BOE - who are people voting for?

[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:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

Worse than incumbents that gave a massive payout to the Superintendent that promoted a serial sexual harasser? At a minimum, the newcomers will know they'll get fired if they pull that BS again.

Zimmerman isn't going to stay long anyway.

Any Board would have settled with McKnight, paying at least the early termination clause of the contract. Though, I don't understand why they paid *more* than the early termination clause.

That's what I was referring to when I said "massive payout". It screams hush money.

Zimmerman's opponent is crazy. Whatever am I unt of time Zimmerman plans to stay, is better than having Brenda Diaz in office for any amount of time.

Crazy people ultimately don't do anything. At worst, Diaz will be a distraction. But there's also a chance she'll be willing to ask hard questions of central admin, which board members have never been willing to do during open session.

Zimmerman, unfortunately, can do much, much worse. I absolutely expect her to push for everything on MCEA's wish list, including more half-days and expanding virtual days (e.g., snow days) as much as is allowed by state law. That will be a disaster, particularly for the kids with special needs that would miss out on services those days.

This is nonsense. One board member who has crazy ideas can derail the entire board. You don’t put people on the board knowing they are Moms for Liberty shills (unless of course you are a Moms for Liberty shill).

One board member can't pass any crazy ideas.

Why on earth would you hire someone who will not just propose ideas that are crazy, hateful and harmful?

We've been left with a choice between someone who might *say* bad ideas, and someone who might *enact* bad policies.

Both are bad, but when forced to choose, I'll go with the former. Zimmerman is too much of a threat to kids, particularly if other MCEA candidates get on the board.

Yeah you and I have different values

Are you really more concerned about bad talk than bad policies? The latter has a direct impact on schools and kids.

I'm not sure why you believe Zimmerman will have more votes than Diaz. And bad talk is harmful and disruptive. Spreading misinformation and hate causes real harms. Supporting teachers is not a bad thing IMO. Maybe like Diaz you don't actually have kids in MCPS but my main priority is for the system to retain my child's awesome teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

She’d be great if the job was all about preparing written responses to league of women voter questionnaires or giving prewritten speeches like she did when she was a PTA advocate. The fact that she struggles to string sentences together that make sense during the live candidate forums has me worried about her effectiveness. She seems like a much more simple minded Lynne Harris.

Laura Stewart's public speaking skills are truly painful to sit through.

I don’t care if someone cannot speak well. I care they do their job well. Not everyone can public speak. We don’t need charisma we need action.

If she is lacking in oral persuasion skills, or the ability to quickly articulate positions without written materials, they can’t do the job.

Seriously. I can't believe that's not obvious to PP.

[Anonymous]

Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

Please engage with reality. They are building two whole new high schools (and rebuilding a third). The boundaries will change, whether you want them to or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

The BOE's policy is to balance the four factors (demographics, geography, stability, and facility utilization).

Currently, there are both overcrowded schools and underutilized schools. Many students do not attend the school closest to them. The example often given is that many students in Kensington reside very close to Einstein HS, but are zoned for Walter Johnson HS.

With a new high school (Woodward) in Bethesda as well as the new Crown HS there will be more capacity in the west side of the county. Many schools on the east side are horribly overcrowded. If you want to maximize available capacity with the new high schools you have to move some kids from east to west (I'm thinking like Einstein to BCC, Wheaton to Woodward) and make a lot of changes that are going to upset a lot of people. To deal with overcrowding there will be demographic changes. That's just the reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

Harris has failed so many times. We have to redo the boundaries for the new schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

The BOE's policy is to balance the four factors (demographics, geography, stability, and facility utilization).

Currently, there are both overcrowded schools and underutilized schools. Many students do not attend the school closest to them. The example often given is that many students in Kensington reside very close to Einstein HS, but are zoned for Walter Johnson HS.

With a new high school (Woodward) in Bethesda as well as the new Crown HS there will be more capacity in the west side of the county. Many schools on the east side are horribly overcrowded. If you want to maximize available capacity with the new high schools you have to move some kids from east to west (I'm thinking like Einstein to BCC, Wheaton to Woodward) and make a lot of changes that are going to upset a lot of people. To deal with overcrowding there will be demographic changes. That's just the reality.

