according to BOE members. Bussing kids to far away schools is not a feasible way for hcpss, considering the tight budget and huge inconvenience for students and parents. Instead, helping FARM student can be through efforts of parents, teachers and volunteers from communities. We can develop programs to help Students in need. Such programs could help kids with homework, or transportation of after school activities. We can enroll volunteers and raise funds for such programs, which could be supported by county or organizations. Yongmei Pan, PhD of pharmaceutical sciences Proud parent of 3rd and 7th students of HCPSS Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: Kun Yang Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 8:51 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] DearSir/Madam, As a resident of Howard County, I oppose CR112. School problems cannot be simply solved by increasing housing diversity or making the percentage of students who participate in FARM program equally. The evidence that people used to support CR112 is the statistical fact that "graduation rates for students who participate in the FARM program are 17 points lower than non-FARMs". However, the lower graduation rate of FARM students was not caused by the school but family issues. What CR112 proposed won't increase the scores of FARM students but bring more harm to them. Minorities or FARM students can easily become bullying targets. And their family issues still exist and hurt them. If the council really wants to help minorities and FARM students, they should pay more attention to how to help those family to have higher incomes and better lives, not how to make the appearance look good and bury the real problem deeper. Besides, what CR112 proposed will definitely bring down real estate and drive rich families to leave the area. In the end, the government will have less money to help poor families. We have to admit that rich families have more options. They could choose to live in another area or send kids to private schools. What CR112 proposed will bring down the quality of public schools in Howard county, and make the schooling environment for poor families even worse. CR112 will not help poor or rich families. It will only bring more troubles and waste the money and manpower which should be used to really help minorities and poor families. Best wishes, A very concerned parent: Kun Yang Sayers, Margery From: bai Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 8:18 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose CR112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.1 DearSir/Madam, As a current Howard County resident. I oppose CR112. Politician should solve the real problem causes the increase of low income population, but not ask school system to cover up their incompetence. Smoothing the FARMs rate in school do not help any people but create a lot more problems: 1, it is not help the kids in the FARMs, they will still have to deal with their problem - their household income won't be increased by moving their school, on the contrary, they may have to get up earlier to deal with the longer bus ride. 2, it will bring down the kids not in the FARMs, as teachers have to deal with a more complicate classroom - they are supposed to teach instead of fixing the problem of a student's family. 3, it will bring down the house price for sure, and in turn bring down the property tax income to the government, and then, limit the resource government can be allocated to help people really in need. A more reasonable plan would be create assisting program for kids in need (e.g. public tutor program for kids in need, FARMS or not). Please take the politician responsibility to solve the problem, instead of cover up the problem". Thank you! Hongjun Bai Sayers, Margery From: Michelle Poirier Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 8:01 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Opposition to redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] To whom it may concern: I am writing to express my deep concerns with the proposed restricting plans for our community. I live in the Chapel Woods community in Clarksville (polygon 1185) and have 7 year old twins, both diagnosed with ADHD and receiving special services at school. Both Clarksville Elementary and River Hill are less than 1 mile (0.7 mi to be exact) from our home. Under the new plan, our children would be sent to Harpers Choice Middle School and Wilde Lake High School (3 mi away). These changes would be disastrous to the well-being of our children and all children in our community for a multitude of reasons. We are the ONLY neighborhood attending Clarksville Elementary that will be redistricted to Harpers Choice for Middle School. Under this plan, the children in our small polygon will not only have to deal with the difficult transition to middle school from elementary school, but will also be thrust in this new environment with very few children familiar to them. Any pediatrician and/or child psychologist would argue that imposing these changes on an 11-year-old child is a recipe for disaster. Even an emotionally stable child would struggle with this transition, never mind a child that is already compromised on an emotional level. It is one thing to move to a new town as a child and be forced to be the "new kid" but entirely another issue to be hand-selectively forced out of your current high school and moved "away" to an entirely new community. A move to Wilde Lake High School (3 mi away) from River Hill High School (0.7 mi away) would mean that my children would have to wake up just after 5 am (an ungodly hour for most of us, never mind a teenager!) to catch a 6 am bus for school. Yes, 5 am. They would then be forced to spend 60 minutes on the bus before their school day begins at 7:25 am. Please think carefully about the implications of this scenario. Sleep deprivation in teens has been scientifically shown to lead to poor performance, emotional disorders, and, in some cases/ suicide. This change is not only beyond unreasonable but will likely have disastrous consequences on each and every child forced to make this move. In closing, I truly hope that you will reconsider your current redistricting plans. I respectfully disagree with those in favor of this plan, some of whom believe that "someone has to suffer" to fix the socioeconomic disparity in Howard County schools. No one has to nor should suffer. I would bet that many of the Wilde Lake High School families would not want to move to River Hill for the same reasons. If River High is under capacity, why not offer Wilde Lake students to move on a voluntary basis? May I suggest that we come together as one community to come up with a plan that will benefit ALL. We are all happy to help in any way we can that will not inflict unnecessary harm on our children. Dr. Michelle Poirier 11816 Chapel Estates Drive POLYGON 1185 10 Sayers, Margery From: Laszlo Veres Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 5:19 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: in OPPOSITION to resolution 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] People in this country reserve the right to live, work, go to school exactly where they wish! This is America, and it will stay that, despite any despicable political attempts to artificially upset people's worlds. Laszlo Veres Ellicott City MD 11 Sayers, Margery From: U A Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 2:56 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Resolution 112 - Please do not re-district - [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I am writing to you to register my displeasure with regards to the new re-districting initiative that is currently in progress. I don't believe we need to re-district as proposed. This will impact a lot number of students and families alike both emotionally and financially. Re-districting will neither improve the standards of the schools involved, nor does it help the system as a whole. I am still not convinced that re-districting is the way to address the over crowding of students in certain schools. These changes will be detrimental over the long run. We need commonsense solutions and not some drastic changes that will eventually affect the daily lives of hard working families and their children. The futures of our children are not something to be interfered with as they will be the most affected by all of this change. I believe we owe it to them, to do right by them, and for them. So please, I suggest you re-consider the proposal that has been put forward and leave the current districts as is without disturbing the status-quo. Dma A. Parent of a school child in Howard County 12 Sayers, Margery From: Christine Wang Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 2:21 PM To: CouncilMail; Ball, Calvin Subject: Oppose CR 112-2019 "Howard County Public School System to draft, approve, and implement a lawful multi-year Integration Plan" [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Executive Ball and County Council Members, I have been monitoring and following upon the press releases and commentaries on "integration", "race" and "socioeconomics" in Howard County. I have learned different perspectives from many open-minded discusses. However, I am angered by some of the racial implications and charged language used by our elected officials, including member of our county council. This has been further inflamed by our Superintendent's recent redistricting proposal. "Howard County Public Schools have become increasingly segregated by race and socioeconomic status," Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby said. "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County, and it's time to take meaningful strides toward integration in our education system." These racial implications, charged language and the Superintendents' recent redistricting proposal have torn down the harmony of Howard Country communities and split the communities to be "them vs. us" or "wealthy kids vs. poor kids". The language offered by members of the county council in this resolution borders on racial hate mongering. I want to point out to the members of the county council that using "segregation" to spearhead school improvement is a wrongheaded plan and will do the entire county more harm than good!!! My family is a minority family and lives in perhaps the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the county. If you are not familiar, our neighborhood in Polygon 3176 is a majority-minority area that is represented by a mix of African American, African, Asian, Latino, White and Southern Asian families. We are a close knit community that celebrates our diversity. The racial implication and insinuations are frankly insulting. Poverty has been clustered in certain areas of Howard County due to poor decision-making in zoning by our county leadership. It is not due to inequalities in our education system or lack of access to education. Therefore, more rational future zoning and planning decisions are needed to address the root cause of this issue. Meanwhile, directly supporting students and parents with additional funding and resources in these clustered areas is crucial. Redistricting, swapping and busing kids all over the county as proposed in the Superintendent's