Board & Beginnings

This project began as a conversation between two neighbors who are also educators and moms—with kids aged 6 to 10 in our excellent local public elementary school. While as parents we both appreciated the high standards and emphasis on achievement that our children had experienced (but not necessarily enjoyed!) at school, we couldn’t help but compare the large-school, one-size-fits-all culture of MCPS with our many other experiences in a wide range of schools and school systems both in the U.S. and abroad.

We began to dream of a smaller school where our kids would be welcomed as children with a range of intellectual, social and emotional needs, not just as “students” to be measured and described in terms of data. We fantasized about teaching in a place where, rather than following a prescribed curriculum of separate parts, we would be supported in integrating work in all the subject areas around topics and themes that are inspiring and significant to us—so that we might fully engage the children we teach. And we wished for a school where all kinds of children and their families could meet, mix, mingle and cooperate to create a learning community that better reflects the vast diversity of Montgomery County.

We gathered some friends—other parents, other educators, members of the community—who shared our vision for a different kind of MCPS school. We educated ourselves about the big charter school picture and the daunting nuts-and-bolts details. We met with others, both locally and nationally, who had wisdom to share. Step by tiny step we have climbed a learning curve that shows no signs of leveling out, and along the way we have established a Board of Directors with an impressive range of skills and built a large and dedicated Founding Group. On March 1 we submitted the application we hope will convince the MCPS Board of Education to broaden its concept of innovation and choice to include the charter school option.

What about you? What about now? “Dig In and Grow” with us!

Meet the Board of Directors:

JANET SLUZENSKI, BA, MS, LCPC — President and Original Founder
Professional School Counselor, Montgomery County Public Schools
Janet Sluzenski has been a middle-school counselor for the past 15 years. She began her career in Vermont after earning her B.A. in Sociology and Master of Science in Counseling at the University of Vermont. After moving to D.C., she worked in Prince George’s County at the elementary level before spending the next 10 years in private schools in Bethesda and Virginia. Janet is both a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in Maryland and D.C. and a Nationally Certified Counselor. She has worked for social service agencies and in private practice. She has expertise in conflict resolution, media literacy, social skills, bullying prevention, and helping students cope with learning disabilities. Her passion is working in schools which emphasize the importance of serving the whole child, including the social and emotional lives of students, as well their academic needs as they prepare to become good citizens of the world. Janet is the single mother of two elementary-aged sons who attend an MCPS school.

HEIDI MORDHORST, BA, MSEd, MA — Vice President/Secretary and Original Founder
Reading Initiative Teacher, Montgomery County Public Schools
Heidi Mordhorst is a veteran teacher with 23 years of experience serving children and families in elementary and preschool classrooms in a wide range of settings. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Bank Street College of Education and the Institute of Education, University of London, her strengths are in curriculum design and integration. Heidi is the author of two published collections of children’s poetry, Squeeze: Poems from a Juicy Universe (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, 2005) and Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature (Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, 2009); she brings particular passion to language and literature teaching. She has lived in Munich, taught in East Harlem, Inner London and Prince George’s County, and with her partner and their two children, recently spent a year living and schooling in Paris. Her children, aged 7 and 10, attend an MCPS School in Bethesda. Heidi is in her second year of employment with MCPS as a Reading Initiative teacher.

FIONA GRANT, BA, MA — Treasurer
Human Resources Director [Systems Integration], Accenture, Reston, VA.
Fiona Grant is an HR Director with twenty years experience at Accenture plc, a management consulting and technology services company. She is the HR Director for Accenture’s systems integration practice (21,000 technology professionals globally). Fiona has accountability for senior executive payroll in excess of $200 million and also manages multi-million dollar training and recruitment budgets. Fiona has experience with change management, recruitment, diversity and leadership development, in addition to HR operations. Fiona had board experience with the Human Rights Campaign from 2003−2005 and co-chaired the 2006 National Dinner which grossed over a million dollars. She has a BA in History and Politics and an MA in Human Resource Management, both from the UK. She lives with her partner Heidi Mordhorst and their two children aged 10 and 7 in Bethesda, where both attend an MCPS school.

LOURDES CABALLEROS-ABRAMSON, BA, MSEd — Academic Mission Committee
Lourdes Caballeros-Abramson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Master of Science in Elementary Education. Lourdes began her career in sales and marketing and later changed careers to become a teacher, and she now has eight years of elementary, ESOL, and early childhood teaching experience. Having grown up in the Bronx, teaching in New York’s inner city public schools was particularly meaningful to Lourdes. After moving to Washington, DC, she taught at her son’s cooperative preschool in Silver Spring. Lourdes believes in the power of play-based learning and cooperative education. She lives in Silver Spring with her husband Randy and their son Henry. She volunteers actively with the Center Against Spousal Abuse.

JOHN C. DEMARCHI, BA, MEd — Leadership and Recruitment Committee
Associate Head of School, The Woods Academy, Bethesda, MD
John DeMarchi currently serves as Associate Head of School at the Woods Academy, an independent Catholic School in Bethesda, Maryland. He has 20 years of experience in elementary and middle school both in the United States and in Asia. In 1996 he was a founding faculty member of Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS) where he served as Middle School Coordinator. John led the design team that developed the CISS Middle School program including its philosophy, curriculum, student expectations and assessment standards. John oversaw the expansion of the Woods Academy academic program as it added classrooms and increased enrollment. He is active in the Community Liaison Council that he helped establish in order to foster positive relations between the Woods Academy and its neighbors. John received his Masters in Education from John Carroll University. He also holds an undergraduate degree from Kenyon College. He lives in Montgomery County with his wife, Jane and his two children, now 9 and 11.

