TPMS is killing the arts, the magnet program, and the autism program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, so they're getting rid of the magnet program for next year?

No, it sounds like they are going from a 6 class schedule to a 5 so kids lose an elective.

7 to 6

Wrong. 8 to 7.

[Anonymous]

The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff. Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please cite your sources.

Ask anyone with a current magnet student there

No. Rumor mongering is tacky.

It’s not a rumor.

Then you can cite your sources.

DP, the sources are our experience with the school. A meeting this evening held by the school. A meeting held in early December for magnet families. Another in mid November. The principal’s newsletters.

Yeah, and only at tonight’s meeting, despite it being asked multiple times on multiple occasions, did anyone admit to the fact that it was the teachers deciding and only the teachers and that the decision had already been made prior to any “community engagement.” No other voices were meant to be heard and even after all this time knowing they’d already made the decision and what the concerns would be, they have yet to come up with one “mitigation strategy” that could be shared. Only saying it was something they’d have to do. Problem is, the trust has already been broken with the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please cite your sources.

Ask anyone with a current magnet student there

No. Rumor mongering is tacky.

It’s not a rumor.

Then you can cite your sources.

DP, the sources are our experience with the school. A meeting this evening held by the school. A meeting held in early December for magnet families. Another in mid November. The principal’s newsletters.

Yeah, and only at tonight’s meeting, despite it being asked multiple times on multiple occasions, did anyone admit to the fact that it was the teachers deciding and only the teachers and that the decision had already been made prior to any “community engagement.” No other voices were meant to be heard and even after all this time knowing they’d already made the decision and what the concerns would be, they have yet to come up with one “mitigation strategy” that could be shared. Only saying it was something they’d have to do. Problem is, the trust has already been broken with the community.

And what's the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

No. Translation: with such heavy academics, kids deserve access to the arts and to have their mental health prioritized and the school they help to make look good should put at least some thought in to their wellbeing.

It’s not fear mongering. Making the community aware of a major change. There are many magnet families that only chose TPMS because of the schedule and access to arts as well as academics. Our kids commute nearly 3 hours a day to go to this school. If your kid was looking at that type of commute, do you think they’d choose it just to get the same thing they could get at their local school? Incoming kids and families deserve to know. The schedule is taking a hit and the electives program is taking a hit. It’s not just 1/3 of the school losing an arts elective. It will affect all the kids. More core subject teachers will be needed to make up for the decrease in number of classes taught per teacher but the budget is still for the same amount of teachers. That means less elective teachers because of that and because every kid is taking one less elective. It means less choice, less variety. The robustness and quality of the school will go down overall.


It’s not just parents no getting their way. It has far reaching affects for all students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

No. Translation: with such heavy academics, kids deserve access to the arts and to have their mental health prioritized and the school they help to make look good should put at least some thought in to their wellbeing.

It’s not fear mongering. Making the community aware of a major change. There are many magnet families that only chose TPMS because of the schedule and access to arts as well as academics. Our kids commute nearly 3 hours a day to go to this school. If your kid was looking at that type of commute, do you think they’d choose it just to get the same thing they could get at their local school? Incoming kids and families deserve to know. The schedule is taking a hit and the electives program is taking a hit. It’s not just 1/3 of the school losing an arts elective. It will affect all the kids. More core subject teachers will be needed to make up for the decrease in number of classes taught per teacher but the budget is still for the same amount of teachers. That means less elective teachers because of that and because every kid is taking one less elective. It means less choice, less variety. The robustness and quality of the school will go down overall.


It’s not just parents no getting their way. It has far reaching affects for all students.

Cry me a river 😢

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please cite your sources.

Ask anyone with a current magnet student there

No. Rumor mongering is tacky.

It’s not a rumor.

Then you can cite your sources.

DP, the sources are our experience with the school. A meeting this evening held by the school. A meeting held in early December for magnet families. Another in mid November. The principal’s newsletters.

Yeah, and only at tonight’s meeting, despite it being asked multiple times on multiple occasions, did anyone admit to the fact that it was the teachers deciding and only the teachers and that the decision had already been made prior to any “community engagement.” No other voices were meant to be heard and even after all this time knowing they’d already made the decision and what the concerns would be, they have yet to come up with one “mitigation strategy” that could be shared. Only saying it was something they’d have to do. Problem is, the trust has already been broken with the community.