redistricting plan will mask the real issue, but do nothing 13 to help our most needy. Instead of spending money on busing and causing chaos for thousands of families, efforts and funds should be spent on the crucial social services that students and families need the most and not on masking the issues such as redistribution of FARM students. Some in our county government have stated that CR-112 may not directly be related to the current redistricting proposal, but that is obviously not the case. The CR-112 is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. In addition to that, certain members of the county council have even been so bold as to offer "political coverage" to members of the Board of Education. I urge county council members to always remember that BOE members are independently elected officials for a crucial reason - to keep our children out of politics. This CR demonstrates a gross overreach on the part of the county council. In response to Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby's comment "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County...", we are parents and the first generation of immigrants who came to this country with a belief that working hard is the only way to bring a better life to our family and child. We choose to live nearby schools so that our child can leverage the short commute to school to particpate the school and extracurriculum activities while both parents continue working hard outside home. Forcing our neighborhood kids to be bused to far away schools, instead of attending our neighbourhood schools, will destroy the work and life balance that we have earned through our hard work. This seriously violate our civil rights! For the sake of those truly in need in our county and the harmony of Howard County, I urge you to reject this resolution and abandon this misguided endeavor and focus on realigning our budget with needs of Howard County's most vulnerable. The current proposals endorsed by certain members of our county council have no doubt played a role in the most recent misguided redistricting proposal. It pays lip service to equity but does nothing to improve our children's education. Equity is an important moral issue. Our budgets are not just financial documents but moral ones as well. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 2019 plan. It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the real issues facing our most vulnerable. Stop the hate mongering! Invest in the families and kids who live in low income communities, and give them the opportunities all children deserve! Sincerely, Christine Wang Council District 5 14 Sayers, Margery From: Inbal Sander Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 1:48 PM To: Jung, Deb; dyungmann@howardcountymd.go; CouncilMail Subject: Re: testimony CR 112 Attachments: Councilmember Yung reply.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 1:57 PM Jung, Deb wrote: From: I As you are aware, along with Councilmembers Jones and Mercer Rigby, I cosponsored a resolution that encourages HCPSS to rebalance schools based on socioeconomic factors. District 4 is a microcosm of the issues facing the County as a whole. Many of our Columbia schools have a higher concentration of poverty than the County average due, in part, to land-use policies made by previous administrations and councils. Redistricting presents an opportunity to build long-term success for the entire county, but I do have concerns about the current plan and its disproportionate impact on District 4. It is important to understand that CR 112-2019 is aspirational and not prescriptive. The County Council is not involved in the process of determining which students will attend which schools, nor can we prescribe to the Board of Education a certain outcome. We do, however, encourage you to be involved in a productive way to make your feelings known. While Dr. Martiranos plan is just one iteration of a lengthy process, I have faith in our Board of Education to consider the feedback of all who choose to provide input, and to do what is best for the children of Howard County. I encourage District 4 residents to keep an open mind, be involved in the process, and work towards civility and understanding of the various factors involved in the School Board's decision-making process. My best to you, DebJung Howard County Council District 4 nbal Sander Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2019 1:07 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: testimony CR 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] 9/11/2019 Councilmember Yung, Thank you for your reply (and apologies because I spelled your last name incorrectly on my prior testimony). You say "Redistricting presents an opportunity to build long-term success for the entire county". Your resolution specifically "encourages HCPSS to rebalance schools based on socioeconomic factors." Can you please provide specifics on your aspiration and how it will build long-term success in the entire county? How do you define success? Who should define success? Are there examples of when redistricting based on socioeconomic factors led to the metric of success you or others are measuring? What does rebalancing based on socioeconomic factors mean? What percentage change in FARMS signifies a rebalance? Who decides that? Do you want all schools to be within a certain percentage of the county FARM average? What if a school falls out of that percentage? How often do you anticipate redistricting to balance the schools based on ever changing socioeconomic factors? Every few year? More frequently? If you are going to get involved with this (which I've already mentioned that I think you shouldn't) you should be able to answer these fundamental questions. Please reconsider your support of a resolution that leaves so many questions unanswered. Thank you for your service. I truly respect you and your service. While writing the date at the top of this letter, I am reminded of my true belief that what unites us is much more than what divides us. I immigrated to this country (okay I was 4 months old at the time), but having grown up with two parents that were used to the corrupt politics of Argentina, and having gone through the naturalization process as a tweenager, I NEVER, take for granted the incredible privilege I have to have elected official representing me in government affairs. InbalSander Rising Waves Way (District 4) Sayers, Margery From: Dot Hammond Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 1:32 PM To: redistricting@hcpss.org Cc: CouncilMail Subject: Testimony opposing HoCo redistricting proposal [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] September 11, 2019 Howard County Board of Education members: I am writing regarding the recent HCPSS redistricting proposal by Dr. Martirano. I am opposed to this plan and am asking for your support in the Board of Education in making sure this proposal does not move forward. The recent feasibility study provided 2 viable options to help relieve overcrowding, yet Dr. Martirano has ignored that study and provided his own proposal that will have many immediate negative impacts for Howard County students and families. The recent feasibility study indicated that the top 3 concerns of HoCo citizens are as follows: 1. Keeping feeds of students together 2. Maintaining contiguous communities 3. Transportation considerations. Why has Dr. Martirano chosen to ignore these top 3 concerns with his proposed plan? The feasibility study clearly shows what Howard County families think is the most important, and this plan ignores those wishes. This plan directly and significantly impacts the daily lives of many families. We deserve better from our leaders than to push a plan that clearly does not take our priorities into account! The plan to bus over 7,000 students outside of the communities in which they live will be a detriment to those students, families and communities in many ways, such as: Decreased community event participation. If you have to drive 45 minutes in traffic to get to your kids school, how often are parents going to do it? Also, lower income families are at a distinct disadvantage here as transportation to and from the new school will take more hours away from work and will cost more money in gas and car maintenance. How can we build community bonds when we are so spread out from the areas in which we live? As a Grandmother with four boys in Howard County Schools, I am frequently needed to transport the boys to or from school and after school activities. I also attend school events and offer volunteer services to their schools. Adding long distances and travel times will make it unreasonable for me to continue to do these things, which will have a negative impact on my family. Decreased community legacy / school spirit: My now grown children attended Jeffers Hill, Owen Brown and OMHS. They went to school with most of the same kids from elementary to high. THAT is what created a great community when they were in school. Parents knew each other, families knew each other, teachers knew siblings in the families.... the children felt part of the community where they lived. Parents could attend school activities in their own community without driving long distances. Busing a kid away from their home does NOT help them to feel a sense of community. It seems like we may be sending a signal that some communities are not as good as others and that's why we have to bus them away. That does NOT help them to feel proud of their home and community. Let's invest in and celebrate these communities instead of breaking them up! • Transportation costs: Where are we coming up with the money for the extra buses and transportation costs associated with this plan? Has that been studied? You are proposing busing students long distances in rush hour traffic. Has the environmental cost of this been studied as well? • Transportation concerns: Given the longer time the kids will be spending on buses, is there a plan to also increase supervision on buses? Bored and restless kids are likely to distract the bus driver which creates a dangerous situation. The bus is also a prime spot for bullying. If kids are going to be spending a longer time on a bus, additional supervision on the bus is critical and needs to be provided. • Weather concerns: When there is bad weather, the students that are being transported much farther than necessary by buses are at increased risk of injury. If children need to be picked up in case of an emergency, it is much harder on parents, grandparents, etc. who will now have to travel longer distances, some to multiple schools. • • Multiple redistricting: Many kids have already been redistricted multiple times which is hard of them emotionally and educationally. They are constantly readjusting to a new normal during an age that is typically a very fragile time socially. With a new high school coming in 2-3 years, is such a drastic plan really necessary at this time? • Health Concerns: Students being bused outside of the communities where they live will have to wake up earlier to get to the bus stop. Middle and High schools already start extremely early and it is already a struggle for tween and teens to get enough sleep for their bodies and minds to be healthy. Their time is better spent at home than on a bus! Again, I do not feel that Dr. Martirano's redistricting plan has the best interests of Howard County students and families at heart. It is a short-sighted plan that seems to only focus on one area of improvement at the expense of all other priorities that the citizens of Howard County have clearly expressed. I am calling on our elected officials in the Board of Education to support the wishes of Howard County students and families by voting "NO" on this proposal. Regards, DorofHy Ha^mmjcmd/ Howard County Resident and Tax Payer from POLYGON #2228 Dorothy Hammond 1312 Crows Foot Road Marriottsville, MD 21104 410-442-9832 Virus-free. www.avq.com Sayers, Margery From: Ritu Shah Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 12:38 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: opposition to bill CR112 Attachments: Opposition to bill HZ.docx [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council members Subject: Opposition to resolution 112 Dear Council members, I am writing to express my opposition to resolution 112 regarding school redistricting Howard County. I have several objections to this bill which are as follows. 