MCPS Is Broken What Are Your Ideas to Fix It?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I'd like to see MCPS follow MSDE's school size guidelines:

https://pgcabs.org/2015/07/21/smaller-is-better-maryland-state-department-of-education-publishes-school-size-study-pg-high-school-sizes-vary-widely/

The Maryland State Department of Education has released a report on school size and its impact on education. The study finds that after school enrollment reaches a point where economies of scale no longer decrease operating costs, smaller schools are usually better.

The research team recommends that enrollment limits be set according to school level (i.e. elementary, middle, high) with a maximum of 700 students per elementary school, 900 students per middle school, and 1,700 students per high school. The report clarifies that these are recommended maximum limits, not necessarily optimal enrollment numbers.

1,700 in a HS? Not 2500-3000? that would be wonderful!

How will this ever be affordable considering the lastest immigrant influx?

Bingo. Elephant has arrived. Until county leadership is honest about the number of ghost students in MCPS than your district is not going to get better. There is an agenda in the county to ‘grow’ the Democratic Party base that is directly at odds with building a solid school system for current residents. Hard to do without significant funds for these new students from either the Feds or their host countries largely in the Northern Triangle who have successfully transferred the education of many of their young citizens to the tax payers of Montgomery County. Hats off to Casa de Maryland - one of the most successful advocate organizations around. Impressive two step from these poor countries. El Salvador just accepted Bitcoin to increase the speed of their remittances from citizens here back home to their country. Press 9 for brilliant. Although IMF is pressuring them to dump it - due to volatility. It was largely due to save on Western Union fees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I'd like to see MCPS follow MSDE's school size guidelines:

https://pgcabs.org/2015/07/21/smaller-is-better-maryland-state-department-of-education-publishes-school-size-study-pg-high-school-sizes-vary-widely/

The Maryland State Department of Education has released a report on school size and its impact on education. The study finds that after school enrollment reaches a point where economies of scale no longer decrease operating costs, smaller schools are usually better.

The research team recommends that enrollment limits be set according to school level (i.e. elementary, middle, high) with a maximum of 700 students per elementary school, 900 students per middle school, and 1,700 students per high school. The report clarifies that these are recommended maximum limits, not necessarily optimal enrollment numbers.

1,700 in a HS? Not 2500-3000? that would be wonderful!

How will this ever be affordable considering the lastest immigrant influx?

Bingo. Elephant has arrived. Until county leadership is honest about the number of ghost students in MCPS than your district is not going to get better. There is an agenda in the county to ‘grow’ the Democratic Party base that is directly at odds with building a solid school system for current residents. Hard to do without significant funds for these new students from either the Feds or their host countries largely in the Northern Triangle who have successfully transferred the education of many of their young citizens to the tax payers of Montgomery County. Hats off to Casa de Maryland - one of the most successful advocate organizations around. Impressive two step from these poor countries. El Salvador just accepted Bitcoin to increase the speed of their remittances from citizens here back home to their country. Press 9 for brilliant. Although IMF is pressuring them to dump it - due to volatility. It was largely due to save on Western Union fees.

Awww, the Falls Church trolls from the Daily Caller are working in some old-fashioned xenophobia to go with their anti-science! Adorbs!!!!

(Heart emoji! Squee!)

/S/

No, seriously, you know your 3% er membership card is just overcompensating for your insecurity about your own family arriving here in 1996. Son of immigrants, an immigrant yourself... And you obviously missed the civics lessons about how this nation was founded. Not to mention the math lessons about how taxes work.

Let me guess, Yale or Princeton? A moving college essay about your parents fleeing the USSR with you a babe in arms? Shop at oritiz or Orville or whatever it's called because that seems upper middle class prep? You poor sad kid.

[Anonymous]

Well I’ve seen a lot better take downs on this site - but a for effort. Enjoying those property taxes!

[Anonymous]

Too many illegal immigrants. Too many poor people. MoCo is reflecting what is happening in the rest of the country. Trump had a good idea but he ended up implementing right wing white supremacist kind of policies so futz him too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I’ve seen a lot better take downs on this site - but a for effort. Enjoying those property taxes!

