Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Boswell-McComas wants to hear from families, staff members and the community at large about what the future of Kent County Public Schools should look like.

The school system has scheduled community conversations throughout October and November to help guide the preparation of Kent County Public Schools’ next five-year strategic plan, facilities plan and annual budget.

“We’re inviting the community in to discover what makes Kent County Public Schools so special and to help us build on that for the future,” Dr. McComas said. “We hope you will join us in these discussions and, please, bring some friends.”

Conversation sessions are scheduled to be held at each of the schools — with childcare provided at the elementary and middle schools.

The dates are:

• Wednesday, Oct. 16 at Galena Elementary School
• Thursday, Oct. 24 at H.H. Garnet Elementary School, Chestertown
• Tuesday, Oct. 29 at Kent County High School, Worton
• Wednesday, Nov. 13 at Rock Hall Elementary School
• Wednesday, Nov. 20, at Kent County Middle School, Chestertown.

The meetings will begin at 6 p.m. in the schools’ media centers.

After an introduction, attendees will break out into small groups for conversations on a variety of topics about Kent County Public Schools.

Additional conversations are being planned as well at community locations throughout Kent County.

No RSVP is required to participate, but organizers ask that those interested in childcare at the meetings visit https://tinyurl.com/298x3ff2 so the school can plan ahead for staffing.

WC Electric Boat Team speaks to Radcliffe Creek School students

Radcliffe Creek School (RCS) students were treated to a special presentation by the Washington College (WC) Electric Boat Team Friday, September 20, 2024. Team members shared their inspiring story, detailing the design failures they overcame in the process of building their electric boats, which eventually led to the team’s success, winning first place in multiple races against other teams from universities with large engineering programs.

Mac Sansbury, Tiyaba Jamil, and Team Advisor Brian Palmer, about the strategies they used to design their boats each year and remain competitive against teams like Princeton University.

By thoughtfully building better batteries, stronger electric motors, more efficient solar technology, and hydrodynamic hull designs, they were able to start bringing home top place awards. Palmer noted, “Our students are taking away technical insights that are valuable of course, but perhaps more important is the practice they are getting at recognizing problems to solve, learning how to design solutions, and not getting dissuaded when things don’t always turn out as they hoped.  It’s a great opportunity for them to build technical capabilities as well as perseverance and grit that is needed to see complex projects through to fruition.”

Palmer excitedly shared the news about the team’s most recent success–breaking the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance by an electric boat on a single charge without solar September 2, 2024.  WC team broke the previous world record by 21 miles. Hewes remarked, “When we were building the trimaran, we didn’t even think about beating a world record or­­­ even thought we could…Then, we did the calculations and then we realized, hey, we might actually be able to beat the record.”

The students had the opportunity to watch video footage of the record-breaking success and see the winning boat in person, as well as to ask questions about the boat’s design and the team’s plans for the future. “We are grateful to the Washington College Electric Boat Team for sharing their story about how they overcame failure to find success. It’s important for our students to hear that it’s okay to try hard and come up short; in all good design thinking, failure is just part of the learning process. It was apparent from the number of hands in the air and the thoughtful student questions that this remarkable story had a real impact on our young learners,” said Head of School Peter Thayer.

To learn more about the Electric Boat Team at Washington College, visit: WACElectricBoat.com.

To learn more about the immersive, individualized education program offered at Radcliffe Creek School, as well as the school’s robust transportation program, visit www.radcliffecreekschool.org online or call 410-778-8150.

Lead photo: Washington college Electric Boat Team.

Join the Kent County Public Schools Family Support Resource Center and the Special Education Citizen’s Advisory Committee for a free workshop on the special education process.

“Understanding Special Education” will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25 in the media center at Kent County Middle School in Chestertown.

Attendees will gain a basic understanding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and become more familiar with their role as parents in the development of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).

Participants will also have the opportunity to learn practical strategies for participating effectively in IEP meetings.

Free dinner and childcare will be available.

Pre-registration is preferred, but not required. Register with the Family Support Resource Center at 410-778-5708, [email protected] or online at https://forms.gle/hjWzwpUbwWHv1S2B9.

Kent County Middle School is located at 402 E. Campus Ave., Chestertown.

A group of Montgomery County parents has asked the Supreme Court to review the school system’s refusal to let them opt their children out of classes that use LGBTQ+ books in lower elementary school grades.

The petition, filed last week, claims the school system’s refusal to let parents opt their children out of the classes infringes on their religious liberty rights by exposing the children to gender and sexuality norms that contradict their religious beliefs.

The policy gives parents – who include Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox families – “no protection against forced participation in ideological instruction by government schools,” as their petition claims.

A Montgomery County school spokesman said the system was aware of the Supreme Court appeal and was reviewing it, but that the system would not comment on ongoing litigation.

The appeal is the latest twist in a case that began two years ago, when the schools unveiled a list of “LGBTQ+-inclusive texts for use in the classroom.” Those included books to be used in lower grades, including one for use in kindergarten and pre-K classrooms.

The books were introduced in the 2022-23 school year and are not part of a mandatory reading list for the classrooms but can be used by teachers in classroom instruction.

At issue are seven books in the lower grades, which include titles such as “My Rainbow,” which tells the story of a mother who creates a rainbow-colored wig for her transgender child; “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” about a girl worried she will lose time with her soon-to-be-married uncle, until his boyfriend befriends her and gains her trust; and “Pride Puppy,” about a puppy lost at a Pride parade, which uses each letter of the alphabet to describe the people it might have met there. The last book, for kindergarten and pre-K, invites students to search for drag kings and queens, lip rings, leather and underwear, among other items, according to court documents.

