School board - who to vote for

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

+100 from this life-long progressive democrat. About time MCPS experiences some accountability

oh yes another "lifelong progressive" voting for the mini-MAGAs. Sure Jan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

Hey these are my votes too

Same here except I chose Valerie Coll over Wolff. I think the board could really use the perspective of someone who's been teaching in MCPS elementary schools for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.
DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

+100 from this life-long progressive democrat. About time MCPS experiences some accountability

oh yes another "lifelong progressive" voting for the mini-MAGAs. Sure Jan

They posted the same message on three other boards earlier so I'm guessing they're paid by the post.

[Anonymous]

There are people out there who are just anti-public education and some of them have decided the best strategy going forward is to destroy the public schools as best they can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

These 3 are right wing nut jobs crazies who will tear apart our school system. Please read up and learn - they will not bring balance, they will be obstructionist.

FYI, I am not voting for any incumbents, I think all of them are awful and don't do their jobs of oversight - they rubberstamp whatever mcps staff blather on about. My votes:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Curious for those voting for Silvestre and Wolf who believe they have "served you well," can you point to a couple of things they have done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.

I also think that what happens outside the meetings counts. When parents from our school have engaged Joftus with questions/concerns (we are in District 3, his district) he has been phenomenally helpful and attentive... He was very knowledgable and gave us the information we needed to solve our problem... I've never had such a great experience with an elected official. (*Though of course he wasn't elected, he was appointed in December.... hopefully he'll become a true elected official in December!) Kind of amazing for someone who's been in the job less than a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.

I also think that what happens outside the meetings counts. When parents from our school have engaged Joftus with questions/concerns (we are in District 3, his district) he has been phenomenally helpful and attentive... He was very knowledgable and gave us the information we needed to solve our problem... I've never had such a great experience with an elected official. (*Though of course he wasn't elected, he was appointed in December.... hopefully he'll become a true elected official in December!) Kind of amazing for someone who's been in the job less than a year.

I don't doubt that's true (I'm in his district too and emailed him once about an issue and he got back to me within a day, which was amazing), but again, I think we just differ on what we want or prioritize in a Board of Ed member. Sure, constituent service is nice and it's great to hear that he's good at tracking down information for people or responding to individual issues when parents email him directly. But I'm looking for a lot more than that, especially from someone who is new and in a great position to shake things up. The system needs some serious oversight and accountability, and I just don't see that from him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.

I also think that what happens outside the meetings counts. When parents from our school have engaged Joftus with questions/concerns (we are in District 3, his district) he has been phenomenally helpful and attentive... He was very knowledgable and gave us the information we needed to solve our problem... I've never had such a great experience with an elected official. (*Though of course he wasn't elected, he was appointed in December.... hopefully he'll become a true elected official in December!) Kind of amazing for someone who's been in the job less than a year.

I don't doubt that's true (I'm in his district too and emailed him once about an issue and he got back to me within a day, which was amazing), but again, I think we just differ on what we want or prioritize in a Board of Ed member. Sure, constituent service is nice and it's great to hear that he's good at tracking down information for people or responding to individual issues when parents email him directly. But I'm looking for a lot more than that, especially from someone who is new and in a great position to shake things up. The system needs some serious oversight and accountability, and I just don't see that from him.

Actually, our problem reflects failures of oversight and accountability that speak to broader systemic failures / grievously inadequate policies and procedures...... Which is how we framed our problem and why we went to him... BoE members don't really provide constituent services to my knowledge. In any case, he seems to us to be treating these as urgent and to be following through on them...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

These 3 are right wing nut jobs crazies who will tear apart our school system. Please read up and learn - they will not bring balance, they will be obstructionist.

FYI, I am not voting for any incumbents, I think all of them are awful and don't do their jobs of oversight - they rubberstamp whatever mcps staff blather on about. My votes:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Curious for those voting for Silvestre and Wolf who believe they have "served you well," can you point to a couple of things they have done?

They got us through a difficult pandemic and kept our children safe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m filling out my ballot and will be voting for

Kara Silvestre (has resprented my down county area well)
Grace Rivera Oven (has received tons of endorsements, done lots of community outreach, is from up county)
Scott Joftus (doing a decent job)
Brend Wolf (doing a decent job)

Everyone please read candidate profiles carefully. There are quite a few candidates who are no CRT, no masks ever again! Please don’t bring this foolishness into MoCo.

