March

15 PTSA Newsletter Deadline

26 **End of 3rd Marking Period**

27 TUESDAY Professional Day__NO SCHOOL

30 Last day of school before Spring Break

April

2_9 Spring Break__NO SCHOOL

10 PTSA Meeting 7:15 PM--Welcome 5^th grade parents

11 Report Card Distribution

23_27 Outdoor Ed – 6th grade

May

8 PTSA Meeting 7:15 PM

17 CJMS Spring Play

24 HSA_Algebra

28 Memorial Day__NO SCHOOL

29 CJMS Chorus Concert @CHS 7 PM

30 CJMS Orchestra Concert @CHS– 7 PM

31 CJMS Band Concert @CHS– 7 PM

June

8_13 Final Exams

14 Early Release 12:10 PM _ Last Day

8th Gr. Attends High School

End of 4th Marking Period

22 Report Cards Mailed

 

Check out the latest information on Student Service Learning Hours--now 75 hours will be needed to graduate form Montgomery County Schools--http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze282pw/ptsassl.htm

 

CJMS: SGA Dance Friday, March 23! Please note--food not provided by CJMS

MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee meeting Thursday March 22, 2007, 7:30_9 pm

Cafeteria, Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville

Meeting is open to all.Questions may be directed to Elizabeth Enders (eaenders@verizon.net)

The MCCPTA Gifted Child Committee, in Partnership with the MCPS Division of Acelerated & Enriched Instruction, invites you to attend our Spring Information Session and GT Liaison Training. Monday, April 16, 2007 7:30 _ 9:30 pm Walter Johnson High School This session is open to GT Liaisons and ALL interested parents. Please advertise this opportunity widely through your PTAs.

Part I: A panel of elementary and middle school principals will answer questions regarding:

How Parents can advocate for accelerated and enriched instruction.

What parents can do if they are dissatisfied with the level of instructional challenge for their child. Questions for the panel should be submitted in advance, no later than April 5^th, to ptagiftedchild@ yahoo.com

Part II: Following the panel, several, in_depth breakout sessions will be offered. The topics are being finalized and will be announced shortly.Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this informative event. If you have any questions, contact Mia Allen, Training Coordinator, at

ptagiftedchild@ yahoo.com

NAACP General Membership Meeting, Tuesday March 27, 2007, 7:30 _9:30 pm, every month on the last Tuesday. The meeting will be held at the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, 608 N. Horner's Lane, Rockville, Maryland If you have any questions, please call the office at (301) 657_2062

Town Hall Meeting with Ike Leggett, Thursday March 22, 2007, 7:30_9:30 pm, 1514 Dunster Road, Rockville, MD , Ritchie Park Elementary School

 

Churchill Incoming Freshman Parents:

The transition between middle school and high school is exciting, but can also be challenging for both students and parents. The Winston Churchill High School PTSA Parent to Parent Mentoring Network is a program that can help make the transition smoother for everyone. If you decide to participate, over the next six months you will be invited to four informal coffees facilitated by two trained Churchill parents. Two coffees will take place in the spring and two in the fall after school begins. These small group coffees, which will be held in a warm, home environment, will address many aspects of preparing for the Churchill experience, peer pressure, at-risk behavior, effective parenting of high school students, ways to problem solve about issues that arise in a high school and any other concerns you might bring to the group.

Proactive parenting of teens is critically important. Accurate information is essential as your child enters high school and peer pressures increase. Please join this Parent to Parent Mentoring Network, establish important ties with other concerned parents and help make the high school years a safe four-year journey for your children. If you have not yet signed up, or have any questions, contact Mara Brick at 301/983-8752 or

 

Starting next year, all incoming 9th Graders will be required to fill out a form if they want to be included in the Wootton PTSA Directory, an important tool for students and parents. Forms will be given out in early February when counselors from Wootton come with Registration Forms. Please complete the form and turn it in when the counselors come back for the completed Wootton Registration Forms

If you have questions, contact WHSnames@aol.com.

 

Calling all CJMS PTSA members--PLEASE HELP! It’s time to work on next year’s programs and volunteers. Is there something you want to be involved with? Need to fit a particular schedule? Want to help, but not sure how? Well, step right up! This is a chance for everyone to get involved with something at the school, meet other parents and staff, and to help Cabin John remain a great place for all! Thanks to our CJMS PTSA Nominating Team--Charlotte Garvey-Corbett, Carolyn Wallert, Karen Kleinman, Mark Lorenzi, Jana Gagner and Wendy Wilson. Please help them by volunteering today.