You sound insecure, puppy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have come to the conclusion that MCPS is incapable of reform.

How can there can reform when people keep voting the same old way?

Yep. The decline in the school system goes hand in hand with the decline in the county. Both are a result of the one-party rule. The ‘progressive’ Democratic politicians have run the school system into the ground. They clearly don’t care about our students and/or our students’ safety. They prefer to espouse progressive policies (Defund the police! Sanctuary county! Eliminate SROs! Restorative Justice!) that have made things so much worse over this past decade. Our kids don’t have a chance.

Sounds like Florida or Texas would be more your speed. Enjoy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

+1,000. And willfully obtuse PP is over here like "nobody said the WORD segregation?"

We see you, lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing that will fix MCPS is breaking it up into smaller districts.

No child should be in a building with 2000 other children on any given day.

The other students didn't care enough about the Magruder victim to let anyone know he was dying alone. Jailyn was left out in the woods under a bridge without a word from the school about him missing.
No one helped him at school.

Mcps is a machine that cates about tests and lowering the achievement gap and doesn't have a single God damn about the kids.

Children need schools that can space kids 3 feet apart.
Children need schools that know or care if they have been left for dead in a bathrooms or if their body is out in the woods for weeks.

Children need classrooms with connections and mentors.
There should be no 30 kids in a kindergarten class.

This doesn't even make any sense. Even if you broke MCPS into smaller districts, it would not mean the schools themselves are smaller. Let's say you make BCC, Whitman, and WJ and all of their feeders into one district. That does not actually make each individual school any smaller, nor does it reduce class size.

You are on a rant here, it's obvious, but you haven't even thought about it long enough to come up with a suggestion that would make a lick of difference.

Its not going to fix things and in schools, like down county where there is a consortium, it would then take away school choice. All it would do is seperate them under different leadership, but you'd still have the same everything except if they built more schools.

Right, and you can't build more schools in the places that need them the most badly because there are no appropriately-sized lots for sale.

I mean, if folks want to use their precious time on planet Earth to try to change the Maryland state constitution and break up county schools, they can. They probably won't succeed, but they can try. However, folks need to understand that even if they get a smaller district, they won't get smaller schools.

First, you are completely missing the reason why people would want to break MCPS up. MCPS as a district is too big to be appropriately administered and this actually used by an excuse by MCPS itself and people on here for why things cannot be better. It’s in the top 20 largest school districts in the country by enrollment. None of the districts with higher enrollment are known for high quality education.

Second, this is a red herring but there are actually ridiculously a lot unutilized school facilities and MCPS property that can be reclaimed and used for schools, if that is the goal (it’s not). In the Bethesda alone off the top of my head there are: Radnor (unused), Lawton Rec Center (MCPS owned and former junior high), Lynnbrook (unused), Ayrlawn (rented to YMCA), Fernwood (leased to Woods Academy), Rollingwood (leased to Lycee Rochambeau), and Randolph Junior High (leased to Charles E Smith Jewish Day School).

Most of those sites are really small, not up to the 750 ES, 1200 MS and 2700 HS sizes we have now.

First you say there is no land for schools and when it’s pointed out that there is a lot of MCPS land for schools all over, you excuse is a lane statement that the sites are too small?

The SCMS site was smaller than MCPS standards, which is what the neighbors used to complain about site selection and loss of a neighborhood park. But wow, they were able to actually build a functional school there without problem.

Whatever your point is, trust me it’s wrong. Give it a rest.

This was a land survey done in Silver Spring for potential sites for future elementary schools or middle schools. They would likely have to take over another community park

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/departments/facilities/rem/Cluster_Report_Downcounty.pdf

I don’t think you’re illiterate so it’s clear that you are intentionally lying.

The report you linked says no such thing. In fact, it identified TWELVE publicly owned sites that are candidates for schools and recommended one of those, the MCPS owned former Forest Grove ES as the site for a new ES.

