New Superintendent to be named on February 8th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

That’s a great point. If nobody can adequately run MCPS then let’s hire somone to run it who we don’t have to pay $400k per year. According to you, no matter who’s in the charge the outcome wouldn’t be different. So let’s at least save some cash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

Kids aren't failing because of covid and mental health. Kids are failing as they didn't get a strong foundation in Elementary School nor get the support in MS or HS. We have large overcrowded schools and many parents like you would rather complain than help.

Removing SRO's was a huge mistake.

If your kids have mental health issues, get them help. Even if they hire 100 mental health workers it will not be enough to make a difference. They'd have to hire at least 10 per high school, 6 per middle school and elementary to make a real difference. And, parents would have ot be involved in the therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

Kids aren't failing because of covid and mental health. Kids are failing as they didn't get a strong foundation in Elementary School nor get the support in MS or HS. We have large overcrowded schools and many parents like you would rather complain than help.

Removing SRO's was a huge mistake.

If your kids have mental health issues, get them help. Even if they hire 100 mental health workers it will not be enough to make a difference. They'd have to hire at least 10 per high school, 6 per middle school and elementary to make a real difference. And, parents would have ot be involved in the therapy.

Remember Dr. McKnight’s vision for her first 100 days? More buzz - no substance - but students were supposed to come first.

Slash most of the jobs in Central Office. Start with the Office for School Support and Improvement (now called something else). Get rid of all the Directors and let principals run schools. Use the money from less staff in Central Office to increase pay for teachers and hire more teachers. The number one way to get a handle on students is to dramatically decrease class sizes.

[Anonymous]

I look forward to 4 more years of continuous incompetence, followed by anyone point out that incompetence being called racist.

What’s that Maya Angelou saying, when people show you who they are believe them?

McKnight has shown everyone who she is, incompetent and out of her depth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I look forward to 4 more years of continuous incompetence, followed by anyone point out that incompetence being called racist.

What’s that Maya Angelou saying, when people show you who they are believe them?

McKnight has shown everyone who she is, incompetent and out of her depth.

Same is true with the people she lined up during the mass exodus after Jack Smith announced his departure. Seriously, people sold their souls for their promotions. I often wonder if they care about what they have done to what once was a great school system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

[Anonymous]

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

Sure, let's talk about "actual facts" about McKnight and the board's record.

If we want to discuss leadership and policy planning, let's talk about the disaster this January. Instead of preparing a covid response, McKnight spent her time making videos to tell everyone what her favorite subject in school or cafeteria lunch was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZjpank-s0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yWDfS2p9g). Because of bad planning, MCPS had to change their color code dashboard policy in the same week. There were only, what, 15 days of actual instructional days in January (due to weather, holidays, etc.). In just 15 days, 2100 teachers and staff were out sick, 9% of the entire student body with covid. Heck, even her own Central Office had so many people out they couldn't even get out the covid stats out on time? MCPS leadership had to even go begging for National Guard to drive kids to school, and got humiliated when they were told it's a school issue to solve. Then they shut down 31 schools that now that may need to make up the instructional time this summer? The 31 schools weren't always the ones that affected the students the worst by covid?

If we want to discuss McKnight and the boards support of parents and their children's health and safety, remember they were both tone deaf to parents. (https://www.change.org/p/mcps-board-of-education-we-need-virtual-learning-right-now, https://www.change.org/p/in-person-learning-is-the-only-solution-keep-mcps-schools-open-for-in-person-learning)

If we want to discuss ability to lead staff and teachers, she has had two no-confidence votes against her. MCEA doesn't need every single member to vote when it's a 94% landslide, and an emergency council session needs to be called. (https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/teachers-considering-no-confidence-resolution-on-mcps-covid-19-response/, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-co-public-schools-teachers-union-votes-no-confidence-council-holding-emergency-session)

If we want to discuss whether McKnight and the board shouldn't be blamed for these fiascos, McKnight and the board can't say they didn't know (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTrT2NKc2NQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaLpALVHrc). On Aug 24, 2021, MCPS released a video where McKnight led with "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been, and will continue to be." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzftOw9Vgqo). In the same video (at time 4:25) McKnight admitted that students were able to thrive in a virtual environment, which is the virtual academy opened for 3,000 students. Just as McKnight spoke about the delta variant, the video was cut off.

