More than a month after a top Montgomery schools official said Potomac’s Winston Churchill High School would provide books for all students, parents still are complaining that some Advanced Placement students are not being given their own texts. In years past, Churchill instructors have sent letters home telling parents how to purchase texts for AP social studies students. School and county officials have maintained it was the parents’ choice to buy the texts and never a requirement.
In July, Community Schools Superintendent Sherry Liebes stepped in to assure Churchill parents the high school would fund books for all students, in keeping with state code.
“We have made it very clear to [Churchill Principal Joan] Benz that she will make textbooks available for every student,” MCPS spokesman Brian Edwards said Wednesday. “We will follow up with her to make sure she has done as the county has instructed.”
According to Liebes, the lack of individual texts this week at the start of school year is a temporary glitch.
“There may be a short period of time where students are asked to use the texts in class or share texts,” Liebes said. “But the intent is that every student will be issued a text to take home and study or complete homework.”
After being contacted by concerned parents, County Council Member Roger Berliner wrote a letter asking Montgomery School Superintendent Jerry Weast to clarify the issue.
“Common sense dictates that no student, despite his or her aptitude, would be able to master an AP curriculum without daily access to a textbook at home,” Berliner said in his letter.
“In a nearly 2 billion dollar operating budget, it is frankly difficult for me to believe that MCPS does not have the funds to issue a textbook to each student taking an AP course,” Berliner’s letter said.
Churchill parent Janis Sartucci told The Examiner that she had contacted Berliner because state code mandates that public schools provide students with texts and that taxpayer dollars are allocated for the purchase of textbooks.
“What is going on here?” Sartucci asked. “There is state and county money that is supposed to be spent on this.”
