Northwood @ Woodward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://moco360.media/2024/04/11/northwood-high-students-parents-share-frustration-with-proposed-plans-for-pending-move-to-woodward-high/

There was a community meeting yesterday about the move to Woodward. What blew my mind the most about this was there is no one in charge of overseeing the whole construction & move, just little departments (transportation, athletics, etc.) working on their little piece of the puzzle. Explains a lot.

100% BS

SETH ADAMS is in charge. He tells the BOE what will happen.

Everyone working on Woodward knows this.

Well, Seth Adams is incompetent because this move is a shitshow

Seth Adams is very competent, and that is why these short-changed projects move forward. His interests, reflecting those of MCPS leadership (and county council funding priorities), and those of the stakeholders, families, teachers, etc., they are supposed to serve are simply misaligned, which is why these short-changed projects are considered in the first place.

Like most of those in highly compensated positions with considerable exposure to politics, he's willing to color his communication to facilitate certain objectives (e.g., leaving out key, foreseeable items when speaking with until it is too late for others to advocate for anything different). This is true of many in upper MCPS leadership.

Where better aligned, there are benefits to that capability. Just look at his takedown of the charter school application. Applicants for those not only would undercut system funding for others, but typically rely on known shaky and outright false assumptions that would under-deliver to the students they putatively would serve. MCPS was forced by the state to reconsider, and did so, but stomped all over it with the help of Adams' excellent critique of their incomparably low expectations for cost and resulting financing. It was clear from both the thrust of their own presentation and their reactions to Adams' counter that MCPS had kept him in their back pocket until the last minute, when it would be most damaging and offer the least opportunity for the applicants to recover.

Just because he's good at his job doesn't mean he's good with it. Northwood isn't the only community that has been on the short end of that stick.

LOL Hi Seth!

Now tell everyone how YOUR plan was to put a cell tower in the Woodward home team bleachers so the spectators would only be allowed to sit on half the field. You loved that plan, but you were stopped because it was exposed that you lied to the hearing examiner.

The PP's writing style is a little.overwrought and therefore unclear, but I think they called Seth Adams a liar, so I doubt it's Adams posting.

The post did nothing but praise Seth Adams over and over. It is him or his mother.

You lack reading comprehension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://moco360.media/2024/04/11/northwood-high-students-parents-share-frustration-with-proposed-plans-for-pending-move-to-woodward-high/

There was a community meeting yesterday about the move to Woodward. What blew my mind the most about this was there is no one in charge of overseeing the whole construction & move, just little departments (transportation, athletics, etc.) working on their little piece of the puzzle. Explains a lot.

100% BS

SETH ADAMS is in charge. He tells the BOE what will happen.

Everyone working on Woodward knows this.

Well, Seth Adams is incompetent because this move is a shitshow

Seth Adams is very competent, and that is why these short-changed projects move forward. His interests, reflecting those of MCPS leadership (and county council funding priorities), and those of the stakeholders, families, teachers, etc., they are supposed to serve are simply misaligned, which is why these short-changed projects are considered in the first place.

Like most of those in highly compensated positions with considerable exposure to politics, he's willing to color his communication to facilitate certain objectives (e.g., leaving out key, foreseeable items when speaking with until it is too late for others to advocate for anything different). This is true of many in upper MCPS leadership.

Where better aligned, there are benefits to that capability. Just look at his takedown of the charter school application. Applicants for those not only would undercut system funding for others, but typically rely on known shaky and outright false assumptions that would under-deliver to the students they putatively would serve. MCPS was forced by the state to reconsider, and did so, but stomped all over it with the help of Adams' excellent critique of their incomparably low expectations for cost and resulting financing. It was clear from both the thrust of their own presentation and their reactions to Adams' counter that MCPS had kept him in their back pocket until the last minute, when it would be most damaging and offer the least opportunity for the applicants to recover.

Just because he's good at his job doesn't mean he's good with it. Northwood isn't the only community that has been on the short end of that stick.

LOL Hi Seth!

Now tell everyone how YOUR plan was to put a cell tower in the Woodward home team bleachers so the spectators would only be allowed to sit on half the field. You loved that plan, but you were stopped because it was exposed that you lied to the hearing examiner.

The PP's writing style is a little.overwrought and therefore unclear, but I think they called Seth Adams a liar, so I doubt it's Adams posting.

The post did nothing but praise Seth Adams over and over. It is him or his mother.

You lack reading comprehension.

No problem comprehending how Seth Adams continually lies to parents. That's very clear.

[Anonymous]

WJ cluster reps are organizing to advocate at the County Council for the reinstatement of the Auditorium at Woodward.

You can reach the entire council through this link: https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/CCL_ContactForms/ContactCouncil.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ cluster reps are organizing to advocate at the County Council for the reinstatement of the Auditorium at Woodward.

You can reach the entire council through this link: https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/CCL_ContactForms/ContactCouncil.aspx

What's their argument on where the money should come from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ cluster reps are organizing to advocate at the County Council for the reinstatement of the Auditorium at Woodward.