This is the right idea but Einstein is overflowing and has portables. So, it wouldn’t work. I suspect they will move the Kensington kids to Woodward but that’s about it. Wheaton to Woodard would be a nightmare. They should pull from mid county for Woodward and build mother high school down county. Once they pull from WJ and with the new building in the area Woodward will not have a huge amount of extra seats.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

Worse than incumbents that gave a massive payout to the Superintendent that promoted a serial sexual harasser? At a minimum, the newcomers will know they'll get fired if they pull that BS again.

Zimmerman isn't going to stay long anyway.

Any Board would have settled with McKnight, paying at least the early termination clause of the contract. Though, I don't understand why they paid *more* than the early termination clause.

That's what I was referring to when I said "massive payout". It screams hush money.

Zimmerman's opponent is crazy. Whatever am I unt of time Zimmerman plans to stay, is better than having Brenda Diaz in office for any amount of time.

Crazy people ultimately don't do anything. At worst, Diaz will be a distraction. But there's also a chance she'll be willing to ask hard questions of central admin, which board members have never been willing to do during open session.

Zimmerman, unfortunately, can do much, much worse. I absolutely expect her to push for everything on MCEA's wish list, including more half-days and expanding virtual days (e.g., snow days) as much as is allowed by state law. That will be a disaster, particularly for the kids with special needs that would miss out on services those days.

This is nonsense. One board member who has crazy ideas can derail the entire board. You don’t put people on the board knowing they are Moms for Liberty shills (unless of course you are a Moms for Liberty shill).

One board member can't pass any crazy ideas.

Why on earth would you hire someone who will not just propose ideas that are crazy, hateful and harmful?

We've been left with a choice between someone who might *say* bad ideas, and someone who might *enact* bad policies.

Both are bad, but when forced to choose, I'll go with the former. Zimmerman is too much of a threat to kids, particularly if other MCEA candidates get on the board.

Yeah you and I have different values

Are you really more concerned about bad talk than bad policies? The latter has a direct impact on schools and kids.

I'm not sure why you believe Zimmerman will have more votes than Diaz. And bad talk is harmful and disruptive. Spreading misinformation and hate causes real harms. Supporting teachers is not a bad thing IMO. Maybe like Diaz you don't actually have kids in MCPS but my main priority is for the system to retain my child's awesome teachers.

I certainly have kids in MCPS. Kids that went without meaningful special education services for nearly two years. MCEA has never acknowledged their role in that, and then were later part of the decision to do a virtual snow day, taking yet another service day away from them. We know MCEA wants to add more prep time. The unfortunate reality is that the only plausible proposals that have been put forth involve adding more early release days to the calendar. I don't know about yours, but my kids don't get services those days. It ends up being too disruptive to the classroom teachers, the OT and the SLP. So they just get cancelled those days.

And while my kids can go to school, aftercare programs won't accept them.

Diaz's ideas are so wild there is no rational fear that a majority of other board members will go for them. There's no risk of crazy policies from her. None.

Zimmerman really does stand a chance at hurting kids by removing instructional hours. And given her MCEA ties, I think we can expect her to maintain the status quo with the broken salary structure for MCEA-coverer staff.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

Worse than incumbents that gave a massive payout to the Superintendent that promoted a serial sexual harasser? At a minimum, the newcomers will know they'll get fired if they pull that BS again.

Zimmerman isn't going to stay long anyway.

Any Board would have settled with McKnight, paying at least the early termination clause of the contract. Though, I don't understand why they paid *more* than the early termination clause.

That's what I was referring to when I said "massive payout". It screams hush money.

Zimmerman's opponent is crazy. Whatever am I unt of time Zimmerman plans to stay, is better than having Brenda Diaz in office for any amount of time.

Crazy people ultimately don't do anything. At worst, Diaz will be a distraction. But there's also a chance she'll be willing to ask hard questions of central admin, which board members have never been willing to do during open session.

Zimmerman, unfortunately, can do much, much worse. I absolutely expect her to push for everything on MCEA's wish list, including more half-days and expanding virtual days (e.g., snow days) as much as is allowed by state law. That will be a disaster, particularly for the kids with special needs that would miss out on services those days.

This is nonsense. One board member who has crazy ideas can derail the entire board. You don’t put people on the board knowing they are Moms for Liberty shills (unless of course you are a Moms for Liberty shill).

