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This story was corrected on Feb. 25

The old ways of advocacy are being challenged by a group of parents in Montgomery County, whose aggressive pursuit of information frustrates some leaders, but is still causing change in the county.

The Parents Coalition of Montgomery County — with some 345 participants, it says — has relentlessly pressed county leaders on a number of issues, usually through mass e-mails to the County Council, the school system and the media.

The coalition doesn't hold monthly meetings or receive dues. Simply put, parents with Internet access can join the coalition and post about any issue, usually school-related.

"With the Internet, and people talking to each other so much, and they see what's happening with their tax dollars, people don't lose interest just 'cause their kids graduate," said Paula Bienenfeld, a Parents Coalition member. "It's a great way to broadcast across the whole county, and there's almost no other platform for that."

The Parents Coalition is much different from traditional PTAs, which meet primarily to raise money for their respective schools, said Janis Sartucci, a coalition member.

"We tend to pull together groups of people [comparable] to what the PTAs get," she said. "We tend to get just as much interest as a PTA, and a lot of times, even more than a PTA would get."

And unlike a PTA, said coalition member Robert Astrove, the coalition is "very nimble and quick to get into issues. With other traditional groups, with all its infrastructure and hierarchy, it can't do that."

As a nonprofit group, the PTA operates under stricter rules, said Kay Romero, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs.

"We are a bottom-up-structured organization with a large voting body that drives the direction of our advocacy," Romero wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette. "There will be differences of opinion, and we welcome all points of view, but in votes taken by our organization after discussion and debate, majority rules."

And while the Parents Coalition has more than 300 participants, the PTAs' membership base is more than 50,000 people countywide, including parents, teachers and students, Romero said.

"We respect any group [that] advocates for children," Romero wrote in the e-mail. "The huge amount of volunteer effort put forth by our local PTA members is something that is consistent each and every year. Criticizing others is easy for some to do, but PTA volunteerism is not about that."

The Parents Coalition formed in 2002 after the merger of several parent groups. Instead of the groups fighting each other on certain issues, it was more effective to form one group and advocate for various school-related issues, said Rosanne A. Hurwitz, a coalition member.

"So, it's no longer the Group A versus Group B, it's more the model of collaboration where there is no opposition," she said.

Only a few of the parents advocate publicly for their issues.

The coalition does not have one school-related agenda. Instead, different parents push their respective concerns.

For example, some parents might have questions about school fees, while others may want to know more about the school system's accelerated and enriched instruction.

"It doesn't matter to me personally what their issue is," Sartucci said. "I'll give them my phone number, and I'll talk to them and tell them what I've done."

During an interview, Sartucci said she has testified before the school board on concerns brought to the coalition by teachers.

"They may not have been my issues, I may not have thought them up, but I know many, many times, things that we bring up are fed to us, told to us, we're tipped off by other parents. We're an amalgamation of lots of people's info."

Still, not everyone is as sanguine about the Parents Coalition and its role.

For Patricia B. O'Neill, vice president of the county school board and its longest-tenured member, the coalition goes too far at times.

"We've always had folks who are critics of the school system, who believe in micro-scrutiny of actions of the board of education and the school system," said O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda.

"What troubles me sometimes is the postings that border on cyber-bullying. Some people who post on the Parents Coalition don't believe in the hard work of our school system employees. I think that the more you scan search engines, the more you may find mistakes that people make. I'm not perfect, and I don't know anyone else who is."

Coalition successes

While some of the coalition's concerns do not gain traction, others do and have been investigated.

One issue that typifies how the group operates involved Promethean boards, or smart boards, that work in conjunction with a computer to allow for interactive learning.

Through multiple blog postings, the coalition publicly questioned the school system's spending on the boards. The County Council had approved $698,000 in fiscal 2009 to continue installing the interactive boards in classrooms.

Coalition members initially believed local taxpayer dollars were being spent — and were quite vocal about it.

It turns out that the school system used additional federal money to purchase the boards.

Still, the coalition put the issue out there, and on Monday the council's Education Committee questioned the school system for using federal money without telling the council, which has the final funding authority on all budgets.

"We want to be open and transparent and accountable," Schools Superintendent Jerry D. Weast told the committee. "I don't think there's any intent to deceive and not be accountable."

Last year, the group also questioned the amount of money some school staff charged on their credit cards. A subsequent state audit suggested that the school system tighten its regulations on card use.

In response to the audit, Chief Operating Officer Larry A. Bowers said officials would look into the system's use of credit cards. In August, a few parents from the group said the school system acted illegally by charging curricular fees to students, when public school education is supposed to be free.

The fee complaints caught the attention of Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Dist. 17) of Gaithersburg, who said he would file a bill in Annapolis to make it illegal for any school system to charge fees.

School leaders initially stood by their decision to charge, before forming two committees to examine the process by which fees are charged.

In January, school leaders scaled back on the fees that can be passed on to students. Under the new plan, schools can no longer charge students for science lab supplies, workbooks used for instruction or towels for gym class.

The coalition also has called for more openness in the school system's spending. Because of that, Del. Alfred C. Carr Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington filed a bill last month to require the county school system to build a database and publish details on spending of $10,000 and up.

On Feb. 13, the amount was increased to spending above $25,000, but still cleared the House delegation in Annapolis.

Those examples, and others, "came to light as a result of discussion by this group," said coalition member Astrove, who advocates on special-education issues. "It's a new model of advocacy. It's much more of a virtual group."

The school system says it is not against the group's advocacy. A school official said the county wants to make sure other parents — whose voices typically aren't heard at public hearings — can advocate for their children.

"We would not have a world-class school system without parental involvement," said Steve Simon, a school system spokesman. "We welcome input from parents. We have a variety of issues that attract a lot more interest than others. It's not uncommon that we'll have strong opinions on a variety of issues."

The school system has various parent workshops and academies to get more parents involved, Simon said.

Meanwhile, the Parents Coalition continues its quest to stay involved in school system issues.

Last week, 1,000 people visited the coalition's blog, Sartucci said. The group also has a Facebook fan page. As of Tuesday, the coalition's page had 14 fans.