Montoya is not fit for office

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not happy my kid won’t be able to go to one of the cool programs at Poolesville or Blair, but it’s really hard for many families to deal with getting their kids there and back every day. I hired someone to fetch my kid from a middle school magnet bus stop - grateful I can afford to do that and it was the only way to make it work, but it’s not fair that you have to be able to afford this kind of help to make a magnet program feasible.

I don’t think MCPS did a good job of explaining the regional model, but it sounds like they will be taking a long time to figure out regions, programming, staffing, etc., so hopefully they get to planning and get it smoothed out. I suspect part of the reason we’re all left unclear on what’s happening is that the Wootton to Crown debate took up 90% or more of the BOE meetings, testimony, media coverage, etc., so that’s all we heard about.

Just a quick reality check.

The regional program open houses will start in September/October of this year, in six months. Applications will be due, likely on Nov. 1. They have to have something figured out so families know what to apply for.

Unless their goal is to have nothing concrete to apply for, show a low number of applications, and throw their hands up and say "I guess everyone wants local schools." And there you go, no more magnets, no transportation issues.

Yes, this is a quite reasonable prediction. They can't get things finalized in 6 months (program, curriculum, teachers, transportation, etc.) to the level to gain enough interests and confidence from the community. What Taylor said was they just need to figure out the 9th grade teachers and courses, and roll out 10th grade next year. No he doesn't understand that barely anyone would bet their 4 most critical years of education on 1-yr promise.

I actually think many students and families from lower-performing schools will bet on these ill-defined programs for the next 4 years despite the ambiguity because it's a means of getting out of an otherwise undesirable learning environment.

Now will that work for getting high-performing kids to the lower-performing schools? Probably not.

Exactly. This regional program contract is not going to raise lower academic outcomes.

It will not raise it as the smart kids will always be smart and the struggling kids aren't getting anything extra out of this, and if anything will see a reduction in school staff, so they will get even less support vs. more. It's going to make the divide bigger.

I think families with the means to get out of the county for a better school district, will do so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not happy my kid won’t be able to go to one of the cool programs at Poolesville or Blair, but it’s really hard for many families to deal with getting their kids there and back every day. I hired someone to fetch my kid from a middle school magnet bus stop - grateful I can afford to do that and it was the only way to make it work, but it’s not fair that you have to be able to afford this kind of help to make a magnet program feasible.

I don’t think MCPS did a good job of explaining the regional model, but it sounds like they will be taking a long time to figure out regions, programming, staffing, etc., so hopefully they get to planning and get it smoothed out. I suspect part of the reason we’re all left unclear on what’s happening is that the Wootton to Crown debate took up 90% or more of the BOE meetings, testimony, media coverage, etc., so that’s all we heard about.

Just a quick reality check.

The regional program open houses will start in September/October of this year, in six months. Applications will be due, likely on Nov. 1. They have to have something figured out so families know what to apply for.

Unless their goal is to have nothing concrete to apply for, show a low number of applications, and throw their hands up and say "I guess everyone wants local schools." And there you go, no more magnets, no transportation issues.

Yes, this is a quite reasonable prediction. They can't get things finalized in 6 months (program, curriculum, teachers, transportation, etc.) to the level to gain enough interests and confidence from the community. What Taylor said was they just need to figure out the 9th grade teachers and courses, and roll out 10th grade next year. No he doesn't understand that barely anyone would bet their 4 most critical years of education on 1-yr promise.

I have heard Taylor say that absolutely nonsensical BS statement about only figuring out 9th grade courses during the first year of planning, and then doing 10th grade coursework the following year , and, so forth...Curriculum development requires scoping and sequencing that requires a comprehensive multi-year approach (which he should know, as an educator). So, he is either a) incompetent as an educator (totally believable); b) a complete liar (again, believable); or c) incompetent and a liar. (Yep.)

I guess he thinks we are all stupid.

I have it under good authority that the only possible reason you could be saying this is because you believe in keeping the current system of racist access to magnet programs that can only be solved by dissolving the NEC and DCC s/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Wootton people are insane. God forbid your dainty children attend school with the plebes. Smdh!

Maybe take a breath there, please. I'm not a Wootton parent. I was at the meeting. Montoya made divisive racial comments in her prepared remarks. I heard her hot mic comment that referenced the audience (which was mixed, from all across the county - not just Asian Americans from Wootton) as racist.

That's a problem - it's not a good leadership from an elected official.

