Dec 18th: FY 2026 Recommended Operating Budget

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And by the way, Jack Smith was Superintendent from 2016 to 2021. But we're to believe he "did the setup" for the massive increase in CO positions that began in FY22 after keeping them flat for 5 years? GMAFB.

Huh? That's how the budget calendar works. The FY2022 budget cycle was December 2020-June 2021.

McKnight could and did add positions outside of the budget process.
https://moco360.media/2022/05/06/more-administrators-added-in-mcps-shuffling-of-central-office/

[Anonymous]

Tell me again that Jack Smith "did the setup" for changes to CO in FY22.

In May 2021, then-acting superintendent McKnight shook up the school system’s executive leadership structure by creating five new “chief” positions above the associate superintendents. Associate Superintendent of Human Resources and Development Helen Nixon’s role was re-titled Chief of Human Resources and Development. Despite the chiefs being the highest ranked positions under the superintendent’s office, the other four jobs were posted for approximately two weeks before McKnight filled them, according to two central office officials present at the time.

The MCPS Twitter account on May 25, 2021 announced the appointments of Dana Edwards, Stephanie Sheron, Ruschelle Reuben (chief of teaching, learning and schools) and Jeanie Dawson (chief of finance and operations) to the four additional chief roles.

Three of the chiefs’ tenures as middle school principals overlapped with McKnight’s, and Sheron, who was a middle school principal from 2018-2020, was McKnight’s assistant principal at Ridgeview Middle School from 2013-2016, according to Board of Education reports.

“It did not go unnoticed that a bunch of middle school principals were suddenly promoted to very high levels at the beginning of her tenure,” said Jennifer Martin, president of the Montgomery County Education Association, the teachers union. “It did certainly raise eyebrows.”

https://moco360.media/2024/02/01/principals-administrators-depart-as-mcps-faces-cronyism-accountability-concerns/

[Anonymous]

By the way, I really think the best thing regular people can do to improve MCPS is to support local journalism. If it wasn't for local journalists McKnight would still be Superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By the way, I really think the best thing regular people can do to improve MCPS is to support local journalism. If it wasn't for local journalists McKnight would still be Superintendent.

Amen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By the way, I really think the best thing regular people can do to improve MCPS is to support local journalism. If it wasn't for local journalists McKnight would still be Superintendent.

Amen

And a sexual predator would have a $30k raise and be supervising a staff of 250.

[Anonymous]

So according to Taylor's chart on p. 54 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LK3r9U36S2ByH9eLh_95sU8Alv39ACL/view

There were roughly 200 positions added to central office between FY 21 and 22, and then another 200+ added between FY 22 and 23, then another 100 over the next two years.

What was the breakdown of those 500 positions by department? And what is the breakdown of the mere 81 positions he's now eliminating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That chart showing the decline in enrollment next to a 24% increase in central staff is a pretty pointed critique of McKnight. Seems like she abused her position to give her buddies cushy jobs. And we're still paying for it in addition to the BOE hush money payout.

Agreed. Monifa padded CO with a lot of failed principals, many of whom curried favor with her. What a toxic mess.

It’s hilarious that folks are bringing McKnight into based on one slide. The presentation when taken as a whole shows is that McKnight and her team were doing things to make the system better even if folks didn’t like it and or they are ultimately hated for it. Charts show both Literacy and Math scores improving post Covid. And we known things we terrible right after the pandemic nationwide. Many parents are happy with implementation of Science of Reading and the new ES ELA curriculum. Even the slide with the arrow on McPS forward shows things moving towards alignment. And Taylor himself has admitted this isn’t all going to be right sized or achieved this year.

The point being that this presentation don’t about McKnight it’s about Taylor and the coming year.

Taylor was pointed about how nonsensical it was that CO grew by 24% while enrollment dropped 2%. You can’t spin that, and that increase in CO is a direct result of choices Monifa made when she was in charge. Get a grip.

+1 seriously

F the BOE for the payout
F the NAACP for supporting her

The previous NAACP leaders were really good. The current ones were terrible. Those BOE members need to resign.

3 of the 7 elected board members are new THIS YEAR, because 3 of the old ones were voted out. They all need to go. When are the other 4 up for election?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So according to Taylor's chart on p. 54 here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LK3r9U36S2ByH9eLh_95sU8Alv39ACL/view

There were roughly 200 positions added to central office between FY 21 and 22, and then another 200+ added between FY 22 and 23, then another 100 over the next two years.

What was the breakdown of those 500 positions by department? And what is the breakdown of the mere 81 positions he's now eliminating?

I have no idea, but it's wild to me that there are nearly 3000 employees in CO. Completely batsh&t .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That chart showing the decline in enrollment next to a 24% increase in central staff is a pretty pointed critique of McKnight. Seems like she abused her position to give her buddies cushy jobs. And we're still paying for it in addition to the BOE hush money payout.

Agreed. Monifa padded CO with a lot of failed principals, many of whom curried favor with her. What a toxic mess.

