A New Beginning?

[Anonymous]

For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent, I don’t get it. Why don’t you do your jobs and be a parent? These entitled parents will blame anyone but themselves…. It’s not the schools job to raise your kids.

No, it's the schools job to (1) educate children, (2) ensure the children's safety and health, (3) responsibly manage taxpayer funds, and (4) ensure the proper operation of the school system and staff.

Here's a short list of why I think she shouldn't be Superintendent of Schools anymore:
- Spending $1M on bocce ball was just one of the questionable Federal grant expenditures that could have been waste fraud and abuse.
- Not prioritizing the crumbing schools for renovations.
- Lack of judgement accepting two awards on a recruiting junket at her alma mater
- Instead of having a covid plan, releasing videos (ex. what her favorite school lunch was)
- Begging for National Guard bus driver fiasco
- Turning the Magnet program into a Vegas-style lottery
- Discriminating against Asians lawsuit for the Magnet admissions program
- Shutting down 31 schools for two weeks, infecting over 9% of the student body and 2100 teachers for lack of a covid plan
- Magruder shooting wearing pink and needed a police escort through traffic for the press conference because she doesn't even live in the county and for some reason wasn't at the office that day
- Two MCEA no confidence votes
- Changing covid stats in March so it wasn't even possible for the public to know how many kids were out sick or infected at a school in a particular month / week / day.
- It remains to be seen if there will be enough teachers to teach classes in August, or how many teachers will be shuffled around like cattle to other schools come fall.
- A ton of open discrimination investigations from the Dept of Education OCR (when her strong suit was supposed to be fighting discrimination)

All of this was as acting Superintendent in about a year. Do you disagree that any of this is not true or have any news articles or a list of anything she's done that's been any good that shows her competency in the four bullet points of what she should have been doing in her job?

I’ll take a gander

1)Just because you don’t value bocce ball doesn’t mean others don’t. It’s a sport that was played prior to the pandemic and one known for being inclusive to those w/ special needs.
2) There are many schools that need renovation and resolution of over allocation. A collaborative Super would try to ensure that schools in all areas across the county are being worked/constructed etc. Seems to be what is going on. Additionally, with the rising cost of materials not all projects can continue as originally planned.
3) Recruiting at HBCU was a priority in the approved HR strategy. Accepting a award while doing so, particular in her position is a PR statement. And yes PR is part of her job as she serve as the head of the MCPS brand
4) She had a Covid plan; keep kids in schools 5 days a week as much as possible. This was achieved except for schools that had significant spread. Everyone may not have agreed with this, but had she closed schools everyone would not have agreed with that decision either. And given that learning loss was/is already an issue and many folks stated that their kids couldn’t learn via distance, and many parents were going back to the office,the decision to keep schools open was the actual better risk calculation
5) Bus drivers go out sick just like anyone. Ask for help for National guard meant that she was willing to acknowledge a problem and seek a solution that would still allow school to stay in session while getting kids where there needed to be. It was also an idea that was being suggested nationally.
6) Yea she didn’t turn the magnet program into a Vegas style lottery. The DISTRiCT tried to include better equity and diversity into the process/school. Whether effective or right can be debated but this was started before she became Interim so blaming it squarely on her is wrong.
7) This goes with #6 above.
8) See number 4. Also she didn’t infect anyone a virus did. Also 31 schools in a district with 200 is a small number is comparison to the ones that stayed open.
9)Not sure why where she lives is of any concern to anyone. She gets to choose where to live just like you and everyone else. Also, why she is or isn’t in her office on a given day shouldn’t be judged. She could have been at a meeting or WFH. She’s the executive of a large school district. She can’t plan her day/life around the chance that their might be a school incident. And judging her for wearing pink. Again, she can wear what she wants and that might have been what she had on for the day. So wasting time changing would have been for what. Jackie O stood for the oath of office for Lyndon in a blue suit with her husband blood. She did it for a reason and McKnight had a reason for what she wore. Stop judging a woman’s ability to effectively do her job based on what color she happens to be wearing.
10) MCEA did have two no confidence votes. But its also my understanding that a majority of teachers didn’t actually vote in these
11) Stats were changed because folks complained. Do I think these and the process could have better, YEs, but I won’t mark her incompetent based on this.
12) Um MCPS and every school district in the US is experience teacher shortages. This has been a known issue nationally for years and Covid and Covid recovery just exacerbated. So why this is being held against here I don’t understand. And shuffling teachers around sounds like an executive trying to do the best with the resources available.
13) The suits are against MCPS not McKnight. I can guarantee this did not all begin as soon as McKnight became Interim and despite wanting to combat discrimination, she can’t snap her fingers and make it all go away.[/b]