Her prepared remarks said:

Blair Math and Science, 75%. Polesville Math and Science, 85%. Polesville Ecology, 83%. Polesville Humanities, 73%. Richard Montgomery Interbaccalaureate, 82%. Those are the percentages in those particular programs of only Asian and white students. Those programs, the NEC, the DCC, they were established to make access greater for all students, not just some students. So why do I support the idea of expanding access through a regional program model? Because black and brown students deserve access to these programs as well. So I want to be clear to this community and to all of my colleagues that a vote against this model is a vote to perpetuate the racist access to these programs that has been going on for quite some time. I'll wait. I have heard, I had a lot of talking points prepared today, but let me just go into the crux of it. There have been some really ugly words spoken in really ugly ways throughout this process. In this room, in emails and messages, handwritten letters, in in-person meetings and virtual meetings, in phone calls, at community events. We can disagree. You can even not like me as a person. But it is not okay to speak to myself and my colleagues or any of our future colleagues in disrespectful ways, in threatening ways. It is absolutely not okay to yell at me while my children are standing next to me while I'm in the community. Despite all of that behavior, I pushed it all aside because as an attorney and a trained litigator, I am trained to just see the message. So I looked at your messages, I looked at your data, your charts, your alternative solutions, whatever you gave. I spent hours preparing for some of the meetings that I had with some of you in the community. I can appreciate that some of you wish the data included different data sets. Our data came from municipalities, with our work with Montgomery Planning, from the various vendors that conducted various analyses, whether it was looking at designs or traffic or boundary lines, neighborhoods, populations, projections, enrollments, you name it. It's okay to disagree. It is not okay to treat anybody in this way, including other members of your school communities, other children, other staff. Now I know that these kinds of issues are hard. I'm a parent as well, right? I'm living all of these decisions and I don't always agree with all of them as some of you know, right? My colleagues know too. Because I live them every day just like you do. But we need to be mindful that the ways that we behave and the words that we use, our kids are absolutely hearing them and they are seeing them. They are seeing them and deciding whether they are calm and collaborative or they are aggressive and hostile. Now, I join many of Ms. Wolfe's comments. I have been very disappointed by some of the rhetoric throughout this process. I've been disappointed by the deliberate fueling of misinformation by some of our trusted community leaders. And I've been disappointed at the use of historically significant and racially charged language like segregation, busing and redlining in situations where that is not what's happening. Because when you do that, you dilute the power of those words and the things that were experienced by the black and African American community. As we inch forward into other hard decisions, because we have a lot of hard decisions facing us, my role as a board member, the reason you elected me in this county, was to look at where is the money going, to make sure that we were fiscally sound so that we can all have as much of the things as we want. And that is what I will continue to do and why I support the recommendation of the superintendent. Thank you.

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

[Anonymous]

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Wootton people are insane. God forbid your dainty children attend school with the plebes. Smdh!

Maybe take a breath there, please. I'm not a Wootton parent. I was at the meeting. Montoya made divisive racial comments in her prepared remarks. I heard her hot mic comment that referenced the audience (which was mixed, from all across the county - not just Asian Americans from Wootton) as racist.

That's a problem - it's not a good leadership from an elected official.

Her prepared remarks said:

Blair Math and Science, 75%. Polesville Math and Science, 85%. Polesville Ecology, 83%. Polesville Humanities, 73%. Richard Montgomery Interbaccalaureate, 82%. Those are the percentages in those particular programs of only Asian and white students. Those programs, the NEC, the DCC, they were established to make access greater for all students, not just some students. So why do I support the idea of expanding access through a regional program model? Because black and brown students deserve access to these programs as well. So I want to be clear to this community and to all of my colleagues that a vote against this model is a vote to perpetuate the racist access to these programs that has been going on for quite some time. I'll wait. I have heard, I had a lot of talking points prepared today, but let me just go into the crux of it. There have been some really ugly words spoken in really ugly ways throughout this process. In this room, in emails and messages, handwritten letters, in in-person meetings and virtual meetings, in phone calls, at community events. We can disagree. You can even not like me as a person. But it is not okay to speak to myself and my colleagues or any of our future colleagues in disrespectful ways, in threatening ways. It is absolutely not okay to yell at me while my children are standing next to me while I'm in the community. Despite all of that behavior, I pushed it all aside because as an attorney and a trained litigator, I am trained to just see the message. So I looked at your messages, I looked at your data, your charts, your alternative solutions, whatever you gave. I spent hours preparing for some of the meetings that I had with some of you in the community. I can appreciate that some of you wish the data included different data sets. Our data came from municipalities, with our work with Montgomery Planning, from the various vendors that conducted various analyses, whether it was looking at designs or traffic or boundary lines, neighborhoods, populations, projections, enrollments, you name it. It's okay to disagree. It is not okay to treat anybody in this way, including other members of your school communities, other children, other staff. Now I know that these kinds of issues are hard. I'm a parent as well, right? I'm living all of these decisions and I don't always agree with all of them as some of you know, right? My colleagues know too. Because I live them every day just like you do. But we need to be mindful that the ways that we behave and the words that we use, our kids are absolutely hearing them and they are seeing them. They are seeing them and deciding whether they are calm and collaborative or they are aggressive and hostile. Now, I join many of Ms. Wolfe's comments. I have been very disappointed by some of the rhetoric throughout this process. I've been disappointed by the deliberate fueling of misinformation by some of our trusted community leaders. And I've been disappointed at the use of historically significant and racially charged language like segregation, busing and redlining in situations where that is not what's happening. Because when you do that, you dilute the power of those words and the things that were experienced by the black and African American community. As we inch forward into other hard decisions, because we have a lot of hard decisions facing us, my role as a board member, the reason you elected me in this county, was to look at where is the money going, to make sure that we were fiscally sound so that we can all have as much of the things as we want. And that is what I will continue to do and why I support the recommendation of the superintendent. Thank you.

