BOE Communications Director

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do understand the need for this role. However, I still think there are way too many people not directly working with the students. I wish there could be a complete overhaul of central office.

What would this look like exactly? Not saying it’s a wrong idea but I do find that people greatly underestimate what is involved in running a school system generally in 2023 let alone one that serves 160k+ students. There are some things that could be outsourced to other companies, but that cost as well and might come with less personalization/customization/quality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do understand the need for this role. However, I still think there are way too many people not directly working with the students. I wish there could be a complete overhaul of central office.

What would this look like exactly? Not saying it’s a wrong idea but I do find that people greatly underestimate what is involved in running a school system generally in 2023 let alone one that serves 160k+ students. There are some things that could be outsourced to other companies, but that cost as well and might come with less personalization/customization/quality.

I’m curious about how FCPS does it with half the central staff. I think there should be studies of successful systems (are there any?). I really wish Maryland did not require these ridiculously large counties- MCPS is just too large. I think if it was divided into smaller districts like PA and MA we could be better functioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do understand the need for this role. However, I still think there are way too many people not directly working with the students. I wish there could be a complete overhaul of central office.

Try looking into the parent community coordinators from central office who work from home. Someare good, most are not. They tell school A they are at school B and vice versa. Their supervisor, noce guy, terrible at supervising.

[Anonymous]

MCPS has instructional specialists and consulting teachers that are really key to supporting struggling teachers and schools, they have community school liasons in high impact schools, these are important positions even if they are not working with students directly. It may seem like there's excess bloating but it could also be that other counties don't even have as much support, at the time I switched from FCPS to MCPS, Frederick didn't even have staff development teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do understand the need for this role. However, I still think there are way too many people not directly working with the students. I wish there could be a complete overhaul of central office.

What would this look like exactly? Not saying it’s a wrong idea but I do find that people greatly underestimate what is involved in running a school system generally in 2023 let alone one that serves 160k+ students. There are some things that could be outsourced to other companies, but that cost as well and might come with less personalization/customization/quality.

I’m curious about how FCPS does it with half the central staff. I think there should be studies of successful systems (are there any?). I really wish Maryland did not require these ridiculously large counties- MCPS is just too large. I think if it was divided into smaller districts like PA and MA we could be better functioning.

Easy! These positions serve no purpose and if eliminated would have 0 impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has instructional specialists and consulting teachers that are really key to supporting struggling teachers and schools, they have community school liasons in high impact schools, these are important positions even if they are not working with students directly. It may seem like there's excess bloating but it could also be that other counties don't even have as much support, at the time I switched from FCPS to MCPS, Frederick didn't even have staff development teachers.

This is hilarious! I teach at a highly impacted school (Title 1 elementary). We have kids evacuating classes multiple times a week due to behaviors who need more support. We have kids who are unable to recognize the letters in their own names in 3rd grade. We are short staffed. We have so many issues that it’s insane. Our instructional specialists and supervisors do visit to let us know there’s nothing they can do.

Just this week we had a child so out of control on Monday that we were unable to allow parents in for conferences as the whole office was destroyed and adults were getting attacked (blinds were closed so parents didn’t know why they weren’t allowed in). We requested the child get suspended but the supervisor of course told us that we are not allowed to suspend in elementary. Today she destroyed her classroom (including breaking a lot of the teachers personal possessions), injured 2 teachers, required two restraints, and was finally sent home around 10- without permission or help from our central office staff.

We need staff in schools!!!! Not central office staff just telling us there’s nothing they can do!

As for this position, it’s probably needed, but it seems we should be able to find someone already in central office to fill the role!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do understand the need for this role. However, I still think there are way too many people not directly working with the students. I wish there could be a complete overhaul of central office.

What would this look like exactly? Not saying it’s a wrong idea but I do find that people greatly underestimate what is involved in running a school system generally in 2023 let alone one that serves 160k+ students. There are some things that could be outsourced to other companies, but that cost as well and might come with less personalization/customization/quality.

I’m curious about how FCPS does it with half the central staff. I think there should be studies of successful systems (are there any?). I really wish Maryland did not require these ridiculously large counties- MCPS is just too large. I think if it was divided into smaller districts like PA and MA we could be better functioning.

Do they, or are they just reporting things differently? Their per pupil spending is within 1% of MCPS'.

I'm a para, 100% of my time is spent in schools. But I'm officially "itinerant", so my salary is coded to the sped dept in the CO.