[b]- She’s kept schools open
- She moved forward with the anti racist audit
-Moved forward with the County boundary study
-Is addressing the communication complaint that many have had by communicating more(even though people are complaining about that).
-Moving to LETRS and Science of Reading next year
- Generally doing the job despite vitriol (which frankly anyone in the job is going to get )

Did I answer everything for you

Excellent points!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Did I answer everything for you

Not really. Sticking to the points made would be better.
1) The issue is how much taxpayer federal covid money did an incompetent administration waste and overspend, but nice try confusing the point. Next.
2) The issue is which schools are prioritized due to health and safety issues and yes, that is her job. Next.
3) You're advocating recruiting from a low-ranked university versus being globally competitive? And no, her job is not to pick up personal awards (ex. from her sorority.) Next.
4) Was calling the National Guard part of that plan? How about changing the dash board calculations three times, and changing policy mid-week? Explain how that is a "risk calculation" versus a CYA, since the schools with high covid percentage rates didn't shut down, and the first set of schools shut down before they were even in session yet. It was right after Christmas break, remember? Next.
6) Kids in the 85th percentile are selected by random to attend, versus selection by merit. On one hand, the definition of Random is "made, done, happening, or chosen without method or conscious decision". On the other hand, if the district "tried to include better equity and diversity into the process/school" then someone needs to make up their mind whether the process was really random or if someone was picking favorites? Maybe the Asian discrimination lawsuit has merit and MCPS is in trouble? Next.
7) You're saying they're linked together and the lawsuit has merit? Next.
8) An airline pilot finds out a person on the aircraft is sick and needs medical attention. Does the pilot pull back into the terminal? Or does the pilot say, "hey, we're out the gate so just hang on til we get to Florida!" McKnight made the call to keep kids in-person. At least 9% of the student body and 2100 staff were infected. Bad judgement calls. Next.
9) Because after 21 years of working in MCPS, the school isn't good enough for her own kids? Because when a shooting occurs and she feels the need to drive in for a press conference and needs to be escorted by the police through traffic? Does anyone know why she was even at home on a workday? She makes teachers go into classrooms every day, right? All bad judgement calls. Next.
10) The SECOND vote was short suspense (two days?). There was also an unofficial, short-notice poll by parents. In two weeks I think it had 24,000 signatures? I'll try to find it again. All I know is that when someone writes something like this, that person really should get off their high horse.

"In results released today, a whopping 94.28% of the almost 7,000 Montgomery County Education Association members who voted supported a no-confidence resolution against the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education and its Interim Superintendent Monifa McKnight."

"The resolution states, “The members of MCEA declare that we have no confidence in the ability of current members of the Montgomery County Board of Education or Interim Superintendent Monifa McKnight to effectively address the current crisis in our schools caused by the effects of COVID-19. MCPS leadership has consistently shown a dereliction of duty and a lack of competence. We demand immediate action to address our concerns.”

https://www.mymcmedia.org/mcea-members-almost-unanimously-support-no-confidence-vote-against-mcps-leadership/

11) Health stats are critical to understanding the public health situation. By suppressing that information, MCPS did not provide an accurate assessment that everyone could understand. In my opinion, yes, McKnight changed the stats to CYA since the National Guard issue was blowing up in her face in January. Next.
12) If it's so normal, then you would agree that everything is fine and there will be full staff in August. But if there isn't, it is McKnight's half-a-mil job to fix it, or resign. Next.
13) You even said she focused on an audit and boundary study and comms (and making videos about her favorite cafeteria lunch). Next.

- She’s kept schools open
At the expense of 2100 staff and 9% of students ill - shows bad judgement as a leader. See #13. Next.