1. The bill makes the assumptions that Howard county schools are somehow unequal and segregated although the Superintendent has repeatedly claimed that all Howard county schools are good. No child is barred from a particular school based on race or income so what is the basis for the bill's claim of segregation. It is true that some schools have a larger percentage of kids receiving FARM than others but that is simply a reflection of their communities than a difference in school quality. 2. The bill lines 26-28 are an exaggeration of facts. Two Howard county high schools WLHS (40%) and OMHS (44%) are at or above 40% FARM population. The other two refereed to are lower that 40%. Hammond High 36% and Long reach 36.9%. 3. Graduation rates for students participating in FARM program are indeed lower than non-FARM students. However this is true nationwide. This is due to a variety of socioeconomic factors that are not addressed by this bill. Changing the childrens' school every few years by continuous redistricting or sending them to a school that is further away to balance FARM percentages does not address the factors causing the achievement gap. Instead, it increases hardship for all parents - rich or poor, who find it more difficult to participate in PTA, let their children participate in after school activities. Specially, poor parents may even have to let the children miss days of school because they have to get on the bus earlier to go to a further away school and if they miss the school bus they might not have the means to drop them off to school. There are many negative effects of school transfers as pointed out in this article httDS://www.isonline.com/story/news/education/2018/12/28/whatstudent-mobilitv-how-do-school-transfers-affect-kids/2422730002/. The councilwomen proposing this bill need to fully research the potential negative impacts on the very families they think will benefit from "equity". One of the key indicators of this is resistance from people currently at the hiogh FARM schools like OMHS orWLHSwho are as opposed to this idea as people from RHHS or AHS. See post from FB below. 4. 5. Redistrictingon the basis of balancing FARM numbers in schools is at the core of this bill's proposal to bring equity. The idea is that somehow it benefits the economically disadvantaged kids enough to improve their academic achievement even at the cost of the harms that are guaranteed (referenced above). However, the county's own data does not support this claim. Here are some numbers I compiled from MDSE website. There is no difference is proficiency levels of economically disadvantaged students whether they attend a 10% FARM school like Atholton or 36% FARM school Hammond High. The whole argument at the heart of this FARM based redistricting is bogus. 6. The frequent redistricting in HoCo is already making it unattractive for any now potential residents who want stability for their children. The existing residents also will move away if they can again leaving the poor who cannot move to face the consequences of this plan. See below for some recent/potential residents who have posted these sentiments on facebook. I implore the council to vote against this poorly conceived bill which harms all county residents poor or rich. 7. Existing programs like Jumpstart which give students of high FARM schools a choice to go to a different school is already there. Sincerely, Ritu Shah Clarksville MD Ritu Shah Subject: Opposition to resolution 112 Dear Council members, I am writing to express my opposition to resolution 112 regarding school redistricting Howard County. I have several objections to this bill which are as follows. 1. The bill makes the assumptions that Howard county schools are somehow unequal and segregated although the Superintendent has repeatedly claimed that all Howard county schools are good. No child is barred from a particular school based on race or income so what is the basis for the bill's claim of segregation. It is true that some schools have a larger percentage of kids receiving FARM than others but that is simply a reflection of their communities than a difference in school quality. 2. The bill lines 26-28 are an exaggeration of facts. Two Howard county high schools WLHS (40%) and OMHS (44%) are at or above 40% FARM population. The other two refereed to are lower that 40%. Hammond High 36% and Long reach 36.9%. 3. Graduation rates for students participating in FARM program are indeed lower than non-FARM students. However this is true nationwide. This is due to a variety of socioeconomic factors that are not addressed by this bill. Changing the childrens' school every few years by continuous redistricting or sending them to a school that is further away to balance FARM percentages does not address the factors causing the achievement gap. Instead, it increases hardship for all parents - rich or poor, who find it more difficult to participate in PTA, let their children participate in after school activities. Specially, poor parents may even have to let the children miss days of school because they have to get on the bus earlier to go to a further away school and if they miss the school bus they might not have the means to drop them off to school. There are many negative effects of school transfers as pointed out in this article https://www.isonline.com/storv/news/education/2018/12/28/what-student-mobilitv-how-do- school-transfers-affect-kids/2422730002/. The councilwomen proposing this bill need to fully research the potential negative impacts on the very families they think will benefit from "equity". One of the key indicators of this is resistance from people currently at the hiogh FARM schools like OMHS or WLHS who are as opposed to this idea as people from RHHS or AHS. See post from FB below. ^ Larry Pretlow 1 hr Event Update Alert: YOU ALL ARE INVITED TO JOIN US, WHILE WE MAY RUN OUT OF REFRESHMENTS, THE OPTICS OF BRINGING THIS MOVEMENT TO OAKLAND MILLS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. All Caps but not yelling I believe the key to stopping this plan and other BAD plans (including shell games) is through communities like the Oakland Mills Community Our community is a great community, however, we have a high-concentration of demographies that impacts are FARMS numbers. This means we have families who need to be lifted up towards self-tilependency. Yet, our FARMS Is also our claim to investment in order to he!p do that. This plan will mask ffiose needs for those families, and will disrupt great communities to do so. I believe in helping families from where they are and working to build vibrant communities for these families. There's no need to force relationships, point fingers or shuffle people around - that's not integration or equity, tDat's checking a box. Many will say I believe some magical entity is going to fund every resource we need in District 2, some even say I don't have a plan. My oniy response to that is if they believe any of that, then, we cannot move to begin to develop the "how' - which I beiieve should be a colfaborative process that develops from feedback of all residents and business owners. So not only do I have a plan, the first part of that plan is to stop this bad plan being forced on our county. After Walk Near the Mail, I implore you to consider visiting the ^NcOneHasToSuffer Works hop. The optics that something is happening in O'M -will help in the success of this event on Saturday. I ask that you consider waving your signs in OE..1 as wel! to help us draw residents of the apartment community over to the workstiop. Here's information on ffNoOneHasToSuiTer 4. 5. Redistricting on the basis of balancing FARM numbers in schools is at the core of this bill's proposal to bring equity. The idea is that somehow it benefits the economically disadvantaged kids enough to improve their academic achievement even at the cost of the harms that are guaranteed (referenced above). However, the county's own data does not support this claim. Here are some numbers I compiled from MDSE website. There is no difference is proficiency levels of economically disadvantaged students whether they attend a 10% FARM school like Atholton or 36% FARM school Hammond High. The whole argument at the heart of this FARM based redistricting is bogus. School name %FARM % Economically- % Economically- Average % ED dsadvantaged disadvantaged proficient proficient in math proficient in E LA Athojton 10.3 29.4 23.5 26.45 Hammond High 36.1 22.9 35.3 29.1 Howard High 12.8 33.3 11.8 22.55 Wilde lake High 40 26.8 31.6 29.2 Reservoir 25.5 27.6 20.7 24.15 Oakland Mills 44.2 20.5 20.5 20.5 Long Reach 36.9 32.6 26.1 29.35 Mt Hebron 14.5 30.8 38.5 34.65 Tj 6. The frequent redistricting in HoCo is already making it unattractive for any now potential residents who want stability for their children. The existing residents also will move away if they can again leaving the poor who cannot move to face the consequences of this plan. See below for some recent/potential residents who have posted these sentiments on facebook. I implore the council to vote against this poorly conceived bill which harms all county residents poor or rich. Davina RS\ifs Ugh that sucks, I'm sorry. I found out about this bussing nonsense days after we found the perfect house in CEarksville (RHHS). Literally we were about to put in an offer. Such a shame sellers don't have to disclose that the "desired HOCO/river hill school district" may change after you buy your house. But, I guess they don't have to say anything since technicaily nothing has changed...YET I can't help but wonder how many sellers are leaving be of this but aren't '.varning the buyers (be why would they want to scare off a sale?!