And what's the problem?

Nothing, unless you care about alienating the community. Clearly, they didn’t but they made several big productions to make it seem like it was a community decision or at the very least our voices would be heard. To vote before listening to all sides means no one cares. So good luck on any future engagement from the community now that the circle of trust has been broken. Next year will be a shit show and the administration and teachers will only have themselves to blame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

No. Translation: with such heavy academics, kids deserve access to the arts and to have their mental health prioritized and the school they help to make look good should put at least some thought in to their wellbeing.

It’s not fear mongering. Making the community aware of a major change. There are many magnet families that only chose TPMS because of the schedule and access to arts as well as academics. Our kids commute nearly 3 hours a day to go to this school. If your kid was looking at that type of commute, do you think they’d choose it just to get the same thing they could get at their local school? Incoming kids and families deserve to know. The schedule is taking a hit and the electives program is taking a hit. It’s not just 1/3 of the school losing an arts elective. It will affect all the kids. More core subject teachers will be needed to make up for the decrease in number of classes taught per teacher but the budget is still for the same amount of teachers. That means less elective teachers because of that and because every kid is taking one less elective. It means less choice, less variety. The robustness and quality of the school will go down overall.


It’s not just parents no getting their way. It has far reaching affects for all students.

It’s a choice. Three hour a day commute is absurd. They should limit it to down county. Go private.

[Anonymous]

I guess Jamie Raskin is no longer invested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Complain about the process but teachers have every right to work under the same conditions as elsewhere in MCPS. The fact that they’ve been teaching more classes, with no additional compensation, than their peers was a travesty.

-TPMS parent

Wow! I had no idea teachers were teaching more. Parkland is a magnet with 8 periods and their teachers only teach 5. This is here to stay then. Pretty sure it’s in the MCEA contract 5 is the limit for full-time teachers. Sorry folks. Teachers have rights too. That’s terrible they are taken advantage of for “the community”

[Anonymous]

I'd like to try and summarize so I can keep this straight in my head.

TPMS currently has an 8 period schedule and teachers voted to move it to a 7 period schedule. This is inline with other MCPS MS but the vote did not engage the community (parents). Teachers also voted not to increase class size.

As an example: if a grade has 100 kids. There used to be 5 periods of English available so there would be 20 kids in a class. Now there are only 4 periods of English available so there would be 25 kids in a class. However, teachers also did not want class size to increase.

So budget will have to be allocated to increase teachers for core classes to keep the class size the same. The budget will come from a decrease in the art and music budget. As there will be less teachers for art and music, there will be less elective periods available and now students will be limited to one elective (language, art, or music)

Did I get all of that correct?

[Anonymous]

Wasn’t this talked about a year ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to try and summarize so I can keep this straight in my head.

TPMS currently has an 8 period schedule and teachers voted to move it to a 7 period schedule. This is inline with other MCPS MS but the vote did not engage the community (parents). Teachers also voted not to increase class size.

As an example: if a grade has 100 kids. There used to be 5 periods of English available so there would be 20 kids in a class. Now there are only 4 periods of English available so there would be 25 kids in a class. However, teachers also did not want class size to increase.

So budget will have to be allocated to increase teachers for core classes to keep the class size the same. The budget will come from a decrease in the art and music budget. As there will be less teachers for art and music, there will be less elective periods available and now students will be limited to one elective (language, art, or music)

Did I get all of that correct?

Mostly correct. The magnet kids will be limited to one elective and kids in other programs like Autism will no longer have a period that can be utilized for extra support. The magnet kids are limited to one elective because their other elective is a magnet class.

[Anonymous]

I don't see why the community should have been engaged at all. The mistake here was in even paying lip service. The principal should have just handed down a fiat and been done with it. The teachers were apparently doing something that was well above and beyond and outside of their contract. They decided they no longer wish to do this. Why should the community be consulted? What makes you think that you have the right to demand that the teachers do this, and that it should even be an option on the table to keep? And if it's not a real option, what is there to discuss with the community? Were you actually dumb enough to think that your screaming and tantrums would cause the school to say, "Oh yeah, then we'll keep forcing the teachers to do work they aren't paid for, to placate you?", or that it would be a good thing if they did? Get over yourself.

No one is making you go to the magnet. If you don't like it, go back to your home school. The other 99.9% of the county who never had this in the first place is hardly crying into their soup.