APS budget is unacceptable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

Yes- I agree with you. Climate and culture can be improved by making needed cuts, keeping class sizes small, and paying the staff that work directly with kids better. Curriculum and Instruction sounds great. What do they do? The teachers do the planning. One person. McLaughlin wants to manage a huge department, and I don’t know why they’ve given him so many new positions. He has never handled finances for an organization this size, and he is awful to the people that work with and for him, and Mayo and Pearson (soooo many layers!) know it. They should go just for that. Publicity and community relations can’t fix this. Huge departments that should be cut by at least half. How many superintendents do we need?

Also- maybe they wouldn’t have needed all of these positions if Duran hadn’t given them all an extra three weeks of paid leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

Stockton was with MCPS for a blink of an eye. Not sure I find that persuasive that he knew everything that had gone on and was going on there.
Murphy? Don't know how long he was there. I think it's odd that you paint these people as totally corrupt by only citing things that happened when they were at MCPS, which is for both of them only a blip in their entire careers. Mayo another story, clearly.

While I believe many positions could be eliminated at Syphax, I think you should be eliminating positions because they're unnecessary and not because of who currently holds them. Move the competent people into the positions that should be retained; don't keep a position because a competent person is in it. The problem answering the PP's question is that it is unclear to most ordinary citizens what all the positions supposedly do in order to be able to answer which ones should go. But the added layers Duran has put in is likely a good start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

Any positions where certified teachers are in an office while vacancies exist in classrooms, for one. That’s just grossly incompetent/ negligent. DEI can be one person. Content areas can have a coordinator, a supervisor, a director, or a specialist, but not all 4. I’d start there.

Disagree strongly. Experienced and knowledgeable teachers are precisely who you should have helping administer/manage a school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

Stockton was with MCPS for a blink of an eye. Not sure I find that persuasive that he knew everything that had gone on and was going on there.
Murphy? Don't know how long he was there. I think it's odd that you paint these people as totally corrupt by only citing things that happened when they were at MCPS, which is for both of them only a blip in their entire careers. Mayo another story, clearly.

While I believe many positions could be eliminated at Syphax, I think you should be eliminating positions because they're unnecessary and not because of who currently holds them. Move the competent people into the positions that should be retained; don't keep a position because a competent person is in it. The problem answering the PP's question is that it is unclear to most ordinary citizens what all the positions supposedly do in order to be able to answer which ones should go. But the added layers Duran has put in is likely a good start.

Mayo is the worst. He let SSREM and HR go nuts and make a ton of mistakes and has not been held accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

Stockton was with MCPS for a blink of an eye. Not sure I find that persuasive that he knew everything that had gone on and was going on there.
Murphy? Don't know how long he was there. I think it's odd that you paint these people as totally corrupt by only citing things that happened when they were at MCPS, which is for both of them only a blip in their entire careers. Mayo another story, clearly.

While I believe many positions could be eliminated at Syphax, I think you should be eliminating positions because they're unnecessary and not because of who currently holds them. Move the competent people into the positions that should be retained; don't keep a position because a competent person is in it. The problem answering the PP's question is that it is unclear to most ordinary citizens what all the positions supposedly do in order to be able to answer which ones should go. But the added layers Duran has put in is likely a good start.

Murphy was one of the few people fired for that MCPS scandal, so it’s definitely fair to paint him as corrupt. Apparently someone had attempted a coverup/ destroyed relevant files, and it seems it was likely him.

Stockton was the Chief of Staff for goodness sake. No one said he was corrupt, just that he was in the circle of people who were. He didn’t blow the whistle to WaPo, that fell to those who were harassed. When he left MCPS, their press release said it was because he had been in a long distance relationship. That struck me as odd because moving to Arlington doesn’t change that.

Plus, those are positions that are new within the last five years. Duran should be able to run the school system, it’s not nearly as big as FCPS or MCPS. It’s redundancy at the top, which is why I’d start there. There are many examples of bloat at the lower levels of Syphax too, and I agree with other particular examples cited above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

Any positions where certified teachers are in an office while vacancies exist in classrooms, for one. That’s just grossly incompetent/ negligent. DEI can be one person. Content areas can have a coordinator, a supervisor, a director, or a specialist, but not all 4. I’d start there.

Disagree strongly. Experienced and knowledgeable teachers are precisely who you should have helping administer/manage a school system.

It’s not okay with me that we have subs in classrooms while there are certified people in Syphax that could teach those kids. That’s failing those kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

Any positions where certified teachers are in an office while vacancies exist in classrooms, for one. That’s just grossly incompetent/ negligent. DEI can be one person. Content areas can have a coordinator, a supervisor, a director, or a specialist, but not all 4. I’d start there.