 

Churchill: Blast 2007: DECADANCE! Join 175 Churchill performers, musicians and technical and design crew who will rock the house with fantastic music and dance! DECADANCE performers will entertain you with the music and dance from across the past four decades_ there is something for everyone! Tickets are on sale now for all six performances: Friday and Saturday evenings, April 13, 14, 20 & 21 and special matinee performances on Saturday, April 14 and 21. $20 for evening orchestra seats, $14 for balcony, side orchestra and all matinee seats. Matinee performances are perfect for our elementary school age students_ bring the whole gang! For great seats, download a Ticket Order Form today from the Churchill website. Go to http://www.churchillhs.org and click on the "Blast" link for the ticket sales schedule and order forms.

The Fallout of a Fight, Taskforce looking at ways to deal with racial tensions in Churchill, but meetings are not open. By Aaron Stern/The Almanac, March 15, 2007

Two months after Winston Churchill High School’s Dr. Joan Benz deemed a fight on school grounds an example of ‘black on black violence,’ the community continues to deal with the fallout. Benz apologized for using language that could increase racial tensions.

Five students who were suspended for their roles in the fight were also recommended for expulsion by Benz, but all five are have returned to Montgomery County Public Schools, say members of the community. Mark Kelsch, a community superintendent with Montgomery County Public Schools, would not comment on the status of the expulsions, citing MCPS rules regarding the privacy of the matters. "I would be violating so many rules if I did that," said Kelsch. Kate Freeman, the mother of one of the students who was suspended and recommended for expulsion, said that her son was permitted to come back to Churchill but was transferred to an alternative learning facility within MCPS at her request. Another of the students recommended for expulsion transferred elsewhere within MCPS, also at the request of the student’s parents, said Freeman. Freeman said that she believes that the other students involved have returned to classes at Churchill. "I think this was all blown up," Freeman said. "I think they tried to make examples out of [these students]."

IN THE WAKE of the public outcry regarding the fight and Benz’s comments, MCPS officials proposed the creation of a committee that would explore the sources of racial tension in Churchill and ways to ease them. The Churchill Community Advisory Committee has been created and has met at least twice already, said Kelsch. Lori_Christina Webb, a deputy superintendent with MCPS, leads the committee. Webb said that Benz is a co_chair of the group. At the Churchill PTSA meeting in January, Benz said that tension between Churchill and the Scotland community dated to the 1970s. Churchill was built in 1965, five years after Montgomery County Public Schools were fully integrated. According to MCPS data, the 2005_2006 student body at Churchill was 66.8 percent white, 21.8 percent asian, 6.6 percent black, and 5.7 percent hispanic. Long_time Scotland resident Bette Thompson said that two of her children who attended Churchill in the 1970s and 1980s, told her that they never felt comfortable or welcome at the school. Freeman graduated from Churchill in 1975, and said the same was true when she was a student. "I went to Churchill and it’s been like that since I went there," Freeman said. Freeman said that the tension is not among students, but rather between the school’s administration and students. "I wouldn’t say so much that it’s the students but the faculty and the staff," Freeman said. Freeman said that her son never had any trouble with any of the students, and that while many of his teachers were well intentioned, others were content to let him fail. "Some of the teachers cared enough to go out of the way [to help], but most of them didn’t," Freeman said.

WEBB’S COMMITTEE will look at ways to improve relations between the school’s administration and all of its African American students, said Webb. "Our goal is to develop a real understanding of the needs and perceptions of the Churchill community," said Webb. "We’re not trying to isolate any one group but to work together as a community… [which] is always difficult when you’re working across lines of difference," said Webb. The group will ultimately create a set of recommendations that will be reviewed by Kelsch’s office. Webb said that the recommendations are to be ready sometime before the end of the school year and will be ready for implementation by the start of the next school year. While the recommendations will not be binding, Kelsch said that he expected them to be implemented. Recommendations could include additional training for teachers and the establishment of a community service club or honor society for African American students within the school, said Kelsch. The committee is made up of an ethnically diverse group of people from the community as well as Churchill teachers and administrators and MCPS officials, said Webb.

