Representing the 1200 households North of East-West Highway, South of JonesBridge Road, East of Wisconsin Avenue and West of Columbia Country Club.

Neighborhood News

NOVEMBER 2008NOVEMBER 2008NOVEMBER 2008NOVEMBER 2008 WWW.EBCA.ORG WWW.EBCA.ORG WWW.EBCA.ORG WWW.EBCA.ORG

School AssignmentsSchool AssignmentsSchool AssignmentsSchool Assignments

By Monica Hayes, Education Chair

East Bethesda residents areinvited to learn more about theMontgomery County Public School(MCPS) Superintendent'srecommendation to the Board of Education on East BethesdaElementary School Assignments.The meeting, sponsored by theEBCA Education Committee, willfeature presentations from MCPSadministrators Mr. Bruce HCrispell, Director Division of LongRange Planning, and Dr. Frank H.Stetson, CommunitySuperintendent (Bethesda-ChevyChase, Walter Johnson, Wheaton,and Whitman Clusters). Themeeting will be held on November10th from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. at theLynnbrook Recreation Center.The Superintendent'srecommendation to the Board of Education on East BethesdaElementary Assignments (whichwas not yet available when thisarticle went to press) wasscheduled for released on October29

on the MCPS website at:www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/CIPMaster_Current.htm. A link tothe recommendation will alsoavailable on October 29th on theEBCA website, www.ebca.orgIf the superintendentrecommends a boundary studyconcerning East BethesdaElementary School assignments, itwill be part of the MCPS CapitalImprovement Plan process andtimeline. Under the schoolsystem's Long-Range EducationalFacilities Planning Policy, theBoard of Education (BOE)determines the scope of a boundarystudy. The BOE will hold facilitiesand boundaries hearing onNovember 12th and 13th and willvote on the Superintendent'srecommendation on November20th. At the November 10th meeting,Mr. Crispell and Dr. Stetson willprovide the community withadditional information on theSuperintendent's October 29threcommendations. They willdescribe the potential impacts therecommendation might have on ourcommunity and outline next stepsfor our community, including adescription of how elementaryschool transfers will be handled forthe 2009-2010 year if we do nothave a change in schoolassignments by that time.The Education Committee issoliciting your questions for Mr.Crispell and Dr. Stetson in advanceof the meeting to ensure themeeting addresses the community’smost pressing issues. Please emailyour questions toeducation@ebca.org. Questionswill also be solicited during themeeting.In related news, about 275education surveys have beencollected from community residentsto date. Initial survey results willbe tabulated based on thosereceived by October 31st.

SocialSocialSocialSocialCalendarCalendarCalendarCalendar

By Sandy Spagnolo,Social Chair

EBCA would like to invite you allto Happy Hour on Friday,November 21st from 5 to 8 p.m. atGuapos on Wisconsin Avenue. Itwill be a good reason to get out of the house and mingle with yourfellow neighbors whether they areElephant, Donkey or Other, and wehope you can make it. Pleasecontact Sandy Spagnolo atsocial@ebca.org if you have anyquestions.Our annual EBCA HalloweenParade was yet again another bighit. With all of the ghosts andgoblins, fairies and princess,everyone seemed to have a greattime. We would like to thankJustin Fox for being so creativewith the haunted house. It reallyseemed to get everyone into theHalloween spirit and the weatherwas perfect. Also, a special thanks to all of the volunteers who helpedserve the yummy cider and tastytreats. Thanks to SarahMitchell who was instrumental inmaking this day happen, NancyHorton for managing the cannedfood drive again this year, and avery special thanks to Mr. andMrs. Farrell who donate thesnacks that make the end of theparade so special every year. Wehope everyone enjoyed theafternoon and had a safe and funHalloween.

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Neighborhood News

NOV 2008

President’s NotebookPresident’s NotebookPresident’s NotebookPresident’s Notebook

By Ilaya Hopkins, President

East Bethesda CitizensAssociation, Inc.PO Box 41020Bethesda, MD 20824www.ebca.org

Neighborhood News

Jay Briar, Editornewsletter@ebca.orgSponsorship, Vacantsponsorship@ebca.orgIlaya Hopkins, PresidentDavid Saltzman, 1st Vice PresidentTori Hall, 2nd Vice President A.B. Carneal, Recording SecretaryJack Hayes, TreasurerDan Fox, Immediate Past President Andy O’Hare, Crescent TrailMonica Hayes, EducationRebecca Fayed , MembershipEleanor Rice, NIH LiaisonKevin Kraus, Parks & PlaygroundsSandy Spagnolo, Social EventsDorian Patchin, Website

