Mathew Rosengart asks Jamie Spears in court docs if he had a romantic relationship with Lou Taylor
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First Semester Final Exams Waived
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NEWARK– School system officials agreed to waive final exams for first semester courses after hearing concerns from teachers.
The Worcester County Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to waive final exams for first semester courses because of the number of students in COVID-19 quarantine and isolation.
Annette Wallace, the school system’s chief operating and academic officer for grades 9-12, told the school board she’d been approached a week ago by staff with concerns regarding holding exams that counted for 20% of a student’s grade when so many weren’t able to attend school because of COVID-19. Teachers were also worried about how they’d potentially give makeup exams to students who were in quarantine on the exam days. Wallace said it would be challenging to give makeup exams to students after the semester had changed, as they’d have different class schedules.
“It also would be a burden for our students,” she said.
She said an average of 63 staff members were out daily last week because of COVID-19 while an average of 534 students were out.
“It is a significant concern,” she said. “We felt like when we looked at those numbers the feelings of our teachers were on point.”
Superintendent Lou Taylor added that while the school system was proposing to waive final exams, there would still be a culminating activity for each class such as a test or project.
The board voted unanimously to approve the recommendation to waive the final exam policy for the first semester. School board member Jon Andes, who retired from the position of superintendent in 2012, suggested the executive team consider changing the weight of the final exam in the future.
“I hope at some point we go back and revisit that,” he said, adding that the final exam used to account for 10% of a student’s grade. “As a person who’s a poor test taker, having a final exam count for 20% would’ve been a significant issue for me.”
Taylor said the policy would be reviewed in the coming months.
“I’ve not been happy with that policy since taking over as superintendent,” he said.
Taylor said his team would review the issue and return to the board with a recommendation.
“We will do our homework and our due diligence,” he said.
One thing I don’t and will never understand about Juno Lynn
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4 Hours Of Synchronous Learning Planned For Inclement Weather Days
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A snowy scene is pictured in Ocean City earlier this month. Photo by Chris Parypa
NEWARK– The school system has adjusted its distance learning plan for inclement weather days after receiving guidance from the state.
While Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) announced early on that inclement weather days beyond the three built into the calendar would be distance learning days, changes to what students can expect – including the addition of four hours of synchronous learning – were shared this week. Annette Wallace, the school system’s chief operating and academic officer for grades 9-12, said requirements from the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), which has to approve the school system’s distance learning plan for inclement weather, prompted the change.
“We feel really positive about it,” she said. “We hope to submit it this week to MSDE.”
Though WCPS initially told parents they could expect distance learning for inclement weather if the school system’s built-in inclement weather days were used, they said the state advised them Jan. 14 of requirements for any distance learning days. Those requirements include four hours of synchronous – essentially live – instruction and that the distance learning plan be presented in advance to the local school board. With potential snow on the horizon, Wallace said WCPS was presenting the board with its plan this week.
She pointed out that officials knew synchronous learning was a challenge.
“As all of you know, throughout this pandemic we’ve had a lot of discussion around number one, lack of devices, but specifically number two, lack of high quality internet access throughout our county,” she said. “Even giving out hotspots doesn’t work.”
To combat the issue, she said WCPS would make sure that there was a phone number associated with all Zoom lessons so even without internet access students could participate.
“The student will not need a smart device in order to two-way communicate using that phone number,” she said.
As part of the plan students with special needs will receive their regular services, even if they have to be made up after the fact. WCPS has also set aside funds for tutoring to support students who have trouble with distance learning.
Superintendent Lou Taylor said WCPS was doing the best it could with the new requirements.
“This has caused a lot of dialogue, I’ll use a nice word, between the 24 superintendents in Maryland,” he said. “There’s been not really a clear expectation and many superintendents are very frustrated with what to do, when to do it and how to do it.”
Ex-FBI agent corroborates claim that Britney Spears’ dad, Jamie, spied on her
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A former FBI special agent corroborated a claim that Britney Spears’ father spied on the pop star for years while acting as her conservator.
