Updates: Health & Education Teams
Health Equity Team Update
Good news! There are new testing sites at both Lake Forest Mall (in Gaithersburg, right next to South Lake Elementary) and in Wheaton that are up and running. This will help fill some gaping holes in COVID testing access we identified back in May and June.
Additionally, a new site will be up and running within the next two weeks. This new site is made possible through a collaboration between AIM, Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Del. Lorig Charkoudian, and the Audelia Community Response Team in partnership with Meduni.
We are still working to make sure that tracing is being done effectively and in a culturally appropriate way.
Education Equity Team Update
AIM, THANK YOU to all who have written letters, made phone calls, given testimony, spoken with press, researched Key Facility Indicators, and met with Board of Education and County Council members. On August 25, the Board of Education Vice President Ms. Brenda Wolff made a strong public statement supporting a new school building for South Lake Elementary School.
Thanks to all the work you did to meet with and write to Board of Education members, they have taken up South Lake again and again expressed that South Lake is a priority and should not be delayed.
The supplemental appropriation that the Board of Education is requesting to restore South Lake to its original timeline, HOWEVER, will still have to be approved by the County Council members.
AIM, we are going to need you to write letters to and make phone calls to our county Council members. Stay tuned for more info!
As Ms. Wolff said, LET’S GET THIS DONE.
Ms. Brenda Wolff's Comments
To the Board of Education, August 25
Watch video (comments begin at 7:32:24)
I’m actually glad to see the proposal for South Lake as I know all of my fellow Board members are.
The South Lake community has waited years and years to be prioritized by the school system, the board and the county council. They’ve seen new schools go up in other communities, additions, modernizations, etc, and they’ve waited their turn. I believe one of our community members, Mr. Xisto spoke eloquently about the needs at South Lake today.
The technicalities of how you fit into a CIP (capital budget) mean little to a community that believes their voices are never being heard. I want them to know we hear them. We all—administration, board and county council—hear them. They need a new school. This supplemental request is to restore the initially requested schedule.
I really hope the council hears the need of the South Lake community and approves this request. Let’s get this done.
Press coverage