The Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) has proposed a new resolution to improve coordination, transparency, and accountability in the school resource officer (SRO) program, and to address its negative impacts on students, especially Black and Brown students and students with disabilities. MCCPTA delegates will vote on the resolution at their next meeting on March 23. In preparation, the Wayside delegates have drafted this short survey to gauge opinion among Wayside parents. Please complete the survey by March 21. If you have questions on the survey or the SRO resolution, please contact Wayside delegates Lauren Berkowitz (lmberkowitz@outlook.com) or Garrick Yau (garrickyau@gmail.com).

Calling all Wayside chess players again! Given the success of last month’s Wayside Open Chess Tournament, the PTA and the tournament organizer decided to make this tournament a monthly event. The March tournament will take place on Sunday, March 21 at 10 a.m. on Chess.com. It will also be a 4-round Swiss tournament with G25+5 time control. You need to register for a free Chess.com account if you don’t already have one and join the Wayside Chess Club (https://www.chess.com/club/wayside-chess-club/join) to be able to play in the tournament. Please follow this link to join the tournament: https://www.chess.com/live#t=2119916. Please join 10 minutes before the tournament starts and your game will start automatically. As for the prizes, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner of each monthly tournament will get 3, 2 and 1 points, respectively. The top 3 players who get the most points by the end of this school year (June) will get trophies! Get ready!!! If you have any questions about the tournament please contact Tao Deng at dengtao618@gmail.com.

Wayside Girls on the Run (GOTR) is back and in-person for Spring 2021! It has been a long winter, and we are ready to get outside and MOVE! Registration is now open for girls in grades 3-5. Practices will be Tuesday/Thursday mornings 7:45-9:10 a.m. at Wayside. Coaches Heather and Kristin are back and ready to make the season Covid-safe and fun! Group will be capped at 15 girls for safety, so sign up now! We can’t wait to see you. Girls on the Run—so much fun!

The Board of Education is asking for feedback on two calendar options for the 2021-2022 academic year. The Board is scheduled to adopt the final school calendar on March 23.

A cluster-wide meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 16 at 7 p.m. to learn more about the MCPS School Resource Officer (SRO) Program. The Churchill PTSA has assembled a panel of six participants to present various viewpoints and research findings on the SRO program and its history, and respond from different perspectives to questions from participants. Panelists will include Churchill SRO Officer Amy Homrock; Churchill Principal Hecker; Poolesville Cluster representative Jane Lehrman; MCPS SRO working group member Rob Willcox; and county Student Government Association president Hana O’Looney, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee member Idara Umoh.  The goal is to hold a respectful, open discussion to learn more about the program, the impact it has had, and its future. Please register to attend and submit questions about the SRO program in the form linked here. The Zoom link for the meeting is here.

The Nominating Committee is seeking a PTA member who is interested in serving as the VP of Community Enrichment on the PTA Board next year. The VP of Community Enrichment oversees the event chairs and activities of the Reflections art program, community service, wellness, and after-school enrichments (when they return to the building). He/She attends monthly PTA Board meetings. If you would like to learn more about this position, please contact any member of the Nominating Committee.

Amy Oram, alvogel11@hotmail.com
Charu Srinivasan, charu.srinivasan@gmail.com
Manali Mody, mmc1216@hotmail.com
Noor Kirdar, nkirdar@aol.com