What Does Our APFO Accomplish?

Posted on June 20, 2023June 20, 2023 by Jenny

Guys, we need to talk about APFO in Howard County. Specifically, we need to talk about the fact that our Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) isn't doing anything to help school capacity, and it's creating a barrier to affirmatively furthering fair housing. So what does it accomplish? Has it put us on a sustainable path? APFOs are intended to help jurisdictions manage growth by making new development approval contingent on the existence of adequate public facilities such as roads, ...

Keep It Real

Posted on October 30, 2021October 29, 2021 by Jenny

I'm not a huge fan of social media, despite using it frequently as a blogger, activist, and mother of kids whose grandparents all live out of state. Setting aside all the shadiness that comes with social media companies whose only real product is its users, I dislike social media because nearly everything about it is fake. The pictures are carefully filtered and cropped to remove imperfections and enhance beauty; posts are judiciously curated to create the illusion of a happy, perfect life; and...

Farewell, Swansfield

Posted on June 9, 2021June 9, 2021 by Jenny

Today, my youngest child had his 5th grade promotion ceremony at Swansfield Elementary School. I'm all up in my feelings right now, not just because of the poignancy of childhood milestones, but also because it is hard to say goodbye to such a special school after seven years. People in Howard County tend to look down on Swansfield, having bought into the notion that test scores or a rating on GreatSchools.com is all that's required to determine a school's caliber and predict student outcome...

Power Plays and Penalty Kills

Posted on February 7, 2021February 7, 2021 by Jenny

Everyone in my household plays ice hockey, except me. I spend a good bit of time cheering on the menfolk with frozen toes and chattering teeth, and I enjoy it. In my relatively short career as a hockey mom, I've come to find that there's a lot about American youth sports that annoys me. It hasn't always been clear exactly what it is about it that irks me so much, but I realized recently that some of the same inequities and constructs I dislike about American K-12 education exist in youth s...

The SMOB vs. the Mob

Posted on November 18, 2020November 18, 2020 by Jenny

This week, the Howard County Board of Education held a work session to discuss hybrid learning models for the second semester of the 2020-2021 school year. After a long and arduous discussion that illustrates the quagmire that is making education decisions in a pandemic that is worsening by the day, the board voted to maintain a virtual learning model in the third quarter of the school year with the option to bring small groups into school buildings for in-person learning. Five board members ...