One board member can't pass any crazy ideas.

Why on earth would you hire someone who will not just propose ideas that are crazy, hateful and harmful?

We've been left with a choice between someone who might *say* bad ideas, and someone who might *enact* bad policies.

Both are bad, but when forced to choose, I'll go with the former. Zimmerman is too much of a threat to kids, particularly if other MCEA candidates get on the board.

Yeah you and I have different values

Are you really more concerned about bad talk than bad policies? The latter has a direct impact on schools and kids.

I'm not sure why you believe Zimmerman will have more votes than Diaz. And bad talk is harmful and disruptive. Spreading misinformation and hate causes real harms. Supporting teachers is not a bad thing IMO. Maybe like Diaz you don't actually have kids in MCPS but my main priority is for the system to retain my child's awesome teachers.

I think Diaz middle child is in MCPS and the oldest in in MC. Her website said she’s homeschooling the youngest. https://diazforboe.com/about-us/

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

Worse than incumbents that gave a massive payout to the Superintendent that promoted a serial sexual harasser? At a minimum, the newcomers will know they'll get fired if they pull that BS again.

Zimmerman isn't going to stay long anyway.

Any Board would have settled with McKnight, paying at least the early termination clause of the contract. Though, I don't understand why they paid *more* than the early termination clause.

That's what I was referring to when I said "massive payout". It screams hush money.

Zimmerman's opponent is crazy. Whatever am I unt of time Zimmerman plans to stay, is better than having Brenda Diaz in office for any amount of time.

Crazy people ultimately don't do anything. At worst, Diaz will be a distraction. But there's also a chance she'll be willing to ask hard questions of central admin, which board members have never been willing to do during open session.

Zimmerman, unfortunately, can do much, much worse. I absolutely expect her to push for everything on MCEA's wish list, including more half-days and expanding virtual days (e.g., snow days) as much as is allowed by state law. That will be a disaster, particularly for the kids with special needs that would miss out on services those days.

This is nonsense. One board member who has crazy ideas can derail the entire board. You don’t put people on the board knowing they are Moms for Liberty shills (unless of course you are a Moms for Liberty shill).

One board member can't pass any crazy ideas.

Why on earth would you hire someone who will not just propose ideas that are crazy, hateful and harmful?

We've been left with a choice between someone who might *say* bad ideas, and someone who might *enact* bad policies.

Both are bad, but when forced to choose, I'll go with the former. Zimmerman is too much of a threat to kids, particularly if other MCEA candidates get on the board.

Yeah you and I have different values

Are you really more concerned about bad talk than bad policies? The latter has a direct impact on schools and kids.

I'm not sure why you believe Zimmerman will have more votes than Diaz. And bad talk is harmful and disruptive. Spreading misinformation and hate causes real harms. Supporting teachers is not a bad thing IMO. Maybe like Diaz you don't actually have kids in MCPS but my main priority is for the system to retain my child's awesome teachers.

I certainly have kids in MCPS. Kids that went without meaningful special education services for nearly two years. MCEA has never acknowledged their role in that, and then were later part of the decision to do a virtual snow day, taking yet another service day away from them. We know MCEA wants to add more prep time. The unfortunate reality is that the only plausible proposals that have been put forth involve adding more early release days to the calendar. I don't know about yours, but my kids don't get services those days. It ends up being too disruptive to the classroom teachers, the OT and the SLP. So they just get cancelled those days.

And while my kids can go to school, aftercare programs won't accept them.

Diaz's ideas are so wild there is no rational fear that a majority of other board members will go for them. There's no risk of crazy policies from her. None.

Zimmerman really does stand a chance at hurting kids by removing instructional hours. And given her MCEA ties, I think we can expect her to maintain the status quo with the broken salary structure for MCEA-coverer staff.

MCEA has nothing to do with services. That’s mcps. Blame the right people. Virtual snow days are fine. Better than extending the school year. I’m impressed your kids got that much help. We had to do services privately as 30 minutes of group speech with kids with very different needs was a huge waste of time and not necessary. Sounds like you got far more than we did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

The BOE's policy is to balance the four factors (demographics, geography, stability, and facility utilization).

