For Immediate Release: Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Montgomery Council committee to meet
with WMATA board members,
review Veirs Mill Road BRT proposal
On Wednesday, May 3: FY18 budget reviews
for libraries, MCPS,
Montgomery College, road resurfacing
ROCKVILLE, Md., May 2, 2017—The Montgomery County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee at 1:30 p.m. p.m. on Wednesday, May 3, will meet with members of the board of directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, or Metro) representing Montgomery County about next fiscal year's budget, including fare and fee changes. They also will address Metrorail and Metrobus service changes and will talk about ongoing and upcoming transit-related issues.
In a separate items, the committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Roger Berliner and includes Councilmembers Nancy Floreen and Tom Hucker, will review the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan for Veirs Mill Road. The committee also will address funding for resurfacing residential and rural roads.
The committee will meet in the Third Floor Conference Room of the Council Office Building at 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville. The session will be available live via streaming through the Council web site at http://tinyurl.com/z9982v8 .
At 9:30 a.m. in the Third Floor Conference Room, the Health and Human Services Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember George Leventhal and includes Councilmembers Roger Berliner and Craig Rice, will continue its review of the budget request of the Department of Libraries. The worksession is part of the Council’s review of County Executive Ike Leggett’s Fiscal Year 2018 operating budget.
Council is scheduled to tentatively approve the budget on May 18 and formally adopt it on May 25. The budget will go into effect on July 1.
The HHS meeting will be televised live by County Cable Montgomery (CCM). The channel can be viewed on Cable Channels 996 (high definition) and 6 (standard definition) on Comcast; Channels 1056 (HD) and 6 (SD) on RCN; and Channel 30 on Verizon.
The County Executive has recommended an additional $200,000 for the Library Refurbishment Level of Effort project that provides a structured process to ensure that all branches are modernized with updated technologies and service delivery improvements. The additional funds were made available through additional state aid. The current schedule anticipates that three branches will be refurbished in a typical fiscal year, allowing the County to complete refurbishment of 17 branches from Fiscal Years 2017-22. Once all branches are refurbished, the cycle will start over.
The state aid will be divided evenly between two of the scheduled refurbishment projects; $100,000 for the Long Branch Library and $100,000 for the Marilyn Praisner Library. The Maggie Nightengale Branch also is scheduled for refurbishment over the next year.
At 2 p.m. in the Seventh Floor Hearing Room, the Education Committee, which is chaired by Councilmember Rice and includes Councilmembers Marc Elrich and Nancy Navarro, will continue its review of the FY18 budget requests of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Montgomery College.
Among the items the Education Committee will address with MCPS representatives is the Chromebook technology initiative, which is a key element of the Board of Education’s modernization strategy for student and staff use in the classroom.
The initiative began in the 2014-15 school year with implementation in Grades 3, 5, 6 and high school social studies classes. The board and the Education Committee have heard directly from students, teachers and parents about the benefits of using the Chromebooks for class instruction and the innovative learning initiatives that the devices support.
This school year was originally planned to be the final rollout year for the Chromebook initiative. The board reduced funding for the initiative as part of the significant overall budget reductions that were required in the FY16 operating budget. To maintain continuity with the initiative, MCPS reprioritized already approved funds in the Technology Modernization project. The revised plan for the current school year is to implement Chromebooks in Grade 7, one-half of Grade 8 and one high school content area.
The FY18 budget request would continue funding for Chromebooks on the revised rollout schedule. Chromebook replacement would then start in FY20 as needed, starting with the oldest devices.
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Release ID: 17-152