Webb said that the committee has approximately thirty people on it, but would not provide an exact number or the names of the members. Kelsch said that the meeting he attended in mid_February had approximately a dozen people in attendance. Freeman said that she was asked by Benz to serve on the committee but could not because of a scheduling conflict. While Webb said the group was made up of people of various backgrounds, she declined to provide a breakdown of the ethnic and racial composition of the group saying that that information was unavailable. Webb said that the committee included residents of the Scotland community, but would not say who or how many. She declined to give any specifics on the number of teachers and administrators on the committee or what the evaluation criteria was for selecting members to the committee. Webb said that the opportunity for members of the community to offer their input to the community would happen in the coming months but said that no date had been determined yet.

Ronald Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and the director of the Institute for African American Leadership said that it is not uncommon for committees such as these to work without public input and access in their infancy. "It can be kind of disruptive to put together a plan and have the public coming in and out of your meetings," said Walters. Still, Walters said that he didn’t understand why MCPS would shroud details of the committee’s membership in such secrecy. "Some of [it] seems strange to me," Walters said. "That is information that ought to be available to the public."

Montgomery priorities likely to have mixed outcome, by Sean R. Sedam, Gazette Staff Writer, March 21, 2007

ANNAPOLIS — With the budget bill passed by the House and on to the Senate this week, and 20 days left in this year’s General Assembly session, lawmakers are gearing up for their final push on Montgomery County’s priorities.Here’s a rundown:

Transportation

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) raised eyebrows when he called for a one_year delay in funding $53 million for construction of the Intercounty Connector, the 18_mile roadway linking Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. The House reinstated the money. The Senate wants it cut. ‘‘They say it’s a cash_flow problem," said Del. Charles E. Barkley (D_Dist. 39) of Gaithersburg. ‘‘I’ll take them at their word." While officials say a delay in funding will not delay the project, any money not included in the budget will have to be made up in future years, Barkley said. With the state’s structural deficit expected to reach $1.5 billion in fiscal 2009, ‘‘that could be tough," he said.

Parks tax

County lawmakers are hoping to pass a measure that would exempt more than 19,000 taxpayers in Gaithersburg and Rockville from paying taxes on parks run by the Maryland_National Capital Park and Planning Commission. City officials say that if Park and Planning collects the tax, for the first time, it would amount to double taxation on households annexed into the cities and already paying for city parks. Last week, the county’s Senate delegation approved the bill. The House Environmental Matters Committee held a hearing on it Tuesday. It still must win approval from the Prince George’s Senate delegation to move forward in that chamber because Park and Planning serves both counties.

Gun control

A bill that would give the Montgomery County Council the authority to pass its own gun control laws has stalled. The bill, introduced by Del. Roger A. Manno (D_Dist. 19) of Silver Spring, won approval of the county’s House delegation and was heard before the House Judiciary Committee last week. The county’s Senate delegation has not acted on the bill and is unlikely to. Asked if the senators would vote on the measure, Sen. Patrick J. Hogan (D_Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village, chairman of the county’s Senate delegation, said, ‘‘I doubt it." Last week, the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee voted down a statewide ban on assault weapons.

Rockville courthouse

State aid to build the new $62.5 million District Courthouse in the Rockville town center, the biggest nonschool construction project on the county’s wish list, will have to wait until next year, lawmakers said. ‘‘In total fairness to the administration, it was never in their plans to fund it in fiscal year 2008 [which begins July 1]," Hogan said. ‘‘It was in the legislature’s plans." The state allocated $13.3 million for the project’s planning, design and demolition of the old Rockville library in earlier budgets.

Other construction

O’Malley included — and the General Assembly seems likely to approve — $400 million for school construction. Montgomery County Public Schools requested about $135 million in state aid, but with 23 other jurisdictions vying for money, the school system stands to receive considerably less. County legislators last week argued for $16 million in small_ticket construction projects in their districts. One of the larger requests is for $2 million to bring Birchmere Music Hall to Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring. The House Appropriations Committee on Monday voted in favor of the project, Barkley said.

Board of Elections

A bill that would increase the county Board of Elections’ membership from three to five — including three from the majority party and two from the principal minority party — passed the House 137_0. The bill also won the approval of the county’s Senate delegation and was heard in the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee last week. The current board has three regular members and two substitute members. The proposal to reform the board comes after snafus at polling places during September’s primary election. ‘‘We needed more people available in case we have the problems we’ve had in the past," Barkley said.