- She moved forward with the anti racist audit
BFD - schools are falling apart and she's playing games. See #13. Next.

-Moved forward with the County boundary study
BFD - schools are falling apart and she's playing games. See #13. Next.

-Is addressing the communication complaint that many have had by communicating more(even though people are complaining about that).
IMHO, hiring CYA staff isn't helping anyone but herself. See #13. Next.

-Moving to LETRS and Science of Reading next
Math (esp Algebra) was the bigger concern, remember? See #13. Next.

- Generally doing the job despite vitriol (which frankly anyone in the job is going to get )
For half-a-mill contract + perks, she can suck it up. Next.

As far as keeping her Superintendent? Next.

I love how the MCPS cheerleaders have no response to the response? Waiting for them to post new stuff other than "well said" or "great job" or other nothing comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

Reverse gaslighting? No, they are the ones deflecting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

A better question is why are people on this forum making up fiction and bullying a brand new superintendent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a parent, I don’t get it. Why don’t you do your jobs and be a parent? These entitled parents will blame anyone but themselves…. It’s not the schools job to raise your kids.

No, it's the schools job to (1) educate children, (2) ensure the children's safety and health, (3) responsibly manage taxpayer funds, and (4) ensure the proper operation of the school system and staff.

Here's a short list of why I think she shouldn't be Superintendent of Schools anymore:
- Spending $1M on bocce ball was just one of the questionable Federal grant expenditures that could have been waste fraud and abuse.
- Not prioritizing the crumbing schools for renovations.
- Lack of judgement accepting two awards on a recruiting junket at her alma mater
- Instead of having a covid plan, releasing videos (ex. what her favorite school lunch was)
- Begging for National Guard bus driver fiasco
- Turning the Magnet program into a Vegas-style lottery
- Discriminating against Asians lawsuit for the Magnet admissions program
- Shutting down 31 schools for two weeks, infecting over 9% of the student body and 2100 teachers for lack of a covid plan
- Magruder shooting wearing pink and needed a police escort through traffic for the press conference because she doesn't even live in the county and for some reason wasn't at the office that day
- Two MCEA no confidence votes
- Changing covid stats in March so it wasn't even possible for the public to know how many kids were out sick or infected at a school in a particular month / week / day.
- It remains to be seen if there will be enough teachers to teach classes in August, or how many teachers will be shuffled around like cattle to other schools come fall.
- A ton of open discrimination investigations from the Dept of Education OCR (when her strong suit was supposed to be fighting discrimination)

All of this was as acting Superintendent in about a year. Do you disagree that any of this is not true or have any news articles or a list of anything she's done that's been any good that shows her competency in the four bullet points of what she should have been doing in her job?

I’ll take a gander

1)Just because you don’t value bocce ball doesn’t mean others don’t. It’s a sport that was played prior to the pandemic and one known for being inclusive to those w/ special needs.
2) There are many schools that need renovation and resolution of over allocation. A collaborative Super would try to ensure that schools in all areas across the county are being worked/constructed etc. Seems to be what is going on. Additionally, with the rising cost of materials not all projects can continue as originally planned.
3) Recruiting at HBCU was a priority in the approved HR strategy. Accepting a award while doing so, particular in her position is a PR statement. And yes PR is part of her job as she serve as the head of the MCPS brand
4) She had a Covid plan; keep kids in schools 5 days a week as much as possible. This was achieved except for schools that had significant spread. Everyone may not have agreed with this, but had she closed schools everyone would not have agreed with that decision either. And given that learning loss was/is already an issue and many folks stated that their kids couldn’t learn via distance, and many parents were going back to the office,the decision to keep schools open was the actual better risk calculation
5) Bus drivers go out sick just like anyone. Ask for help for National guard meant that she was willing to acknowledge a problem and seek a solution that would still allow school to stay in session while getting kids where there needed to be. It was also an idea that was being suggested nationally.
6) Yea she didn’t turn the magnet program into a Vegas style lottery. The DISTRiCT tried to include better equity and diversity into the process/school. Whether effective or right can be debated but this was started before she became Interim so blaming it squarely on her is wrong.
7) This goes with #6 above.
8) See number 4. Also she didn’t infect anyone a virus did. Also 31 schools in a district with 200 is a small number is comparison to the ones that stayed open.
9)Not sure why where she lives is of any concern to anyone. She gets to choose where to live just like you and everyone else. Also, why she is or isn’t in her office on a given day shouldn’t be judged. She could have been at a meeting or WFH. She’s the executive of a large school district. She can’t plan her day/life around the chance that their might be a school incident. And judging her for wearing pink. Again, she can wear what she wants and that might have been what she had on for the day. So wasting time changing would have been for what. Jackie O stood for the oath of office for Lyndon in a blue suit with her husband blood. She did it for a reason and McKnight had a reason for what she wore. Stop judging a woman’s ability to effectively do her job based on what color she happens to be wearing.
10) MCEA did have two no confidence votes. But its also my understanding that a majority of teachers didn’t actually vote in these
11) Stats were changed because folks complained. Do I think these and the process could have better, YEs, but I won’t mark her incompetent based on this.
12) Um MCPS and every school district in the US is experience teacher shortages. This has been a known issue nationally for years and Covid and Covid recovery just exacerbated. So why this is being held against here I don’t understand. And shuffling teachers around sounds like an executive trying to do the best with the resources available.
13) The suits are against MCPS not McKnight. I can guarantee this did not all begin as soon as McKnight became Interim and despite wanting to combat discrimination, she can’t snap her fingers and make it all go away.[/b]