In court documents, a school system official said the books were not planned to be part of “explicit instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary school, and that no student or adult is asked to change how they feel about these issues.” Instead, the official said, teachers were expected to make the books available in the classroom, recommend them as appropriate for particular students or offer them “as an option for literature circles, book clubs, or paired reading groups; or to use them as a read aloud” in class.

Parents who objected to the use of the books were originally allowed to opt their children out of lessons that included the books. But the school system in March 2023 announced that opt-outs would no longer be allowed, beginning in the 2023-24 school year. It said parents can opt students out of parts of sex education, but not other parts of the curriculum, like language arts.

That sparked a lawsuit by a group of parents who objected on religious and secular grounds. They said they were not trying to ban the use of the books in Montgomery County schools but argued that, with no opt-out requirement, they were being forced to expose their children to ideas that conflicted with their firmly held religious beliefs.

So far, the underlying elements of the case have not been heard, merely the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction of the school system’s opt-out policy, which the parents have repeatedly lost.

A federal district judge in August 2023 denied the parents’ request for a preliminary injunction and a divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in May, writing that the parents had not met the high burden of showing that they were likely to win on their claim that the lack of an opt-out policy was actually coercing them to abandon part of their faith.

The majority opinion, written by Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee, said that because the record in preliminary injunction hearings was extremely sparse, the parents had not been able to “connect the requisite dots” to show that a burden on their First Amendment rights existed.

While the parents had shown that the books “could be used in ways that would confuse or mislead children and, in particular, that discussions relating to their contents could be used to indoctrinate their children into espousing views that are contrary to their religious faith. … none of that is verified by the limited record that is before us,” Agee wrote.

“Should the Parents in this case or other plaintiffs in other challenges to the Storybooks’ use come forward with proof that a teacher or school administrator is using the Storybooks in a manner that directly or indirectly coerces children into changing their religious views or practices, then the analysis would shift in light of that record,” Agee wrote.

The fact that parents might feel forced to forgo a public school education and pay for private school was not sufficiently coercive to be a burden on the parents’ First Amendment rights, based on the record so far, he wrote.

In a dissent, Circuit Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr. said parents had met their burden for a preliminary injunction while the case was heard.

“Both sides of the issue advance passionate arguments. Some insist diversity and inclusion should be prioritized over the religious rights of parents and children. Others argue the opposite,” Quattlebaum wrote.

But the parents have made the case for an injunction of the opt-out policy for now, he wrote.

“The parents have shown the board’s decision to deny religious opt-outs burdened these parents’ right to exercise their religion and direct the religious upbringing of their children by putting them to the choice of either compromising their religious beliefs or foregoing a public education for their children,” Quattlebaum wrote. “I would … enjoin the Montgomery County School Board of Education from denying religious opt-outs for instruction to K-5 children involving the texts.”

by Maryland Matters Staff, Maryland Matters
September 16, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

With its fall Speaker Event schedule, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is pleased to spotlight a range of accomplished presenters sharing their unique expertise and storytelling to highlight the region’s rich history, environment, and culture.

Hosted in the Van Lennep Auditorium and available virtually, these programs are designed to spark important conversations while fostering connections between the past, present, and future of the Bay. They are supported by the Upper Shore Regional Folklife Center under the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council.

The suggested ticket cost is $8 per session. To sign up, and get more information, visit cbmm.org/SpeakerSeries.

“I am looking forward to this whole series of Speaker Events,” CBMM’s Vice President of Education & Interpretation Jill Ferris said. “Bringing individual perspective and historical scholarship, each presenter explores a different aspect of life in the Chesapeake to help us better understand the world around us.”

The fall series begins next Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 5:30pm, with a homecoming via “The 1960s in St. Michaels: An Author Talk with David Guth.” A St. Michaels native, Guth will share an advance reading from his new historical fiction novel “In the Moment” based on his own experiences growing up in the Bay Hundred area in the 1960s that inspired his work.

The spotlight will be on the traditional workboats that line many area harbors on Thursday, Oct. 10, with a presentation from maritime journalist and historian Larry Chowning on Chesapeake Bay Deadrises.

The deadrise and cross-planked bottom style of boatbuilding started on the Bay in the 1880s, when builders of wooden boats began using planks, instead of logs, to create hulls with an unmistakable V-shaped bottom. Chowning will share insights into the history and culture of the deadrise, which grew to be so popular that both Maryland and Virginia have named deadrise vessels as their state boats.

Not far from CBMM’s campus, a team of archaeologists have been searching a remote part of Dorchester County since late 2020 for evidence of Harriet Tubman’s early life, including her birthplace and the 10-acre home site of her father, Ben Ross. On Wednesday, Oct. 30, Dr. Julie Schablitsky will provide a glimpse into the historical research and archaeology that has gone into the effort to locate and interpret these sites with “The Archaeology of Harriet Tubman’s Birthplace.”

On Friday, Dec. 6, CBMM will delve into its newest special exhibition with “Sailing to Freedom: Recovering and Re-centering the Maritime Dimension of the Underground Railroad.”

This program will feature Dr. Timothy Walker, a history professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth whose book “Sailing to Freedom” provided the basis for CBMM’s soon-to-open exhibition in the Changing Exhibitions Gallery. Walker will share how his research has expanded understanding of how freedom was achieved by sea and what this journey looked like for untold numbers of African Americans.

More mission-focused Speakers Events are on the horizon in 2025, including a talk with historian Eric Cheezum sharing his scholarly research on Chessie the Chesapeake Bay Sea Monster (Jan. 30) and a program on the future of the Bay watershed (Feb. 6) with Martha Shimkin of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office and Anna Killius of the Chesapeake Bay Commission.

Additional speakers and programming will be announced in the coming months. Find more information about all CBMM’s upcoming events at cbmm.org/events.