}. So sad. Li^'e 0 Reply 15h w^' Nikki Martatt-Young Exactly!! I 'Ai'ouid have made a different choice instead of settling here En this over rated, over priced, cock a doodle d oo CountyLike Reply "i5h o» • Zewdu Alem snared his first post ^ New Member • 14 hrs 'We've just recently moved to HoCo. Had we kno'A'n, that this irresponsible socialistic proposal was coining, we wouldn't have of course made line toucih decision to move to HoCo. We thouaht Howard was a coLintv of choice! Thiis is a path to disaster for all. What a nightmare! o'--»o67 (^_) Comment Bryan Weinstein shared his first post. ^' New Member • 1 hr I live out of state and air; going to be moving to E.'lar/iand later this year/eariy next year due to a job in 'ciowntov.'n Baltiiric.re. I have two youn'g kids, so sclnools are very impoftantto us. We were pianning on relocating to HOCO (and were leaning towards EC) over nonn/central Baltimore Coumy. However, this redlstricting has me uneasy. Regardless of which school! they end up attendmg (alffiough like everyone else. part of the reason we like specific neighborhoods is due to attending specific sctiools), I'd like for them to remain in the same school as their neighborhood friends until they graduate from HS, witlicut having to worry aboulthem getting redislricted. How often does HOCO perform reaistricting (is ttiis a one time debate or does tnis happen every few years}? Are there other areas of the Baltimore Metro area I should be looking at that are more stable? Thank you. 0 Comments ^) Like (^J Comment ^> Share 7. Existing programs like Jumpstart which give students of high FARM schools a choice to go to a different school is already there. 9 Shylice Nelson stiared tier Wst post ^ New Member 20 hrs 1 contemplated for a while about commenting, but decided to share my story-1 thinK i offer a unique perspective because my daughter IS ixisec! from our home school to River Hill thiroLigii the Jumpstart program. There are significant challenges faced when being bused out or your home school area. There are Jumpstart students who catcli the bus as early as 6:15am vs 6:45arn if they were attending their local scFiool. Anyone who rtas ever had to wake up a teen for school knows that an extra 30 ininutes is like dog years! Loi.» Also there are atier school programs iTiy cniid can not participate in. Both parents 'work outside of the home so if she nas to be picked up before 5:00 she can't do it. If we went to our home school I could ask our neigtibor who is a senior to give her a fde or anottier parent- But I: do not thinl< it is fair to ask another parent to drive 20 minutes out of their way to drive my child Home, so that means she can't do it. We also heavily weiglied the economic differences. We tieard of the "rich River Hi81 kids" where the student parking lot is nicer tten the teachers. Nov.' v.'-oufd that maKe my daughter feel? Would she feei a need to keep up witli the "Jones"? In the end we decided to participate. Tlie Keeping up with tne Jones is more of an internal problem. The "Jones" don't care. LolS And we would accept ttie known challenges because 'we wanted to be a part of the program and i did not want my child eating her lunch on the floor in the hall because the cafeteria was too full. But tiere is the kicker - this was our families CHOICE. I may not have been as willing to accept these chailenges if it were forced upon us. And this was the right choice for our family. My tsrown faced daughter and our entire family have been welcomed into the River Hill fami!',' with open arms. So I do take ofrense to the comments ffiat have been going around about the "rich wtiite families" of River Hill and their -racists attitudes". We have experienced none of this. My daughter's core group of friends consists of 4 smart, beautiful, funny young ladies. One is African American (my daughter), one is Asian, one is White and one is Hispanic. We giggle that they are a walking demograpHic pie chart, bui they worK. They represent a varying of race, color and economic background and I love it! But 1 have recently began to wonder if my daughter would fiave had such a weicome reception if her being a River Hill student came at the sacrifice of another student. Wouid mey have welcomed her at the luncii table if she was taking the spot of their best friend since kindergarten? i don't knov> the answer to that. My overall thougrits are integration can be a positive thing, but it srio'uld come from a place of Choice. I am thrilled that my daughter gets to be a Hawk, but it shouEd not come ai ttie sacrifice of the student across the street There has to be a better way. ^Q You and 390 oihers 81 Comments 7 Shares 1^ Like (—) Comment ^> Share 8. Sayers, Margery From: Mandeep Sawhney Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 3:37 PM To: Ball, Calvin Cc: CouncilMail; Jones, Opel; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; Rigby, Christiana; Walsh, Elizabeth; katiefry.hester@senate.state.md.us; trent.kittleman@house.state.md.us; warren.miller@house.state.md.us; Kathleen_Hanks@hcpss.org Subject: Opposition to CR 112-2019 Attachments: Oppose CR 112 - 2019.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] From a Concerned Howard County Resident. Respectfully, Mandeep Sawhney September 10, 2019 Dear County Executive Calvin Ball and County Council Members: I have been monitoring the various conversations, press releases and commentaries on "integration", "race" and "socioeconomics" in Howard County. As a person of color, I am angered by some of the racial implications and charged language used by some, including member of our county council. "For decades, Howard County Public Schools have become increasingly segregated by race and socioeconomic status," Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby said. "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County, and it's time to take meaningful strides toward integration in our education system." Racial and socioeconomic segregation in this county is due to housing development of clustered pockets of low-income housing. It is not due to inequalities in our education system or lack of access to education. Simply put, poverty is clustered in areas of Howard County. Directly supporting the students and parents in these clustered areas is what needs to happen not redistricting, redrawing polygons or busing kids all over the county. I realize CR 112 is not directly related to the current redistricting proposal however it is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is one of the most successful in the state and the nation. As Superintendent Michael Martirano said, "all Howard County schools are excellent." Kids living in these pockets of low incoming housing have the SAME access to the SAME great education as do the kids living in single-family homes. The MAJOR difference is the child coming from low income housing perhaps may not have the same family support system at home. The schools already provide free meals and offer day care to teen mothers. Perhaps providing free before/after care, free after school programs and after school tutoring would most benefit the kids in these low income pockets whose parents cannot afford to provide these things for them. Bussing kids around Howard County is not what they need. The impoverished kids bussed to other communities will still not be able to afford before/after care, after school programs or tutoring. These kids need to stay in their communities and thrive in an environment with the additional support from the Howard County government. Pawning off the job to the education department to redistrict, redraw polygons and shuffle FARM numbers does not fix the underlying problem of poverty. The same number of kids will need FARM whether it's at their closest, most convenient high school or the one across town. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 2019 plan. This is not a Civil Riohts issue! This is a Social Reform Issue! It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the underlying problem of poverty. Invest in the families and kids who live in these low-income housing communities! Sincerely, 'Wa^u^a^> Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 2:26 PM To: CouncilMail; Ball, Calvin; Jones, Opel; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; Rigby, Christiana; Walsh, Elizabeth; katiefry.hester@senate.state.md.us; trent.kittleman@house.state.md.us; warren.miller@house.state.md.us; Kathleen_Hanks@hcpss.org Subject: Oppose CR 112-2019 Attachments: Oppose CR 112 - 2019.docx [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] September 30, 2019 Dear County Executive Ball and County Council Members: I have been monitoring the various conversations, press releases and commentaries on "integration", "race" and "socioeconomics" in Howard County. As a woman of color I am angered by some of the racial implications and charged language used by some, including member of our county council. "For decades, Howard County Public Schools have become increasingly segregated by race and socioeconomic status," Councilwoman Christiana Mercer Rigby said. "Redistricting is a civil rights issue in Howard County, and it's time to take meaningful strides toward integration in our education system." Racial and socioeconomic segregation in this county is due to housing development of clustered pockets of low income housing. It is not due to inequalities in our education system or lack of access to education. Simply put, poverty is clustered in areas of Howard County. Directly supporting the students and parents in these clustered areas is what needs to happen.....not redistricting, redrawing polygons or busing kids all over the county. I realize CR 112 is not directly related to the current redistricting proposal however it is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is one of the most successful in the state and the nation. As Superintendent Michael Martirano said "all Howard County schools are excellent." Kids living in these pockets of low incoming housing have the SAME access to the SAME great education as do the kids living in a single family home. The MAJOR difference is the child coming from low income housing perhaps may not have the same family support system at home. The schools already provide free meals and offer day care to teen mothers. Perhaps providing free before/after care, free after school programs and after school tutoring would most benefit the kids in these low income pockets whose parents cannot afford to provide these things for them. Bussing kids around Howard County is not what they need. The impoverished kids bussed to other communities will still not be able to afford before/after care, after school programs or tutoring. These kids need to stay in their communities and thrive in an environment with the additional support from the Howard County government. Pawning off the job to the education department to redistrict, redraw polygons and shuffle FARM numbers does not fix the underlying problem of poverty. The same number of kids will need FARM whether its at their closest, most convenient high school or the one across town. I live in perhaps the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the county. If you are not familiar, our neighborhood in Polygon 3176 is represented by a mix of African American, African, Asian, Hispanic, White and Southern Asian families. The racial implication and insinuations are frankly insulting. Socioeconomic discrepancies are not foreign to those of us living in my neighborhood. My husband and I both grew up in apartment complexes. I was a "latch key kid" without the benefit of having a stay-at-home parent, before/after care or after school programs given my parents socioeconomic status. My kids do not have access to better education based on the location or the polygon we live in. The major difference is they are surrounded and supported by a strong family unit who are able to pay for their meals, provide before/after care,after school programs and tutoring. Our kids are no different or any more special than kids in low income neighborhoods. If they can be supported by an intact family unit along with some support from the Howard County Government, the perceived issue of segregation will no longer exist. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 201 9 plan. This is not a Civil Rights issue! This is a Social Reform Issue! It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the underlying problem of poverty. Invest in the families and kids who live in these low income housing communities! Sincerely, Rajneet Sawhney Sayers, Margery From: Jasleen Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 2:06 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear City Council Members, I am writing to you out of concern of council resolution 112. I strongly oppose this resolution as an overstep of council authority based on biased information and policies .lama mother of 2 and live in polygon 176. We recently moved to the area and love the sense of community we have with our neighbors. According to the council, this proposal is to mandate diversity in all of the Howard County Schools. This county is already very diverse. Although all Howard County schools are great, the County needs to address and allocate funds to help the children that need extra resources not spend tax payer dollars on unnecessary busing of children further from their schools and homes. We have a diverse population attending our schools. Redistricting on the basis of FARM Scores is unjust to everyone. It isn't tackling the problem but redistributing it essentially. It is unwarranted to make our children move from a underpopulated school to an overcrowded school. In addition, the increasing commute times highly impacts high-school children's performance, extra-curricular activities and the ability of parents to reach their children in case of emergencies. Lastly, we strongly urge you to reconsider this proposal . OUR CHILDREN ARE NOT SOCIAL ENGINEERING PROJECTS.!! Thank you. Jasleen Bedi Sayers, Margery From: Jung, Deb Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:48 PM To: Beth Krakower; CouncilMail; Ball, Calvin Subject: RE:CR-112 As you are aware, along with Councilmembers Jones and Mercer Rigby, I cosponsored a resolution that encourages HCPSS to rebalance schools based on socioeconomic factors. District 4 is a microcosm of the issues facing the County as a whole. Many of our Columbia schools have a higher concentration of poverty than the County average due, in part, to land-use policies made by previous adminis+ra+ions and councils. Redistricting presents an opportunity to build long-term success for the entire coun+y, but I do have concerns about the current plan and its disproportionate impact on District 4. It is important to understand that CR 112-2019 is aspirational and not prescriptive. The County Council is not involved in the process of determining which students will attend which schools, nor can we prescribe to the Board of Education a certain outcome. We do, however, encourage you to be involved in a productive way to make your feelings known. While Dr. Martiranos plan is just one iteration of a lengthy process, I have faith in our Board of Education to consider the feedback of all who choose to provide input, and to do what is best for the children of Howard County. I encourage District 4 residents to keep an open mind, be involved in the process, and work towards civility and understanding of the various factors involved in the School Board's decision-making process. My best to you, DebJung Howard County Council District 4 From: Beth Krakower Sent: Sunday, September 1, 2019 9:24 PM To: CouncilMail ; Ball, Calvin Subject: CR-112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council and Dr. Ball, Attached you will find my letter that I have sent to the Board of Education. I am sending this to you today due to the purposed CR112-2019. Each time I have emailed you over the years with regards to HCPSS I have received an email back stating that you do not have any jurisdiction over the school system, yet you felt it then necessary to create CR112-2019 to give yourself jurisdiction over what and how the school system operates. You may not have it both ways you either get involved in issues with regards to the school system or you stay out of it and allow the school system to work within itself. You have created this mess by purposing this resolution and calling it an integration plan because you feel the school system is segregated. You used language that is incendiary and you knew would pit communities against each other in any purposed plan that HCPSS put forward. You should be ashamed of yourself for talking out of both sides of your mouth. Sincerely, Beth Krakower Sayers, Margery From: kripa tiwari Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:35 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Opposing CR 112 Bill [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Executive Ball and County Council Members, I am been reading and hearing lot about Equity and need for integration in Howard county.The Superintendent's recent redistricting proposal is wrong step to address Equity issues. The CR 112 is a step in wrong direction as this is supporting or providing cover for Superintendent's recent misguided redistricting proposal. Racial and socioeconomic segregation in this county is due to poor zoning and development decision. It is not due to inequalities in our education system or lack of access to education. Poverty has been clustered in areas of Howard County due poor decision making by our past leadership. Directly supporting students and parents in these clustered areas is crucial. More rational future zoning and planning decisions are needed as well. Redistricting and busing kids all over the county will do nothing to help our most needy. Some in our county government have stated that CR-112 may not directly be related to the current redistricting proposal, however it is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. It also demonstrates a gross overreach on the part of the county council. The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is one of the most successful in the nation. As Superintendent Michael Martirano said "all Howard County schools are excellent." Kids living in pockets of low incoming housing have the same access to the same great education as do the kids living other parts of the county. Instead of spending money on busing and causing chaos for thousands of families, efforts and funds should be spent on the crucial social services that students and families need and not on cosmetic issues such as redistribution of FARM students. It has been argued that this resolution has nothing to do with the current rectistricting proposal but that is obviously not the case. Certain members of the county council have even been so bold as to offer "political coverage" to members of the Board of Education, BOE members are independently elected officials for a crucial reason, to keep our children out of politics. The language offered by members of the county council in this resolution borders on racial hate mongering. My family lives in a very diverse neighborhoods in the county. If you are not familiar, our neighborhood in Polygon 176 is a majority-minority area that is represented by a mix of African American, African, Asian, Latino, White and Southern Asian families. We are a close knit community that celebrates our diversity. The racial implication and insinuations are frankly insulting. Socioeconomic discrepancies are not foreign to those of us living in my neighborhood. The lasting solution to equity issue takes more work and insight and must include ensuring that all county schools have equal access to before/after care, enrichment programs, and the tools to bring up Math/English proficiency county wide. For the sake of those truly in need in our county, I urge you to reject this resolution and abandon this misguided endeavor and focus on realigning our budget with needs of Howard County's most vulnerable. The current proposals endorsed by certain members of our county council have no doubt played a role in the most recent misguided redistricting proposal. It pays lip service to equity but does nothing to improve our children's education. Equity is an important moral issue. Our budgets are not just financial documents but moral ones as well. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 2019 plan. This is not a Civil Rights issue! This is a Social Reform Issue! It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the issues facing our most vulnerable. Stop the hate mongering and invest in the families and kids who live in low income communities and give them the opportunities all children deserve! Sincerely, Kripa Tiwari Sayers, Margery From: Xin Yi Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:23 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Opposition to CR-112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] DearCouncilmen and Councilwomen: I am writing to you in opposition to CR112-2019. I know some people has been having private conversations with Superintendent Martirano and some of the council members, as well as County Executive, thinking that there is a MYTH regarding why some of Howard County schools performs better than the others even though all of our schools provide the same resources. If this is really a MYTH to those people, then let me explain. Most kids from better-performing schools not only work on homework assigned by the school teachers, they work on extra homework assigned by their parents and usually on above-grade subjects. They seek more challenging learning experience outside of what our public schools are offering with the guidance of their parents, The performance of a school is simply a reflection of the average of the students performances, how much effort they've put into learning, and how much effort their parents have spent on their kids' education. There is no MAGIC from the schools! Even if you mix up the students to accomplish the same FARM rates and made the school average appear the same, that doesn't mean the FARM students have been lifted up individually. It would only mask the problems and needs from those FARM students. Instead of spending more BOE budget on busing kids around, and adding more commute to our kids' daily lives, wouldn't it be more efficient to encourage the parents to spend more time on their kids' education at home? Perhaps pay for a learning program such as IXL, which by the way only costs $25 a year per student or have the kids visit a free learning website, such as Khan Academy, to do some extra homework like the other hard-working students. I grew up in southwest area of China, one of the poorest provinces called Guizhou. I did not go to fancy schools that have great resources. My family did not own cars when I grew up. My parents did not go to college either due to the notorious Culture Revolution in the 70s. But my parents have always made time to help me with my schoolwork with their best abilities, and taught me to earn the things