Disagree strongly. Experienced and knowledgeable teachers are precisely who you should have helping administer/manage a school system.

+1

There will always been the need for subs. But that’s a different resource pool than administrators. Want fewer/better subs? Improve conditions/pay for teachers and subs. The solution isn’t pulling from staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cutting the aquatics field trip will save almost no money. APS barely funds field trips. Mostly to planetarium, outdoor lab and pools. PTAs fundraise for Jamestown and the like.

Kids like pool week. No sense in cutting it. And APS is not going to fund something better.

Careful. I'm sure people would like to eliminate the Planetarium trips, too. Don't remind them!

How much does APS spend on the planetarium?

The planetarium nonprofit “The Friends” took over a lot of the spending during a previous round of budget cuts. There are many things APS used to fund that are now funded through donations and by volunteers. I guess it’s a trend all over the country. The expectations for government services are just much lower than in the olden days.

are you kidding? in the olden days, my school system sure as h*ll did not have its own auditorium or private forest.

IMO, the planetarium, the outdoor forest, and sending kids to TJHSST are the 3 things that stand out for APS. Both the planetarium and outdoor lab are unique to APS and EVERY student has access. TJHSST, I've gone back and forth on; but I've settled on it being a good thing. Maybe some costs can be reduced/recovered with scaled transportation fees or maybe Arlington TJ parents can expand carpooling; but participating in the program does not cost more per pupil than APS spends and provides a very unique opportunity that APS cannot provide.

Therefore, IMO, these 3 aspects of APS are worth the relatively minimal investments. The real luxury items are all the option programs and iPads for every student through 8th grade. These are the first things that should be looked at the very instant step one - eliminating the fluff at Syphax, eliminating all the paid vacation for Syphax employees, and reducing the Superintendent's benefit package (does that position still get a provided car???) - is done. Then get the County serious about coordinating ART routes and get all 6th - 12th graders off yellow school buses.

I agree with you that every kid doesn’t need an iPad, but I have never understood why people think option programs are so expensive. It’s not like kids in option programs would all move to private. APS would still have to pay for teachers, principals and buy textbooks etc if the schools became neighborhood schools.

1. Additional transportation. yes, many would be on buses anyway, but to the same schools and not buses collecting students from across the county.
2. Can't just hire any old teacher or re-allocate teachers from other schools. You need bilingual/Spanish-speaking teachers for immersion; Montessori requires specialized training; etc.
3. Montessori also requires more teachers - an additional teacher in every classroom.
4. Paying extra for additional/different materials and curriculum.
5. IB programs/schools require a fee to the IB Organization to be recognized as an IB school.
6. IB teachers also require specialized training.
7. Running multiple options is a collective expense.

Can’t speak for others but Montessori is priced in the middle of all Arl ES. Did you see the AEM post showing cost per pupil? Montessori teachers should be certified as such but they do that on their own dime - they get no reimbursement or extra pay compared with other teachers. Also, the APS Montessori model is 2 adults, not two teachers in a class (and I don’t think you’ll find an APS Montessori class with two teachers even though there should be). And Montessori materials last for years or decades, literally, some teachers will carry some same materials their whole careers. That means the annual costs are lower because you’re not buying whole new textbooks and tools every SY. Again, look at the cost per pupil. There are neighborhood NArl ES significantly higher than all options. Why?

People like to say options are more expensive but can't back it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

Any positions where certified teachers are in an office while vacancies exist in classrooms, for one. That’s just grossly incompetent/ negligent. DEI can be one person. Content areas can have a coordinator, a supervisor, a director, or a specialist, but not all 4. I’d start there.

So if the director of special education is also a certified teacher you would cut that position and put that person in a classroom and have no sped director? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

please do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

Any positions where certified teachers are in an office while vacancies exist in classrooms, for one. That’s just grossly incompetent/ negligent. DEI can be one person. Content areas can have a coordinator, a supervisor, a director, or a specialist, but not all 4. I’d start there.

Disagree strongly. Experienced and knowledgeable teachers are precisely who you should have helping administer/manage a school system.

+1

There will always been the need for subs. But that’s a different resource pool than administrators. Want fewer/better subs? Improve conditions/pay for teachers and subs. The solution isn’t pulling from staff.

No way. We’ve had some vacancies for months. For months, kids in a science classroom, for one example, while there are 3 certified science educators in Syphax… supporting what? That’s a huge hell no for me. APS is in the business of teaching and learning, and teachers in classrooms are fundamental to this.