If we want to discuss her strongest focus issue, discrimination, this stellar track record doesn't even include the massive number of open investigations by the Department of Education OCR. MCPS was a top-20 ranker in open discrimination cases. McKnight and the board didn't need to conduct any survey - all they needed to do was to look in the inbox.

If we want to discuss student safety, showing up an hour late to the school shooting press conference dressed in pink while their children are held inside the school probably didn't send a caring message to parents. https://original.newsbreak.com/@heather-jauquet-561408/2505040189085-frantic-parents-watched-in-disbelief-waiting-for-their-children-to-be-released-at-magruder-high-school Remember this is the same person who said "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been , and will continue to be"

If we want to discuss financial management, $1.6M of covid funding spent on Kids Museum? The board even filled a position, with out a vote, with a person who's spouse is associated with Kids Museum? $160M on electric buses approved by the board (and it's not clear whether the electrical grid can handle it)? Two upper management in transportation suddenly removed? The optics of this doesn't look good from an ethics perspective.

All of this was even before McKnight was confirmed as the superintendent. But if you still want to claim McKnight and the board are blameless and keep them in charge of your taxpayer dollars and children's health and safety - I'm sure that they'll do even worse things in the future that will shock even the most ardent supporter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

Not really, but I think McKnight should;'ve fixed the gun control problems that have plagued our society for the 50 years by now. Why can't she address handgun control? What is with her?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

Sure, let's talk about "actual facts" about McKnight and the board's record.

If we want to discuss leadership and policy planning, let's talk about the disaster this January. Instead of preparing a covid response, McKnight spent her time making videos to tell everyone what her favorite subject in school or cafeteria lunch was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZjpank-s0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yWDfS2p9g). Because of bad planning, MCPS had to change their color code dashboard policy in the same week. There were only, what, 15 days of actual instructional days in January (due to weather, holidays, etc.). In just 15 days, 2100 teachers and staff were out sick, 9% of the entire student body with covid. Heck, even her own Central Office had so many people out they couldn't even get out the covid stats out on time? MCPS leadership had to even go begging for National Guard to drive kids to school, and got humiliated when they were told it's a school issue to solve. Then they shut down 31 schools that now that may need to make up the instructional time this summer? The 31 schools weren't always the ones that affected the students the worst by covid?

If we want to discuss McKnight and the boards support of parents and their children's health and safety, remember they were both tone deaf to parents. (https://www.change.org/p/mcps-board-of-education-we-need-virtual-learning-right-now, https://www.change.org/p/in-person-learning-is-the-only-solution-keep-mcps-schools-open-for-in-person-learning)

If we want to discuss ability to lead staff and teachers, she has had two no-confidence votes against her. MCEA doesn't need every single member to vote when it's a 94% landslide, and an emergency council session needs to be called. (https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/teachers-considering-no-confidence-resolution-on-mcps-covid-19-response/, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-co-public-schools-teachers-union-votes-no-confidence-council-holding-emergency-session)

If we want to discuss whether McKnight and the board shouldn't be blamed for these fiascos, McKnight and the board can't say they didn't know (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTrT2NKc2NQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaLpALVHrc). On Aug 24, 2021, MCPS released a video where McKnight led with "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been, and will continue to be." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzftOw9Vgqo). In the same video (at time 4:25) McKnight admitted that students were able to thrive in a virtual environment, which is the virtual academy opened for 3,000 students. Just as McKnight spoke about the delta variant, the video was cut off.