Student voting rights

A bill from Del. Nancy J. King (D_Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village would have prohibited the student member of the county school board from voting on personnel matters. It failed to receive backing from the county’s House delegation.

Will Peppermints Help Test Scores? One Principal Hopes So, wtop.com, Mar 20^th, 2007

WASHINGTON _ How far would you go to help your child do better on a test?

At one Montgomery County middle school, the principal resorted to candy __ specifically peppermints. The Washington Post reports the principal of Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring ordered 3,600 peppermint candies for students before they took the Maryland School Assessment tests this week. Studies have shown a whiff of peppermint can help with sustained concentration and even athletic performance.

 

The county school system continues to struggle with a slight shortage of bus drivers, a problem not unique to Montgomery County. Drivers come and go, it is tough to find reliable drivers for a job where the hours are unstable, and many prospective drivers are only looking for a way into the school system, said schools Transportation Director John Matthews.

If a driver for a particular route calls in sick, the department has to scramble to find someone to cover it, which could contribute to the buses’ late arrivals at bus stops or schools, he said.

But, he said, ‘‘For the most part, every route is covered every day. There’s no critical shortage." Still, the school system could use 40 more drivers to cover its 1,150 bus routes. To fill those jobs, the school system recruits and advertises, especially to those with English as a second language, Matthews said.

Montgomery’s 1,400 school bus drivers earn $14.27 per hour. In July, that pay will increase to $16.20 per hour, as part of a labor agreement reached in February. Under the deal, drivers will receive pay raises of 4.8 percent, 5 percent and 5.3 percent over the next three years. The contract also provides extra pay for the time between afternoon shifts and activity runs, such as field trips and afterschool programs. School board officials last week were worried that County Executive Isiah Leggett’s proposed $4.1 billion operating budget — in which the schools budget request was cut by $20 million — would threaten pay raises for school staffers, including bus drivers. This week, the bus drivers union said it still plans to move forward with the deal. ‘‘Traditionally, these are difficult jobs to fill because of the split_shift nature of the work," said Sean Carr, a spokesman for the Services Employees International Union Local 500, which represents the drivers as well as other schools service employees. ‘‘It’s very difficult being responsible for the lives of these children every single day." Not as many people are attracted to the job because of the early mornings, he added.

While there are no shortages on a particular route, some parents have complained that the bus comes late or not at all. ‘‘Occasionally, I get a call, but we don’t have a widespread problem," Matthews said. But Jason Brodsky said there has been a longstanding problem on his daughter’s route. ‘‘No one has confidence that the bus will come," said Brodsky, whose daughter attends DuFief Elementary School in Gaithersburg. ‘‘It’s been a problem since the beginning of the school year." Brodsky said he twice contacted Rosemary Fox, transportation supervisor for the Wootton cluster, responsible for providing busing in Brodsky’s neighborhood. Fox confirmed a shortage of bus drivers but said the problem has been fixed. The last severe driver shortage was about 10 years ago when the transportation department ratcheted up recruitment efforts and established a four_week training program to get drivers behind the wheel quickly, Matthews said. The school system recruits drivers from all over the region, including West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Prince George’s County. Prince George’s schools have a similar driver shortage, but transportation officials there said they have had no complaints. ‘‘Recruitment is always at the forefront," said Michael Dodson, transportation director for the Prince George’s school system. ‘‘It’s the type of job that people get, and then they leave for another job." The 1,200 drivers in Prince George’s earn $15.42 per hour, Dodson said. His department recruits only drivers who live in Maryland. While Montgomery is always looking for drivers, Matthews acknowledged it is hard to find and retain good drivers. ‘‘It’s a challenge to keep people," he said. ‘‘It’s a very tough economic time, and challenging to find bus operators in Montgomery County, where people aren’t necessarily looking for this kind of job."