You can reach the entire council through this link: https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/CCL_ContactForms/ContactCouncil.aspx

What's their argument on where the money should come from?

The argument is that the proposed boundary study draws from 36% of the county and that they should not set a precedent for inequitable distribution of arts facilities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure why anyone is surprised.
MCPS has shown over and over again that they are not competent and they put students and teachers last. Seth Adams would not last long at any well run business

A well run business would not constantly be pulling the rug out from under the man! A pp accused him of lying, but it is not lying when you have to respond to changing circumstances. And no, I am not Mr. Adams or his mother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sports practice schedule is also crazy. Kids will get bused all over the county for practices. Then they will be brought back to Woodward after practice. Then a different bus will take them back to their neighborhood. With rush hour traffic, kids will spend a lot of time on various buses. Seth Adams and his crew just dropped this bombshell last week

That's Jeff Sullivan you'll want to direct your anger toward.

Animosity toward Seth Adams in this situation is misplaced. He is the only project manager at MCPS who has earned my respect over the years. I do not believe he held his current (higher) position in 2019 when this plan was first hatched. He gets the buildings built, but don't blame him for the failure in communication about the practical impact on the Northwood community. There was never a time when the sports fields were going to be ready, and the Auditorium situation rests squarely on this current budget cycle. If someone has $$$$ sitting around, discuss donating it to build the auditorium.

Seth was in charge of this back then. He ran the whole capital improvements bit. Just not yet all of facilities.

He was director of the Division of Construction back then, not Associate Superintendent for the Office of Facilities Management, the post he currently holds and to which he was promoted on May 25, 2023. The earliest impacts on the Northwood community are in August. Personally, I think more communication should have started 6 months out in February, but I think a lot of CO energy was zapped by the Superintendent investigation and they did not have the budget nailed down regarding the Auditorium situation. Many moving parts. Communication problems up and down the chain.

I'm not sure if/where you draw a distinction, unless you are just reporting the proper title (I said he was running capital improvements where you note Director of Construction -- tomAto/tomAHto). He definitely was shaping the whole Woodward-Northwood thing well prior to initial BOE approvals. Agree about moving parts and MCPS comms problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure why anyone is surprised.
MCPS has shown over and over again that they are not competent and they put students and teachers last. Seth Adams would not last long at any well run business

A well run business would not constantly be pulling the rug out from under the man! A pp accused him of lying, but it is not lying when you have to respond to changing circumstances. And no, I am not Mr. Adams or his mother.

DP. Not Seth or a relation, either, but I did make the
04/13/2024 20:41 post in response to someone posting that he was incompetent.

To clarify for the poster who thinks I was heaping praise on Seth, it was, at best, a backhanded compliment. He is very good at his job, just not very good for us -- he gets done what MCPS upper leadership wants within what the MoCo County Council will afford. Unfortunately, those are not what we want or wish they would afford (and they are poor stewards of our interests in that regard).

As for lying, yes, he lies by omission, significantly and knowingly so in interactions with the community stakeholders of prospective projects. Some holding back often is necessary to provide room to evaluate and adjust. His penchant is to go beyond that, providing different slices of that which is known to different sub-groups of stakeholders, denying them, individually or as a group, effective agency that they otherwise might have if well informed in a timely manner.

That said, if he didn't, he wouldn't be able to do what he does, and that is part of the game in a politically charged arena. He's far from the worst in MCPS upper leadership with this -- I've seen bald-faced lies from some, not just to community members, but to the BOE, as well.

And, to your point about rug-pulling, the challenges are real. The County Council has underfunded MCPS for a very long time. Covid and its aftermath threw a wrench in things. MCPS fails even to consider more holistic and long-term facilities planning that might allow not only more efficient use of funds, but also more creative approaches to address community need, though that is hard when constantly underfunded.

Still, he's well compensated to be the one to address such challenges. It's not the compensation I mind, however; it's the lack of consideration. We all have failings, I suppose...

[Anonymous]

MCPS is making huge budget cut in lots of areas so this isn't surprising. What is obnoxious are the BOE just moved their offices and got all new furniture/remodeled the space and yet, they scream poverty. Their priorities are messed up and those folks need to go. We need a full line by line audit and cut out the waste and then there will be funding for things like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sports practice schedule is also crazy. Kids will get bused all over the county for practices. Then they will be brought back to Woodward after practice. Then a different bus will take them back to their neighborhood. With rush hour traffic, kids will spend a lot of time on various buses. Seth Adams and his crew just dropped this bombshell last week

That's Jeff Sullivan you'll want to direct your anger toward.

Animosity toward Seth Adams in this situation is misplaced. He is the only project manager at MCPS who has earned my respect over the years. I do not believe he held his current (higher) position in 2019 when this plan was first hatched. He gets the buildings built, but don't blame him for the failure in communication about the practical impact on the Northwood community. There was never a time when the sports fields were going to be ready, and the Auditorium situation rests squarely on this current budget cycle. If someone has $$$$ sitting around, discuss donating it to build the auditorium.