If we want to discuss her strongest focus issue, discrimination, this stellar track record doesn't even include the massive number of open investigations by the Department of Education OCR. MCPS was a top-20 ranker in open discrimination cases. McKnight and the board didn't need to conduct any survey - all they needed to do was to look in the inbox.

If we want to discuss student safety, showing up an hour late to the school shooting press conference dressed in pink while their children are held inside the school probably didn't send a caring message to parents. https://original.newsbreak.com/@heather-jauquet-561408/2505040189085-frantic-parents-watched-in-disbelief-waiting-for-their-children-to-be-released-at-magruder-high-school Remember this is the same person who said "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been , and will continue to be"

If we want to discuss financial management, $1.6M of covid funding spent on Kids Museum? The board even filled a position, with out a vote, with a person who's spouse is associated with Kids Museum? $160M on electric buses approved by the board (and it's not clear whether the electrical grid can handle it)? Two upper management in transportation suddenly removed? The optics of this doesn't look good from an ethics perspective.

All of this was even before McKnight was confirmed as the superintendent. But if you still want to claim McKnight and the board are blameless and keep them in charge of your taxpayer dollars and children's health and safety - I'm sure that they'll do even worse things in the future that will shock even the most ardent supporter.

I. know she's done an amazing job in light of the mess she was handed. She's got my vote!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

Sure, let's talk about "actual facts" about McKnight and the board's record.

If we want to discuss leadership and policy planning, let's talk about the disaster this January. Instead of preparing a covid response, McKnight spent her time making videos to tell everyone what her favorite subject in school or cafeteria lunch was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZjpank-s0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yWDfS2p9g). Because of bad planning, MCPS had to change their color code dashboard policy in the same week. There were only, what, 15 days of actual instructional days in January (due to weather, holidays, etc.). In just 15 days, 2100 teachers and staff were out sick, 9% of the entire student body with covid. Heck, even her own Central Office had so many people out they couldn't even get out the covid stats out on time? MCPS leadership had to even go begging for National Guard to drive kids to school, and got humiliated when they were told it's a school issue to solve. Then they shut down 31 schools that now that may need to make up the instructional time this summer? The 31 schools weren't always the ones that affected the students the worst by covid?

If we want to discuss McKnight and the boards support of parents and their children's health and safety, remember they were both tone deaf to parents. (https://www.change.org/p/mcps-board-of-education-we-need-virtual-learning-right-now, https://www.change.org/p/in-person-learning-is-the-only-solution-keep-mcps-schools-open-for-in-person-learning)

If we want to discuss ability to lead staff and teachers, she has had two no-confidence votes against her. MCEA doesn't need every single member to vote when it's a 94% landslide, and an emergency council session needs to be called. (https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/teachers-considering-no-confidence-resolution-on-mcps-covid-19-response/, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-co-public-schools-teachers-union-votes-no-confidence-council-holding-emergency-session)

If we want to discuss whether McKnight and the board shouldn't be blamed for these fiascos, McKnight and the board can't say they didn't know (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTrT2NKc2NQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaLpALVHrc). On Aug 24, 2021, MCPS released a video where McKnight led with "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been, and will continue to be." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzftOw9Vgqo). In the same video (at time 4:25) McKnight admitted that students were able to thrive in a virtual environment, which is the virtual academy opened for 3,000 students. Just as McKnight spoke about the delta variant, the video was cut off.

If we want to discuss her strongest focus issue, discrimination, this stellar track record doesn't even include the massive number of open investigations by the Department of Education OCR. MCPS was a top-20 ranker in open discrimination cases. McKnight and the board didn't need to conduct any survey - all they needed to do was to look in the inbox.

