Post-Protest

A big thank you to the 110+ people who came out in the rain today to support Blair, RM, and Poolesville. For those of you who didn't come, here's a quick summary of what happened:

• The County Council heard we would be coming, so they finished their meeting very quickly before we could arrive.
• Three Councilmembers came outside to talk to us. They each gave little speeches which, in some way, shape, or form, said: "We only write the check." A few stayed for questions afterwards.
• We departed at about 4:30 and followed the planned route. The march took longer than we expected, and we arrived at Carver around 5:30. We chanted the whole way, and lots of cars honked.
• At Carver, we continued to hold signs and chant ("Save the Magnets!") in the parking lot. Security in the building told us that everyone had left for the day, so we began to disperse.
• Afterwards, one parent found Brian Edwards (chief of staff) inside and gave him a sign. A few students talked to someone inside the building about testifying before the BOE on Monday.

In terms of media coverage, there was:

• A reporter and photographer from the Washington Post.
• A reporter and photographer from the Gazette.
• A reporter from the Washington Examiner.
• A reporter from the Montgomery Sentinel.
• A news crew from ABC7 (WJLA).
• A reporter from WTOP radio.
  

Watch ABC news tonight at 11:00 PM and its sister station, NewsChannel8, at 9:30. A story about the budget cuts also began airing on WTOP radio yesterday.

Finally, a list of people to thank:

• The RM PTSA for voting to support the march.
• GTA and Parents' Coalition for spreading the news.
• MCNeeds for loaning a megaphone.
• Mrs. Roberts (Blair band teacher) for loaning an "awesome" bass drum.
• Mr. Williams (principal) and Mr. Heidler (magnet coordinator) from Blair for attending the march.
• All the students who came or supported the efforts in another way!!!
  

We're not yet sure what the next step will be -- stay posted for more details!

UPDATE: see this memo from Weast
UDPATE2: added a few news outlets I left out

How do I get to the protest?

You have a couple of options:

1. Have a parent pick you up from school and drop you off at the County Council building. If you do this, please try to bring friends with you!
2. Ride with a friend whose parent is driving (as per #1).
3. Take the Metrobus. Get on bus C2 or C4 on University Blvd and transfer to the Q2 on Viers Mill Rd. Get off at the Rockville Metro and walk (a few blocks) to the County Council building.
4. Take the Metrorail (subway). Get off at Rockville Metro and see #3.
5. Walk there. (This only applies if you go to RM.)
6. Take bus 5995 to RM and see #5. (Warning: the bus may be overcrowded.)
7. Teleport.
   

Weekly Update

Protest: See below.

Foundation: Left to Mr. Bunday.

Letters: Session in computer lab this Thursday after-school. As for the mass-mailing campaign, the semantics of the actual sending of letters has not been decided upon yet. Feel free to send letters independently.

Petitions: There are ones going around for each grade, for parents, and for non-Magnets and incoming Magnets. The alumni one is temporarily halted. (How to get them back, by when, must be arranged.)

Wednesday in 213, a meeting for discussion will be held. All are invited.

Protest Plans?

In order to make this issue big, we need media attention. And in order to get media attention, we need a protest. So, this is what has to happen:

1. Find out what permits we need. (After doing some research, I don't think we need any, but I'll call the city of Rockville tomorrow.)
2. Schedule a date, time, and place. For place, we either want the Werner building (County Council) or Carver building (MCPS and the BOE). It will have to be a weekday or else nobody will be working there. We don't want to miss school, but it will have to be before the end of business day. How about standing outside the building(s) from 4:30-5:30 PM when everyone's leaving work?
3. Call the media and get them to cover the protest.
4. HOLD THE PROTEST!!!

Please comment on this blog post with ideas for when and where this protest should be.

UPDATE: How about a march from the County Council building, past the county courthouse, through Rockville Town Square, to the Board of Education building? It's only a one-mile route.
UDPATE: A map has been drawn out and will be reviewed by the committee monday/tues.

More Information

This blog is well-suited for current events, but as time passes, it becomes progressively more difficult to find the information buried in past posts. The Blair Magnet Budget Issues Google Group is useful for parent discussion, but the same problem applies. For that reason, I have started a new site: Save the Magnets! Generously hosted by Shirley, it provides links to important information, sample letters for you to use, and a list of Frequently Asked Questions. I've been noticing that many people aren't fully informed of the situation -- the Save the Magnets! site is most useful for just learning the basic facts.

Update: Please add links (in the "Save the Magnets" site) to each of these posts. ELW is working on getting links on the sidebar

Letter Writing Session This Thursday

This Thursday, April 17, we'll be having a letter writing session to the County Council and the Board of Education after-school in the Magnet computer labs. Come one, come all!

Real-Time Q&A : Representatives Meeting

A real-time (via IM) will be provided for those who would like to ask questions and/or express their concerns. Representatives, teachers, and alumni at the meeting will begin answering your questions and address your concerns starting 7:15PM.

