Is it possible to get rid of Jack Smith?
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Anonymous
Why didn’t the BOE keep Starr? I never understood why he left. He seemed fine to me. |
Anonymous
| My guess is many who complained about him are having second thoughts now. |
Anonymous
| Many people didn't like Starr because he came off as too focused on SEL and not enough about factual performance data. He came and visited my classroom and I thought he was great. This was also a time when MCPS really began seeing a change in demographics. We had a lot more housing vouchers in my particular area and my school has changed dramatically in the last seven years. I think the people living in MoCo were upset about the decline in test scores year after year. Lord knows it hasn't gotten any better since the arrival of Smith. There are very few strong instructional leaders left in central office at MCPS. The people I knew who worked there have all returned to school buildings to escape the madness or jumped ship to different districts. Central is a complete shit show right now. |
Anonymous
+1 The same was true of my school when he visited my classroom. We might have taught in the same building. At the time, I was working on one of his areas of particular focus and I got to meet with him three more times. I found him intelligent and really committed to equity in opportunity. The DCUM type parents at my school hated him. And the staff who had been there 20 years when the school was 80% middle class to wealthy whites with no special needs hated him. |
Anonymous
Starr was awful but Smith is great. He mostly cleaned up Starr's mess. |
Anonymous
I also loved working with Starr. He actually liked his job and showed up to do it. |
Anonymous
Explain? What has he done? If I had to point to one accomplishment he's done in four plus years I couldn't. I mean sexual assault has increased but that's all I can think of. Don't think you're touting that. |
Anonymous
Starr came to the high school I work at at least 3 times and talked to students and staff. He was very personable and seemed to actually listen. He observed classes, the lunch period and extracurriculars and got a good sense of what was going on in a building. Smith came once flanked by a team from central office, didn't talk to anyone and swept through like a hurricane. He is the ultimate box checker. A hollow suit who continues to fail to lead. Anyone who thinks Smith is on the same level as Starr is uninformed. |
Anonymous
Fun fact, this must have come from Derek Turner's burner. |
Anonymous
He got rid of Starrs C2.0 and also stopped the people from gaming magnet admissions. |
Anonymous
He's also the only leader with the courage to begin the boundary analysis. |
Anonymous
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Fun fact: mcps had no intention of doing a boundary analysis, and hence will not be making huge boundary changes. Smith said (at one of the last BOE meetings before everything closed for Covid, I watched it) the analysis might make some changes around the edges, but will not solve overcrowding. Additionally, based on the analysis by wxy, nearby schools are mostly similar (at Whitman for example), so changes to makeup of student bodies won't be changing much. Sure, there are a few elementary schools here and there around the county that could have a little shakeup, but not at any of the infamous W schools people on this board love to hate.
You say "stopped gaming magnets," many say watered down the program so that less qualified students entered. Have you spoken with Center teachers and asked what they think of the level of rigor and abilities of current classes compared to past? It's not the same. |
Anonymous
| Starr did not have a good relationship with the County Council, which funds the school system. |
Anonymous
Got rid of C2.0 and brought in Eureka and Benchmark. Same stuff. Get this clown out. |
Anonymous
How's that going? No closer to changes than we were two years ago but hundreds of thousands wasted in studies, committees and non-action. That money could have been much better spent on students. There will not be major changes in boundaries just small tweaks. You didn't need years of studies, surveys and outside groups to figure that out. Jack loves burning money to pay outside organizations. |