So who are the reasonable candidates for the BOE?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
in Montgomery County you get two choices, Left or Extreme Left
Either way you get higher taxes and more kids going to private schools |
Anonymous
DP. I think the fact that he's got recent experience in MCPS is a selling point. |
Anonymous
Isn't that the point of the SMOB? |
Anonymous
| Sally McCarthy is the only candidate running with significant education advocacy experience. She has been working with the budgets for a few years. she knows the schools and has helped mulitple schools with their individual challenges for the last few years. |
Anonymous
+1 for Sally McCarthy |
Anonymous
|
Question is what will Sally do with her capability. She got the Apple Ballot nod, so might be beholden to the union leadership, and doesn't seem eager to rock the boat.
Cassi Sung seems to get that we like little-"p" progressivism -- the kind that doesn't play favorites. |
Anonymous
The problem with our system isn't that we have board members who genuflect to the teachers' union if they received a previous endorsement. The problem is the boards of education in the State of Maryland have too little power. Other than hire and fire superintendents; vote on overall budgets and contracts over $25,000; and boundary recommendations, all they can do is advise superintendents. What we need is state reform, not somebody named Cass Sung who, from her website, has the following to recommend herself: Chamber of Mothers co-facilitator Election Judge Local Buy Nothing admin Co-Lead Allyship Affinity Group at work Mom of two Neurodivergent Multiracial marriage and biracial children Dog mom Big sister Girl’s girl Amateur Potter A dog mom, big sister, and a "girl's girl" (is that last one code for something?). Seriously, this is someone that deserves consideration for elected office? I don't think so. |
Anonymous
This is not true. The Board of Ed can take a much more robust role in governing MCPS than they do. They can set and revise policies that would dramatically change all sorts of things at MCPS. And if they chose to lean into their power and influence and make it clear that they won't provide the votes for things Central Office wants unless they get their way, they could probably also influence many additional things as well. But the Board has a culture of going along with whatever Central Office wants, and Board members for some reason seem to be sucked into that once they join the Board regardless of what they said when they were running. (Montoya seems to be a slight exception to that, although even she goes with the flow the majority of the time.) |
Anonymous
|
It’s because they don’t have the resources - time, staff, etc - to second-guess the Superintendent. They are not the day-to-day supervisors of MCPS central office staff. By the time they get to ask questions at a public meeting, most decisions have been made and MCPS is 10 steps down a path without an alternative plan/option.
Except for the regional programs. They got advance notice of that and an option to go with a less significant change and they approved the regional model. |
Anonymous
Question still is whether Sally will actually do anything to make changes to the system that routinely ignores the stakeholders who are receiving their services. Or will she just be another MCEA-approved rubber stamp where a less "qualified" person might actually ask the questions we would want answered. |
Anonymous
But it is true. The superintendent ignores those policies at will, and gets away with it. Board committees spend time reviewing and revising policies only to see that their input ignored. Get real. The board has, in effect, little power. |
Anonymous
I see zero reason why there can only be one young person on the BOE. Literally the entire reason for the existence of MCPS is young people and ya'll are like but we already have the smob? Gmafb |
Anonymous
|
I'm voting for Lazo and McCarthy. DiResta was close (I didn't love his answer about the use of AI, so that was the tiebreak). I like all three of their focuses on the finance side of MCPS. Given the drama over the budget and declining enrollment, a firmer oversight of the budget is going to be really important over the near term.
DiResta and McCarthy both advocated for BoE to hire their own staff so they have an independent view of MCPS instead of relying on the Central Office. |
Anonymous
It's terrific when young people provide testimony about their current or recent MCPS experiences, but having oversight over a $3 billion budget requires a bit more life experience and maturity. |
Anonymous
This is such an interesting and important debate that I've heard and I don't which is quite true. The first argument aligns with what the first poster said: The BOE already has the oversight and supervisory powers it needs. That it's not doing more is a failure on the part of the BOE members. This talking point is especially prevalent when you talk with those on the County Council, who have limited oversight powers over MCPS compared to the BOE. The second argument, which aligns with the second poster's POV, is that the BOE is constrained and limited in its ability, since they strongly feel their scope of oversight is limited and can't and should not undermine the superintendent's role and purview. This manifests in the form of a culture and norms that are overly deferential to the superintendent and the system. So which is true? I can't tell. I have yet to see an example of a more muscular BOE in the state of Maryland, so it's not like MCPS is an outlier in that regard. But that just might more of a cultural implication of how boards have run than any truly structural limitations? My guess is the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But I'd love a legal analysis on this tension. |