I want to add that the report is not comprehensive because it leaves out MCPS properties current leased that should be reclaimed for public use. Although there are others, most famously there is the former Montgomery Hills Junior High, which is currently being leased to the Yeshiva of Washington under a deal brokered by disgraced lobbyist and convicted felon Jack Abramoff in which the Washington Post wrote an article insinuating that former County Executive Doug Duncan was bribed.

In addition and to be clear, the park where MCPS built SCMS was MCPS owned land that was transferred to MNCPPC for park use but with future school in mind. Also, there is nothing incompatible between school and park use. All schools have playing fields, playground equipment, etc.

There is honestly something wrong with you to go this far to lie about something anonymously on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
One of the smart things that the county has done that the current council and planning board want to end is to require developers to set aside land for schools. The Toll Brothers’s WMAL site development includes a lot set aside for a school. There is also a lot set aside for a school at White Flint.

Give credit where credit is due, certainly not the Council or Planning Board. This happened because of a small group of dedicated volunteer parents from the WJ Cluster who forced them to do this. I was peripherally involved (heard back the reports on the never-ending meetings that made it happen).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

+1 There's someone upthread saying the quiet part outloud. I believe they said west county would focus on differentiation, east would focus on closing the achievement gap, and north would focus on....farming practices or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have come to the conclusion that MCPS is incapable of reform.

How can there can reform when people keep voting the same old way?

Yep. The decline in the school system goes hand in hand with the decline in the county. Both are a result of the one-party rule. The ‘progressive’ Democratic politicians have run the school system into the ground. They clearly don’t care about our students and/or our students’ safety. They prefer to espouse progressive policies (Defund the police! Sanctuary county! Eliminate SROs! Restorative Justice!) that have made things so much worse over this past decade. Our kids don’t have a chance.

Sounds like Florida or Texas would be more your speed. Enjoy!

DP here but what a typical response - yawn. Can you actually come up with facts that invalidate the previous poster's statement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

Either you didn't read the thread or are just purposely focusing on the suggestion that mcps should be broken up. No one suggested segregation so that's a figment of your imagination.

What do you think breaking up MCPS would create? What do you see think the folks who advocate for breaking up MCPS want?
You ain't fooling anyone except yourself.

+1,000. And willfully obtuse PP is over here like "nobody said the WORD segregation?"

We see you, lady.

You're the one that's assuming that we break it up along SES or racial lines. Again, stop making everything about race. People like you are the ones bringing this county down. Do you work for the County Council?

[Anonymous]

The report you linked says no such thing. In fact, it identified TWELVE publicly owned sites that are candidates for schools and recommended one of those, the MCPS owned former Forest Grove ES as the site for a new ES.

I'm not the PP but I read that report. What struck me was how improbable/costly a lot of those options were. Costly both monetarily (Parkside) and in terms of the community (Silver Spring Intermediate Park, Wheaton Forest Park, Nolte Park). Between them, there are a bunch of neighborhood parks that have been used by the community for 80 years, a medical clinic, a historic site, a social services provider, and multiple childcare centers.

If these are being offered as "proof" that there is plenty of land for development, I'm not convinced. Further, there was one site on that last that could even possibly be used for anything but an ES and that site is suboptimal in about 15 different ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

There's always one low in people in the discussion I'm glad you made yourself known early on.
What is 5he ultimate size of a high school?

What is the maximum number of students that a school should have before you say, whoa that's too many?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are good ideas proposed in this thread but none of it matters because no one in the BoE nor MCPS Central Office would support any of these changes; and the county council will back them up. They're all in bed together and are united in their mission to lower standards to close the achievement gap and to reduce reported disciplinary actions by not disciplining students even when they should be. The only way to fix MCPS is to replace most of the central staff and most of the BoE with people who actually do want to bring back a focus on quality education and achievement for all students.

LOL. What good ideas? Breaking up MCPS?? Segregation?

There's always one low in people in the discussion I'm glad you made yourself known early on.
What is 5he ultimate size of a high school?

What is the maximum number of students that a school should have before you say, whoa that's too many?

What in the good Lord's name are you talking about? How is your response relevant to the above post?