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

“medical marijuana legal practice”
What?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You Wootton people are insane. God forbid your dainty children attend school with the plebes. Smdh!

Maybe take a breath there, please. I'm not a Wootton parent. I was at the meeting. Montoya made divisive racial comments in her prepared remarks. I heard her hot mic comment that referenced the audience (which was mixed, from all across the county - not just Asian Americans from Wootton) as racist.

That's a problem - it's not a good leadership from an elected official.

Her prepared remarks said:

Blair Math and Science, 75%. Polesville Math and Science, 85%. Polesville Ecology, 83%. Polesville Humanities, 73%. Richard Montgomery Interbaccalaureate, 82%. Those are the percentages in those particular programs of only Asian and white students. Those programs, the NEC, the DCC, they were established to make access greater for all students, not just some students. So why do I support the idea of expanding access through a regional program model? Because black and brown students deserve access to these programs as well. So I want to be clear to this community and to all of my colleagues that a vote against this model is a vote to perpetuate the racist access to these programs that has been going on for quite some time. I'll wait. I have heard, I had a lot of talking points prepared today, but let me just go into the crux of it. There have been some really ugly words spoken in really ugly ways throughout this process. In this room, in emails and messages, handwritten letters, in in-person meetings and virtual meetings, in phone calls, at community events. We can disagree. You can even not like me as a person. But it is not okay to speak to myself and my colleagues or any of our future colleagues in disrespectful ways, in threatening ways. It is absolutely not okay to yell at me while my children are standing next to me while I'm in the community. Despite all of that behavior, I pushed it all aside because as an attorney and a trained litigator, I am trained to just see the message. So I looked at your messages, I looked at your data, your charts, your alternative solutions, whatever you gave. I spent hours preparing for some of the meetings that I had with some of you in the community. I can appreciate that some of you wish the data included different data sets. Our data came from municipalities, with our work with Montgomery Planning, from the various vendors that conducted various analyses, whether it was looking at designs or traffic or boundary lines, neighborhoods, populations, projections, enrollments, you name it. It's okay to disagree. It is not okay to treat anybody in this way, including other members of your school communities, other children, other staff. Now I know that these kinds of issues are hard. I'm a parent as well, right? I'm living all of these decisions and I don't always agree with all of them as some of you know, right? My colleagues know too. Because I live them every day just like you do. But we need to be mindful that the ways that we behave and the words that we use, our kids are absolutely hearing them and they are seeing them. They are seeing them and deciding whether they are calm and collaborative or they are aggressive and hostile. Now, I join many of Ms. Wolfe's comments. I have been very disappointed by some of the rhetoric throughout this process. I've been disappointed by the deliberate fueling of misinformation by some of our trusted community leaders. And I've been disappointed at the use of historically significant and racially charged language like segregation, busing and redlining in situations where that is not what's happening. Because when you do that, you dilute the power of those words and the things that were experienced by the black and African American community. As we inch forward into other hard decisions, because we have a lot of hard decisions facing us, my role as a board member, the reason you elected me in this county, was to look at where is the money going, to make sure that we were fiscally sound so that we can all have as much of the things as we want. And that is what I will continue to do and why I support the recommendation of the superintendent. Thank you.

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

“medical marijuana legal practice”
What?

From CannibizMD:

Rita’s health experiences, combined with her inclination toward activism and her legal training, naturally led her to become an advocate and promoter of the medical use of cannabis to treat chronic pain and illness with a goal of a natural decline in the abuse of opiates. Owner of chingona consulting, Rita is now actively working to bringing her knowledge, patient experience and professional training to the Maryland cannabis industry and other emerging markets. She serves on the Tea Pad Advisory Board (a sister company of CannabizMD,) with that focus and drive. Her patient story underscores how one’s being a medical cannabis patient in no way compromises professional achievement and success.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

It's not MCPS's job to concern itself with how desirable a school is to homebuyers. They should focus on ensuring kids graduate proficient in math and literacy. Magnet programs and general "desirability" doesn't help with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

It's not MCPS's job to concern itself with how desirable a school is to homebuyers. They should focus on ensuring kids graduate proficient in math and literacy. Magnet programs and general "desirability" doesn't help with that.

