Why is the HVAC breaking everywhere?

[Anonymous]

25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t recall a year with SO many schools with no AC at the same time. Am I just forgetting? Why are there so many schools all of a sudden this year that seem to not be functioning?

I don’t remember this being such a thing in other years. What a disgrace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

As opposed to millions for grass field upkeep to the same level of usability? I'd prefer grass, myself, but this is a non sequitur.

MCPS capital needs have been grossly underfunded.

[Anonymous]

Old systems and deferred maintenance will do that

Our kids HS has grass, not turf, and flooding, pitts in the fields (many ankle injuries) and just plain old rain make it unusable much of the time. MCPS cannot maintain the grass fields to any kind of reasonable standard, and I wish they would just turf all the fields already, so the kids can play

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

As opposed to millions for grass field upkeep to the same level of usability? I'd prefer grass, myself, but this is a non sequitur.

MCPS capital needs have been grossly underfunded.

MCPS capital needs are well funded. Paying construction companies without contracts siphons off millions. Grass isn’t anywhere near the cost of plastic. Plastic only lasts about 5 years and then it is unusable and unsafe. MCPS never replaces the plastic when it actually fails. They let students get injured for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They were pretty transparent about the county wide HVAC cluster**** during last year’s Capital Improvements budget presentations. It was horrifying but I don’t feel surprised.

They were transparent? When did they detail the defective systems they installed in schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

As opposed to millions for grass field upkeep to the same level of usability? I'd prefer grass, myself, but this is a non sequitur.

MCPS capital needs have been grossly underfunded.

MCPS capital needs are well funded. Paying construction companies without contracts siphons off millions. Grass isn’t anywhere near the cost of plastic. Plastic only lasts about 5 years and then it is unusable and unsafe. MCPS never replaces the plastic when it actually fails. They let students get injured for years.

OK, Vizzini.

Gotta keep up that anti-tax narrative!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As for Wootton, the building is completely spent. The HVAC has been in a horrible state for the past 15-20 years and we were told year after year that there's no way to make it better. During that time there has never been a time when all parts of the building were appropriate for the conditions. Today was just another day of it being unbearable, but it just happened to be unbearable for the whole school all at once so we were allowed to go home.

You get a new building soon.

They don't want it. Just fix everything in the broken building and leave the kids there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

As opposed to millions for grass field upkeep to the same level of usability? I'd prefer grass, myself, but this is a non sequitur.

MCPS capital needs have been grossly underfunded.

MCPS capital needs are well funded. Paying construction companies without contracts siphons off millions. Grass isn’t anywhere near the cost of plastic. Plastic only lasts about 5 years and then it is unusable and unsafe. MCPS never replaces the plastic when it actually fails. They let students get injured for years.

OK, Vizzini.

Gotta keep up that anti-tax narrative!

You have to keep covering up the fraud and embezzlement. 5 years of embezzlement went on in MCPS bus depot and you ignored it. Then you scream underfunded?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:25+ years of capital improvement underfunding will do that to you.

County Council voted to lower the median tax burden by percent of income/percent of assessed value, even with the elimination of the ITOC. IIRC, this applied to the mean tax burden, as well, both by percentages and by inflation-adjusted dollar value, with projected revenues per taxpayer/per household falling. "Even after tax increases" would be a mischaracterization.

What underfunding? Millions for artificial turf.

As opposed to millions for grass field upkeep to the same level of usability? I'd prefer grass, myself, but this is a non sequitur.

MCPS capital needs have been grossly underfunded.

MCPS capital needs are well funded. Paying construction companies without contracts siphons off millions. Grass isn’t anywhere near the cost of plastic. Plastic only lasts about 5 years and then it is unusable and unsafe. MCPS never replaces the plastic when it actually fails. They let students get injured for years.

OK, Vizzini.

Gotta keep up that anti-tax narrative!

You have to keep covering up the fraud and embezzlement. 5 years of embezzlement went on in MCPS bus depot and you ignored it. Then you scream underfunded?

Who is "you?" I have neither an interest in an MCPS cover-up nor an interest in overused/under-thought/facile insinuations that our schools have adequate funding so that we can keep the tax man at bay.

[Anonymous]

MCPS has a management and spending issue and they are not spending the money in a fiscally responsible way. They need a full audit and outside management. They get more money every year despite declining enrollment and test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has a management and spending issue and they are not spending the money in a fiscally responsible way. They need a full audit and outside management. They get more money every year despite declining enrollment and test scores.

It is doubtless that they have management and spending issues, and that a full audit might help.

That said, the same applies to many large enterprises, and most government functions. This is without this excusing them for that, but, instead, providing a landscape against which one better might consider the conclusion that they are well funded. That conclusion is rather questionable.

Yes, they have gotten more money every year. Yes, the past few years have seen declining enrollments, and projections are that this decline will continue. Yes, over the intermediate term, test scores also have declined, with any recovery seen in the data in the past couple of years both narrow and marginal.

Does this mean that they are well or over-funded versus their present ability to provide education at the levels we, as a county, desire?

What about inflation?

What about increases in the more challenging populations to serve?

What about ongoing challenges resulting from the pandemic? Those kids who were affected directly will be in school for another 6 years, still.

What about systems that are in place which don't benefit, financially in a proportional way, from lower enrollments?

What about net additional unfunded mandates from federal, state and/or local government?

What about past under-funding vs. capital/maintenance needs and the effects of having the bill come due on that at an inopportune time, like, say, the present? Isn't that the reason this thread exists?

Do we really expect that cutting funding will result in higher test scores?

If we are looking to MCPS to provide our kids with critical thinking skills, wouldn't it be good to employ them, ourselves?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As for Wootton, the building is completely spent. The HVAC has been in a horrible state for the past 15-20 years and we were told year after year that there's no way to make it better. During that time there has never been a time when all parts of the building were appropriate for the conditions. Today was just another day of it being unbearable, but it just happened to be unbearable for the whole school all at once so we were allowed to go home.

You get a new building soon.

They don't want it. Just fix everything in the broken building and leave the kids there

A handful of community members don’t want it. Most are fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS has a management and spending issue and they are not spending the money in a fiscally responsible way. They need a full audit and outside management. They get more money every year despite declining enrollment and test scores.

It is doubtless that they have management and spending issues, and that a full audit might help.

That said, the same applies to many large enterprises, and most government functions. This is without this excusing them for that, but, instead, providing a landscape against which one better might consider the conclusion that they are well funded. That conclusion is rather questionable.

Yes, they have gotten more money every year. Yes, the past few years have seen declining enrollments, and projections are that this decline will continue. Yes, over the intermediate term, test scores also have declined, with any recovery seen in the data in the past couple of years both narrow and marginal.

Does this mean that they are well or over-funded versus their present ability to provide education at the levels we, as a county, desire?

What about inflation?

What about increases in the more challenging populations to serve?

What about ongoing challenges resulting from the pandemic? Those kids who were affected directly will be in school for another 6 years, still.

What about systems that are in place which don't benefit, financially in a proportional way, from lower enrollments?

What about net additional unfunded mandates from federal, state and/or local government?

What about past under-funding vs. capital/maintenance needs and the effects of having the bill come due on that at an inopportune time, like, say, the present? Isn't that the reason this thread exists?

Do we really expect that cutting funding will result in higher test scores?

If we are looking to MCPS to provide our kids with critical thinking skills, wouldn't it be good to employ them, ourselves?

I expect them to be good stewards of taxpayers money. Many are not getting raises, dealing with inflation, job loss and more. Many of us cannot keep affording the tax increases.