If we want to discuss student safety, showing up an hour late to the school shooting press conference dressed in pink while their children are held inside the school probably didn't send a caring message to parents. https://original.newsbreak.com/@heather-jauquet-561408/2505040189085-frantic-parents-watched-in-disbelief-waiting-for-their-children-to-be-released-at-magruder-high-school Remember this is the same person who said "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been , and will continue to be"

If we want to discuss financial management, $1.6M of covid funding spent on Kids Museum? The board even filled a position, with out a vote, with a person who's spouse is associated with Kids Museum? $160M on electric buses approved by the board (and it's not clear whether the electrical grid can handle it)? Two upper management in transportation suddenly removed? The optics of this doesn't look good from an ethics perspective.

All of this was even before McKnight was confirmed as the superintendent. But if you still want to claim McKnight and the board are blameless and keep them in charge of your taxpayer dollars and children's health and safety - I'm sure that they'll do even worse things in the future that will shock even the most ardent supporter.

Amazing job? I guess if your standards are really low, or if you want to see MCPS fail?

I. know she's done an amazing job in light of the mess she was handed. She's got my vote!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

Sure, let's talk about "actual facts" about McKnight and the board's record.

If we want to discuss leadership and policy planning, let's talk about the disaster this January. Instead of preparing a covid response, McKnight spent her time making videos to tell everyone what her favorite subject in school or cafeteria lunch was (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZjpank-s0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yWDfS2p9g). Because of bad planning, MCPS had to change their color code dashboard policy in the same week. There were only, what, 15 days of actual instructional days in January (due to weather, holidays, etc.). In just 15 days, 2100 teachers and staff were out sick, 9% of the entire student body with covid. Heck, even her own Central Office had so many people out they couldn't even get out the covid stats out on time? MCPS leadership had to even go begging for National Guard to drive kids to school, and got humiliated when they were told it's a school issue to solve. Then they shut down 31 schools that now that may need to make up the instructional time this summer? The 31 schools weren't always the ones that affected the students the worst by covid?

If we want to discuss McKnight and the boards support of parents and their children's health and safety, remember they were both tone deaf to parents. (https://www.change.org/p/mcps-board-of-education-we-need-virtual-learning-right-now, https://www.change.org/p/in-person-learning-is-the-only-solution-keep-mcps-schools-open-for-in-person-learning)

If we want to discuss ability to lead staff and teachers, she has had two no-confidence votes against her. MCEA doesn't need every single member to vote when it's a 94% landslide, and an emergency council session needs to be called. (https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/teachers-considering-no-confidence-resolution-on-mcps-covid-19-response/, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-co-public-schools-teachers-union-votes-no-confidence-council-holding-emergency-session)

If we want to discuss whether McKnight and the board shouldn't be blamed for these fiascos, McKnight and the board can't say they didn't know (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTrT2NKc2NQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaLpALVHrc). On Aug 24, 2021, MCPS released a video where McKnight led with "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been, and will continue to be." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzftOw9Vgqo). In the same video (at time 4:25) McKnight admitted that students were able to thrive in a virtual environment, which is the virtual academy opened for 3,000 students. Just as McKnight spoke about the delta variant, the video was cut off.

If we want to discuss her strongest focus issue, discrimination, this stellar track record doesn't even include the massive number of open investigations by the Department of Education OCR. MCPS was a top-20 ranker in open discrimination cases. McKnight and the board didn't need to conduct any survey - all they needed to do was to look in the inbox.

If we want to discuss student safety, showing up an hour late to the school shooting press conference dressed in pink while their children are held inside the school probably didn't send a caring message to parents. https://original.newsbreak.com/@heather-jauquet-561408/2505040189085-frantic-parents-watched-in-disbelief-waiting-for-their-children-to-be-released-at-magruder-high-school Remember this is the same person who said "let me be clear - health and safety is our first priority, always has been , and will continue to be"

If we want to discuss financial management, $1.6M of covid funding spent on Kids Museum? The board even filled a position, with out a vote, with a person who's spouse is associated with Kids Museum? $160M on electric buses approved by the board (and it's not clear whether the electrical grid can handle it)? Two upper management in transportation suddenly removed? The optics of this doesn't look good from an ethics perspective.