I want in life through hard work and perseverance. They did not try to bus me to a better school in the city. Yet I made it to the best university in China. My point is that it's not the county government or the so-called "wealthier kids" who can help lift the FARM students, it's the PARENTS! Personally, I don't mind having FARM students in my kids' schools, but not at the expense of busing kids around and breaking up the communities we live in. I did a little research by studying Howard County's Zoning map and history. It's not news that roughly 60 percent of land in Howard County is dedicated, protected for rural uses, which is located on the Western Tier of the county. That leaves the remaining 40 percent of the county lands shifting over time from suburban to focused, mixed use nodes, that are mostly the Eastern 6 portions. I wondered why there is such a clear divide in zoning. So I found out about the Agricultural Preservation Program to the Western Tier for agricultural preservation, leaving the Central (Columbia/Ellicott City) and Eastern portions in a priority service area for denser development. Then, County wanted affordable housing. Where can we put them? Of course, only in the Central and Eastern pori:ions of the land. Then what does that to the schools in these areas? Overcrowding, high percentage in FARM students and etc. It looks to me the problem was created due to years of poor planning by the county council and the planning board, how is it fair for the county council to rely on BOE to solve the problem by busing kids around? With already limited budget this year not meeting the demand, the council expects BOE to spend more money on school buses and cut other educational programs? The better solution should be to look into the future planning and zoning strategies, and mix up and spread out developments better and not concentrate certain types of dense development all in one place. CR112 is certainly not the solution! Please vote Nay to CR112-2019. Thank you! Alice Lee - District 1 Resident Sayers, Margery From: Judy Ji Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:18 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Please be careful with the integration plan [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Council, I understand there is a bill CR112-2019 being introduced requesting the Howard County Public School System to draft, approve, and implement a multi-year Integration Plan to ensure that Howard County Public Schools are integrated based on socio-economic factors. While I have no problem with achieving social justice, I however has a strong impression that such kind of initiatives have become so politically charged now that it is not really focusing on addressing real needs. I wonder why we need to take this initiative from the Council and how you think this may benefit the current situation. I did some research online. It seems like the concept of making schools integrated by socioeconomic factors has been tested by many school districts across the country, thus there are many articles online discussing whether school districts can achieve real integration by pursuing socio-economic integration. Almost all the results and experience indicate that any integration initiative is ultimately a balancing act between meaningful diversity and navigating the politics of this issue. In many cases, if the students are involuntary reassigned, the political blowback is immense. Experience from other public-school systems illustrate just how dangerous this balancing act can be. Even a district with a storied history of diversity efforts ultimately fell victim to the political realities surrounding integration. Other people's experience also show that political realities often result in broad-based policies bestowing educational benefits on advantaged student populations while doing little to change the schooling contexts of their less advantaged peers. All these results makes me wonder whether this is a wise initiative to take, at the current time, for our own public-school system. In addition, combining with the recent school redistricting proposal proposed by Mr. Superintendent, I'm deeply concerned. Let us not waste our time on politics but rather focus on the plans and actions that show real benefits. Let's focus on improving our schools even further and helping all our kids to be both academically and socially successful. Please, do not use our kids as guinea pigs. Respectfully, Judy Ji Polygon 186 Sayers, Margery From: Beth Stolte Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 12:21 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Thank you for bringing to light the segregation of Howard County schools. When looking at the demographies for schools east of 29 the disparity is clear. The neighborhoods of Owen Brown and Oakland Mills specifically are deeply segregated from the rest of the county. To someone not involved in the redistricting process, it looks as if FARMs students are concentrated in certain areas to maximize the number of Title 1 schools and therefore federal money. Also, looking at where FARMs students reside shows a segregation in the county itself. For years so called affordable housing has been allowed to be built in these same neighborhoods under the guise of caring about low income families. If the CC/ former and current, cared about low income families they'd stop allowing building in these areas. They'd provide incentives for building of affordable housing in places west of 29. Ellicott City, Gleneg, West Friendship. Other districts besides your district/ my district, district 3. It is disingenuous to put all the onus on the board of education and superintendent, past and present. This County Council has come out in support of more building in these areas. More students to fill school slots that don't exist, further crowding these schools. The County Council should look at the demographics of these neighborhoods. Look at the FARMs numbers for new affordable housing built in the last 10 years. What does that say about where new housing should be built? My family lives in district 3. My sons attended Guilford ES and my oldest is a 6th grader at Lake Elkhorn MS in the fall. We love our area. We are looking to move in the spring and want to stay with Lake Elkhorn as our middle school. Owen Brown is the ideal neighborhood for us. It's probably one of the mostwalkable areas in the county. We want our sons to be able to leave the house and walk places like the comer store, the pizza place in Owen Brown Village Center, the CA pools. But we also can't ignore the gerrymandering of the school attendance areas. We love the east side. It's so diverse and we are all better for it. Concentrating low income families and FARMS students in areas like Owen Brown and Oakland Mills only makes the problems these kids face worse. Allowing more and more development in these areas strains the schools in these areas and makes it impossible to desegregate. Everyone needs to work together to change this. The leaders we've voted for need to be leaders. Stand up to classism and racism when presented under the guise of not moving students to a "low ranked school". Stand up to developers and say "no, you can't build here anymore". Make the tough decisions. It's what we've elected you to do. Thanks for your time. Beth Stolte 10 o 5- 3' 3? i- i S- £ C/5 ^< ^ §. g m £<§ Ij s> ?.(Q ^ 8 w~ % 8 0 CD ^ < Q. <^ 2- ?- o' 05 ^ o- (D ^ °r -0 § o ^ g o (D (D cS g b ^ 11 S S Q =^" o o- 0" -Q Qr ^ 3 l.i'l v- i t 3 Q wQS 0 ^ 3 o aT ^ c c^> Q.Q^ ^ •3 .' ° 0- § s t. ^ I s- a §- § QL =^ c i s w. ~i § ^ 5Q) 3 Q) 0 0) =3 (D - = -0 0 0 03 0 :3c Q) 0 ^ <0 0 "< CD ^ CL — n ° ^1 0 3 si 0 sS rf w Q- (D ^0 0 -0 -0 7 (D Q yi CD ^ en 0 3 U3 0) 3 N Q- § ^ > ^. 5 ^ §. Q. ^ I1. ill I 8 ^ t- i C ^ ^UO Q3 (D <-(- S ¥.1^1 Q^ r-f 03 0^ i I ?5.1 0. 0) 0>. CD ^ CD 3- °? < 0 ^ ^ 0 ^ p- ^1; < islSi cp ^ ^ o 0) 9-^-^5 =3' m ^ -! ia r-^_ '•^ CO CD CD I S I S i> Q. 0 0 x 3-(Q l3-!^ 3— .9- f. w. 3 i b S ^- ^ 5^ (0 VI Q) m S. ^ ^ 5- 8 I 5- 3 ifl> (D (D m 'i (/) ft rr tn (D p- ^< 0 CD <^ 05 ^ V1T (D 1^ B w -^ w 7 0 §3 ~' ^ 3 ? n 77 uz ro '^. Q) 0 3 rf 0 ^ 0 3 0 c -0 ^ 0 0 c: =3 0. (0 01 v (D 0 3 -< n_ n_ 7- 0 3 3 7~ in CD Q) rt- rT 0- CD 0) D) n_ 3 (D =i JS l/> t/1 g-^- ~^ y -§ T3. §- ^^ 3 ^ o- 3 %s °t S@ -^ U3 U3i tu "-t;- C! uo 0 clustered in areas of Howard County. Directly supporting the students and parents in these clustered areas is what needs to happen.....not redistricting, redrawing polygons or busing kids all over the county. I realize CR 112 is not directly related to the current redistricting proposal however it is based on the same argument being utilized by our Superintendent which is clearly misguided. The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is one of the most successful in the state and the nation. As Superintendent Michael Martirano said "all Howard County schools are excellent." Kids living in these pockets of low incoming housing have the SAME access to the SAME great education as do the kids living in a single family home. The MAJOR difference is the child coming from low income housing perhaps may not have the same family support system at home. The schools already provide free meals and offer day care to teen mothers. Perhaps providing free before/after care, free after school programs and after school tutoring would most benefit the kids in these low income pockets whose parents cannot afford to provide these things for them. 12 Bussing kids around Howard County is not what they need. The impoverished kids bussed to other communities will still not be able to afford before/after care, after school programs or tutoring. These kids need to stay in their communities and thrive in an environment with the additional support from the Howard County government. Pawning off the job to the education department to redistrict, redraw polygons and shuffle FARM numbers does not fix the underlying problem of poverty. The same number of kids will need FARM whether its at their closest , most convenient high school or the one across town. I live in perhaps the most racially diverse neighborhoods in the county. If you are not familiar, our neighborhood in Polygon 3176 is represented by a mix of African American, African, Asian, Hispanic, White and Southern Asian families. The racial implication and insinuations are frankly insulting. Socioeconomic discrepancies are not foreign to those of us living in my neighborhood. My husband and I both grew up in apartment complexes. I was a "latch key kid" without the benefit of having a stay-at-home parent, before/after care or after school programs given my parents socioeconomic status. My kids do not have access to better education based on the location or the polygon we live in. The major difference is they are surrounded and supported by a strong 13 family unit who are able to pay for their meals, provide before/after care,after school programs and tutoring. Our kids are no different or any more special than kids in low income neighborhoods. If they can be supported by an intact family unit along with some support from the Howard County Government, the perceived issue of segregation will no longer exist. I urge you to reject and retract the CR 112- 2019 plan. 7?iZsisj7Qta^^^^^^^^^C^ Social Reform Issue! It is a wrongheaded plan which does not deal with the underlying problem of poverty. Invest in the families and kids who live in these low income housing communities! Sincerely, Mahesh Zarkar Howard County Resident 14 Sayers, Margery From: Walsh, Elizabeth Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 10:38 AM To: Sayers, Margery Subject: FW.