Board wants Monifa to step down

[Anonymous]

Pretty obvious from that start that she wasn’t up to the job

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

All true. Doesn’t take away from the terrible job she’s done. If you take the job you must be held accountable, no matter your gender, race, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

All true. Doesn’t take away from the terrible job she’s done. If you take the job you must be held accountable, no matter your gender, race, etc.

AMEN! And Monifa has set the house on fire for the past two years. Let's recap, shall we?

1. She leads the charge on keeping MCPS closed longer than it should have, insisting that virtual learning is in the interest of everyone's health. This divides parents, some of whom believe there's more harm in keeping kids out of school than in school.

2. First ever school shooting in MCPS happens on her watch at Magruder High School in 2021. (We won't even get into all of her spectacular PR faux pases that came out of that event)

3. The pandemic messes that Monifa made worse leads the MCEA to put out a no-confidence vote on McKnight's leadership. 94% of the union votes for this btw: https://www.mymcmedia.org/mcea-members-almost-unanimously-support-no-confidence-vote-against-mcps-leadership/

4. She manages to piss off Muslim/Ethiopian community with confusing flip-flop on opt-out for LGBTQ books in ELA curriculum which results in costly lawsuits and months of protests outside the school board. She refuses to meet with said groups and fails to bring the temperature down on this issue at all.

5. An MCPS student from Kennedy dies of an overdose in 2022, which forces her to do a press conference on the opoid crisis and acknowledging the dangers of what's happening in her school buildings

6. Antisemitism incidents rise and Monifa flails putting statements to appease one community which end up offending others. In the end, no one is happy with her.

7. Math and reading scores come out and show that MCPS students have plummeted in almost every metric.

8. Chronic absenteeism numbers come out and show MCPS is failing here too. Monifa holds a press conference and unveils an underwhelming toothless attendance "action plan" that changes nothing.

9. MSDE Report Cards come out this year and several MCPS schools have dropped in ranking; namely 5-star schools are now 4-star and 4-star schools are now 3-star.

I mean with that kind of track record, WHAT ELSE did you expect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

?? Constantly referred to as Joe.
And then there is Bernie.

[Anonymous]

1. Find the best school district in the nation.

2. Poach their leader. (Race doesn’t matter; gender doesn’t matter. Pick the best person.)

3. Install a COO with business acumen as back-up.

4. Clean house to expel the cronies.

5. Recognize the schools are underfunded thanks to increasing numbers…and acknowledge the shifting demographics and the impact on schools.

6. Raise the bar across the board.

[Anonymous]

People like to call her Monifa because the “fa” part transitions easily into “f’ed up.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“ “The Board has never written, documented, or communicated any concern about my performance, and through the evaluation process has consistently affirmed that I have met expectations,” McKnight said in the statement. “For these reasons, I’m concerned that its actions are based on something other than my performance, which would constitute a violation of my contract.””

Is she alleging racism? Sexism? Other bias?

I don't blame her for pushing them to outline why they want her to step down. Let her know where she has failed and what they want her to do to improve it. We've had a revolving door of superintendents. Maybe they aren't the problem, maybe the school board is the problem? Or maybe NOBODY can solve the problems since we are stuck with large class sizes and large numbers of poor/ESL/special needs.

I agree with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. Find the best school district in the nation.

2. Poach their leader. (Race doesn’t matter; gender doesn’t matter. Pick the best person.)

3. Install a COO with business acumen as back-up.

4. Clean house to expel the cronies.

5. Recognize the schools are underfunded thanks to increasing numbers…and acknowledge the shifting demographics and the impact on schools.

6. Raise the bar across the board.

5 makes no sense. MCPS up a billion and enrollment down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

?? Constantly referred to as Joe.
And then there is Bernie.

Sleepy Joe anyone? Prominent men are referred to by their first name all the time. But of course that kills the racist/misogynist narrative so we’ll pretend it never happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

Hillary Clinton is a bad example because her own campaign signs often said simply "Hillary" on them. She chose to emphasize her first name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's rude to call her or an educator by their first name, however, our principal signs everything with their first name only. I think its really unprofessional.

Josh Starr insisted he be called Josh

Oddly, however, DCUM did not refer to him as Josh. It was "Damn you, Joshua Starr!1111111111!!!!!!!!!!1111" - his full first name plus his last name.

People don’t refer to the President as Joe but they sure did refer to a former candidate as Hillary even when she was a Senator and a Secretary of State. It’s gendered.

?? Constantly referred to as Joe.
And then there is Bernie.

Sleepy Joe anyone? Prominent men are referred to by their first name all the time. But of course that kills the racist/misogynist narrative so we’ll pretend it never happens.

The favored narrative is that someone like McKnight has to work twice as hard as others to succeed but the reality was that if she were even half as good as some of her predecessors she’d be allowed to coast. But she can’t even pull that off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that her dissertation was based on interviews with this group of other MS principals
https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/81271894-d2b2-4cfd-b767-909cdf1c81f8/content

You mean other Black female middle school principals employed in the same school district? Where is Burnett County anyway? The 9 pages of thank yous led me to skimming the dissertation but I couldn’t find the state name

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that her dissertation was based on interviews with this group of other MS principals
https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/81271894-d2b2-4cfd-b767-909cdf1c81f8/content

You mean other Black female middle school principals employed in the same school district? Where is Burnett County anyway? The 9 pages of thank yous led me to skimming the dissertation but I couldn’t find the state name

Given the culture of cover ups for each other, is anyone looking into the other principals that were in Beidleman’s Doctoral cohort?
https://www.hood.edu/cohort-3-doctoral-bios

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that her dissertation was based on interviews with this group of other MS principals
https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/81271894-d2b2-4cfd-b767-909cdf1c81f8/content

You mean other Black female middle school principals employed in the same school district? Where is Burnett County anyway? The 9 pages of thank yous led me to skimming the dissertation but I couldn’t find the state name

It says it's a pseudonym.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that her dissertation was based on interviews with this group of other MS principals
https://api.drum.lib.umd.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/81271894-d2b2-4cfd-b767-909cdf1c81f8/content

You mean other Black female middle school principals employed in the same school district? Where is Burnett County anyway? The 9 pages of thank yous led me to skimming the dissertation but I couldn’t find the state name

Given the culture of cover ups for each other, is anyone looking into the other principals that were in Beidleman’s Doctoral cohort?
https://www.hood.edu/cohort-3-doctoral-bios

I think that is a stretch. Principals are peers and gave no authority over one another. Furthermore, furthering one's education shouldn't indict you to this mess. Who were the other people not already mentioned who supervised him over the years, knew and did nothing?