5/12 County Council Meeting -- Gutting MCPS Budget Request to the Tune of $180M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

Was that money guaranteed to go to the teachers ONLY, and not for any other purpose? If not, then I’m in favor of cutting MCPS’ budget to ensure that less of my tax dollars are wasted by the current leadership.

Yes, MCPS bargained a contractor with the teachers and is committed to paying them the COLA they agreed to. If the funding is not passed they will have to go back on their word and renegotiate the contract to take the raises away (unless the union refuses, but they won't since the alternative is laying off hundreds of teachers.) But if the funding does pass, the contract is binding as-is and the money goes to teachers getting their COLAs.

Total BS.
MCPS already has the money to pay teachers. Taylor can easily cut the waste to make up the small reduction in his request.

[Anonymous]

Remember when Taylor claimed he had to start the school year earlier with 4 months notice to comply with the state? It was BS, just like this threat to fail to honor the contracts.

[Anonymous]

They would have more than enough money if they didn’t mismanage and waste it.

The problem has been that on both the county level and school level. They see the residents as cash cows so they don’t tighten their belts and budget. They just spend.

[Anonymous]

Agreed with several prior posters. I'm a teacher in MCPS, so is my wife. MCPS has the money to fund the teachers contract, but they just cannot muster up the courage to cut a lot of the waste in the budget.

There are still a great many teacher-level positions across schools that don't have teaching responsibilities. And central office still has WAY too many people. This can be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

This is not legally possible. Council gives the total amount but has no control of what it's spent on. Only the Board of Ed can control the details of what the money is spent on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of central office can be removed without impact. That money saved should be re distributed to teacher salaries.

After seeing the slides that were slapped together to support the elimination of accelerated/compacted math in elementary school, I now tend to agree that at least central office evaluation roles are an enormous waste of money. We are paying good taxpayer money for workslop.

[Anonymous]

Oh crap. They are planning on cutting $100M+ front the MCPS proposed budget for next year? That probably means hundreds of teacher layoffs. And definitely no special ed RTSE positions which were supposed to compensate for the special ed staffing cuts. Shoot shoot shoot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

This is not legally possible. Council gives the total amount but has no control of what it's spent on. Only the Board of Ed can control the details of what the money is spent on.

I know it is not legally possible. My larger point is that the superintendent has too much power in this state. We need to rewrite state rules that empower BOEs, and county councils, to have a greater check on superintendents. As it stands, the council is more powerful, on a large scale, than the BOE, in determining school district decisions.

[Anonymous]

I think they won't renegotiate the teachers' contracts, but they will get rid of SEIU positions like media assistants and other paraeducator positions. The college & career position is on the chopping block, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

This is not legally possible. Council gives the total amount but has no control of what it's spent on. Only the Board of Ed can control the details of what the money is spent on.

I know it is not legally possible. My larger point is that the superintendent has too much power in this state. We need to rewrite state rules that empower BOEs, and county councils, to have a greater check on superintendents. As it stands, the council is more powerful, on a large scale, than the BOE, in determining school district decisions.

The BOE already has the ability to control where the spending goes, they just won't use it and instead make the choice to defer to the Superintendent the vast majority of the time.

(Partly because their staff are all in the pocket of MCPS Central Office and tell them it's inappropriate for them to question MCPS decisions-- and partly because they're not brave enough to rock the boat.)

[Anonymous]

A prediction of who won’t be cut:

Essie McGuire
Peter Moran
Christopher Turk
Jeanie Dawson
David Adams
Sean McGee
Niki Porter
Jeff Sullivan

If they did, they’d save about $2 million and trim some of the worst that MCPS has to offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

This is not legally possible. Council gives the total amount but has no control of what it's spent on. Only the Board of Ed can control the details of what the money is spent on.

I know it is not legally possible. My larger point is that the superintendent has too much power in this state. We need to rewrite state rules that empower BOEs, and county councils, to have a greater check on superintendents. As it stands, the council is more powerful, on a large scale, than the BOE, in determining school district decisions.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an MCPS employee, a parent of MCPS students, and a Montgomery County homeowner. I’m glad the county council is listening to those of us who said we cannot afford to write MCPS a blank check. I’d love to see the council go line by line through MCPS’ budget.

Line item vetoes by the council is what we need. Taylor will cut things such as Special Education, hitting other vulnerable populations, instead of rethinking his vast regional program boondoggle. The real costs for that fiasco won't be proposed for another year, but it's been so poorly planned that it will not be something that benefits the community. I'd like to defund Taylor's salary, as a start.

This is not legally possible. Council gives the total amount but has no control of what it's spent on. Only the Board of Ed can control the details of what the money is spent on.

I know it is not legally possible. My larger point is that the superintendent has too much power in this state. We need to rewrite state rules that empower BOEs, and county councils, to have a greater check on superintendents. As it stands, the council is more powerful, on a large scale, than the BOE, in determining school district decisions.

The BOE already has the ability to control where the spending goes, they just won't use it and instead make the choice to defer to the Superintendent the vast majority of the time.

(Partly because their staff are all in the pocket of MCPS Central Office and tell them it's inappropriate for them to question MCPS decisions-- and partly because they're not brave enough to rock the boat.)

BS. BOE isn't controlled by central office. They just don't take their job seriously because they see it as political steppingstone or the only way they can get whatever specific thing their own children need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mcps balloon has popped.

Sadly this will be the downfall of public education in this area. County council failing to recognize that if you don’t pay teachers their COLA or steps, while raising insurance premiums with worse coverage, teachers will leave. It won’t be the teachers within 5 or 7 years of retiring, but those that are only five or seven years into teaching, the brightest and most capable ones won’t see the value in staying. You can’t take home less money each year and still pay the bills when inflation is skyrocketing.

This has been happening to federal employees since 2009. We gave up COLAs for several years and received tiny ones while our health care increases by double digits each year.