[Anonymous]

The first cut should be Duran. Remember how much money he pissed away on VPL only to have it start with almost zero teachers the first day. That ALONE should make him unqualified to be superintendent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyes on the prize, people! The per-seat cost of HBW/Shriver was exactly the same as the per-seat cost of the Hamm expansion. Totally agree, recent building expenses were absurd, but what's done is done. Let's focus on how to get class sizes smaller and how to actually pay great staff competitively with Fairfax. Debating slides and "the Heights" and the Outdoor Lab won't get us there. It will require sustained pressure to the County Board to prioritize schools over their myriad vanity projects, pressure on state elected officials to fix the ridiculous underfunding of Arlington schools relative to our neighboring districts, and pressure on the School Board to cut more Syphax bloat.

Ok, I'll bite, please identify which exact positions you would cut in Syphax. I'll wait.

You say this like it's hard. Let's start with the cabinet: Mann is good. Graves is good. I have no opinion of Crawford. Mayo and Stockton can both go because both were at least adjacent to scandals in Maryland districts and they both do jobs that SHOULD be done by a superintendent who wants to be more than a figurehead who hands out balloons.

Stockton was Chief of Staff in MCPS and therefore likely complicit when their recently fired Sueprintendant allowed a known sexual harrasser to be promoted multiple times. Mayo was the head of HR in Baltimore County when he did not disclose income from SUPES Academy, a company that helped school districts train administrators. The superintendent at the time, Dallas Dance, was sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying financial disclosure statements submitted to the school system. Mayo's incorrect financial disclosure statements were later destroyed. Instead of facing his own investigation, Mayo came here to APS.
https://davidplymyer.com/2018/09/04/baltimore-county-schools-record-purge-more-significant-than-public-realizes/
You may recall that our last permanent superintendent, Patrick Murphy, was also disgraced and fired in MCPS for his involvement in the MCPS scandal.

I think the finance office has grown ridiculously in recent years, so I would cut Mark McLaughlin. Cut the Director of Labor Relations, Stephanie Maltz, which is a position that no other local school district doing collective bargaining has. We have both an executive director of curriculum and instruction and a Director of Curriculum and Instruction. That's the same position, cut one of them, I don't care which. I'd definitely cut from some of the publicity and "community relations" team.

I would gladly go on.

Stockton was with MCPS for a blink of an eye. Not sure I find that persuasive that he knew everything that had gone on and was going on there.
Murphy? Don't know how long he was there. I think it's odd that you paint these people as totally corrupt by only citing things that happened when they were at MCPS, which is for both of them only a blip in their entire careers. Mayo another story, clearly.

While I believe many positions could be eliminated at Syphax, I think you should be eliminating positions because they're unnecessary and not because of who currently holds them. Move the competent people into the positions that should be retained; don't keep a position because a competent person is in it. The problem answering the PP's question is that it is unclear to most ordinary citizens what all the positions supposedly do in order to be able to answer which ones should go. But the added layers Duran has put in is likely a good start.

Murphy was one of the few people fired for that MCPS scandal, so it’s definitely fair to paint him as corrupt. Apparently someone had attempted a coverup/ destroyed relevant files, and it seems it was likely him.

Stockton was the Chief of Staff for goodness sake. No one said he was corrupt, just that he was in the circle of people who were. He didn’t blow the whistle to WaPo, that fell to those who were harassed. When he left MCPS, their press release said it was because he had been in a long distance relationship. That struck me as odd because moving to Arlington doesn’t change that.

Plus, those are positions that are new within the last five years. Duran should be able to run the school system, it’s not nearly as big as FCPS or MCPS. It’s redundancy at the top, which is why I’d start there. There are many examples of bloat at the lower levels of Syphax too, and I agree with other particular examples cited above.

Chief of Staff is definitely not a new position. Murphy had one when he was here. The super was in charge of too much back in the old times. APS is still a very large school system. No the super can't manage it all without help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The first cut should be Duran. Remember how much money he pissed away on VPL only to have it start with almost zero teachers the first day. That ALONE should make him unqualified to be superintendent

So you don't think we should have a superintendent or did you just not understand the question? The question isn't which people should fill the jobs, it's which POSITIONS are not really necessary.

[Anonymous]

I wholeheartedly agree that the climate & culture as well as curriculum & instruction at my school would be vastly improved if the majority of the Syphax climate & culture as well as curriculum & instruction people were put back in classrooms to actually teach.

Or at least if those positions were eliminated and actual teachers were hired instead.