Seth was in charge of this back then. He ran the whole capital improvements bit. Just not yet all of facilities.

He was director of the Division of Construction back then, not Associate Superintendent for the Office of Facilities Management, the post he currently holds and to which he was promoted on May 25, 2023. The earliest impacts on the Northwood community are in August. Personally, I think more communication should have started 6 months out in February, but I think a lot of CO energy was zapped by the Superintendent investigation and they did not have the budget nailed down regarding the Auditorium situation. Many moving parts. Communication problems up and down the chain.

I'm not sure if/where you draw a distinction, unless you are just reporting the proper title (I said he was running capital improvements where you note Director of Construction -- tomAto/tomAHto). He definitely was shaping the whole Woodward-Northwood thing well prior to initial BOE approvals. Agree about moving parts and MCPS comms problems.

DP. Capital Planning is one division, Construction is another, both within Facilities Management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ cluster reps are organizing to advocate at the County Council for the reinstatement of the Auditorium at Woodward.

You can reach the entire council through this link: https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/CCL_ContactForms/ContactCouncil.aspx

What's their argument on where the money should come from?

Can we reinstate developer impact taxes yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The sports practice schedule is also crazy. Kids will get bused all over the county for practices. Then they will be brought back to Woodward after practice. Then a different bus will take them back to their neighborhood. With rush hour traffic, kids will spend a lot of time on various buses. Seth Adams and his crew just dropped this bombshell last week

That's Jeff Sullivan you'll want to direct your anger toward.

Animosity toward Seth Adams in this situation is misplaced. He is the only project manager at MCPS who has earned my respect over the years. I do not believe he held his current (higher) position in 2019 when this plan was first hatched. He gets the buildings built, but don't blame him for the failure in communication about the practical impact on the Northwood community. There was never a time when the sports fields were going to be ready, and the Auditorium situation rests squarely on this current budget cycle. If someone has $$$$ sitting around, discuss donating it to build the auditorium.

Seth was in charge of this back then. He ran the whole capital improvements bit. Just not yet all of facilities.

He was director of the Division of Construction back then, not Associate Superintendent for the Office of Facilities Management, the post he currently holds and to which he was promoted on May 25, 2023. The earliest impacts on the Northwood community are in August. Personally, I think more communication should have started 6 months out in February, but I think a lot of CO energy was zapped by the Superintendent investigation and they did not have the budget nailed down regarding the Auditorium situation. Many moving parts. Communication problems up and down the chain.

I'm not sure if/where you draw a distinction, unless you are just reporting the proper title (I said he was running capital improvements where you note Director of Construction -- tomAto/tomAHto). He definitely was shaping the whole Woodward-Northwood thing well prior to initial BOE approvals. Agree about moving parts and MCPS comms problems.

DP. Capital Planning is one division, Construction is another, both within Facilities Management.

Think of Capital Planning, at least then, as more financial management/accounting. Definitely involved in feasibility, site selection, etc., but more the 30,000-foot level. Broader.

Think of Construction (was or became "Planning and Construction" -- not sure when -- indicating a fuller scope), again, at least then, as more engineering/project management. The technical approach, configuration options, scheduling, etc., for a capital improvement. More focused, and also involved in the evaluation of facility conditions, given the nature of their personnel's expertise.

They needed to work together, of course, with considerations of the one dictating limits on the other, and vice versa. And they had to work with other central offices, like transportation, as things progressed. School administrations, too, of course, though there was variable effectiveness in each administrator's advocacy for their community and definite, if unclear, limits as to that which they could influence.

And it is, ultimately, on Jack Smith and Monifa McKnight -- the buck stopped there. Intimating, however, that Seth wasn't responsible for some of the things folks are voicing about Woodward and Northwood because he was the Division Director for Construction (instead of Capital Planning or in charge of all of Facilities back at the inception of ) misrepresents his role.

His facility with communication also saw him more often the lead with stakeholders where there was overlap, and was, I expect, among the reasons for his eventual selection to lead the whole department. That year-past promotion was titular (Director to Associate Superintendent, but both of Facilities; probably to rank him more appropriately in relation to his administrative peers and provide a salary bump), as he'd been in charge of all of Facilities for a while before that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WJ cluster reps are organizing to advocate at the County Council for the reinstatement of the Auditorium at Woodward.

You can reach the entire council through this link: https://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/CCL_ContactForms/ContactCouncil.aspx

What's their argument on where the money should come from?

Can we reinstate developer impact taxes yet?

But, but...then the developers will all go build in Montana instead of MoCo! Especially smaller, local operators that would build "missing middle" housing (which shouldn't be beholden to silly notions of adequate school capacity). Crisis, here, people! Crisis! (And taxes bad! Taxes BAAAAD...)

[Anonymous]

Seth Adams plays a political game to please his superiors. You shouldn’t work for a school district if you don’t give a damn about kids

[Anonymous]

MCPS would never play their bs games with wealthy schools like Whitman or Churchill. They would be too scared of the parent pushback. It is disgusting how MCPS claims to be all about equity but screws over their lower income student population