Leslie Weber, Welcome Packets

Correction:

In the October issue, the article“Purple Line: Waiting for theReport” incorrectly stated theposition of the websitewww.purplelinenow.org regardinguse of the Capital Crescent Trail.The organization is in favor of using the trail but states that thetrail will not be altered by thePurple Line.We regret the error.With another successfulHalloween parade behind us, it isgood to reflect on all the things welove about our community. Thetogetherness, support andfriendliness of East Bethesda is onfull display when we come togetherfor such a festive celebration. Ourconcern about others less fortunatein our community is evident, too,as the food collection points forBethesda Help were overflowingwith donations. As Thanksgivingapproaches at the end of thismonth, I remain incredibly gratefulto be among such a group of neighbors and friends.November is shaping up to be amonth full of opportunities to helpimpact the future of our area. It isnearly impossible for any oneperson to be everywhere so Iencourage you to think about theaspects that matter the most to youand to take the time to provideyour input. EBCA has beenfollowing some of the main areasover the last several years. Thethree main topics withopportunities to weigh in thismonth are elementary schoolassignments, the Purple Line, andimprovements to the MedicalCenter area. All of these will have long-termconsequences for our communityand each are discussed in detail inarticles in this issue of thenewsletter. Whether it is theBoard of Education, the state orthe county, each entity providesopportunities for the public toweigh in on importantmatters. Individuals can do this inperson or in writing. Often, it is apowerful statement to see manyinterested people in the audienceat these public hearings.I encourage you to read theinformation here and on ourwebsite. If you feel strongly aboutthe impact any of these projectswill have, take a few minutes tocompose your thoughts and sendthem in. The process will benefitfrom input of those directlyaffected.Thanks again for anotherfabulous kick-off to the Halloweenfestivities, to Sandy Spagnolo, ourterrific Social Committee chair,and the rest of the volunteers whopulled the event together, to othercommittee leaders and individualswho represent EBCA so admirably,and to this month’s sponsors – welcome Suburban Hospital – whomake this newsletter possible.Looking for a way to give backthis holiday? Adopt a family andhelp make the season bright. Theholidays are just around the cornerand A Wider Circle needs yourhelp! Last year, A Wider Circleprovided gifts to more than 800children and adults who couldotherwise not afford presents. Thisyear, they hope to serve nearly1200 community members in needthis holiday season!In order to accomplish this goal,they need your help! You can helpserve those in need by donatinggifts, gift cards, wrapping paper,healthy, non-perishable food, or byvolunteering to wrap or deliverpresents. You may also "adopt" afamily to provide them with foodand gifts that they are not able toafford during the holidays.If you have any questions orwould like to help out, pleasecontact A Wider Circle by phone at301-657-1010 or by email atvolunteer@awidercircle.org. Pleasehelp make a difference in the livesof our neighbors in need thisholiday season.

CommunityCommunityCommunityCommunityOutreach:Outreach:Outreach:Outreach:A WiderA WiderA WiderA WiderCircleCircleCircleCircle

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Neighborhood News

NOV 2008

11/30/0811/30/08

Have you seen the new EBCA website? Manyresidents have already registered, allowing them toreceive EBCA e-Alerts directly by email. Registeringis simple. Just provide your name and email and youwill be signed up. We are also utilizing the calendarfeature by indicating upcoming events and providingmore details there. Be sure to check it out. A great feature of the website is the EBCA Messageboard. There are a number of categories whereindividuals can post announcements, questions,recommendations, or items of general interest. You candetermine whether to receive emails on these subjectsin your mailbox or just remember to check back to thesite periodically to see what is going on. Members canpost images, links and more. You can also choosebetween a classic view, for a well organized discussionor a "recent topics" view to highlight activediscussions. Lastly, the Messageboard categories aresearchable by visitors. We hope this will be a socialnetworking opportunity for EBCA residents. Of course, if you are really into the social networkingscene, you can join the EBCA Facebook group whereyou can RSVP for neighborhood events and exchangeinformation with others.Freewebs.com is the service we are using for thewebsite. There have already been some upgrades asnew features become available. If there is somethingyou would like to see on the site, please contactwebmaster@ebca.org to let us know what ideas youhave.

New EBCA Website UpdateNew EBCA Website UpdateNew EBCA Website UpdateNew EBCA Website Update

Have you been getting email updates from EBCA for the past few years? If so, have you signed up for alerts on the new website? Please note that as of November 1st, we will not be using the old email list provided by Topica. Tomake sure you receive EBCA e-alerts, please register now at www.ebca.org.