[Anonymous]

Consulting teachers just give reasons to admin as to why you are a bad teacher and need to do more work. They do not know that the current level of work that they are witnessing already requires overtime hours that are unpaid for BTW. They really do make our lives difficult. Do they know how many volunteers hours, college work, college tuition, state tests, teacher curriculums etc we had to jump already through. It's almost like they system is designed to keep teachers oppressed and without well designed functional schools or resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consulting teachers just give reasons to admin as to why you are a bad teacher and need to do more work. They do not know that the current level of work that they are witnessing already requires overtime hours that are unpaid for BTW. They really do make our lives difficult. Do they know how many volunteers hours, college work, college tuition, state tests, teacher curriculums etc we had to jump already through. It's almost like they system is designed to keep teachers oppressed and without well designed functional schools or resources

Consulting teacher is a 3 year rotation. Everyone who is a Consulting Teacher has taught for at least 5 years and returns to teaching after their rotation. So, yes. They are vetted and observed teaching as well.

[Anonymous]

Where can we find the mcps budget breakdown?

[Anonymous]

Who decides what positions are created?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is needed. The more autonomous and separate the BOE becomes from MCPS, the better. Give them their own staff and resources so they don't have to rely only on the crumbs McKnight and her team throw at them.

You want a strong BOE? Change state law to weaken the current strong superintendent rules that enable McKnight to elude accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has instructional specialists and consulting teachers that are really key to supporting struggling teachers and schools, they have community school liasons in high impact schools, these are important positions even if they are not working with students directly. It may seem like there's excess bloating but it could also be that other counties don't even have as much support, at the time I switched from FCPS to MCPS, Frederick didn't even have staff development teachers.

This is hilarious! I teach at a highly impacted school (Title 1 elementary). We have kids evacuating classes multiple times a week due to behaviors who need more support. We have kids who are unable to recognize the letters in their own names in 3rd grade. We are short staffed. We have so many issues that it’s insane. Our instructional specialists and supervisors do visit to let us know there’s nothing they can do.

Just this week we had a child so out of control on Monday that we were unable to allow parents in for conferences as the whole office was destroyed and adults were getting attacked (blinds were closed so parents didn’t know why they weren’t allowed in). We requested the child get suspended but the supervisor of course told us that we are not allowed to suspend in elementary. Today she destroyed her classroom (including breaking a lot of the teachers personal possessions), injured 2 teachers, required two restraints, and was finally sent home around 10- without permission or help from our central office staff.

+ 1 -- I have never seen this support staff at my title 1 school either and we have teachers and community members who could use the support. When I try to get consulting staff that I can identify to join in meetings, they decline the requests.

We need staff in schools!!!! Not central office staff just telling us there’s nothing they can do!

As for this position, it’s probably needed, but it seems we should be able to find someone already in central office to fill the role!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has instructional specialists and consulting teachers that are really key to supporting struggling teachers and schools, they have community school liasons in high impact schools, these are important positions even if they are not working with students directly. It may seem like there's excess bloating but it could also be that other counties don't even have as much support, at the time I switched from FCPS to MCPS, Frederick didn't even have staff development teachers.

OK, but there's a 6-1 student to staff ratio. That's a lot of staff. If you strip teachers out from that number it's still 16-1. That's 1 non-teacher for every 16 students which is bonkers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still want to know how many people work in the central office. MCPS has 11,300 non-teaching staff which is 2x the number that Fairfax Co has. MCPS is insanely bloated.

Of the 23,130.7 MCPS Staff employed at MCPS in 2021, 15,268.4 are instructional and 7,882.3 are non-instructional. The non-instructional staff includes:

11 Noninstructional Superintendents, Associate, and Assistant Superintendents.

286.5 Noninstructional Directors, Coordinators, and Supervisors - Also includes pupil personnel workers, school social workers, and other administrators. There should be at least one social worker per school (209), so up to 77.5 are "other administrators".

560 Noninstructional Principals, Assistant Principals and Other School Administrators. That means at least 418 are Principals and Assistant Principals are directly with MCPS schools. Up to 142 are in the "Other School Administrator" category.

851.6 Noninstructional Other Professionals - Includes nurses, admission officers, research specialists, etc. There should be 1 school nurse per school and 1 admission officer per HS (209 + 30). Not sure what the 612.6 other professionals categories are?

6,153.2 Noninstructional Support Staff - Includes technicians, service workers, secretaries and clerks, drivers, crafts and trades personnel, laborers, etc (there are ~1,300 bus drivers, x2 school secretaries - 418, etc.). You'd have to go through every category of employee.

Does that help?