$2M no bid contract to Joftus wife? BOE to approve on 9/8

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Wait? On top of the grant, individual schools have to pay for services?

Yes. They charge per student for field trips. Good business model, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Our school has gone for free!

How were you able to make that happen? Is there an application? Our school was told we have to pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Our school has gone for free!

How were you able to make that happen? Is there an application? Our school was told we have to pay.

Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? The arrangement was for a number of middle schools to send a number of students; it was not for all schools to send all students. The new contract is to expand the program to include elementary schools as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Our school has gone for free!

How were you able to make that happen? Is there an application? Our school was told we have to pay.

Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? The arrangement was for a number of middle schools to send a number of students; it was not for all schools to send all students. The new contract is to expand the program to include elementary schools as well.

For that price, all kids should get to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Our school has gone for free!

How were you able to make that happen? Is there an application? Our school was told we have to pay.

Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? The arrangement was for a number of middle schools to send a number of students; it was not for all schools to send all students. The new contract is to expand the program to include elementary schools as well.

For that price, all kids should get to go.

This. All kids should go. Free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Our school has gone for free!

How were you able to make that happen? Is there an application? Our school was told we have to pay.

Why is this so hard for everyone to understand? The arrangement was for a number of middle schools to send a number of students; it was not for all schools to send all students. The new contract is to expand the program to include elementary schools as well.

For that price, all kids should get to go.

This. All kids should go. Free.

This is why MCPS should release a document outlining how many schools and students have been included in the partnership so far, and how many more are planned to be included in the elementary school expansion. Smondrowski and Wolff seemed to be vaguely interested this during their board meeting comments, but as usual, they did not press staff to provide additional details.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, why are we allowed to have an entire thread about Joftus but any mention of Esther gets deleted immediately? Candidates should be discussed openly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, why are we allowed to have an entire thread about Joftus but any mention of Esther gets deleted immediately? Candidates should be discussed openly.

Try starting a different discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, why are we allowed to have an entire thread about Joftus but any mention of Esther gets deleted immediately? Candidates should be discussed openly.

Try starting a different discussion.

DP. I started a thread recently asking about Grace vs Esther for BOE, and it looks like it was deleted. No idea why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Wait? On top of the grant, individual schools have to pay for services?

Yes. They charge per student for field trips. Good business model, I guess.

That's weird because it was free for our school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, why are we allowed to have an entire thread about Joftus but any mention of Esther gets deleted immediately? Candidates should be discussed openly.

Try starting a different discussion.

DP. I started a thread recently asking about Grace vs Esther for BOE, and it looks like it was deleted. No idea why.

If you haven't noticed, DCUMS tows the MCPS party line if it will make uncomfortable truths come to light. I've had several posts deleted (ex. when the board tried to make land-use decisions behind closed doors and without public input).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:What??? This money could go to paying teachers better so that they can be more motivated to actually teach, and not sadistically bully kids. This is absolutely ridiculous!

$2MM across 14K teachers is less than $150 a teacher. I don't think that's gonna move the needle much.

Good point. Do the worst math possible to make it look like no money when in fact, this same amount of money could put another full time science teacher in every single high school.

Exactly. Why the nepotism ?

There's no nepotism. It was in process before Joftus joined the BoE. He's recused himself from any action involving the Kid Museum.

Agree! He disclosed his conflicts when taking this job and has also recused himself from any action involving them. The thing is, there are a couple of unhinged right-wing nutjobs who keep posting about this. They want to make this look like corruption to further their political agendas. This is just another example of the Benghazi treatmnent.

What wing are you? Joftus never disclosed his conflicts (multiple) of interest until after he was appointed and sworn in. How did Joftus recuse himself from any action that involved the MCPS science curriculum? He didn't. He voted on the spending of ESSER funds (to KID Museum) and on the Operating Budget (including KID Museum). If he is going to be on the Board of Education it's impossible for him to recuse himself from all curriculum votes, unless he just wants to be a seat warmer.

