Today’s Nice BOE meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

I'm not upset about the change because too many questions are asked at the board meetings that seem to never get follow-up publicly and worse they seem to drag on. Hopefully this will create some prioritization and force folks to focus and move things along more promptly. Additionally, I would like to see them enforce the website for the follow-ups to be updated more frequently. And one can only pray at this point that it will get people working in CO to be better prepared.

And quite frankly given that its not a full-time job and they certainly aren't getting full-time pay, its worth making some of the meeting time more work session.

Where is it they post followups?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/memorandum/

You can also access from the BOE page under Meetings>Meeting Follow-ups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

Oh come on now. She’s running for county council and using board resources to do it. Pretty shameless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you expect different? Taylor is a figure head. He’s not running the show.

Who IS running the show if not him?

The deep state (county?) and the educational industrial complex. It’s a riddle, wrapped in a puzzle, and contained within an enigma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

By still having public comments at each meeting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

I'm not upset about the change because too many questions are asked at the board meetings that seem to never get follow-up publicly and worse they seem to drag on. Hopefully this will create some prioritization and force folks to focus and move things along more promptly. Additionally, I would like to see them enforce the website for the follow-ups to be updated more frequently. And one can only pray at this point that it will get people working in CO to be better prepared.

And quite frankly given that its not a full-time job and they certainly aren't getting full-time pay, its worth making some of the meeting time more work session.

And the full material provided to the BOE, whether follow-up or other, to be posted directly with that agenda item on BoardDocs. In advance by 48 hours. And links both ways to/from the agenda item/meeting at which the follow-up was requested/promised.

None of this having to search around through menus when there is an agenda item right there, if something gets posted at all. None of the "We'll post it later" for agenda-item presentations or the "The video of the meeting is our system of record" excuse that keeps things from more effective access/review.

At least it seems that they moved away from posting PDFs that were page images instead of being searchable-text. That kind of extra step just to make things more difficult told you all you needed to know about their perception of their responsibility to the community. Hope such changes are a trend, but we are still so very, very far away from open data & candor from MCPS leadership.

Except for the recent Program Analysis presentation which they posted and then removed, I usually see that the agenda and accompanying docs (Pdf, or slides) are posted prior to the meeting.

I will say the PP is right. I have been following the board for years and they're a bit sloppy with adhering to ensuring the meeting information and materials are posted in accordance to their guidelines.

Do you have a link to the guidelines they are supposed to be following?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

I'm not upset about the change because too many questions are asked at the board meetings that seem to never get follow-up publicly and worse they seem to drag on. Hopefully this will create some prioritization and force folks to focus and move things along more promptly. Additionally, I would like to see them enforce the website for the follow-ups to be updated more frequently. And one can only pray at this point that it will get people working in CO to be better prepared.

And quite frankly given that its not a full-time job and they certainly aren't getting full-time pay, its worth making some of the meeting time more work session.

Where is it they post followups?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/memorandum/

You can also access from the BOE page under Meetings>Meeting Follow-ups.

Am I reading it correctly that they have not provided any follow-up information this calendar year thus far?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

I'm not upset about the change because too many questions are asked at the board meetings that seem to never get follow-up publicly and worse they seem to drag on. Hopefully this will create some prioritization and force folks to focus and move things along more promptly. Additionally, I would like to see them enforce the website for the follow-ups to be updated more frequently. And one can only pray at this point that it will get people working in CO to be better prepared.

And quite frankly given that its not a full-time job and they certainly aren't getting full-time pay, its worth making some of the meeting time more work session.

Where is it they post followups?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/memorandum/

You can also access from the BOE page under Meetings>Meeting Follow-ups.

Am I reading it correctly that they have not provided any follow-up information this calendar year thus far?

I see followups in January and February 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

By still having public comments at each meeting?

But only ONE of the two meetings a month will have any ACTIONS. You can talk all you want at the second meeting, but no actions will be taken and you won’t have any idea what actions will be taken at the next meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

I'm not upset about the change because too many questions are asked at the board meetings that seem to never get follow-up publicly and worse they seem to drag on. Hopefully this will create some prioritization and force folks to focus and move things along more promptly. Additionally, I would like to see them enforce the website for the follow-ups to be updated more frequently. And one can only pray at this point that it will get people working in CO to be better prepared.

And quite frankly given that its not a full-time job and they certainly aren't getting full-time pay, its worth making some of the meeting time more work session.

Where is it they post followups?

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/memorandum/

You can also access from the BOE page under Meetings>Meeting Follow-ups.

Am I reading it correctly that they have not provided any follow-up information this calendar year thus far?

They haven’t posted all the follow-ups, No. That doesn’t mean none has been provided.

[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:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

By still having public comments at each meeting?

But only ONE of the two meetings a month will have any ACTIONS. You can talk all you want at the second meeting, but no actions will be taken and you won’t have any idea what actions will be taken at the next meeting.

There wasn’t action necessarily taken at any of the meetings before. They heard the public comment, noted some things, maybe asked for some data or followup, and then moved forward with whatever presentations and resolutions/approvals as planned. The Old Business section was never really reviewed.

If done right, this might actually be improvement, because old business and follow-ups might be addressed timely and with transparency.

[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:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

By still having public comments at each meeting?

But only ONE of the two meetings a month will have any ACTIONS. You can talk all you want at the second meeting, but no actions will be taken and you won’t have any idea what actions will be taken at the next meeting.

Since when are public comments only about actions that may be taken at that day's meeting? Every meeting lately has had lots of comments about the boundary study or the grading policy, and there haven't been any board actions.

[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:Today was just a work session, not a board meeting, right?

No difference.

Yang explained at the beginning of the meeting that when they have two meetings a month, one of them will be designated as a business meeting focused on action items and the other as a work session for the board to receive presentations and information. Public comments will still be included in each meeting.

It has definitely NOT been the case that they designate one of the meetings as a work session and the other as a business meeting. What prompted this change and why does Yang and the BOE feel it's needed?

She just said it was new for this fiscal year.

The change wasn't for no reason....I wish Yang was transparent about the reason for the change....

The old guard will never be transparent.

Gosh you all are dense. She’s running for county council and issuing her board position to campaign. In other words, she is using MCPS to run her campaign

How is restructuring the board meeting agendas a campaign for county council?

Shutting down negative public comments.

By still having public comments at each meeting?

But only ONE of the two meetings a month will have any ACTIONS. You can talk all you want at the second meeting, but no actions will be taken and you won’t have any idea what actions will be taken at the next meeting.

There wasn’t action necessarily taken at any of the meetings before. They heard the public comment, noted some things, maybe asked for some data or followup, and then moved forward with whatever presentations and resolutions/approvals as planned. The Old Business section was never really reviewed.

If done right, this might actually be improvement, because old business and follow-ups might be addressed timely and with transparency.

You missed a lot. There were many Action items at each business meeting. You just weren’t paying attention. The Resolutions are labeled clearly as ACTION.