Gtalk (from 6:30PM to 9PM) savethemagnet@gmail.com or email (always open) savethemagnet@gmail.com

Bio Lab: Egg Osmometer

Access the lab sheet here (click here)

You do NOT have to answer the two discussion questions.

http://ericleewan.googlepages.com/BioEggOsmometer.pdf

County Council Testimony

Some pictures from the county council testimony given by Louis:

After the testimony, showing (left to right): Peter Gu, Diana Jing, Julia Huynh, Jenny Zhang, Kristen Rosano, Emily Jones, Eric Wan, Shirley Das Sarma, Jacob Hurwitz

After the testimony, showing (left to right): Jennifer Wang, Diana Jing, Julia Huynh, Xinyi Zhou, Kristen Rosano, Peter Gu, Mindy Or, Aaron Burger, Keisha Carr, Andy Gilbert, Louis Wasserman, Emily Jones, Ryan Waldman, Katherine Bertaut, Jenny Zhang, Shirley Das Sarma, Jacob Hurwitz, Ozzie Fallick

Councilmember George Leventhal asking Louis a question

Louis Wasserman listening to a question

The members of the County Council (left) with five people testifying (right)

Email addresses!

For your amusement:
"All right. Thank you all, very much. And this is why we spend the kind of dollars we appropriate in Montgomery County for our very, very excellent school system. And I am so proud of all these young people. Because they are going to be the future Nobel Prize winners of the world. So, we are very proud of them. Thank you all very much." -- Valerie Ervin, after hearing the 2007 Intel semifinalists in MoCo explain their projects. The one non-Magnet semifinalist took courses at Blair.

More seriously, send emails to:

ocemail@montgomerycountymd.gov (Ike Leggett, County Executive)

county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov (All County Council members)

boe@mcps.org (All Board of Education members)

Suzanne_Peang-Meth@mcpsmd.org (Administrative Manager for Dr. Weast)

Larry_Bowers@mcpsmd.org (Chief Operating Office, MCPS)

Marshall_C_Spatz@mcpsmd.org (Director, Department of MCPS Budget and Planning)

Rika_Murphy@mongtgomerycountymd.gov (Contact for Charles Goldsmith, Office of Management and Budget, Montgomery County Gov’t)

Dennis_Heidler@mcpsmd.org, Coordinator, Blair Magnet Program

Darryl_L_Williams@mcpsmd.org, Principal, Montgomery Blair HS

Peter_M_Ostrander@mcpsmd.org, Secondary Program Supervisor

Marty_Creel@mcpsmd.org, Director of Enriched and Innovative Instruction

Kay_K_Williams@mcpsmd.org, Director, Accelerated and Enriched Instruction

Heath_E_Morrison@mcpsmd.org, Community Superintendent

Important Dates and Letter Information

The County Council's Education Committee discusses the MCPS budget on April 14, 21, 28, 30, and maybe May 1. From May 5 to 16, the full Council meets and discusses the entire budget. If you want the Education Committee to hear your ideas, they must receive your letter by APRIL 11th! For the full Council, your letter doesn't have to arrive until early May.

INSTRUCTIONS:
See my letter (link works!) for an example of what a letter should look like format-wise. Include your address at the top right, Knapp's name and address at the top left, your signature at the very bottom, and a list of CCs below that. I addressed my letter to Knapp, the President of the County Council. I snail-mailed him (and him only) a copy to the address given at the top of the letter. I also e-mailed the .pdf file to the following e-mail addresses:

To:
councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.ervin@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov
councilmember.trachtenberg@montgomerycountymd.gov

CC:
boe@mcpsmd.org
jerry_d_weast@mcpsmd.org
heath_e_morrison@mcpsmd.org
marty_creel@mcpsmd.org
darryl_l_williams@mcpsmd.org
mr.heidler@gmail.com

BCC:
jacobhurwitz@gmail.com

If you e-mail a letter, you should probably BCC it to me and yourself, so we both have copies of it. Any format is fine -- attached .pdf, attached .doc, or embedded in the e-mail. Just make sure that the paper copy you mail is signed. (I only chose .pdf because it's cooler and because I can.) The electronic copy need not be signed.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me for help.

UPDATE: Or use Louis's list. I just spent so long scanning mine (with a list of CCs), I don't feel like changing my list.
ELW UPDATE: Users of Vista- Send the .doc as .rtf to make it easier/more compatible with w/e the senders have as word processors. (Jacob: Or use Adobe's free PDFWriter if you have it.)

Forms & Petitions

The following forms & petitions are available:

PARENTS & NONMAG STUDENTS:
BlairMag:

Forms are down. We will put them back up soon.

---------------------------------------------------

Representatives Meeting

Until now, all the grades have been acting independently with many different plans. It's time we all grouped together, came up with a quick and effective plan, and enact it as the _whole magnet_ instead of individual grades.