-CR112-2019 Testimony below From: Adam Sharp Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 10:01 PM To: Walsh, Elizabeth Subject: CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] DearMs.Walsh, My wife and I moved to this county about two years ago primarily due its stellar reputation for public education. We arrived in the middle of the latter stages of the yellow shirt movement. On my commute, I saw signs on multiple properties that stated, "kids aren't polygons." Residents identified development as a primary cause of constant redistricting. Organizes viewed the Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (AFPO) and increasing development surcharges were identified as possible paths for mitigating the frustratingly high levels of redistricting. To its credit, this council administration has taken some action along both of those lines, mitigating some potential causes of the redistricting. Yet CR112-2019 reverses that course of mitigation. It provokes a new, possibly unprecedented level of redistricting. After having mitigated part of the cause of educational instability, the council has decided to itself become the source of the cause of the instability by proposing this poorly researched, assumption-laden plan. This is not at all what I or my neighbors voted for. The results of Dr. Martirano's recent feasibility study places in plain view the the priorities of Howard County residents. Based on responses from 1,480 of my fellow residents, the top three concerns were: 1) Keeping feeds of students together from one school to the next, at 65.95% 2) Maintaining contiguous communities or neighborhoods, at 59.59% 3) And transportation considerations, at 42.64% Consideration of demographic factors (e.g., Race/ethnic and socioeconomic composition of the school, academic performance, level of English learners) was rated at a mere 19.12%. 15 Notably, "avoid further redistricting" was not one of the options presented to my fellow residents, but the three highest concerns I mentioned above are the closest options possible to stating that exact sentiment. Given this data, a government by the people and for the people would listen to its people who are speaking with the clearest voice that they can: We. Want. Stability! This legislation ignores, and is outright hostile to, the priorities of my fellow residents. It replaces one cause of redistricting, developers, with another: you. There are better ways to serve both the goat of stability and to help our fellow residents who would like to move their kids to a different school. Instead of taking power for yourselves and the Board of Education, you should provide that power to the people. I concede that there are some families that may not agree with the top three concerns in Dr. Martirano's study. Parents at schools such as those that you brought up in your proposed legislation (e.g., high FARM rate, or over-crowded schools) could be given the opportunity to opt-in to a different school. If enough students opt-in, they could be bussed directly to a different school (e.g., low FARM, under-utilized, etc.). This approach has significant advantages over the proposed massive redistricting: 1) This approach lets parents choose whether they value stability or something else for their kid. 2) It gives parents, who know better than the council or the board what their child needs, an opportunity to prioritize what is best for their child. 3) It does not impose the will of the council on families that prefer to stay where they are. Given the top three concerns expressed in Dr. Martirano's study, the default assumption should be that every household prefers stability unless otherwise expressed by opting in to being bussed to a different school. Thus, any such system should be an "opt-in" system, as opposed to an "opt-out" system. I would welcome with open arms to my childrens' assigned schools the children of any family that decided that they preferred to take a longer bus ride over staying at the school in their neighborhood, regardless of the reason. And I believe my fellow residents would as well. But we do not welcome the further destabilization of our children's education by the powerful, whether it comes from the powerful in government or the powerful in the private sector. 16 This County's redistricting insanity must be mitigated, not exacerbated. Adam Sharp Howard County Resident Three boys at Manor Woods Elementary 17 Sayers, Margery From: Xinming Liu Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 10:13 AM To: Jones, Opel; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; Rigby, Christiana; Walsh, Elizabeth; CouncilMail Cc: Ball, Calvin Subject: Opposition to the Superintendent's Redistricting Proposal-Am Attachments: Opposition to the superintendent's redistricting proposal-A.pdf [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear HoCo Council, The purpose of this letter is to urge you to make your thoughtful decision on the superintendent's proposal for the sake ofHoCo kid's health, benefit, future and beyond as an amendment! Please see the attached file: Opposition to the Superintendent's Redistricting Proposal-Am. Many thanks for your services! Best regards Mmg Re: Opposition to the Superintendent's Redistricting Proposal Dear HoCo BoE & Council, Obviously, Howard County (HoCo) is on heat by the superintendent's redistricting proposal. Action need to be taken to give HoCo Public a more feasible plan. The superintendent's redistricting proposal went so far from public interest in the risk of kids' health and benefit. The purpose of this letter to share with you my current think as an amendment of my opposing letter dated 08/28/2019. I do strongly Oppose the Superintendent's Redistricting Proposal. The superintendent proposed to average FARM students in HoCo regardless double or triple transportation costs. Not to mention the cost of increasing budget deficit in HoCo, I don't foresee the benefit to HoCo kids. Certainly, I agree that this approach may make HoCo politically looks better than current status, and make the superintendent politically perform well. But will this proposal decrease the total FARM students in HoCo? I think that the total FARM students may be increased under this proposal. Please logically consider what will happen if we use the redistricting cost to improve the study and life of FARM students, and I think that the total FARM students will be decreased as a common sense. It is obvious that the superintendent's proposal focus on too much on averaging FARM student numbers to make it politically looks better without fixing the issues. It is hard to convince the public by playing with numbers around. Dear HoCo BoE & Council members, kids are innocent, and they should not be used as political tool under whatever political aim or goals. Please reconsider the superintendent's redistricting proposal for the sake of all HoCo kids' benefit and health (e.g. breaking neighborhood friendship, suffering long busing daily, increasing potential transportation accidents). Sacrificing some HoCo kids to benefit other HoCo kids is not the God way, and the God will never agree that "some kids have to suffer..." I believe that the allocation of additional resources to the needed schools is one feasible way to improve current HoCo education status. Improve Not Move is HoCo public voice, and will be a win-win strategy for all HoCo kids. Dear HoCo BoE & Council members, please use your power wisely, and seriously consider other feasible strategies for the sake ofHoCo future - HoCo kids. Many thanks for your service and contribution to HoCo! Best regards, Xinming Liu, Polygon 1028 09/10/2019 Sayers, Margery From: Jennifer Tucker Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 9:49 AM To: boe@hcpss.org; superintendent@hcpss.org Cc: Ball, Calvin; CouncilMail; guy.guzzone@senate.state.md.us; vanessa.atterbeary@house.state.md.us; shane.pendergrass@house.state.md.us; jen.terrasa@house.state.md.us Subject: Talbott Springs ES renovations are URGENT [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] DearSirs/Ma'ams, I am shocked and dismayed to see the proposal to defer the funding for the long needed and long planned TSES construction project all the way out to 2026. This school needs help NOW. It cannot wait. It's long been identified as the school most in need in Howard County, the funding was already promised and planned for, and pushing it back yet again is unacceptable. The Oakland Mills cluster faces many challenges and hardships, but it remains a strong, thriving school community. As a part of that community I am terribly disappointed that yet again it seems our kids do not matter to the community at large. The land is there, the design is there, the commitment from the school community is there. We need the funding to be there, and we cannot wait until 2026. Respectfully, Jennifer Tucker Owen Brown resident and OMHS parent Sayers, Margery From: J Zhuo Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 1:10 AM To: CouncilMail; Walsh, Elizabeth; Jones, Opel; Rigby, Christiana; Jung, Deb; Yungmann, David; Ball, Calvin B Cc: BoE Email; superintendent@hcpss.org Subject: Opposing the CR 112-2019 Bill [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council and Mr. Ball, I am writing to express strong opposition to the CR 112-2019 Bill. Columbia used to have great schools. You all know why Columbia schools are failing, and how the city changed over the years. For families that values education, whether they can or cannot afford it, they try their best to move out of troubling schools to a better one within the county. Now just because these families choose to work very hard to afford their children to a better school, these children are considered now the "wealthy kids" who are supposed to suffer to be pulled from their neighborhood schools to a remote school to make that school data look better. That is very UNFAIR. The community change and segregation is caused by many factors on the county level. Simply trying to solve the problem by legitimate bussing children around is not going to work and will only harm all students. Families should have the choice to decide where they want their children to attend schools. They made such choice by purchasing houses in certain neighborhoods, following rules according to county school Zoning guideline. Some adjustment due to school capacity is understandable, but a goal to do wealth redistribution is not grounded and unjust for all rule abiding residents. In addition, the new HS#13 will open in a few years. Why not wait till that is done to redistrict, as it is inevitable then. Community segregation is not the fault of families who want better education for their children. The bill is trying to fix large issues at the cost of well being of our children. I urge all county council to work harder to come up with better thoughts to tackle the issue. Sincerely, Jiachen Zhuo, PhD and family Residents in Highland, MD Cell: 443-604-5625 Sayers, Margery From: Liang-Kang