Around Maryland

While the Montgomery County school system in Maryland deals with internal issues surrounding an Inspector General’s report and tensions between the superintendent and the Board of Education, the county council gets set to ask questions about school operations. On Feb. 8, the council’s Audit and Education and Culture Committees will hold a joint hearing.

In an effort to close the digital divide and increase digital literacy in Washington County, Washington County Free Library (WCFL) is distributing no-cost Chromebooks for Washington County households, through a grant provided by Washington County government via the Maryland State Department of Housing and Community Development.

Mount St. Mary’s University’s incoming president Gerard “Jerry” Joyce wants to further the Emmitsburg institution’s investments in science and health care as the school prepares to complete two major construction projects. Joyce, who will take over for the retiring Tim Trainor in July, spoke with the Baltimore Business Journal earlier this month about his ideas for the university’s future.

With a four-day-old snowfall covering the ground outside, Genae Carney sits at a conference room table in West Baltimore with a computer in front of her and an iPhone at her ear, but it is hard to hear the woman on the other end of the call. “Do you have earphones on?” Carney asks. The woman fumbles with something, and asks if Carney can hear her better. “You still kinda sound distant, but I can work with it,” Carney says.

Frederick County’s data center work group is considering recommending changes to the current critical digital infrastructure ordinance, setting noise limits and incentives to encourage sustainable practices among data centers. The work group, created by Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater, met Thursday to discuss potential recommendations from its three subcommittees.

Infrastructure in Maryland will get a big boost thanks to $80 million in funding from President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” agenda. Biden and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday announced the funding through two major discretionary grant programs, the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) grant program and the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week at Montgomery County Public Schools after Superintendent Monifa McKnight refused to step down after the Board of Education asked her to resign. Many are wondering about the next steps for the embattled superintendent who has about two more years left on her contract. “I will defend my reputation and my decades-long commitment to the students and families of MCPS and will demand that any considerations of my role as superintendent are made through a fair, legitimate, and legal process — anything less would be unacceptable,” McKnight said in a statement Monday.

The Baltimore Department of Transportation has changed how it charges fees for some work permits used by tree-planting organizations in the city. The change comes about three months after the nonprofit Baltimore Tree Trust said it was suddenly charged permit fees it had not previously been charged. The fees, according to the group, could have been as high as $12,000 for a $22,620 project in Midtown and $10,680 on a $25,577 project in Greenmount West.

A program that used social workers, peer supporters and other wraparound services to work with police to help reduce crime along the Eutaw Street corridor near Lexington Market officially opened its first office space Friday. The Embrace Resource Center, a partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and several community organizations and city agencies, is credited with reducing crime over a three-year period, but never had its own home until it moved into the building at 55 N. Paca Street.