The National Weather Service has warned of impending cold for the DMV area over the next couple of nights as we leave 80° days behind and head into November. “The coldest weather of the fall thus far is in store over the next couple of nights. We also have our first accumulating snow forecast of the fall in the Allegheny Mountains Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.”

Warmer Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with temperatures in the 60s for November’s first weekend. Featured photo courtesy of the National Weather Service

The coldest weather of the fall thus far is in store over the next couple of nights. We also have our first accumulating snow forecast of the fall in the Allegheny Mountains Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Our winter website is up and running: https://t.co/ZOlvEShgSf pic.twitter.com/xZTKyESCfY

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) October 31, 2023

Below you will see a list of 16 Montgomery County Public Schools that were closed by the school system at one point in time, but have since reopened. Schools on this list were either reopened or built new on the site of a former school. In some cases the school was renamed. Full list below, with some additional information about/from the schools:

Arcola Elementary School (1820 Franwall Avenue, Silver Spring): Arcola Elementary School opened its doors again in August 2007. The original Arcola Elementary was opened in the 1950’s and closed in the 1980’s. Even though the “new” Arcola is twice the size of the original building with state-of-the-art technology and a diverse student population of over 600 students, the neighborhood is very happy to have the beloved school open again.

Argyle Middle School (2400 Bel Pre Road, Silver Spring): Built in 1971 and situated on the outer edge of Montgomery County’s Downcounty area, Argyle’s evolution as a middle school has been both dramatic and emblematic of the development of MCPS. With the advent of the Middle School Magnet Consortium in 2005, Argyle’s enrollment area increased to include students from eight neighboring elementary schools, as well as a limited number of enrollment spaces for students beyond the Downcounty. It initially closed in 1981 before reopening in 1993.

Burnt Mills Elementary School (11211 Childs Street, Silver Spring): Burnt Mills was built in 1964 and taken out of service in 1977. When the surging student population required its return use, the school was reopened in 1990 with a new addition creating a total space for 382 students. By 2005, its enrollment soared to 588, nearly one and a half times the school’s capacity. This year is the first year in the school’s new building.

Cabin John Middle School (10701 Gainsborough Road, Potomac): Cabin John opened in 1967 as a junior high school, and its mascot was the roadrunner. In 1987, the school closed due to declining enrollment, and all students in the area attended Hoover. However, the county decided to reopen Cabin John in 1989 as a middle school. When it reopened, its mascot became the cougar. The original building closed in 2009 and reopened with a newly constructed building in 2011.

Cloverly Elementary School (800 Briggs Chaney Road, Silver Spring): Cloverly Elementary School was originally built in 1961 and later closed in 1983 due to a significant reduction in student enrollment. Cloverly was later renovated and reopened in 1989, with additional classrooms and storage and office spaces. A state-of-the-art gymnasium was built in 2008.

Francis Scott Key Middle School (910 Schindler Drive, Silver Spring): Francis Scott Key initially opened as a Junior High School, then closed and was used as a holding school before reopening as Francis Scott Key Middle School in 1990.

Per the State of Maryland: “Governor Wes Moore today announced that the Maryland Department of Labor received an additional $2 million in grants to expand the Employment Advancement Right Now Maryland program. The 13 new awards announced today will allow more than 700 Marylanders to receive industry-driven occupational training and meaningful connections to employment opportunities offered by more than 200 participating employers and industry partners.

“Maryland’s economy thrives when there is more access to job opportunities across all sectors,” said Gov. Moore. “Expanding the EARN program provides yet another opportunity to help businesses cultivate a skilled and competitive ​workforce and to connect Marylanders to good jobs in vital industries.”

EARN Maryland awards funding to strategic industry partnerships that comprise employers, non-profits, higher education institutions, local workforce development boards, and local governments. Based upon employer-identified training needs, partnerships provide education and skills training to unemployed and underemployed Marylanders. The program also includes career advancement strategies for incumbent workers, leading to a more highly skilled workforce in the state.

“EARN has been a highly successful program for almost 15 years,” said Maryland Department of Labor Secretary Portia Wu. “These grants will provide substantial investments that will prepare Maryland’s workforce for careers in emerging and high impact industries such as healthcare, cybersecurity and hospitality.”

A 2022 study on the economic impact of EARN determined that for every dollar Maryland invests into the program, an additional $17.34 created positive economic activity for the state. Compared to Maryland’s national and regional counterparts, this positive activity exceeded the national average by almost $14.

