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Dear Friends,

• Request your mail-in/absentee ballot online or on the paper form mailed to your home. If you need help, please email us and we will call back.
• Request your first (or a replacement) campaign yard sign by clicking here.
• Make a contribution to the campaign to help us reach the hundreds of thousands of voters who will participate in this election!

September 9 Campaign Newsletter: A Wrench in Public Education

We will be coping with the consequences of the pandemic for a long time. The Federal government is weighing direct support to school districts, but we do not know what will happen with this administration. State and county governments are not offering increases and remain reticent to use rainy-day funds. Meanwhile, Governor Hogan has decided that it is okay to press schools to reopen buildings without putting in place safety measures for students, teachers, and staff.

While many students are adjusting to virtual learning, many more remain daunted. Thousands may not be logging in. Special education students are not receiving their usual services. The prospect of learning loss cannot be ignored. I know a number of families who have pulled their kids out of the school system. Teachers are stressed; they are delivering instruction, managing cameras, recordings, and technology, and also trying to manage their own families and home lives. Rather than bring teachers solidly onboard, MCPS is now in labor impasse with teachers. Expect these stressors do grow.

As the only potential Board member to have taught online and in-person, I understand how to make distance learning work. I will bring to the Board practical knowledge and clear understanding of how to push MCPS forward.

We must also start planning NOW for reopening schools when it becomes safe. If we do not start planning immediately, we will fumble when the time comes. We have to think about who returns first, which teachers and staff are willing to return, how to match teachers with students, how to use space beyond school buildings, and what testing, tracing, and substitution protocols need to be in place. Read more on reopening in this oped I wrote in Maryland Matters.


I have been hosting parents, teachers, and students for Thursday night chats on different education issues. You can check out these videos on the campaign YouTube Channel. You can also join us live on Facebook on Thursday nights at 8:15 pm.

The safety of students has been on my mind for many weeks now. This summer saw an outpouring of student testimonies on sexual assault and racism and now we have the arrest of an MCPS teacher for inappropriate sexual contact with a student. Now with cameras and children being recorded, the privacy of students and families is in question. School maybe virtual, but we need to address the mental health, wellness, and privacy concerns of students and staff.

To push for these changes, I need to win the BOE seat - and I need your help. Please share this newsletter with your friends and family, as well as on social media, and consider forwarding it to neighborhood and community listservs. You can also help by making a contribution here.

Why Sunil?

nding, climate change action, special education, and re-opening schools, and f

Ensure teachers and staff have the support they need to continue to educate our children: We need to make better use of our educators, teachers, and staff. I will push to reestablish collaborative decision-making that worked well for MCPS in past years. On key questions like how to fix distance learning, I know what needs to be done because I have spent years teaching online. This is why I have been endorsed with the Apple Ballot by the Montgomery County Education Association (the county teacher’s union), SEIU Local 500 (our support staff union), and the MCPS Retirees Association.

Bring diversity of thought and experience: As a first-generation immigrant, I will bring to the Board my experience managing diversity and overcoming discrimination. One-third of the county's population is foreign-born, and while our Student Members of the Board have been wonderfully diverse, we have elected just one Asian-American non-student member in the BOE's nearly 140-year history. If elected, I will be the second. Further, I represent a broad coalition of supporters from Takoma Park to Poolesville and from Bethesda to Germantown and I have been endorsed by CASA in Action, Maryland’s largest Latinx advocacy group, and Progressive Maryland, which has been one of the biggest defenders of equity in our state.

How Can You Help?

Ask for an Absentee/Mail-in Ballot now:

• MCPS Tech support phone number: 240-740-7020
• MCPS Tech support email: communitytechsupport@mcpsmd.org
• Report children not showing up in ParentVue
• MCPS Live Virtual Lesson Absence Form
• MCPS Digital Backpack
• Deadname Remover from Trans Maryland
• Very very unofficial guide to distance learning from a Takoma Park parent.
  • Parents: bit.ly/31Wub2 Students: bit.ly/31Wfex6 Suggestions or additions? Send email.
• Privacy concerns? Joel Schwarz, an MCPS parent and cybersecurity expert, wrote this piece in The Hill
• Sunil's School Boundary Plan. Scroll down a little.

• Cuentas de estudiantes de MCPS y cómo accederlas: Introducción
• ¿Cómo accedo a myMCPS Classroom?  Video
• Activación de la cuenta de ParentVUE
  • Correo electrónico    Carta     Video
• Zoom para estudiantes
• ¿Cómo conectar un punto de acceso al internet? (Hotspot)
• How to enter the MCPS Chromebook? Video
• How to get into MyMCPS using a school-provided Chromebook? Video
• How to get into MyMCPS using a personal computer? Video