And she hasn't been officially sworn in yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://i.pinimg.com/236x/6e/81/c1/6e81c1a01b5f27423156790b10bb6485--teacher-stuff-teacher-humor.jpg" border="0" class="embeddedImage" />

This was how is was prepandemic, now it’s worse. Unfortunately administration and the BOE are in customer service whether or not it benefits the students in the long run.

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[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot stress enough how little the superintendent has to do with this massive exodus. You all have no idea how hateful parents have been over the last 2 years. I don’t know any teacher who is happy in the classroom right now. Between the online (and in real life) abuse from parents last year and the behaviors in the classroom this year, teachers are done. It’s not the superintendent, it’s not the union, it’s the parents. I’m sure you will flame away but when you do, know that you are illustrating my point better than I can.

I appreciate your perspective. Do you think the parents are different people from in past years? If so, what made them change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot stress enough how little the superintendent has to do with this massive exodus. You all have no idea how hateful parents have been over the last 2 years. I don’t know any teacher who is happy in the classroom right now. Between the online (and in real life) abuse from parents last year and the behaviors in the classroom this year, teachers are done. It’s not the superintendent, it’s not the union, it’s the parents. I’m sure you will flame away but when you do, know that you are illustrating my point better than I can.

I appreciate your perspective. Do you think the parents are different people from in past years? If so, what made them change?

The county demographics have changed rapidly over the past 5 years. You have newly arrived residents from all over the world, many who do not speak English. We have some parents who don’t value education.

The county is much different demographically now than it was a decade ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

Have seen this at our own ES and have heard the same from SO many teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it always her fault? Teachers have been through more than 2 unprecedented years of a whole pandemic, to say the least. I see these vacancies as an opportunity to shape our system into one that focuses on rigor coupled with cultural competency and care. Let's get the new blood in there, slowly but surely.

Why is it always her fault? She's literally in charge. It's called accountability.

Because she has been in charge for less than a year. If you are blaming her and not blaming Jack Smith, you are clearly a racist nut job.

Jack Smith AND his predecessor ran this school district directly into the ground and left McKnight with a disaster. I agree that she is not qualified to pick up the pieces, but you can’t blame her for the mess that Jack Smith left behind.

[Anonymous]

A leader doesn't make excuses. A leader steps up and rises to the occasion. Churchill (you may have heard the name before? Hint, a High School was named after him?) by all accounts was an insufferable dud of mid-level bureaucrat. It wasn't until the attack on Britain that he stood up and gave the people hope during a very dark period of world history.

Compare that to what the board and central office did. Two votes of no confidence, mishandled the January spike ot the point of begging for National Guard drivers, squandered covid money.

They don't even have the excuse of blaming covid. Remember changing the magnet program into a lottery, gerrymandered school boundaries, failing to keep proper maintenance and renovation of schools, catering only to silver spring and poolesville for resources while starving out mid-county / NE / SW, or how they handled discrimination cases to the point of a huge open case backlog at the Dept of Ed OCR? Covid is just the latest excuse within a very long list of leadership failures.

I'm not voting for any incumbents at the next board of election. I'm voting for anyone who will hold MCPS accountable to parents and teachers.

"Do you think parents are different people from past years? If so, what made them change?"

In my case, having witnessed first-hand the sheer incompetence and corruption that was always within MCPS, but just exposed so openly when the chips were down and manifest itself in the multiple leadership failures during the covid pandemic and how they totally disregarded the health and safety of children and teachers, I'm just out of tolerance for B.S. Personally, I want to see the board and McKnight charged with waste, fraud and abuse, or maybe discrimination but will settle for having them removed from making decisions about our children. If you don't believe that it's occurred, there are a few lists that can be reposted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A leader doesn't make excuses. A leader steps up and rises to the occasion. Churchill (you may have heard the name before? Hint, a High School was named after him?) by all accounts was an insufferable dud of mid-level bureaucrat. It wasn't until the attack on Britain that he stood up and gave the people hope during a very dark period of world history.

Compare that to what the board and central office did. Two votes of no confidence, mishandled the January spike ot the point of begging for National Guard drivers, squandered covid money.

They don't even have the excuse of blaming covid. Remember changing the magnet program into a lottery, gerrymandered school boundaries, failing to keep proper maintenance and renovation of schools, catering only to silver spring and poolesville for resources while starving out mid-county / NE / SW, or how they handled discrimination cases to the point of a huge open case backlog at the Dept of Ed OCR? Covid is just the latest excuse within a very long list of leadership failures.