-parent of a rising senior

lol @ Joftus "doing a decent job". Have you watched BoE meetings? He just rubber stamps whatever MCPS staff puts in front of him and applauds them for doing such a good job.

DP. I have watched many BOE meetings, and you need to pay closer attention. I have seen several meetings where Joftus gives MCPS staff constructive feedback on how to improve their presentations and documentation, and he has often asked questions which elicit additional details. I'm very pleased with his service on the board thus far.

Same here. "lol" poster seems like a Yang shill

It’s not a matter of paying closer attention. I guess we just differ on what effective oversight is. “Providing constructive feedback” on how to do better at PowerPoint slides isn’t what I look for in a candidate. When the system was completely broken for parents this past January and trust and communication was at an all time low, he had the opportunity to be the fresh, new perspective in the room and hold MCPS leadership accountable. Instead he nodded his head, thanked the staff for their presentations and offered a nugget or two about how “it would be nice if you included a chart on x in this slide here so it was more clear”. Not what I think we need right now, but if that cuts it for you, then we can agree to disagree.

I also think that what happens outside the meetings counts. When parents from our school have engaged Joftus with questions/concerns (we are in District 3, his district) he has been phenomenally helpful and attentive... He was very knowledgable and gave us the information we needed to solve our problem... I've never had such a great experience with an elected official. (*Though of course he wasn't elected, he was appointed in December.... hopefully he'll become a true elected official in December!) Kind of amazing for someone who's been in the job less than a year.

I don't doubt that's true (I'm in his district too and emailed him once about an issue and he got back to me within a day, which was amazing), but again, I think we just differ on what we want or prioritize in a Board of Ed member. Sure, constituent service is nice and it's great to hear that he's good at tracking down information for people or responding to individual issues when parents email him directly. But I'm looking for a lot more than that, especially from someone who is new and in a great position to shake things up. The system needs some serious oversight and accountability, and I just don't see that from him.

Actually, our problem reflects failures of oversight and accountability that speak to broader systemic failures / grievously inadequate policies and procedures...... Which is how we framed our problem and why we went to him... BoE members don't really provide constituent services to my knowledge. In any case, he seems to us to be treating these as urgent and to be following through on them...

That’s great that he does that for parents who have the time, knowledge, wherewithal etc. to email him directly. Again, I’m looking for more. Your original post said he “gave us the information we needed to solve our problem.” That didn’t sound like a situation where you pointed out a policy or systemic failure and he changed it or commuted to change it. Either way, it seems like unless one of his constituents (and yes, I count responding to parents with information/answers to questions as constituent services) reaches out directly, his approach on the Board appears to be the same rubber stamp, “do no harm”. Maybe he just wanted to fly under the radar so he could run as an incumbent without ruffling feathers. In that respect, he was successful for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

These 3 are right wing nut jobs crazies who will tear apart our school system. Please read up and learn - they will not bring balance, they will be obstructionist.

FYI, I am not voting for any incumbents, I think all of them are awful and don't do their jobs of oversight - they rubberstamp whatever mcps staff blather on about. My votes:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Curious for those voting for Silvestre and Wolf who believe they have "served you well," can you point to a couple of things they have done?

They got us through a difficult pandemic and kept our children safe!

DP but I also know that while many posts in this board are driven by a desire to tear everything down I think it would be bad for the school board to have 100% turnover at once. Having a mix of people with experience and new perspectives is IME the best path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's Dawn, Esther & Michael for me. Bring some balance to the conversation. Stop with the rubber stamping. All for accountability and transparency, it's what is best for the kids.

These 3 are right wing nut jobs crazies who will tear apart our school system. Please read up and learn - they will not bring balance, they will be obstructionist.

FYI, I am not voting for any incumbents, I think all of them are awful and don't do their jobs of oversight - they rubberstamp whatever mcps staff blather on about. My votes:

At Large - J. Domenica Giandomenico
1 - Grace Rivera-Owen
3 - Julie Yang
5 - Valerie Coll

Curious for those voting for Silvestre and Wolf who believe they have "served you well," can you point to a couple of things they have done?

They got us through a difficult pandemic and kept our children safe!

DP but I also know that while many posts in this board are driven by a desire to tear everything down I think it would be bad for the school board to have 100% turnover at once. Having a mix of people with experience and new perspectives is IME the best path.

There would never be 100% turnover because at most 4 out of 8 seats are up for reelection.