School menus compete with fast food, Parents said district should focus on nutrients, not appetites, by Audrey Dutton, GazetteStaff Writer, March 21, 2007

North Chevy Chase Elementary School fourth_grader Solomon Goldfarb complains about some selections on the Montgomery County Public Schools lunch menu during a public forum last Thursday night. Goldfarb, whose mother Aviva Goldfarb was co_organizer of the event, asked MCPS officials if the hot dogs served in his cafeteria were ‘‘made out of rubber." Lunches served to Montgomery County Public Schools elementary students are designed to compete with fast food, according to nutrition administrators at a school lunch forum last Thursday night. A handful of students and about 70 parents came out to the North Chevy Chase Elementary School cafeteria on a rainy evening, to hear from local and state politicians and MCPS dieticians. Parents were indignant about school dieticians’ opinions that menus should cater to children’s tastes, and politicians followed suit. But officials from the MCPS Division of Food and Nutrition Services, led by supervisor Marla Caplon, argued they were fighting an uphill battle to serve healthy foods. Caplon said it would be ‘‘ideal to have Brussels sprouts and broccoli in hot [lunches]" but said she preferred to feed students tater tots and corn as the meal’s vegetable. She said green vegetables would be thrown away. The school’s menu planners struggle to entice students into eating healthy meals, Caplon said, while using state_issued commodity foods. ‘‘We have to find ways to channel that into our menu and make it palatable to kids," she said.

School lunch entrees in the county have 1 to 27 grams of fat — or a full day’s recommended fat intake for a child age 4 to 13 — according to MCPS nutrient information. ‘‘Rather than prepping [students] to be part of the fast_food mentality, why not challenge them?" said Michael Tabor, a farmer who began advocating for healthy food in schools when his son was a Montgomery Blair High School student. The panel included Montgomery County Board of Education member Judith Ringgold Docca (Dist. 1) of Montgomery Village, who agreed that fast_food appetites were a foregone conclusion. ‘‘Those French fries are what the kids want, no matter what you say," Docca told parents. But Montgomery County Councilman George M. Leventhal (D_At Large) of Takoma Park and state Del. Jeff Waldstreicher (D_Dist. 18) of Kensington opposed the idea that school lunches must deign to compete with fast food. ‘‘It’s incredible, the extent to which our kids are subjected to advertising," Leventhal said. ‘‘But I don’t give my kid French fries just because he wants French fries.... What kids learn at an early age will stick with them." Waldstreicher promised to revisit a bill next session, allowing Montgomery County schools to buy slightly higher_priced produce from local growers. During this current session, a bill was introduced that would have allowed the school system to pay 5 percent higher for foods grown locally, but it failed. ‘‘When we have Gummi Bears served to our kids as fruit, that should be embarrassing to MCPS," Waldstreicher said. Waldstreicher said the Maryland General Assembly had the power to mandate what goes into public school meals, and that he is committed to introducing a mandate if the bill does not pass.

School lunches are prepared in the county’s 30,000_square_foot production facility with equipment that slices up to 1,000 pounds of meat and cooks 200 gallons of soup per hour. More than 29,000 cookies, brownies and muffins are baked there each day. According to the MCPS, machinery slices and dices 3,000 pounds of vegetables per hour. But MCPS officials told parents on Thursday that it was not possible to slice fruit, responding to parents’ claims that whole fruits, especially apples, were unwieldy and unappetizing to young children. The MCPS currently buys breakfast and lunch ingredients from the lowest bidding supplier and receives commodity foods from the state, which officials attributed to budget constraints. ‘‘Why shouldn’t parents interpret the issue of trying to get the lowest bids possible for the food as getting the cheapest food possible for our children?" Tabor said, prompting applause from the audience. Two sets of siblings testified about cafeteria fare, including the son and daughter of forum co_organizer Aviva Goldfarb. Solomon Goldfarb, a North Chevy Chase fourth_grader, asked food administrators if the hot dogs served at lunch were ‘‘made out of rubber," and said the ‘‘cheese is too cheesy" on pizza slices. ‘‘He’s probably right," said Barbara Harral, food supervisor for the cluster that includes Rosemary Hills and North Chevy Chase elementary schools. She explained that, to meet dietary regulations, pizza slices are piled with 2 ounces of cheese. Lisa Hartigan said her daughter, a third_grader at Somerset Elementary School, requested a salad bar option in her cafeteria. Harral said schools could not afford salad bars. This made sense to Tabor, one of the most outspoken parents to raise complaints at the forum. He said healthy school lunches were a ‘‘budget and priorities" issue, not the fault of school district dieticians. ‘‘All [the nutrition administrators] are trying to do is provide kids with the healthiest food possible," Tabor said in a phone interview following the forum. ‘‘They need to have a really innovative and creative program, and probably extra money from the state, to address the issue of how do you get [students] to not go from the grill line to fast food?"