I'm not voting for any incumbents at the next board of election. I'm voting for anyone who will hold MCPS accountable to parents and teachers.

"Do you think parents are different people from past years? If so, what made them change?"

In my case, having witnessed first-hand the sheer incompetence and corruption that was always within MCPS, but just exposed so openly when the chips were down and manifest itself in the multiple leadership failures during the covid pandemic and how they totally disregarded the health and safety of children and teachers, I'm just out of tolerance for B.S. Personally, I want to see the board and McKnight charged with waste, fraud and abuse, or maybe discrimination but will settle for having them removed from making decisions about our children. If you don't believe that it's occurred, there are a few lists that can be reposted.

Fair points.

There is enough blame to go around, IMO. Some blame for this sh$tshow is a school district falls squarely at the feet of the BOE. And also very much at the feet of voters in this County who have voted for politicians who have destroyed Montgomery County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it always her fault? Teachers have been through more than 2 unprecedented years of a whole pandemic, to say the least. I see these vacancies as an opportunity to shape our system into one that focuses on rigor coupled with cultural competency and care. Let's get the new blood in there, slowly but surely.

Why is it always her fault? She's literally in charge. It's called accountability.

Because she has been in charge for less than a year. If you are blaming her and not blaming Jack Smith, you are clearly a racist nut job.

Jack Smith AND his predecessor ran this school district directly into the ground and left McKnight with a disaster. I agree that she is not qualified to pick up the pieces, but you can’t blame her for the mess that Jack Smith left behind.

Huh? The only racist nutjobs are the ones that destroyed the magnet program by making it a lottery because they have it in for Whites and Asians. This isn't about race, it's about competence and leadership. Or are you saying all Blacks must be competent leaders, which sounds pretty Arian Nation to me? That's pretty racist in itself.

She also claims to have 21 years in MCPS with the last 2 1/2 years in top leadership. Remember that she's been Jacks Deputy Superintendent of Schools since August 2019 , and the Interim Superintendent of Schools since March 2021. Before that, she's been a P or assistant P for about 10 years.

If you want to say "blame Jack", I know of CFP documents she signed off on herself that never hit the press. It's her signature on the ESSER III funding request. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was on her watch that she submitted the most recent rounds of school renovation program requests, and on her watch that she's gerrymandering the boundaries (ex. Gaithersburg #8)? SHE was the one who decided to fly to her old school and pick up personal awards?

Defend her all you want, but in the 2 1/2'ish years she's been at the helm, MCPS has gone from bad to worse.

[Anonymous]

Teachers are leaving bec of the Maga cult.

Maga morons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot stress enough how little the superintendent has to do with this massive exodus. You all have no idea how hateful parents have been over the last 2 years. I don’t know any teacher who is happy in the classroom right now. Between the online (and in real life) abuse from parents last year and the behaviors in the classroom this year, teachers are done. It’s not the superintendent, it’s not the union, it’s the parents. I’m sure you will flame away but when you do, know that you are illustrating my point better than I can.

I appreciate your perspective. Do you think the parents are different people from in past years? If so, what made them change?

The county demographics have changed rapidly over the past 5 years. You have newly arrived residents from all over the world, many who do not speak English. We have some parents who don’t value education.

The county is much different demographically now than it was a decade ago.

When did your family come to America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

Who are these people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

Who are these people.

The crazy anti-union reopeners who blame the lazy teachers for everything. Half of em probably work for Cato or its ilk in some capacity. The other half are just the same entitled bigots who post charming things here about "demographic" changes and send their covid-riddled second-graders to school because "everyone has to get it sometime."

I'm not a teacher, but if I had to deal with those people's children, I'm not sure I could be kind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

Who are these people.

The crazy anti-union reopeners who blame the lazy teachers for everything. Half of em probably work for Cato or its ilk in some capacity. The other half are just the same entitled bigots who post charming things here about "demographic" changes and send their covid-riddled second-graders to school because "everyone has to get it sometime."

I'm not a teacher, but if I had to deal with those people's children, I'm not sure I could be kind.

Agree - I'm skeptical that any of them live here or have kids in MCPS. They just post to sew angst and grievance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

Who are these people.

The crazy anti-union reopeners who blame the lazy teachers for everything. Half of em probably work for Cato or its ilk in some capacity. The other half are just the same entitled bigots who post charming things here about "demographic" changes and send their covid-riddled second-graders to school because "everyone has to get it sometime."

I'm not a teacher, but if I had to deal with those people's children, I'm not sure I could be kind.

Didn't McKnight and the board cave into these people? If they don't have the spine to deal with them, then add that to the number of leadership failures.