Budget Information - Updated SAE 6/3

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In MCPS, it is not what you know, it's who you know. Those are the people who get moved up and make these horrendous decisions.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Speech Language Pathologists, obviously not useless. But we need full transparency on what the contracts cover and why, since there has been such a huge increase over the last 2 years. Another post somewhere here says that contracting was used to cover the Superintendent's holiday party. As a taxpayer, unless there was some huge savings associated, I would not consider that appropriate. I work for a government entity, and our holiday parties are pot luck in a conference room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, I support you and share your anxiety and consternation.

Can someone explain to me how this works in a high school setting (the +1 on class size)? Our school is overcrowded and most core classes are fully subscribed. Say you have 45 students who want an AP class, and they usually only offer one section of this class. Would an increase of the class size make it less likely they would open a second section?

The class size piece here doesn't really have an effect, but the overall budget situation means they often won't have staff to support another section.

Thanks for the explanation!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Speech Language Pathologists, obviously not useless. But we need full transparency on what the contracts cover and why, since there has been such a huge increase over the last 2 years. Another post somewhere here says that contracting was used to cover the Superintendent's holiday party. As a taxpayer, unless there was some huge savings associated, I would not consider that appropriate. I work for a government entity, and our holiday parties are pot luck in a conference room.

Anyone with kids who receive special education services has observed a large increase in contracted services since the pandemic. And this is clearly reflected in the budget. There's no basis for the claim that these are "useless contracts."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

This is not new, contractors always pay more than school system, My son is an occupational therapist and my daughter is a licensed therapist in other states. Both started in school systems but went private when they realized they could get paid twice or three times as much. For profit companies like the companies that contract specialists are able to pay more. Just like how corporate companies pay more than non-profits. This isn't something mcps is doing wrong, it's in every industry everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

But wasn’t that limited to wage comparison? Union teachers receive much more than wages, like healthcare benefits. With claims for newly covered meds like GLP-1s ballooning, a union teacher making less in salary on an hourly basis than what MCPS is paying a contractor could still cost much more overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, I support you and share your anxiety and consternation.

Can someone explain to me how this works in a high school setting (the +1 on class size)? Our school is overcrowded and most core classes are fully subscribed. Say you have 45 students who want an AP class, and they usually only offer one section of this class. Would an increase of the class size make it less likely they would open a second section?

The class size piece here doesn't really have an effect, but the overall budget situation means they often won't have staff to support another section.

+1
I did a quick calculation for a high school with 2400 students. An increase of 1 student per class allocation means a decrease of ~ 4 full time equivalent positions, or ~20 class sections. Principals have a lot of flexibility internally about how they create sections. They have to balance student requests, staff certifications, room usage, needs of the course, and longer term stability of course offerings and teacher experience. It’s not helpful if a new elective is popular and 8 sections could be offered, if the following year there will only be 3 sections. Better to stabilize at 4 or 5 sections each year by giving seniors priority.

Right now the problem is how to decrease offerings by 20 sections and end up with 4 fewer teachers. If a department currently has an open position, the principal might decide not to fill it, and then reduce sections across multiple courses and shuffle teacher assignments. For example, 10 sections of English 10 with 25 kids each could become 9 sections at 28 kids each. Or maybe there’s an elective with 3 sections of 28. You drop it to 2 sections, shift 8 kids to a different section and make the other 20 kids pick a different elective and fill up those sections.

It’s not an easy task. Principals are going to need to make a quick decision about which positions to reduce, and then it’s going to take counseling a while to actually accomplish shifting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

I've been arguing for years that MCPS needs to establish a separate pay scale for SPED positions. But MCEA doesn't want to do it because they think less-in-demand positions will lose out on pay increases.

[Anonymous]

The problem is electives were already jam packed. And at many schools non-elective classes are also huge. So you want 40 people in a math class? They were already using filing cabinets and counter tops as desks with 35-37 in a class. What now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, I support you and share your anxiety and consternation.

Can someone explain to me how this works in a high school setting (the +1 on class size)? Our school is overcrowded and most core classes are fully subscribed. Say you have 45 students who want an AP class, and they usually only offer one section of this class. Would an increase of the class size make it less likely they would open a second section?

The class size piece here doesn't really have an effect, but the overall budget situation means they often won't have staff to support another section.