All of this was even before McKnight was confirmed as the superintendent. But if you still want to claim McKnight and the board are blameless and keep them in charge of your taxpayer dollars and children's health and safety - I'm sure that they'll do even worse things in the future that will shock even the most ardent supporter.

I. know she's done an amazing job in light of the mess she was handed. She's got my vote!

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

+10000 - I would just add staffing priorities. Teaching positions remained vacant while MCPS focused on filling Central Office positions leading to even more vacancies at key in school positions. The reshuffle has left some schools without a principal for the FY22 school year.

Where is the person who is supposed to be bringing in teachers including reaching out to increase minority hires? She moved and is working from Georgia. How well is that working out as far as doing the job required?

What is Dr. McKnight doing to get teaching vacancies filled? Nothing. Not her priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting take on the search process: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/03/montgomery-county-schools-superintendent/

Paywall - Summary?

The summary is basically a regurgitation of what you read here. Lots of people have criticized McKnight for being incompetent. Her defenders say those criticisms of her incompetence is racist and a group of Black pastors, who probably were organized to write a letter in her support, sent a letter alleging there was a grand conspiracy being organized against McKnight.

It’s a pretty basic summary of the situation, but also objectively pretty crazy.

Sweet Mary and Joseph! A group of Black pastors have sent their support of Dr. McKnight?

Was their all important letter before a young man was gunned down in a high school bathroom? Or before another young man was found murdered after MCPS denied his COSA for severe bullying? Or before the loaded gun on a student who smelled like pot at school? Or before the votes of no confidence by two unions in MCPS? Or before students didn’t have buses to get to schools or students didn’t have teachers when they got to school?

Yep. They pegged me. I must be a racist because I think these issues matter and Dr. McKnight doesn’t have the leadership skills to fix the problems.

What "leadership skills" will fix those problems?

You seriously don't think that kids have suffered because there's so much chaos in the system and inconsistency and teachers quitting because of poor morale (principals too), and the failure to hire adequate mental health counselors, plus removing security personnel/having unclear disciplinary processes and strange prioritizing of funds that put PR before mental health? That's all related to leadership skills.

I wish people would speak on actual facts and not their version of reality. Show us where PR was put before mental health of students? Show us a large or heck even midsize school district where teacher morale isn’t low(bonus points if it has parents with the same crazy expectations as MCPS and same population diversity). SRO’s were removed by the county council, so why McKnight and the board keep getting blamed for this is anyone’s guess, even if they support it. Show us how McKnight and the BOE are responsible for any kid bringing a gun to school and clearly don’t value safety despite reviewing safety in the January BOE meeting before any of the above mentioned incidents occured. Or should we talk about the Teacher Union no confidence vote that wasn’t even voted on by half the members. Or maybe we take them down for keeping schools open in January when PLENTY of families wanted that exact course and have all year. Not to mention its the same course of action that most school districts in the nation took. Like you don’t have to like Mcknight or the BOE, but geez.

Not sure if McKnight is getting the job, but whoever does should negotiate a salary MUCH higher than what McKnight makes now or what Smith made when retiring.

+10000 - I would just add staffing priorities. Teaching positions remained vacant while MCPS focused on filling Central Office positions leading to even more vacancies at key in school positions. The reshuffle has left some schools without a principal for the FY22 school year.

Where is the person who is supposed to be bringing in teachers including reaching out to increase minority hires? She moved and is working from Georgia. How well is that working out as far as doing the job required?

What is Dr. McKnight doing to get teaching vacancies filled? Nothing. Not her priority.

Why would anyone believe she did an amazing job?

Was it amazing to turn Magnet into lottery? Remember the Asian discrimination lawsuit that led to that?

She should have focused on staffing and trying to expand programs instead of making Love Me videos.