Mo. Co. Listen and Learn with Superintendent - what to expect?

[Anonymous]

The new superintendent of montgomery county schools is hosting a series of Listen and Learn events throughout the county. I was thinking about attending one. Are these expected to be crowded events? What are the chances of actually speaking and being heard????

[Anonymous]

Much like th etown hall meetings the coutny exec has.

Probably won't answer direct questions but will have someone take notes and will send the question to the right department and you will get a canned response like this

Dear parent,

Thank you for attending the recent town hall meeting at Xyz School. Without the parent commitment and the hard working students and staff Montgomery County School would not be where they are today. Meaning the achievement gap increasing instead of decreasing, the high number of students taking AP classes but we won’t let you know how poorly many of them do. We only tell you how many take them when we put out a press release.

I have forwarded your comment and or question to the proper department that will provide you with the information you requested aka the same story about budget problems and we are doing the best we can with limited resources. In the mean time, please keep paying your high taxes to have you child attend an over crowded school to pay my high salary and to play for the teachers health care because they won't pay anymore out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

* sorry for some typos...

[Anonymous]

I see you're not optimistic. Are the town hall meetings generally well attended? Even if I'm going to get a generic computer generated response, I would like an opportunity to air my concerns, but if it's expected to be very crowded I'm not sure I'll even bother.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see you're not optimistic. Are the town hall meetings generally well attended? Even if I'm going to get a generic computer generated response, I would like an opportunity to air my concerns, but if it's expected to be very crowded I'm not sure I'll even bother.

You should go and voice your concerns if you can. MCPS will not care but it is important to voice those concerns in public.

[Anonymous]

Does it mean we should listen to and learn from HIM or the other way around? My guess is, he won't be listening to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it mean we should listen to and learn from HIM or the other way around? My guess is, he won't be listening to us.

Any communication with MCPS is always one way. Listen and Learn sounds very patronizing.

[Anonymous]

Love your response 13:14 PP. So true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much like th etown hall meetings the coutny exec has.

Probably won't answer direct questions but will have someone take notes and will send the question to the right department and you will get a canned response like this

Dear parent,

Thank you for attending the recent town hall meeting at Xyz School. Without the parent commitment and the hard working students and staff Montgomery County School would not be where they are today. Meaning the achievement gap increasing instead of decreasing, the high number of students taking AP classes but we won’t let you know how poorly many of them do. We only tell you how many take them when we put out a press release.

I have forwarded your comment and or question to the proper department that will provide you with the information you requested aka the same story about budget problems and we are doing the best we can with limited resources. In the mean time, please keep paying your high taxes to have you child attend an over crowded school to pay my high salary and to play for the teachers health care because they won't pay anymore out of pocket.

This hilarious, but so true.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone attended the early events? If so, were they well attended? Any meaningful or unexpected responses to parent inquiries?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much like th etown hall meetings the coutny exec has.

Probably won't answer direct questions but will have someone take notes and will send the question to the right department and you will get a canned response like this

Dear parent,

Thank you for attending the recent town hall meeting at Xyz School. Without the parent commitment and the hard working students and staff Montgomery County School would not be where they are today. Meaning the achievement gap increasing instead of decreasing, the high number of students taking AP classes but we won’t let you know how poorly many of them do. We only tell you how many take them when we put out a press release.

I have forwarded your comment and or question to the proper department that will provide you with the information you requested aka the same story about budget problems and we are doing the best we can with limited resources. In the mean time, please keep paying your high taxes to have you child attend an over crowded school to pay my high salary and to play for the teachers health care because they won't pay anymore out of pocket.
[/quote

a little jealous over our benefits?

awww - sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new superintendent of montgomery county schools is hosting a series of Listen and Learn events throughout the county. I was thinking about attending one. Are these expected to be crowded events? What are the chances of actually speaking and being heard????

You can also post your comments here: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/superintendent/listen/
Dr. Starr also has a twitter account which you may find interesting.

I think he is trying to understand the community the best way he knows how. I don't see how this is patronizing.