[b]- She’s kept schools open
- She moved forward with the anti racist audit
-Moved forward with the County boundary study
-Is addressing the communication complaint that many have had by communicating more(even though people are complaining about that).
-Moving to LETRS and Science of Reading next year
- Generally doing the job despite vitriol (which frankly anyone in the job is going to get )

Did I answer everything for you

Yes, I feel that the answers were more than adequate. Thanks for putting these issues to rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

A better question is why are people on this forum making up fiction and bullying a brand new superintendent?

Why do you make this all about one specific individual? Why can't you be tolerant of people having open discussion about lack of leadership and failure to support highly abled students and students who need support?
Why is that you don't like when people hope for bright future of ALL students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

A better question is why are people on this forum making up fiction and bullying a brand new superintendent?

Why do you make this all about one specific individual? Why can't you be tolerant of people having open discussion about lack of leadership and failure to support highly abled students and students who need support?
Why is that you don't like when people hope for bright future of ALL students?

It looks more like PR firm is paid to bully parents online to distract and deflect any discussions that impacts the future of our children. I wonder why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

The Russian Troll Farm is working overtime to suggest anyone supporting MCPS is a PR hack.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

The Russian Troll Farm is working overtime to suggest anyone supporting MCPS is a PR hack.

^
This is a typical paid public relations post calling names and online bullying parents discouraging from serious discussions on topics that effects future of the students at MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

The Russian Troll Farm is working overtime to suggest anyone supporting MCPS is a PR hack.

^
This is a typical paid public relations post calling names and online bullying parents discouraging from serious discussions on topics that effects future of the students at MCPS.

Someone calling "Foul!" every time anyone thinks MCPS is trying to do something right is a team of PR people paid by MCPS?

Really?

Wow!

(Deluded much?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the sake of bright future of all children, we need changes in current leadership.

^ The McKnight Stalker

Why are you calling names and bully people on this forum for asking questions and hoping for better future for all children.

+1 It’s called gaslighting. The MCPS PR firm is working overtime to deflect from the lack of effective leadership of the school system.

The Russian Troll Farm is working overtime to suggest anyone supporting MCPS is a PR hack.

^
This is a typical paid public relations post calling names and online bullying parents discouraging from serious discussions on topics that effects future of the students at MCPS.

Someone calling "Foul!" every time anyone thinks MCPS is trying to do something right is a team of PR people paid by MCPS?

Really?

Wow!

(Deluded much?)

New poster but I hope it's not the PR team, because if it is, they're awful. They shouldn't be trying to pit parents against Mcps leadership. Nor should they be calling people names. If they were earning their keep, they'd be getting these threads to die, not inflaming passions and keeping them going. I work for another school system, and the PR folks don't engage in that way. The threads are far more conciliatory, if they engage at all. Things tend to be less polarizing and therefore less dynamic and interesting, and therefore the threads peter out.