It’s hilarious that folks are bringing McKnight into based on one slide. The presentation when taken as a whole shows is that McKnight and her team were doing things to make the system better even if folks didn’t like it and or they are ultimately hated for it. Charts show both Literacy and Math scores improving post Covid. And we known things we terrible right after the pandemic nationwide. Many parents are happy with implementation of Science of Reading and the new ES ELA curriculum. Even the slide with the arrow on McPS forward shows things moving towards alignment. And Taylor himself has admitted this isn’t all going to be right sized or achieved this year.

The point being that this presentation don’t about McKnight it’s about Taylor and the coming year.

Taylor was pointed about how nonsensical it was that CO grew by 24% while enrollment dropped 2%. You can’t spin that, and that increase in CO is a direct result of choices Monifa made when she was in charge. Get a grip.

+1 seriously

F the BOE for the payout
F the NAACP for supporting her

The previous NAACP leaders were really good. The current ones were terrible. Those BOE members need to resign.

3 of the 7 elected board members are new THIS YEAR, because 3 of the old ones were voted out. They all need to go. When are the other 4 up for election?

In 2026.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It looks like they added almost 500 central office positions between FY21 and FY23? How is thaf even possible? What positions are we talking about here?

Based on MD state data, between October 2020 and October 2023, I see a jump of about 100 'Noninstructional Directors, Coordinators, and Supervisors" from 266 to 364, and about 100 "Noninstructional Other Professionals" (Includes nurses, admission officers, research specialists, etc) from 843 to 954. Not sure about the rest.

https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Documents/DCAA/SSP/20202021Staff/2021StaffEmply.pdf
https://marylandpublicschools.org/about/Documents/DCAA/SSP/20232024Staff/2024-Staff-Employed-at-School-and-Central-Office-A.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like they added almost 500 central office positions between FY21 and FY23? How is thaf even possible? What positions are we talking about here?

Staffing for the many new DEI initiatives.

Some paras are under CO, as well as some SLPs and OTs. We had this discussion last year but somehow it's always the same misinformed parents and disgruntled people complaining. There is a reason only 81 CO positions were cut, because when it was time to look at the list, many are already in schools.

Ding ding ding. Gold Star. People forget CO is not just Administrators. It’s school support personnel as well as all the operations related personnel. So bus drivers, maintenance staff, finance, legal, procurement, math coaches, social workers, psychologists Special education related, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That chart showing the decline in enrollment next to a 24% increase in central staff is a pretty pointed critique of McKnight. Seems like she abused her position to give her buddies cushy jobs. And we're still paying for it in addition to the BOE hush money payout.

Agreed. Monifa padded CO with a lot of failed principals, many of whom curried favor with her. What a toxic mess.

While Monifa continued the practice, the padding of central office with failed principals or really anyone within the MCAAP/MCBOA associations is a practice that has been going on for decades.

There is also a pervasive and unhelpful belief among much of senior leadership that only former principals are qualified for many higher level central office positions. While they may be uniquely qualified for higher level CO positions that have to do with instruction, they are not typically the most qualified for, particularly in Human Resources or Operations and yet, they occupy most of those positions. In fact many of qualifications in job descriptions for the leadership roles make it almost impossible for external applicants with a wealth of operational or HR experience to even be considered.

If MCPS ran the business/operational side of MCPS more like a real business or organization and less like a school things would move a lot more smoothly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It looks like they added almost 500 central office positions between FY21 and FY23? How is thaf even possible? What positions are we talking about here?

Staffing for the many new DEI initiatives.

Some paras are under CO, as well as some SLPs and OTs. We had this discussion last year but somehow it's always the same misinformed parents and disgruntled people complaining. There is a reason only 81 CO positions were cut, because when it was time to look at the list, many are already in schools.

Ding ding ding. Gold Star. People forget CO is not just Administrators. It’s school support personnel as well as all the operations related personnel. So bus drivers, maintenance staff, finance, legal, procurement, math coaches, social workers, psychologists Special education related, etc.

I don't think bus drivers or maintenance staff are counted as central office, there's like 1800 people in each of those categories and the Central Office total is only like 2500. But I am curious which of the other categories are.

[Anonymous]

For context, Marriott has hundreds of thousands of employees at thousands of locations worldwide and has 5,000 staff at headquarters. MCPS has 200 schools and change and 25,000 employees of which nearly 3,000 are at CO. Pure bloat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For context, Marriott has hundreds of thousands of employees at thousands of locations worldwide and has 5,000 staff at headquarters. MCPS has 200 schools and change and 25,000 employees of which nearly 3,000 are at CO. Pure bloat.

Not saying there isn't bloat, but it would be important to know how many of those "at CO" are the types of administrators we might consider bloat, vs. those who are organizationally seated at CO but either are at schools for instructional/operational support or are the lower-level CO-types whom we (or the bulk of us) tend to consider essential for the system to operate at scale. The Merriott comparison may not be valid without that detail.