Huang Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 11 :59 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose Resolution 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Howard County Councils, I, Liang-Kang Huang, am an resident at 12312 Wake Forest Road, Clarksville, MD 21029, planning polygon number 1189. I am against the resolution 112. The current county and county school executives put Equity as a slogan and a reason for the school redistricting proposal. If they are truly trying to help poor family's kids, they should legislate a minimum livable wage law in Howard county. They should not sacrifice hard working middle class families as an answer to social problems in the rough neighborhoods. They could tax the riches and use the money to hire more school teachers and social workers for the poor. They could save the bussing cost and spend the saving for school extra colloquium activities so that kids would enjoy afterschool hours in their neighborhood rather than wasting hours on school buses. Please show your true compassion for the poor, and target the true sources leading to the social disparity. Thank you. Liang-Kang Huang Sayers, Margery From: Jessica Mahajan Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 4:05 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Redistricting and equity [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear County Council Members, My shock at reading some comments by people in this county regarding redistricting has compelled me to write to you. Please continue to support policies, programs, and budgets that work toward equity in our county. My husband and I choose to live in Howard County when we moved here from out-of-state. We've lived all over the US and could have chosen any suburb in the Baltimore-DC area, but found Howard County best met our ideals for a place to raise our family. We bought a house in Oakland Mills because we want our kids raised around kids who live in all types of houses with families from different backgrounds. We chose good quality HC schools even with their high FARMs numbers because there is more to school than test scores. I want to live where this is the norm and not referred to as "the ghetto of HoCo". I'm ashamed that people are speaking so offensively of poor children in our county. I'm ashamed that people are pretending to care about poor kids' needs when they talk about not taking them out of their current schools alt while protecting their school's stats. I'm ashamed that people are more worried about their property values than honestly addressing that not all of our schools are treated equitabty, and then are blatantly misrepresenting proposed bus routes as "desegregationist bussing" instead of bussing that is the same or less than current bus travel distance. I support Dr. Martirano's plan because in Oakland Mills it begins to address some of the equity and safety concerns I've been advocating about for three years. I ask that you support this and other county efforts to move toward equity in our county and away from only the loudest, wealthiest people getting what they want. Sincerely, Jessica Mahajan Sayers, Margery From: Alice Pham Sent: Monday, September 9, 20192:15 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: Redistricting [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] It is crucial that redistricting take into account the segregated living areas that we have created in Howard County and especially in Columbia. Thee fear and anger being expressed by some who are exaggerating the effects has to be countered with education, parental education. We cannot let this vocal minority press their prejudices to affect the lives of our children. Alilce K Pham 9650 Sandlight Ct Columbia, MD 21046 Sayers, Margery From: Ruth Nimmo Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 12:16 PM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR 112-201 9 - Support! [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council Members, I am in strong support of CR 112-2019 which encourages a Howard County School Redistricting Plan that reduces socioeconomic segregation in our schools. Schools make a profound difference in the lives of our children. By improved educational opportunities, we can help to close the income gap that existsfor families in our community. Diverse classrooms make for better learning environments for all. Please support CR 112-2019. I am a resident of Council District 4, a registered voter, and proud of the position that my representative, DebJung, has taken on this issue. She has been joined by Christians Rigby and Opel Jones in supporting CR 112-2019. They deserve our full support for encouraging school system changes that can change economic equity in Howard County. Sincerely, Ruth E. Nimmo 10001 Windstream Drive, Apt. 805 Columbia, MD 21044 Sayers, Margery From: Woh834Zhang Sent: Monday, September 9, 201 9 10:56 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: I am strongly opposed to CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I am writing to show my opposition to CR112-2019/ I see it as the councils way of passing the buck on to the school board for the fails of the county council. For years the council (including our current CE) have allowed developers to build without putting in the required number of low income homes while at the same time forcing HCPSS to move kids around to keep numbers down without adding to the schools and roads as needed with more people. This is a bill to distract folks nothing more, and will HURT our kids and our county. I have no problem with my kids going to school with lower or higher income families, we live in a very racially diverse county as seen from any trip made to almost all of our schools. River Hill High school has only 44% white this at a high school that boarders the original parts of the county that still have a lot of working farms. We simply do NOT have a racial issue at HCPSS. What we have is schools that are set to the local neighborhood and due to the county councils doing some neighborhoods are all upper or lower income. Now as show from the superintendents plan the only way to get what the above bill asks for is to bus kids around at a loss to our kids connections to their neighbors at a minimum and worse at the risk to their safety on the roads that have not been updated to handle the number of folks on them. As a board member on the RiverHill village board I have seen it firsthand hearing from residents on how overcrowded the roads are. The council should be putting a bill out to fix our roads, finding money to build more schools etc. not trying to cover up their past fails. The council is also ignoring the cost of this bill/ as seen from past moves will hit home values by as much as 30% or more, this in turn will be passed in a lost to property taxes that will then lower funds for schools. How does the council plan to pay for this loss? How does the council plan to pay for the current deficit to our schools budget ? how does the council plan to pay for the extra busing needed for this plan ? As voters we will not allow you to hide behind fake feel good bills. If you truly want to help ALL the kids in Howard county please drop this bill and put up a bill that requires HCPSS to figure out why schools with higher FARM are doing worse than schools with low FARM, and then require them to fix the issue not simply hide it by leveling the average outcome. Let's give all of Howard county a fair = opportunity. XZhang Sayers, Margery From: JinhuaWang Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 8:42 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: Oppose resolution CR 112 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear Council members I am a Howard county residence and strongly oppose CR 112. As a first generation immigrant, I know how important to give financial support to those who need it. However, BUS all the young kids to have them travel a much longer distance to attend school rather than a nearby neighborhood school is a wrong path the solve the problem. I hope you, as the government officials that we elected, put the needs of residence not your political gain at first and make the right decisions for the county. Sincerely, Jinhua Wang Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: panyongmei@gmail.com Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 8:21 AM To: counselor@hccs-md.org Cc: CouncilMail; redistricting@hcpss.org Subject: Oppose school redistricting plan [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] Dear officers The superintendent's school redistricting plan causes a big concern since I noticed many kids are assigned to a far away school instead of a nearby one. I agree with equity, and would like to help FRAM students. But equity is not at the cost of continuous community and student's access to nearby schools. Bussing kids to far away schools is not a feasible way for hcpss, considering the tight budget and huge inconvenience for students and parents. Bussing students doesn't really help FRAM students. Instead, helping FARM student can be based on communities. We can develop programs to help Students in need. Such programs could help kids with homework, or transportation of after school activities. We can enroll volunteers and raise funds for such programs. Yongmei Pan, PhD in Pharmaceutical sciences Proud parent of HCPSS students Sent from my iPhone Sayers, Margery From: K Stevens Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 7:47 AM To: CouncilMail Subject: CR112-2019 [Note: This email originated from outside of the organization. Please only click on links or attachments if you know the sender.] I don't like some of the language in CR112-2019, so I won't be supporting it as written. Alt references to "white students" are, in my opinion, scientifically inaccurate if it refers to the color of anyone's skin. As I see it, other than albinos, the skin colors of all members of the human race range in gradations from pink to brown. No one's skin color is a matter of importance to me and it should not, in my opinion, be a matter of importance to government. The constitutional guarantee of the equal protection of the law applies, I believe, to everyone. Even more off-putting is the reference to "middle class white students" when it's really about income. There really are upper and lower income people. When talking of a middle class, the clear implication is that there are upper (or superior) and lower (or inferior) classes of human beings. Again, that is not how I see the world. As a member (and later life member) of the Howard County Branch, NAACP, I was involved in the organization when it was pushing to speed up the slow pace of desegregation in the 1960s. I remember the then county school board referring to it in an official document as "amalgamation" and claiming that riots were likely if they proceeded any faster than one grade and one year at a time. They ultimately speeded up the pace, but it took the addition of Ed Cochran to the school board by State Senator Jim dark for full desegregation to occur. Back then, discrimination was intentional. Any problems now appear to be about where low-income housing exists or doesn't and the lack of schools where needed. Whether that can be seen as intentional is arguable. Ken Steve ns ksteve8@verizon. net 10