[Washington Post] Ex-Montgomery superintendent McKnight to get $1.3M in separation deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The original memo went out January 12th, from Brian Hull, to principals, and effective January 18th, throughout the rest of the school year. I have a screencap. It froze everything except for building supplies. Everything else must be approved, first by the principal, and then the regional superintendent, and only then does it go to a committee for further evaluation.

So then it’s not frozen it just must be approved. The point being that people being people would then only submit a form for actual needed educational items and not just decoration.

So if you need paper to be able to provide text to a class or supplies to do the science experiment you submit the form.

Worse case they deny it and then you and everyone actually have a valid complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She must have been a special kind of awful for them to be willing to spend that amount to be rid of her.

She is the meanest person I have ever met. Central Office was a highly toxic work environment under her. I suspect that the BOE had no idea who they were truly dealing with until they tried to get rid of her. Then they saw the real person that McKnight truly is.

I don't even know how she in her soul can accept this ridiculous amount of money knowing that it would eventually come out publicly and that people would be outraged and disgusted by it all.

She has convinced herself that she did everything right and that she’s just the scapegoat/sacrificial lamb being blamed because everyone is racist. Her echo chamber is reinforcing this idea. She truly feels entitled to this money after all she’s endured.

Obviously everyone else (including the BOE) has a different perception of her abysmal leadership and job performance. If she were honest with herself about her ongoing failures, I agree she would feel great guilt and regret and would be mortified to accept this sum. This just shows us one more example about her character.

She is entitled to the money. It’s called a contract. If they didn’t think she should get it they could have gone to court. Clearly the BOE and their lawyers believe it would have cost more to go that route.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The original memo went out January 12th, from Brian Hull, to principals, and effective January 18th, throughout the rest of the school year. I have a screencap. It froze everything except for building supplies. Everything else must be approved, first by the principal, and then the regional superintendent, and only then does it go to a committee for further evaluation.

So then it’s not frozen it just must be approved. The point being that people being people would then only submit a form for actual needed educational items and not just decoration.

So if you need paper to be able to provide text to a class or supplies to do the science experiment you submit the form.

Worse case they deny it and then you and everyone actually have a valid complaint.

It is de facto frozen, as that level and layer of bureaucracy is most certainly meant to reject and deny requests, not approve them. People are not stupid.

[Anonymous]

With that many hoops to jump through, it’s really designed to discourage applications. We do have some money left-over for basic supplies, but with things being so tight, reams of paper are already being hoarded or hidden throughout our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With that many hoops to jump through, it’s really designed to discourage applications. We do have some money left-over for basic supplies, but with things being so tight, reams of paper are already being hoarded or hidden throughout our school.

Reams of paper need to be hoarded and hidden? With a multiple billion dollar budget, and teachers paid so little, where is all the money going? Seriously? For dummies?

[Anonymous]

At my school everyone is assigned a certain number of reams, and you have to carry your own sheets to the laser printer and put them into the tray. We’re no longer filling them, in some departments, basically. In some cases some staff members have resorted to using color reams for nonessential copying / printing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my school everyone is assigned a certain number of reams, and you have to carry your own sheets to the laser printer and put them into the tray. We’re no longer filling them, in some departments, basically. In some cases some staff members have resorted to using color reams for nonessential copying / printing.

What other resources are in short supply? Working Chromebooks? pencils?

[Anonymous]

This is so outrageous that it sounds to me like someone had dirt on someone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so outrageous that it sounds to me like someone had dirt on someone.

+1 yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“In lieu of close of business today, the date/time of the Expenditure Restrictions will be tomorrow January 17th, at 5pm. Principals will have until 5pm. this Friday to approve those items that were submitted timely.” The memo was quite clear that this was a freeze, afterwards, and nothing has changed. We can send printing jobs to Copy Plus, mind you. There was also a memo that was just sent out three days from Brian Hull, reiterating the restrictions.

Copy Plus takes what, 2 weeks for fulfillment? I wish I could plan my lessons that far in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so outrageous that it sounds to me like someone had dirt on someone.

McKnight is laughing all the way to the bank. Damn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The original memo went out January 12th, from Brian Hull, to principals, and effective January 18th, throughout the rest of the school year. I have a screencap. It froze everything except for building supplies. Everything else must be approved, first by the principal, and then the regional superintendent, and only then does it go to a committee for further evaluation.

So then it’s not frozen it just must be approved. The point being that people being people would then only submit a form for actual needed educational items and not just decoration.

So if you need paper to be able to provide text to a class or supplies to do the science experiment you submit the form.

Worse case they deny it and then you and everyone actually have a valid complaint.

I'm not a MCPS employee but if I were, this is the kind of gaslighting that would make me want to tear my hair out.

[Anonymous]

I’ve gotten projects from Copy Plus in under a week, though most of them are closer to coloring activities more than anything else. You can put in a deadline.

There are plenty of chromebooks to go around, at least at my school. I have about eighty brand-new units, that probably will get assigned to students next year, though. Most of the damaged ones have been repaired or in the process.

If anything, I wouldn’t mind yeeting the Dell teacher laptops out a window. So many of ours are failing, usually because of charging issues. I just hate when MCPS goes bottom-dollar for those contracts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The original memo went out January 12th, from Brian Hull, to principals, and effective January 18th, throughout the rest of the school year. I have a screencap. It froze everything except for building supplies. Everything else must be approved, first by the principal, and then the regional superintendent, and only then does it go to a committee for further evaluation.

So then it’s not frozen it just must be approved. The point being that people being people would then only submit a form for actual needed educational items and not just decoration.

So if you need paper to be able to provide text to a class or supplies to do the science experiment you submit the form.

Worse case they deny it and then you and everyone actually have a valid complaint.

Do you even work in a school? We have a set pacing for the curriculum. My content is dynamic. I am constantly looking to improve. If I find a cool new experiment I want to try with my students, I cannot ask my department head to purchase some supplies like I was able to do last year.
Even if I have a 2 week lead which was workable before, it is now impossible as who knows how long layer upon layer of approvals will take. No way am I going through this new process. It just means I can’t try new stuff with my students and if I run out of some supplies for standard experiments, we won’t be doing them. It sucks but this is the MCPS way for now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She must have been a special kind of awful for them to be willing to spend that amount to be rid of her.

She is the meanest person I have ever met. Central Office was a highly toxic work environment under her. I suspect that the BOE had no idea who they were truly dealing with until they tried to get rid of her. Then they saw the real person that McKnight truly is.

I don't even know how she in her soul can accept this ridiculous amount of money knowing that it would eventually come out publicly and that people would be outraged and disgusted by it all.

She has convinced herself that she did everything right and that she’s just the scapegoat/sacrificial lamb being blamed because everyone is racist. Her echo chamber is reinforcing this idea. She truly feels entitled to this money after all she’s endured.

Obviously everyone else (including the BOE) has a different perception of her abysmal leadership and job performance. If she were honest with herself about her ongoing failures, I agree she would feel great guilt and regret and would be mortified to accept this sum. This just shows us one more example about her character.

She is entitled to the money. It’s called a contract. If they didn’t think she should get it they could have gone to court. Clearly the BOE and their lawyers believe it would have cost more to go that route.

They're paying *a lot* more than the contract's provisions for early termination.