BRAD DEUTSCH, BA, JD — Legal Counsel
Senior Legal Advisor, Federal Election Commission, Washington, DC
Brad Deutsch is an attorney who currently serves as a Senior Legal Advisor at the Federal Election Commission. Before working at the FEC, Brad specialized in Communications Law both at a large Washington, DC law firm and at the Federal Communications Commission. Before going to law school, Brad was a senior executive at the Princeton Review in New York City. Brad is married to Hilary Light Deutsch, a pediatrician in Potomac, and they are the proud parents of two boys who are both students in MCPS schools. Brad received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his JD from Fordham University School of Law.

SCOTT LYONS, BA, MA, JD — Finance Committee
Democracy Specialist/Anticorruption Advisor,Civilian Response Corps-Active
U.S. Agency for International Development
Scott Lyons is an attorney who currently serves as an anticorruption advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Civilian Response Corps. Previously he served as program director and project manager for complex judicial education and reform projects both in the U.S. and internationally. Scott holds a JD from American University Washington College of Law, a Masters degree from American University’s School of International Service, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. He is a barred attorney in California and the District of Columbia. Scott and his wife live in Glenmont with their three daughters, ages 3.5, 21 months, and 3 months.

ZAC MORFORD, BA, MA — Operations Committee
Director of SchoolStat, DC Public Schools
Zachary Morford is a public sector performance management specialist and is currently leading the performance efforts within DC Public Schools. He has a background in strategic planning, developing performance metrics, and creating systems to analyze performance data. He has worked with local governments in Eastern Europe and in the United States to improve their performance by increasing transparency and accountability. For the past three years he has worked with the Chancellor of DC Public Schools to monitor the performance of DC’s public schools and central office. Zac holds a Master’s degree from Indiana University in Russian political development. He and his wife live in Wheaton and have two daughters, ages 6 and 4.

ELLEN PECHMAN, BS, MAT, MA, Ph.D — Director
Private consultant, Connecting Research & Practice
Ellen Pechman, a long-time educator and evaluation researcher, has dedicated her career to defining the qualities of schools that make them most effective for children. She began her career as a Head Start aide, taught upper elementary and middle grades, and, for nearly 10 years (pre-Katrina), directed the assessment and research programs in New Orleans Public Schools. During the past two decades, she has been a senior researcher at Policy Studies Associates, an adjunct faculty member, and a research consultant. At Policy Studies Associates, Ellen conducted large and small-scale studies of federal and nonprofit educational programs, focusing on innovation implementation, assessment, and teaching and learning with an emphasis on elementary and middle schools. Currently, as a private consultant, she helps educators apply research to practice by using data to drive developmentally responsive school practices. As an adjunct faculty member at American University and at the University of Maryland Baltimore Campus, she teaches courses in research methods and school and child assessment. Ellen’s grown son, who attended Montgomery County and New Orleans schools, is now completing his doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin.

REBECCA REYNOLDS-RAMIREZ, BA, MPH — Development Committee
Program Director, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
Rebecca Reynolds-Ramirez has 10 years of experience in alcohol and injury policy analysis, implementation and evaluation. Rebecca currently directs a program for the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), through a cooperative agreement with the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, intended to promote increased local alcohol law enforcement through a partnership with the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association. Specifically, she has designed, implemented, and evaluated alcohol law enforcement field interventions in the areas of over-service of alcohol, underage compliance checks, and security staff training in licensed establishments. Before joining PIRE, Rebecca worked for the California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention, where she developed a series of policy statements on various injury prevention issues. Rebecca holds a BA in Latin American Studies from UC Santa Cruz and a Master of Public Health from San Diego State University. Rebecca lives in Silver Spring with her husband Anthony and two daughters, aged 5 and 3.

VICTORIA STEUERWALT, BS — Director
Director of Rockville Day Care Association/Bradley Child Development Center, Bradley Hills ES
Victoria (Vicki) Steuerwalt is an experienced teacher in her 20th year as a child care teacher and program director. Currently, she directs the Child Development Center at Bradley Hills Elementary School in Montgomery County, where she also serves as a substitute teacher in kindergarten through grade five. Vicki has a BS in social work and she has participated in a graduate studies program in personnel management. She has worked for the American Red Cross, served on the founding board for a cooperative university pre-school in Wisconsin, and taught pre-school in New Mexico. Vicki serves on the Board of Directors of the Organization of Child Care Directors. As a veteran child care professional and a grandmother of two, she is committed to seeing that schools fulfill their long-held commitment to put children first.

BILL WALLACE, BA, MA — Director
ESOL Teacher, Patterson Park Public Charter School, Baltimore City Schools.
Bill Wallace has taught English as a Second Language in international schools in both European and stateside schools for nearly 20 years. He taught ESOL and German in the International Baccalaureate’s (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the IB Diploma Programme for nine years in Germany and Portugal. Additionally, Bill helped write the second language curriculum for the International Baccalaureate Organization, which is used in Middle Years Programmes worldwide. He also worked with the first IB school that offered the Primary Years Programme. Bill was twice a Fulbright grantee and holds an MA in Germanic languages and literature from Duke University. Additionally, he holds a Maryland principal’s certificate from Johns Hopkins University. He has a deep interest in the International Baccalaureate Programme and the charter school movement in the United States. Bill currently teaches ESOL to grades four through eight at Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore City Schools.