Screaming Into a Pillow

Posted on July 18, 2020August 17, 2020 by Jenny

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in Howard County. I’m starting to think I need to get a special pillow just for screaming. Does anyone else find themselves doing a lot of that lately? We had County Council Chair Deb Jung muting Councilman Opel Jones in a council Zoom meeting, the technological equivalent of walking over and putting her hand over his mouth. I can’t say I’ve ever seen Board of Education Chair Mavis Ellis ever do that for one of Christina “DeVos” Small’s lengthy sighing di...

Howard County, It’s Time to Ante Up

Posted on June 10, 2020August 17, 2020 by Jenny

It’s probably a safe bet (see what I did there) that you know what ante is. That seed money in the pot is an important part of the poker game. It’s what gets that jackpot growing. And if you don’t ante up, you don’t play. The Howard County Public School System is facing the reality that county residents and elected officials want to win the jackpot without tossing a chip on the table. In January, HCPSS Superintendent Michael Martirano requested a $964.1M FY21 operating budget for the scho...

Analysis of Scott E’s D2 BOE Debate

Posted on May 12, 2020August 17, 2020 by Jenny

*** May 28, 2020: This post originally stated that Larry Pretlow is not a member of the Stevens Forest Elementary School PTA. That is not accurate, and I have updated the post with the correct information. *** At long last, I made it through the last of Scott Ewart's online debates for Howard County Board of Education candidates. Over the weekend, he held the final debate, for District 2. Is anybody else exhausted? (ICYMI: my analyses of the debates for districts 3, 4, and 5.) Havin...

Analysis of Scott E’s D3 BOE Debate

Posted on May 11, 2020August 17, 2020 by Jenny

On Friday evening, Scott Ewart held the third in his series of online debates for Howard County Board of Education candidates, this time for District 3. Of the three candidates in District 3, one is head-and-shoulders above the rest (spoiler: it’s Jolene Mosley), but I’ll cover all of them anyway. Tom Heffner Tom Heffner is a mystery to me. His website states that he has experience solving hard problems and innovating. When it comes to the issues, he has some fleshed-out ideas on his we...

Analysis of Scott E’s D5 BOE Debate

Posted on May 9, 2020August 17, 2020 by Jenny

On Wednesday, Scott Ewart hosted the second in his series of Board of Education online debates, this time for District 5. (See my analysis of his D4 debate here.) I procrastinated on listening to the debate and writing an analysis because this district, comprising most of the western half of Howard County, is unsurprisingly devoid of progressive candidates. For me, District 5 is a lot like the prize counter at an arcade. There are all these giant stuffed animals, skateboards, and electroni...