Quite an accusation. How do you know he didn't disclose "his conflicts (multiple) of interest until after he was appointed and sworn in"? And what are these "multiple" conflicts?

DP. Great. He "disclosed". Wonderful. Did he vote on ESSER III, yes or no?

In my book, you can't claim to be "ethical" if you say one thing and do another. All the current board needs to be voted out, imho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What??? This money could go to paying teachers better so that they can be more motivated to actually teach, and not sadistically bully kids. This is absolutely ridiculous!

$2MM across 14K teachers is less than $150 a teacher. I don't think that's gonna move the needle much.

Good point. Do the worst math possible to make it look like no money when in fact, this same amount of money could put another full time science teacher in every single high school.

Exactly. Why the nepotism ?

There's no nepotism. It was in process before Joftus joined the BoE. He's recused himself from any action involving the Kid Museum.

Agree! He disclosed his conflicts when taking this job and has also recused himself from any action involving them. The thing is, there are a couple of unhinged right-wing nutjobs who keep posting about this. They want to make this look like corruption to further their political agendas. This is just another example of the Benghazi treatmnent.

What wing are you? Joftus never disclosed his conflicts (multiple) of interest until after he was appointed and sworn in. How did Joftus recuse himself from any action that involved the MCPS science curriculum? He didn't. He voted on the spending of ESSER funds (to KID Museum) and on the Operating Budget (including KID Museum). If he is going to be on the Board of Education it's impossible for him to recuse himself from all curriculum votes, unless he just wants to be a seat warmer.

Quite an accusation. How do you know he didn't disclose "his conflicts (multiple) of interest until after he was appointed and sworn in"? And what are these "multiple" conflicts?

Read his public application. Watch his public interview. No disclosure.

Read his own documents on disclosure after he was appointed. His documents also show his multiple conflicts of interest. He didn't make those documents public until last week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry, why are we allowed to have an entire thread about Joftus but any mention of Esther gets deleted immediately? Candidates should be discussed openly.

Try starting a different discussion.

DP. I started a thread recently asking about Grace vs Esther for BOE, and it looks like it was deleted. No idea why.

If you haven't noticed, DCUMS tows the MCPS party line if it will make uncomfortable truths come to light. I've had several posts deleted (ex. when the board tried to make land-use decisions behind closed doors and without public input).

But in this case, what is the "MCPS party line" with respect to a BOE race with no incumbent in the running?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good job to whoever was bringing light to this situation. It’s obvious from the social media pr team / boosters dispatched by the board that there is some significant nepotism and corruption going on. Sadly, nothing will change.

More likely Julie Yang/MCEA's social media PR team

I don’t know much about Julie Yang, but as a voter, I will check her out.

Doesn’t matter to me how or why the information has come out. Voters deserve to know the facts and then make decisions for themselves.

Absolutely. Although a lot of this thread is not exactly what would qualify as "facts."

according to Joftus and Starr. But facts as defined by the truth. Fixed it for you.

Nice try, but no. This thread is a whole lot of opinions and accusations, along with a smattering of possibly-tangentially-relevant facts, which are evidence of nothing like what is being alleged.

I'm still interested to hear which other places in Montgomery County are similar to the Kid Museum, that could provide STEM activities for elementary and middle school students in a large space. Are there any? I'm honestly curious.

Not to my knowledge but why does MCPS need to fund this? Kid Museum was deemed too expensive at my kid's school. The reality is very few MCPS students will get to take advantage of this. Not a great ROI for MCPS.

For the money they are getting it should be free to mcps.

Wait? On top of the grant, individual schools have to pay for services?

Yes. They charge per student for field trips. Good business model, I guess.

That's weird because it was free for our school.

Can you please identify the school in which trips were free? Did your PTA pay to cover the cost? Did all the students in your school have the ability to go or were only certain classes given the opportunity?

The typical cost field trips is $14 per student.