Speakers overwhelmingly urged the Montgomery County Council on Tuesday to fully fund the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) proposed budget during a public hearing in Rockville on Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich’s (D) proposed $7.1 billion fiscal year 2025 operating budget. “Let’s not shy away from acknowledging the lost ground and the low test scores and the interruptions to the social emotional and behavioral development of our students,” said Cathy Stocker, vice president of educational issues for the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, referring to the pandemic.

High housing prices in the D.C. area and across the country are making it difficult for some homeowners and renters to cover the costs of their homes, and many are planning to sacrifice some necessities and luxuries to make ends meet. That’s according to a new survey from Redfin, which found that 1 in 3 Americans who are struggling to pay for housing will take no or very few vacations in order to afford their home.

When she was asked to serve on the Maryland Port Commission last year, Karenthia Barber knew it would be her chance to better promote all the opportunities that the port industry provides. After all, her father worked as a longshoreman for 40 years. Barber said she has been “honored” to have the opportunity with her colleagues to expand the economic impact of the port and the maritime industry.

 

In 2019, a group of D.C.-area elected leaders said the region needed to build at least 320,000 housing units in the next decade to accommodate the region’s growth. But more than a third of the way through the decade, the region is falling behind the pace needed to meet this target, a Washington Post analysis found.

 

Baltimore City schools are feeling the early benefits of first steps taken to implement the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the multi-billion-dollar education reform legislation, as the state enters its third year of implementation. But in a virtual town hall Thursday night, district leaders said there’s still a long way — and much more funding — to go. Sandi Jacobs, the city’s Blueprint Coordinator, said some changes will require more funding than the state is currently allocating.

A prayer service and candlelight vigil was held at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Highlandtown for the men who lost their lives while working on the Key Bridge at the time of the collapse. On Monday evening, people filled the pews to listen to prayers, sing hymns and pay their respects through 6 minutes of silence; one minute for each victim.

The Washington County Free Library at 100 S. Potomac St., Hagerstown, is offering a booth for community members to use for personal telehealth appointments. The telehealth pod is on the third floor of the Alice Virginia and David W. Fletcher Library near the study rooms and new community health-related information displays.

Frances Miller has been commuting from her Middle River home to Anne Arundel County for years — she used the Francis Scott Key Bridge to get there every Tuesday through Thursday. On her first commute since its collapse on March 26, she accidentally started driving toward the bridge out of habit. With the bridge, her morning trip used to take 30 to 40 minutes.

The Pride of Baltimore II, the replica of a 19th century “Baltimore clipper,” has finally returned to its home dock in Baltimore. The ship had been anchored in Annapolis after the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge left it unable to return home. On Monday, as most people were looking up at the partial solar eclipse, the ship’s crew was given the green light to sail the vessel through one of the alternate channels created to get ships through the wreckage.

Infrastructure projects in Frederick’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget include continuing design work on the intersection of East and All Saints streets in Frederick, as well as looking at traffic signals at several other intersections in the city. The Capital Improvements Program in Mayor Michael O’Connor’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget includes work to construct a new traffic signal at the intersection of East Street and All Saints Street in downtown Frederick, as well as realigning the entrances and exits to the nearby transit center as necessary.