There will be a representatives meeting Saturday April 12th in the afternoon. Please nominate two people from your grade to be represent your grade. Email me (ericleewan@gmail.com) nominee's Name and Email. They will be emailed about the specific time and place Sunday afternoon.

We only have ONE SHOT at this- let's hit them hard!

Louis Testifies Tuesday!

Update: The testimony at the county council went very well. However, they cut Louis short (:>[) but we'll make a good comeback. Attendance was more than I expected. A headcount will be done to come up with the exact number. Good job everyone! Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to show support for the Magnet and Louis!

Louis Wasserman will be testifying on Tuesday, April 8th at the county council. Support the fight for the Magnet by wearing red and formal clothing (slacks and dress shirts, dresses, suits).

TIME: 7PM
PLACE:
3rd Floor
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850

Thanks Andie and Louis for the above information. See you all then!

The Fight to Save the Magnet!

UPDATE:

PARENTS & NONMAG STUDENTS: An online petition for parents, teachers, administrators, and nonblair/nonmag students is available by clicking here.

Louis Wasserman has inspired me to start a mass-mailing campaign. To sign up, click here.
4 letter 'templates' are currently being created- one for each grade. A petition will be going around for each grade and will be attached to the letters to be sent out by each grade to each county 'executive'.

Students have the option to write their own letter. We strongly encourage everyone to write their own letter because "getting as many different personal stories out there as possible really helps, in addition to just weight of numbers" -Louis Wasserman. Louis Wasserman's letter (click here) can be used as a source for inspiration.

Students have the option to remain anonymous (where only their initials will be signed and printed).

Those who will write their own letters: Email me by the 18th as to whether or not you will print your letters yourselves. Otherwise, you will have to print them out and hand me the letters if you want us to envelope and send it for you.

The ultimate deadline for letters (already printed out) to be given to us in order for us to envelope and send out is May 3rd.

We would highly appreciate donations such as stamps, envelopes (especially envelopes), and envelope 'glue'.

---------------------------------VIPs to Contact-----------------------------------------
Education Committee: Michael Knapp, Chair; Phil Andrews; Valerie Ervin
Management and Fiscal Policy: Duchy Trachtenberg, Chair; Roger Berliner; Phil Andrews
Board of Education: Jerry Weast, Nacy Navarro
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

my email: ericleewan@gmail.com
access the student form here: http://www.formlogix.com/Manager/UserForm58543.aspx?Param=VXNlcklkPTU4NTQzLkZvcm1JZD0x
access the parents form here:
http://www.formlogix.com/Manager/UserForm58543.aspx?Param=VXNlcklkPTU4NTQzLkZvcm1JZD0y

Origin of Life

The Origin of Life notes can be accessed here (click here)

Last Update: 4/2/08
http://ericleewan.googlepages.com/OriginsofLife.pdf

BioBrawl Study Group!!!

Biology-Brawl Gathering:


Studying for Dr. Miller's Biochemistry TEST on Wednesday AND celebrating the release of Brawl(1337)- DST starts the same day. Come and go at your will- come early for studying, stay late for pizza and Brawl.

Information subject to change- finalization on Friday.

---------------------Bring:-----------------------

• Biochem notes, papers, questions
• Chips, cookies, dried/baked goods
• Wii Controllers (Ozzy + me = 2 Wiis)
  
• SSBB (Carlos apparently is buying two)
• Laptops (printer & wireless internet available)
  
• Anything you can think of
• Soda, COFFEE, etc. and icecream provided
• A couple dollars- we'll all chip in to buy pizza.
  

--------------------------Information---------------------------

#: (240) 899-1181
Sunday March 9th, 2008
2:30/3PM-7/7:30PM
11713 Trailridge Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
Map(click here)

Parents introduced condition: You must bring a dry good and Bio notes. Drinks & Icecream provided.

RSVP Here. Facebook event(click here)

BioChem Lab Packet

Those of you that were unable to finish the questions in the lab packet for today's biochem lab can download the packet here:

Download packet here
[http://ericleewan.googlepages.com/BiochemLab.pdf]

BioChemistry Notes & Misc. Items

Rohan P. and I had a little conversation about Artificial Intelligence(AI) and a joke popped in:

[quote]
Hmmm.. what we would do without technology...
-some supermarket in mexico-
woman: "door open." -walks into door-
-puzzled look on face-
"door open!" -walks into door again-
-slightly pissed look-
"DOOR OPEN!" -runs into door-
-gets out cell phone-
"LASER ON"
Cell: "Calling Larry Ohn"
[/quote]
--------------

Biochemistry notes are uploaded and will be updated every day. I suggest using Foxit Reader to view PDFs. Documents w/o "©2008, Eric L. Wan" on the lower right corner are not created by me- use at your own risk!

Download notes here (DOC)

Download notes here (PDF)
****Biochem notes last update: 2/29/08****
[http://ericleewan.googlepages.com/BiochemNotes.pdf]
[http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php]