Board wants Monifa to step down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sigh.

I’m tracking mcps for the last 25 years

Numbers went up, then down. There’s a growing exodus among more affluent families (in all colors; go to area private school open houses and you’ll see a rainbow of mcps parents scrambling to get out).

Resources have shifted to deal with the increasing demographic of non-English speakers. There’s also an uptick of students with serious learning disabilities and emotional issues.

Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper.

[Anonymous]

"Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper."

Is that (above) a school system or individual school issue? I mean, I have seen schools where you are allocated a certain amount of paper per month which is absurd. But is the McKnight fault or decision-making at the school level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper."

Is that (above) a school system or individual school issue? I mean, I have seen schools where you are allocated a certain amount of paper per month which is absurd. But is the McKnight fault or decision-making at the school level?

Allocation of resources, budget freeze, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper."

Is that (above) a school system or individual school issue? I mean, I have seen schools where you are allocated a certain amount of paper per month which is absurd. But is the McKnight fault or decision-making at the school level?

Allocation of resources, budget freeze, etc.

1. Schools can request exemptions from the freeze to purchase needed materials.
2. I was speaking historically - school-based decisions to thinly allocate supplies, not just here and now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The board also needs to go as they are equally responsible.

Yes, they're equally responsible for running an awesome school system!

dp.. learn to read the room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sigh.

I’m tracking mcps for the last 25 years

Numbers went up, then down. There’s a growing exodus among more affluent families (in all colors; go to area private school open houses and you’ll see a rainbow of mcps parents scrambling to get out).

Resources have shifted to deal with the increasing demographic of non-English speakers. There’s also an uptick of students with serious learning disabilities and emotional issues.

Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper.

This is really what has been causing a lot of the problems in MCPS and it can’t be blamed on Monifa.

I don’t think Monifa is all that great, but there is a lot of responsibility to go around as to why MCPS is in such a steep decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is interesting that Dr. McKnight knew the Board wanted her out last week and suddenly a more comprehensive plan to address the issues with the JB debacle. What has been happening with the 1st iterations of the corrective action plan? Why is it that they only take public action when something forces her hand?

Honestly, our system is horribly broken. It will rake years to get out of this. We were not in good shape before all this. How do we get out of this? Just 💔 for all at this point.

Agree. And so sad for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The board also needs to go as they are equally responsible.

Yes, they're equally responsible for running an awesome school system!

Not according to the far-right tin foil hat crowd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sigh.

I’m tracking mcps for the last 25 years

Numbers went up, then down. There’s a growing exodus among more affluent families (in all colors; go to area private school open houses and you’ll see a rainbow of mcps parents scrambling to get out).

Resources have shifted to deal with the increasing demographic of non-English speakers. There’s also an uptick of students with serious learning disabilities and emotional issues.

Go ask a teacher about class size or if they have sufficient supplies like copy paper.

This is really what has been causing a lot of the problems in MCPS and it can’t be blamed on Monifa.

I don’t think Monifa is all that great, but there is a lot of responsibility to go around as to why MCPS is in such a steep decline.

This might be a fair observation if Dr. McKnight were being fired for falling test scores. In that case, looking at English proficiency of the student body would make sense. However, ELLs did not force her to promote a serial sex pest, nor did they force her to participate in a cover-up. Little immigrant kids didn't coerce her into not complying with an OIG investigation, nor did they strong arm her into lying to the school board about what she knew and when she knew it.

[Anonymous]

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

She's done a fine job and this whole mess with Joel was going on for years before she was even super. You people are nuts.

[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.

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?

And this is what annoys people about DCUM and makes them generalize about MCPS Parents. Over half the things you listed, the Super has no control over. They are just responding in the moment or trying to put pieces/programming together to discourage things. Further over half of these things are happening nationwide, it’s not solely MCPS.

The pandemic happened to everyone and people were divided all over the nation. No matter which way she decided virtual or no folks would have been divided.

A school shooting was bound to happen in MCPS and the fact that ya’ll don’t know that after all these school shootings, shame on you. If you like to live in the world of “ bad things could never happen here or to me” that’s on you. And when these things happen the folks impacted don’t care if the Ashlee is in pink, black or a spacesuit.

How could she possible control what MCEA does. And that 94% does not represent the portion of total membership but of people who voted. A total for which we don’t know.

She pisses people off with every decision she makes becuase news flash everyone doesn’t agree.

A kid overdosing is not something she can prevent. And again opioid scares and overdoses with teens is a nationwide crisis. Schools are a microcosm of society. Frankly MCPS has done better partnership and attention on the issue than many other districts.

Antisemitism incidents are up nationwide and have been happening in certain schools in the county for years. How is she to blame because some of ya’ll have failed to teach tolerance and proper behavior to kids.

#7&8. Again nationwide. Are you seeing a trend here.

MSDE- This might be the only thing listed that the Super could potentially be rated on. And even then, principals would also get rated on it.

I mean if these are the things for which a Super is going to be judged and evaluated, no one is going to take the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

She's done a fine job and this whole mess with Joel was going on for years before she was even super. You people are nuts.

Psst. You’re gonna have to update your talking points now that the board is asking Monifa to resign. Clearly DCUM is not a crazy outlier given that fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The board also needs to go as they are equally responsible.

Yes, they're equally responsible for running an awesome school system!

Not according to the far-right tin foil hat crowd

It's so awesome that all metrics of performance has gone down; the teachers voted no confidence for the superintendent; the budget is out of control; 500% increase in legal fees; guns being brought to school; overdoses...

So winning!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

She's done a fine job and this whole mess with Joel was going on for years before she was even super. You people are nuts.

She hid the issues with full awareness. That's why she's being asked to step down. You are nuts.

[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.

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

She also has a former President husband who shared the same name. Hillary distinguishes which Clinton is being discussed.