Since the start of the EARN program in 2013, nearly 9,000 individuals trained through EARN have obtained employment, and over 11,000 incumbent workers have participated in training for in-demand careers and employment opportunities. For more information on EARN Maryland, please visit labor.maryland.gov/earn.”

Maryland High School Football State Tournament Schedule, per MPSSAA.org  can be seen below (pinch and expand to increase photo size):

Featured photo by Syl Sobel

Per Montgomery County: “Montgomery County is a finalist in the 2023 U.S. Broadband Awards in the “Best Municipal Connectivity Program.” The County, which was recognized for having one of the best broadband infrastructure efforts in the nation, was the only local jurisdiction in the nation (county or city) to be a finalist. The winners will be announced at the Awards Gala Dinner during the inaugural U.S. Broadband Summit on Nov. 16 in Washington, D.C.
TEBS AWARD

Upgrades made by the Montgomery County Department of Technology & Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS) have enabled departments and agencies, including Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), to benefit from faster bandwidth speeds, reduced latency and increased network performance. This has been particularly critical as students returned to school and County staff returned to physical work locations during and after the COVID-19 health crisis. Beyond these improvements for residents and County employees, the data center migration and consolidation resulted in an estimated power savings of 88 percent and 74 tons of carbon dioxide saved monthly.

Expansion of broadband service and other digital equity initiatives are a priority for Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. The entry submission by TEBS detailed efforts to upgrade the County’s technical infrastructure including FiberNet, network migration and migration of its data center to Equinix, a Tier IV data center. These upgrades provide greater performance, security, resiliency, efficiency and sustainability to County, and affiliates’, operations. They also support Next Gen Communications, Digital Equity and more efficient access to Internet and cloud services.

“Being noted as one of the best municipal connectivity programs by tech industry leaders and innovators is an honor for the Montgomery County and a recognition of the hard work of TEBS,” said County Executive Elrich. “Creating a strong technical infrastructure is not only critical to the quality of life of our residents, but important to our businesses and economic developments efforts. We have been committed and deliberate in our actions to ensure that our County’s technical infrastructure is world-class. Most importantly, our focus to ensure equity to our 1.1 million residents, one of this nation’s most diverse jurisdictions, has been guiding our success.”

FiberNet is 650 route miles of fiber network that provide carrier-class voice, video, data, Internet access, WiFi, Digital Equity and cable broadband services for 558 County, State, municipal, educational and regional sites. These include:

• 240 County Government sites
• 213 Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) sites
• 8 Montgomery College locations
• 30 Housing Opportunities Commission sites
• 24 Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) sites
• 22 WSSC Water facilities
• 4 Digital Equity sites
• 235 qualified Digital Equity customers

The upgrades and migration enabled the County to reduce vulnerabilities and improve its disaster recovery and backup plan through increased security, resiliency and compliance of its systems and data. Additionally, the County was able to enhance its digital equity efforts by providing free internet access to more than 230 qualified Digital Equity customers.

“This multi-disciplined effort required careful coordination of numerous departments, agencies, contractors, vendors and systems throughout the County,” said Joseph Webster, the chief broadband officer for TEBS.

The inaugural U.S. Broadband Summit will take place on Nov. 15-17 at the Westin Washington, D.C Downtown. The conference will bring together Federal funding leaders and state representatives with the wider broadband industry, including fiber operators, MSO’s, WISP’s and wireless carriers to discuss the future of broadband in the United States. As attention focuses on bridging the growing digital divide and the need to bring connectivity to the under- and un-served, the U.S. Broadband Summit aims to bring everyone together to discuss how collaboration will lead to a more connected and vibrant society, in benefit of individuals and communities.

The mission of TEBS is to be responsive, collaborative and innovative in providing technology solutions and services to facilitate the delivery of a wide range of services in all branches of government. The department strives to provide its solutions and consultative services in a cost-effective, timely and high-quality fashion to reduce service times, avoid inflated costs, reduce information security risk and improve the quality of County services through automation-assisted process improvement.

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Per the City of Rockville: “Native trees are beautiful, provide important habitat for birds and other wildlife, and help absorb stormwater runoff and pollutants. Rockville residents can receive a $150 rebate per tree from the city for planting native trees and up to a maximum of $5,000 in rebates across all rebate options. Eligible properties include single-family and townhome residences, homeowners associations, condominium associations, religious institutions, private schools and other nonprofits. Learn more at www.rockvillemd.gov/rainscapes.