I'm not talking about real estate values. I'm asking about what high schools are likely to produce high academic outcomes?

If the board truly focused on graduating students proficient in math and literacy, it would focus on outcomes in elementary school. Instead, it focused on regional programs for high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

It's not MCPS's job to concern itself with how desirable a school is to homebuyers. They should focus on ensuring kids graduate proficient in math and literacy. Magnet programs and general "desirability" doesn't help with that.

I'm not talking about real estate values. I'm asking about what high schools are likely to produce high academic outcomes?

If the board truly focused on graduating students proficient in math and literacy, it would focus on outcomes in elementary school. Instead, it focused on regional programs for high schools.

The biggest differences in proficiency rates are between demographic groups. The schools with the highest proficiency rates serve populations that are predominantly White, Asian and non-poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

It's not MCPS's job to concern itself with how desirable a school is to homebuyers. They should focus on ensuring kids graduate proficient in math and literacy. Magnet programs and general "desirability" doesn't help with that.

Then they should stop spending like drunks because home values fund their excesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

It's not MCPS's job to concern itself with how desirable a school is to homebuyers. They should focus on ensuring kids graduate proficient in math and literacy. Magnet programs and general "desirability" doesn't help with that.

Then they should stop spending like drunks because home values fund their excesses.

Property taxes fund their expenses. They can and often do raise the rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Rita apparently doesn't know the reason that the magnet program, and the Communications Arts Program, were formed at Blair HS. Back in the 1980s, Blair had the poorest academic outcomes in the county. There was talk of closing the school. The magnet and CAP programs were started to attract students with higher academic outcomes, to improve the school, and it worked. Rita, do you like high academic achievement? Most parents do. Blair achieved greater racial integration, a good thing. These two programs lifted the entire school into one that made people move to the Blair area, so that they could go to a good school. Now that you have helped diminish the magnet program into something that will be far less rigorous, west county students will likely not travel east from west county (west county, which was left virtually untouched by all these regional changes), you have helped to further segregate the county. Congratulations Rita.

And if you think you were elected to make the hard decisions, the fiscally sound decisions, you are wrong. You ran for office, as a neophyte, because your medical marijuana legal practice was going nowhere, and you smelled opportunity because of a vulnerable board of education. You won, because BOE member Lynne Harris, viewed as a supporter of Monifa McKnight, having voted to make her superintendent, was vulnerable. You won, because you were not Lynne Harris, and the teachers' union, unwisely, endorsed you, and its members worked every precinct to pass out your name on their endorsement literature.

It is ridiculous that you are claiming to make fiscally sound decisions. There is virtually no budgetary information available on this ambitious regional programming scheme. Regional programs' curriculum will be cut-and-paste operations, amounting to academic mush, and the transportation costs will be far higher than the school district can afford to pay. This regional operation will collapse into chaos. You think you are the champion of BIPOC students? If you want to improve academic outcomes of students, you should have advised the superintendent that he should start at the preK and ES levels. But what do you know?

I agree with everything you said in your last paragraph. I don't think Montoya's vote to support the regional program model was right or just because the programs will not be high quality for many, many years if ever. Rushing this implementation is such a bad idea.

I will say I don't know about how well magnet programs truly help the local kids. From the MD school report card, it is not clear to me at all that local Black, EML and FARMS kids at Blair are doing better than these populations do at other schools. I have to wonder if the true beneficiaries of having the countywide magnet at Blair are the White families that are zoned for Blair whose property values have benefited.

Many of the opponents of the regional program model actually think it's a good idea to create more opportunities. We simply don't trust that what has been proposed is going to achieve that and we worry about the impact of creating so many specialized programs on the resources that will be available for MCPS's core mission. None of this will address the terrible math and ELA proficiency rates.

Not everything is about property values and not everyone chooses a house for the school. We picked what we could afford with a reasonable commute. Blair property values have gone up as the housing has been lower making it more affordable.

I didn't say property values are entirely due to the Blair magnet program. I said the property values benefit from the magnet program. Blair is obviously a desirable school. That has a lot to do with the impact of the magnet program on the school's reputation.

And once the regional program system is in place, what high schools will be desirable?

Not Blair, once they lose the influx of W kids from the programs and the motivated DCC kids looking to opt out of lesser environments. They will quickly see a culture shift and I suspect the Takoma Park and Silgo Park family's kids will quickly become interested in what ever program are located at BCC or Whitman. Hell Whitman doesn't send their kids in any measurable numbers to Magnets as it is with them at full strength, there is little chance they will opt in as the school falls apart.