Currently, there are both overcrowded schools and underutilized schools. Many students do not attend the school closest to them. The example often given is that many students in Kensington reside very close to Einstein HS, but are zoned for Walter Johnson HS.

With a new high school (Woodward) in Bethesda as well as the new Crown HS there will be more capacity in the west side of the county. Many schools on the east side are horribly overcrowded. If you want to maximize available capacity with the new high schools you have to move some kids from east to west (I'm thinking like Einstein to BCC, Wheaton to Woodward) and make a lot of changes that are going to upset a lot of people. To deal with overcrowding there will be demographic changes. That's just the reality.

This is the right idea but Einstein is overflowing and has portables. So, it wouldn’t work. I suspect they will move the Kensington kids to Woodward but that’s about it. Wheaton to Woodard would be a nightmare. They should pull from mid county for Woodward and build mother high school down county. Once they pull from WJ and with the new building in the area Woodward will not have a huge amount of extra seats.

DP. Why would Wheaton -> Woodward be a nightmare? Much of the Wheaton cluster is close to Woodward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

The BOE's policy is to balance the four factors (demographics, geography, stability, and facility utilization).

Currently, there are both overcrowded schools and underutilized schools. Many students do not attend the school closest to them. The example often given is that many students in Kensington reside very close to Einstein HS, but are zoned for Walter Johnson HS.

With a new high school (Woodward) in Bethesda as well as the new Crown HS there will be more capacity in the west side of the county. Many schools on the east side are horribly overcrowded. If you want to maximize available capacity with the new high schools you have to move some kids from east to west (I'm thinking like Einstein to BCC, Wheaton to Woodward) and make a lot of changes that are going to upset a lot of people. To deal with overcrowding there will be demographic changes. That's just the reality.

This is the right idea but Einstein is overflowing and has portables. So, it wouldn’t work. I suspect they will move the Kensington kids to Woodward but that’s about it. Wheaton to Woodard would be a nightmare. They should pull from mid county for Woodward and build mother high school down county. Once they pull from WJ and with the new building in the area Woodward will not have a huge amount of extra seats.

DP. Why would Wheaton -> Woodward be a nightmare? Much of the Wheaton cluster is close to Woodward.

+1. Viers Mill ES in particular.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Candidates answering a question about the boundary study RFP:

https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/10/22/general-election-school-board-questionnaire-boundary-review/

Thanks. Man, Montoya's answer sure shows that she is a lawyer, doesn't it?

Betweeen Montoya and Harris, who is the preferred candidate if you'd like to see high school and middle school boundaries changed as little as possible? I support redistricting to deal with overcrowding, but not to achieve some big realignment in FARMS and demographic distribution in the name of equity (as that would be more likely to lead to busing). The priority should be geographic proximity to a school, when possible.

The BOE's policy is to balance the four factors (demographics, geography, stability, and facility utilization).

Currently, there are both overcrowded schools and underutilized schools. Many students do not attend the school closest to them. The example often given is that many students in Kensington reside very close to Einstein HS, but are zoned for Walter Johnson HS.

With a new high school (Woodward) in Bethesda as well as the new Crown HS there will be more capacity in the west side of the county. Many schools on the east side are horribly overcrowded. If you want to maximize available capacity with the new high schools you have to move some kids from east to west (I'm thinking like Einstein to BCC, Wheaton to Woodward) and make a lot of changes that are going to upset a lot of people. To deal with overcrowding there will be demographic changes. That's just the reality.

This is the right idea but Einstein is overflowing and has portables. So, it wouldn’t work. I suspect they will move the Kensington kids to Woodward but that’s about it. Wheaton to Woodard would be a nightmare. They should pull from mid county for Woodward and build mother high school down county. Once they pull from WJ and with the new building in the area Woodward will not have a huge amount of extra seats.

DP. Why would Wheaton -> Woodward be a nightmare? Much of the Wheaton cluster is close to Woodward.

I think PP is referring to my reference to kids in Kensington being close to Einstein.

I think they will actually need to move the Kensington kids to Einstein if they are really interested in proximity and demographics.

