Brisk, more fall-like week expected – Temperatures are expected to be a bit more chilly this week than they were last week. Rain is predicted Monday night into Tuesday and highs near 60 degrees are expected both days, according to the National Weather Service. Veterans Day on Wednesday should be pleasant and sunny, with a high near 63. Showers are likely Thursday and Friday should be partly cloudy. Highs near 60 degrees are expected both days. Nighttime lows should drop into low 50s or upper 40s each night.
Eid push begins again – An advocacy group pushing the Montgomery County Board of Education to recognize the Muslim holiday of Eid by closing schools will try again Tuesday to convince the board to recognize the holiday. The Equality for Eid Coalition sent an email to supporters asking them to attend the board meeting Tuesday morning and to support the cancelling of classes for students and a professional day for teachers Sept. 12, when Eid al-Adha is expected to fall next year.
Last year, the board voted to remove references to religious holidays from the Montgomery County Public Schools calendar, although the school system still closes for religious holidays including Yom Kippur. However, the board said at the time it would only support closing schools for a religious holiday if absenteeism was so high that it made sense to do so. According to a board memo this year, the level of absenteeism on Eid, which fell on Sept. 24 this year, was not significantly different than on other school days.
“Therefore, it is my view that absentee data do not establish the level of operational need that would warrant closing schools on Eid al-Adha, and as noted in [school policy], the district must establish that school closure furthers a secular purpose in order to close schools other than those mandated by Maryland law,” Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers wrote in a memo to the board this week.
Westboro Baptist Church members scheduled to picket at Rockville, Winston Churchill high schools – Members of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church are scheduled to picket outside of Rockville High School on Tuesday morning and then to protest that afternoon at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. The Kansas-based church, which is classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, said on its website it planned to protest at Churchill because of the existence of a Gay Straight Alliance Club at the school.
Veterans Day ceremonies – The City of Rockville will honor veterans at Veterans Park at 11 a.m. Wednesday with a wreath-laying ceremony and 21-gun salute by the American Legion Post 86 Honor Guard. Retired Navy veteran Roger Langley, who served in the Korean War, is this year’s guest speaker. In Bethesda, the Kiwanis Club will present tributes and lay a wreath at Bethesda Veterans’ Park at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday.
County Council to discuss roadway repair – The Montgomery County Council’s transportation and infrastructure committee is scheduled to discuss road repairs made after utility work performed in county right-of-ways Monday morning. Council members will meet with officials from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission and Washington Gas to ask questions about the speed and quality of road repairs after roads are torn up for utility projects. The council is not scheduled to meet Tuesday.