CJMS: KIDS Being Healthy EXPO __ May 10_12, 2007 in Baltimore, MD, that focuses on the problem of childhood obesity. Our workshops will give teachers, administrators, foodservice directors and personnel, caregivers, and parents the tools they need to help Children achieve better health.. Each day will feature two keynote sessions and 15 concurrent sessions. Keynotes include Antonia Demas, Ph.D., President, Food Studies Institute; Walt Larimore, MD, author SuperSized Kids: How to Protect Your Child from the Obesity Threat; Robert W. Sears, MD, Board_certified in Pediatrics; George Stella, Celebrity Chef, Author and Food Network Host of Low Carb and Lovin’ It; and Michele Simon, JD, MPH, Author of Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. We will also feature a premiere screening of Two Angry Moms, a documentary film that asks the question: What happens when two "fed_up" moms try to change the school lunch program? In addition, nationally renowned fitness guru and healthy eating advocate RICHARD SIMMONS will make a special appearance on Saturday May 12, leading exercise, speaking and doing a "meet and greet" following. Please join us for this exciting event. Visit www.kidsbeinghealthyexpo.com for more information Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:00 AM _ Saturday, May 12, 2007 6:00 PM Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, FEE ($79 for a limited time ) $99

Ikea puts a price tag on waste: Plastic shopping bags cost 5 cents, Chain will donate proceeds to a conservation group.By Avis Thomas_Lester The Washington Post, March 20, 2007

A nickel for a plastic shopping bag? That's nothing, said Tomma Clocker, of North Potomac, Md., who was born in Germany, where bags now cost about $1. ''In Europe, you always bring your bags,'' said Clocker as she shopped at Ikea in College Park, Md., Thursday. ''Americans don't because they are not as environmentally aware, because of the size of this country. In Europe, people live closer together and in smaller places. Much more consideration is given to how you impact your neighbor, on the inside of your home and on the outside.'' Ikea, which was founded in Sweden, brought a bit of that European sensibility to American shopping Thursday when it began charging for plastic bags. The move represents a step beyond the discounts that some retailers offer those who bring their own bags. Whole Foods markets, for instance, knock off a nickel for each bag customers bring in for their groceries. Customers paying for shopping bags? It's a seismic shift in the American way, akin to when service stations started charging for air or drinking water became something bought in a plastic bottle. This time, Ikea officials said, it's for a good cause. ''The goal is an environmental cause: to help reduce the waste of the plastic bags,'' said Sharon Black, public relations specialist at the College Park store.

With the new policy, the chain joins a host of government agencies, environmental groups and corporations trying to make the world a greener place. The Maryland General Assembly is weighing bills to put cleaner cars on the road and more environmentally friendly soap in the dishwasher. Fairfax County, Va., is promising to buy more wind energy. Wal_Mart is selling a more efficient light bulb, and some major grocery chains recycle their bags. Ikea officials said the home_furnishing chain gave away 70 million bags in the United States last year and hopes to cut the number in half this year by charging for them. The chain will donate proceeds from sales of the clear bags to American Forests, the nation's oldest citizens conservation group. Ikea expects to raise $7 million for the charity.To make sure customers got the point, the store deployed ''live sculpture.'' One actor, all in blue, including a blue Afro wig, represented Ikea's reusable blue shopping bag ? made of durable plastic and now on sale for 59 cents instead of 99 cents. Another, all in white, portrayed the store's clear plastic shopping bag. Customers who might have missed the store's postings about the bag charge paid attention to the actors and their message about waste. Ajax Joe Drayton, a founder of Joe's Movement Emporium, a performance group in Mount Rainier, Md., said the actors were happy to take part as a way to encourage people to think about the waste they generate. The group provided its services as a thank_you for donated furniture. ''We live in the time of disposable everything: disposable razors, disposable bags, disposable dishes,'' Drayton said. ''We use things and then we just throw them away and put them out of mind because it is faster that way.''

No one seemed to mind paying for the plastic bags. ''We are very wasteful as a nation and that includes me,'' said Mildred Talbott, of Baltimore. ''We don't have enough people speaking out like this and encouraging the rest of us to do the right thing.'' Maria Loretta, of Bethesda, Md. brought her own bag ? from Trader Joe's. ''I hate all of the waste in this country,'' said Loretta, a chef who was born in Colombia. ''