+1
I did a quick calculation for a high school with 2400 students. An increase of 1 student per class allocation means a decrease of ~ 4 full time equivalent positions, or ~20 class sections. Principals have a lot of flexibility internally about how they create sections. They have to balance student requests, staff certifications, room usage, needs of the course, and longer term stability of course offerings and teacher experience. It’s not helpful if a new elective is popular and 8 sections could be offered, if the following year there will only be 3 sections. Better to stabilize at 4 or 5 sections each year by giving seniors priority.

Right now the problem is how to decrease offerings by 20 sections and end up with 4 fewer teachers. If a department currently has an open position, the principal might decide not to fill it, and then reduce sections across multiple courses and shuffle teacher assignments. For example, 10 sections of English 10 with 25 kids each could become 9 sections at 28 kids each. Or maybe there’s an elective with 3 sections of 28. You drop it to 2 sections, shift 8 kids to a different section and make the other 20 kids pick a different elective and fill up those sections.

It’s not an easy task. Principals are going to need to make a quick decision about which positions to reduce, and then it’s going to take counseling a while to actually accomplish shifting.

Then how come Moran's letter was saying "staff member" singular instead of plural?:

All principals will report the staff member that they have identified to the Office of Human Resources and Development (OHRD) for involuntary transfer by Wednesday, June 5, at 12:00 p.m.,

• On Thursday, June 6, OHRD staffing coordinators will confirm that the staff member you identified for involuntary transfer is accurate based on position and seniority

[Anonymous]

The easiest thing is just to eliminate a set of electives that already have lower numbers and reshuffle those students into other electives. That way you don’t mess with core classes and numbers. Sucks for those staff though.

- an elective teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

I've been arguing for years that MCPS needs to establish a separate pay scale for SPED positions. But MCEA doesn't want to do it because they think less-in-demand positions will lose out on pay increases.

Sped teachers don’t complain about pay. They complain about workload. There aren that many extra SpEd teachers floating around who can suddenly take those spots. I am SpEd certified but have no interest in SpEd with the current workload situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the authority to fire Hull and Key? Felder? BOE?

Confused why people are blaming Hull for this.

The budget was in fine condition before McKnight left in February. The MVA and other programs were restored, there were no talks about RIFs or not honoring new contracts, county council was on track to approve the budget request (or at least a large portion of it) and they publicly praised Hull and the budget department for more transparency and collaboration then they had seen in years. Then Felder came in and ruined it with her ego, stupidity, and her two cronies - Key and Johnson.

MCEA is blaming him for his mismanagement of funds. He’s WASTED millions on useless contracts. I think he getting kickbacks. Makes no sense otherwise.

Speech and language pathologists are useless contracts?

MCEA is just mad that there's a trend toward providing services through non-union contractors. This is true across the country. It's a byproduct of the pay scales that unions have negotiated over the years.

Actually it came out in the edu. Committee meeting with Jawando that special ed. Contractors were being paid more than union special ed. Teachers. So as parents you should care if the trend is moving towards paying expensive contractors because no one wants to work for mcps anymore.

I've been arguing for years that MCPS needs to establish a separate pay scale for SPED positions. But MCEA doesn't want to do it because they think less-in-demand positions will lose out on pay increases.

Sped teachers don’t complain about pay. They complain about workload. There aren that many extra SpEd teachers floating around who can suddenly take those spots. I am SpEd certified but have no interest in SpEd with the current workload situation.

No major disagreement there, although the dynamics are different for SLPs and OTs than special education teachers. But there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem for SPED teachers-- you can't fix the workload problem without addressing the staffing problem. And that's going to mean incentivizing more SPED teachers through higher pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop allowing criminals with “emotional disabilities” and illegal immigrant parents in our schools.

Do this and you will reclaim at least 1/3 of the budget.

Let the prisons pay for them.

It isn’t PC, but this is a fair point. There is a lot of money going towards this population and there is a limited budget. The influx of undocumented immigrants has clearly had an effect on the MCPS budget and needs to be addressed. You can’t have a legit conversation about the financial situation without discussing this aspect of it.

+1

It’s hard to have a conversation about this because it’s fraught with strong emotions on both sides. It’s a conversation we need to have.