Sherine Ebadi, who worked on fraud and corruption cases for over 10 years at the federal agency, claimed in a declaration filed Friday in Los Angeles and obtained by Page Six that Jamie Spears “engaged in and directed others to engage in unconscionable violations of [Britney’s] privacy and civil liberties.”
Ebadi alleged in the filing that her findings “raise criminal implications” for Jamie, who oversaw his daughter’s personal, medical and financial affairs for the bulk of her nearly 14-year conservatorship before a judge terminated it in November 2021.
Britney’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, submitted Ebadi’s declaration as part of a larger court filing accusing Jamie, 69, of taking more than $6 million from the 40-year-old “Toxic” singer’s estate and using “his role as conservator to further his own personal and business interests.”
Rosengart had retained Ebadi, who now works as an associate managing director in the Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice of Kroll Associates Inc., to investigate Jamie’s management of the conservatorship.
Britney has accused Jamie of “conservatorship abuse.” Britney Spears/Instagram
Ebadi’s declaration said she “personally debriefed and interviewed” Alex Vlasov, the whistleblower who alleged in the New York Times documentary “Controlling Britney Spears” in September that Jamie had monitored Britney’s cellphone and bugged her bedroom, and concluded that he was a “highly credible” witness.
Vlasov, who worked for Britney’s former bodyguard Edan Yemini, told Ebadi that his employer, Black Box Security, “was already monitoring” the Grammy winner’s BlackBerry in 2012 when he started working there. Vlasov claimed that when Britney switched to an iPhone the following year, he was entrusted with “finding monitoring software and installing it as a hidden app,” according to the declaration.
“Mr. Vlasov was tasked with reviewing the monitored content and relaying that information through Yemini to [Jamie],” Ebadi said. “Sometimes, Mr. Vlasov provided information on [Britney’s] monitored communications directly to [Jamie].”
By 2015, Jamie allegedly instructed Black Box “to mirror the content of [Britney’s] iCloud to a separate device that could be reviewed” at the suggestion of Robin Greenhill, an associate of Britney’s then-business manager, Lou Taylor, per the filing.
“According to Mr. Vlasov, Black Box sent [Britney’s] personal communications to [Jamie] at his explicit request,” Ebadi said, alleging in the declaration that Jamie “would on occasion” ask to see his daughter’s “therapy notes or text messages” — even after he stepped down as the conservator of her person in September 2019.
Jamie oversaw Britney’s day-to-day life and estate for most of her nearly 14-year conservatorship. AFP via Getty Images
Ebadi said Vlasov also alleged that Jamie was “particularly interested in his daughter’s attorney-client communications and wanted regular updates from Black Box on the substance of those privileged messages.” Vlasov claimed his employer did not ask him to stop reviewing such communications until 2020.
Ebadi, who was on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, said in her declaration that she also “corroborated” Vlasov’s bugging claim based on their meeting, though she did not specify whether Vlasov had provided physical evidence.
“According to Mr. Vlasov, Black Box was initially responsible for suggesting that a secret listening device be planted in [Britney’s] bedroom, but [Jamie] ‘loved’ the idea and approved and instructed that the installation move forward,” she claimed.
“The Black Box employee who placed the secret device in [Britney’s] bedroom explained to Mr. Vlasov that he did so by duct-taping it behind furniture so it could not be seen and that he added a separate battery pack to the recording device to permit continuous recording for a longer period of time.”
Vlasov alleged to Ebadi that there were “hundreds of hours of audio recording” between 2016 and 2018, including conversations between Britney and her then-boyfriend as well as her teenage sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
Britney’s conservatorship ended in November. britneyspears/Instagram
Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment on Ebadi’s declaration, but his former lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, said in a statement in September that his “actions were done with the knowledge and consent of Britney, her court-appointed attorney [Samuel D. Ingham III] and/or the court.”
A lawyer for Yemini, meanwhile, said at the time, “Black Box have always conducted themselves within professional, ethical and legal bounds, and they are particularly proud of their work in keeping Ms. Spears safe for many years.”
Britney testified last summer that she wanted her estranged dad to be charged with “conservatorship abuse.”
Various conservatorship-related requests and legal fees are set to be discussed at a court hearing Wednesday afternoon.