Rebates are also available for permeable paver retrofits, rain barrels, native-planting projects and pavement removal.
Need ideas for trees to plant? You can usually find these native trees at local nurseries or online:
Fruit Trees

• Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.).
• American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana).
• American plum (Prunus americana).

Small Trees

• White fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus).
• Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida).
• Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)

Shade Trees

• Red oak (Quercus rubra).
• River birch (Betula nigra).
• Black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica).

A Montgomery County resident is $50,000 richer after claiming a winning Bonus Match 5 lottery ticket that she purchased last month at the Citgo located at 8333 Fenton St in Silver Spring. Full story below courtesy of the Maryland Lottery:
“She almost never buys tickets, a Silver Spring resident told Lottery officials when asked about the events that led to her $50,000 Bonus Match 5 top-prize win last month. “I just never think to get them, even when I’m in stores that sell lottery.” That dynamic is a constant in her life unless, she added, something jogs her memory. Happily, “something” did just that.

“I was visiting my parents and when I left their house, I noticed the store where my dad buys his tickets. That’s all it took.” With the Lottery suddenly and unexpectedly on her mind, she kept an eye out for another Lottery retailer as she drove home. This brought her to Fenton Citgo in Silver Spring.

The Montgomery County woman chose Bonus Match 5 as her game that day. “I don’t know why I chose it to play,” the human resources specialist said. “It just felt right.”

Later that night, with the Lottery still very much on her mind, our winner looked up the winning Bonus Match 5 numbers in the Sept. 19 drawing on the Lottery website. “I stared at the numbers and then my ticket – back and forth – for several minutes. ‘Oh my goodness,’ I thought. ‘I’m a winner!’”  When she knocked on her parents’ front door the next day, her dad knew that something was up. “It was all over her face. She just looked so excited,” he said.
Taking care of debt, helping her family and making investments are the plan for the $50,000 prize. “This is such a blessing for me, for us.”

A $1 Bonus Match 5 ticket buys you one line of numbers. For a second dollar, you get two more lines of numbers, three in total. It was the third quick-pick line on our winner’s $2 Bonus Match 5 ticket that delivered this $50,000 win. For selling the top-prize winning ticket, Fenton Citgo at 8333 Fenton Street in Silver Spring received a $500 bonus from the Lottery.”

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), in partnership with the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), will host a Student Environment Volunteer Day from 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 1, at Gaithersburg High School. Students will learn about sustainability and help beautify the community. They also will work to enhance the health of the environment by planting native plants and trees in the stormwater management gardens around the school.

The student environment volunteer day is part of the Out-of-School Time (OST) program offered by Montgomery County Recreation, in partnership with MCPS. The OST days are designed with free out-of-school programming for students throughout the 2023-2024 school year. 

“We are excited to offer students activities outside the school day that are engaging and foster leadership skills,” said MCPS Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight. “This day will benefit the environment, teach students about environmental stewardship, beautify the school grounds and help open doors to possible green careers in the future. Together, we will address climate preparedness, mitigate stormwater runoff and nurture the next generation of environmental stewards.”

OST provides students and families with engaging options on days when school is not in session for students.

“We know that addressing and combating climate change is the top priority issue for young people,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. “Our students care and are worried about climate change because it will detrimentally impact their health and welfare for their entire life. I am glad that our Department of Environment has partnered with MCPS to create this volunteer opportunity at Gaithersburg High School. When young people are empowered to feel that they are contributing to improving the environment, they will be encouraged to do more.”

The event is being coordinated by the MCPS Office of Facilities Management, Division of Sustainability and Compliance in support of the Board of Education’s Policy ECA, Sustainability, which includes the adoption of “measures to address resiliency and awareness, such as increasing the tree canopy and outdoor educational spaces on MCPS properties and mitigating stormwater runoff.” This event will also provide an opportunity for students to plant more than 2,000 local species.

“This partnership between DEP and MCPS has created an opportunity for Montgomery County students to learn about teamwork, climate goals and action plans,” said DEP Director Jon Monger. “It is a great opportunity for students to get their hands dirty while learning environmental stewardship.”

WHAT: Student Environment Volunteer Day

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, 9:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

WHERE: Gaithersburg High School, 101 Education Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20877

Featuree photo courtesy of HESS Construction