SSL hours updated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people processing these forms proba KY have other roles within that school, for example a counselor taking on entering that many forms of some very large student population

But the coordinators volunteer for this job. There’s a stipend. If you’re getting extra money, it’s because you’re expected to spend extra time. Stay after school one day or dedicate an hour or two on the weekend to catch up.

[Anonymous]

In my kid’s school, SSL hours seem to get updated once a quarter. The only time that matters is at the end of the school year when my kid only realizes that the SSL coordinator lost/misplaced forms when the hours aren’t credited as they should have been, and then are told that it’s past the deadline to have turned in the forms for the school year.

These are all things that could be avoided if an automated system with an online form were in place as others have mentioned.

[Anonymous]

They should end this dumb requirement and fire the office workers in charge. What a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

I find it amazing that I have to print out all these SSL forms for my kid to hand in manually when nearly everything else for MCPS is submitted online.

[Anonymous]

I think the intentions behind this requirement are good, but it’s not done with fidelity anymore. Every year, there are students who need 30+ hours the week before graduation. Magically, they complete these hours in just one day! Schools offer 15 hours for spending minimum time on a project. Or 3 hours to spend a 30 minute lunch making cards for people.
Take the SSL people and their salaries and put it back in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the intentions behind this requirement are good, but it’s not done with fidelity anymore. Every year, there are students who need 30+ hours the week before graduation. Magically, they complete these hours in just one day! Schools offer 15 hours for spending minimum time on a project. Or 3 hours to spend a 30 minute lunch making cards for people.
Take the SSL people and their salaries and put it back in schools.

+1 Agreed. Last year there was a thread about 25% of HS students being in danger of not graduating due to not having enough of SSL hours and that should not happen. SSL hours, in their current form, are a mixed bag of kids "volunteering" for SSL at the fancy summer camps where their parents previously paid hundreds of dollars a week for them to attend, plus random hours gifted by MCPS for in-school classroom work and events that are a regular part of the school day.

[Anonymous]

I agree. Stupid requirement. Very inefficient and a waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Is there somewhere where one can see how much money it costs to operate the SSL requirement (number of central office staff dedicated to SSL, annual cost of stipends to process at each school)? Of course, it's good for kids to volunteer when the volunteer opportunities are meaningful, but some of that volunteering would occur whether MCPS requires it or not, and MCPS staff can't do everything...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s a whole office dedicated to SSL hours. Not sure how many people are in it, but I hope they’re reading these suggestions- there should be a deadline for SSL coordinators to enter hours by, and there should be an online process to submit.

Also, I think it’s kind of dumb to have a 75 hour minimum but then award more than half of those hours for just completing classes.

Lots of upgrades to be had here. What do people in that office spend 40 hours per week doing? Just wondering…

Apparently, there are 13 people in central office dedicated to the SSL program, plus someone at every MS and HS who processes these forms. Certainly this could be made more efficient. I would happily have MCPS cut that and have 13 additional teachers in classrooms so class sizes could be lower.

Any program that awards SSL hours for timing private summer swim meets and attending required presentations at school needs a rethink anyway... my kid received 10 hours just for attending 7th grade English. What's the point of that?

This is so idiotic, and I’ve posted about this before. Why are there so many people being paid to do this? It can all be done with QR codes and google forms. We don’t need 70 MCPS employees working on this.