How many ESs can they actually move to Woodward? Many will be from Walter Johnson. But if you move Woodlin ES from Einstein to BCC, a BCC feeder to Whitman, another Einstein feeder ES to Wheaton, Kensington Parkwood to Einstein, and two Wheaton feeders to Woodward, then you relieve capacity in the DCC, keep or improve geographical proximity and reduce segregation.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lynn Harris is part of the problem and the current disfunction. She needs to go. I think if there was a different mix on the board and different president Evans would be ok but she will not stand up for anything and goes along with the others. So, she needs to go.

Stewart and Zimmerman aren't going to stand up for anything, either. They'll keep their mouths shut unless their overlords tell them it’s ok to speak up.

Stewart is a joke of a candidate.

MCEA took advantage of anger at the incompetence of BOE incumbents that they previously endorsed to endorse challengers who will be obviously worse than the incumbents. It’s Hobson’s choice.

Worse than incumbents that gave a massive payout to the Superintendent that promoted a serial sexual harasser? At a minimum, the newcomers will know they'll get fired if they pull that BS again.

Zimmerman isn't going to stay long anyway.

Any Board would have settled with McKnight, paying at least the early termination clause of the contract. Though, I don't understand why they paid *more* than the early termination clause.

That's what I was referring to when I said "massive payout". It screams hush money.

Zimmerman's opponent is crazy. Whatever am I unt of time Zimmerman plans to stay, is better than having Brenda Diaz in office for any amount of time.

Crazy people ultimately don't do anything. At worst, Diaz will be a distraction. But there's also a chance she'll be willing to ask hard questions of central admin, which board members have never been willing to do during open session.

Zimmerman, unfortunately, can do much, much worse. I absolutely expect her to push for everything on MCEA's wish list, including more half-days and expanding virtual days (e.g., snow days) as much as is allowed by state law. That will be a disaster, particularly for the kids with special needs that would miss out on services those days.

This is nonsense. One board member who has crazy ideas can derail the entire board. You don’t put people on the board knowing they are Moms for Liberty shills (unless of course you are a Moms for Liberty shill).

One board member can't pass any crazy ideas.

Why on earth would you hire someone who will not just propose ideas that are crazy, hateful and harmful?

We've been left with a choice between someone who might *say* bad ideas, and someone who might *enact* bad policies.

Both are bad, but when forced to choose, I'll go with the former. Zimmerman is too much of a threat to kids, particularly if other MCEA candidates get on the board.

Yeah you and I have different values

Are you really more concerned about bad talk than bad policies? The latter has a direct impact on schools and kids.

I'm not sure why you believe Zimmerman will have more votes than Diaz. And bad talk is harmful and disruptive. Spreading misinformation and hate causes real harms. Supporting teachers is not a bad thing IMO. Maybe like Diaz you don't actually have kids in MCPS but my main priority is for the system to retain my child's awesome teachers.

I certainly have kids in MCPS. Kids that went without meaningful special education services for nearly two years. MCEA has never acknowledged their role in that, and then were later part of the decision to do a virtual snow day, taking yet another service day away from them. We know MCEA wants to add more prep time. The unfortunate reality is that the only plausible proposals that have been put forth involve adding more early release days to the calendar. I don't know about yours, but my kids don't get services those days. It ends up being too disruptive to the classroom teachers, the OT and the SLP. So they just get cancelled those days.

And while my kids can go to school, aftercare programs won't accept them.

Diaz's ideas are so wild there is no rational fear that a majority of other board members will go for them. There's no risk of crazy policies from her. None.

Zimmerman really does stand a chance at hurting kids by removing instructional hours. And given her MCEA ties, I think we can expect her to maintain the status quo with the broken salary structure for MCEA-coverer staff.

MCEA has nothing to do with services. That’s mcps. Blame the right people. Virtual snow days are fine. Better than extending the school year. I’m impressed your kids got that much help. We had to do services privately as 30 minutes of group speech with kids with very different needs was a huge waste of time and not necessary. Sounds like you got far more than we did.

MCEA absolutely had an impact on services, both through impact bargaining and their threats of a strike. And they were never going to "extend" the school year beyond the calendar-- they would have used days already built into the calendar, just as they plan to do now.

In addition, MCEA has fought past attempts to pay special educators more, contributing to the severe shortage. And more recently, MCEA has complained about the portion of the budget that goes towards contracting with external service providers to (partially) make up for that lack of staff.

MCEA is looking out for their members, not our kids. They shouldn't be on the board.