WaPo: Montgomery’s top school leader says district is still reckoning with past mistakes

[Anonymous]

Staff seem scared. It's not good. Once Taylor is gone, the stories will come out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Staff seem scared. It's not good. Once Taylor is gone, the stories will come out.

Former MCPS administrators making the news in Harford County today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff seem scared. It's not good. Once Taylor is gone, the stories will come out.

Former MCPS administrators making the news in Harford County today.

Link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Quite right. If the community wants the better experience, it needs to provide the funding.

But MCPS also has to ensure that A) the funding goes to providing the desired service, and B) the desired service is made available across the system to anyon needing it. There should neither be disfavor of addressing the matter by those responsible for policy, regulation & curricular programming nor allowance of a have/have-not dichotomy by those overseeing school implementations. MCPS exhibits both.

[Anonymous]

MCPS needs IG for itself, not crimping on using County’s IG.

Look the place is not what it was before, has nearly 5 billion to spend and comparable districts (FCPS) have their own district IG.

This is first step towards real accountability. This is just tip of waste fraud and abuse: I can think of three no bid contracts off top of my head: Prometheus Boards, School Camera, astroturf fields

That’s in ten seconds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff seem scared. It's not good. Once Taylor is gone, the stories will come out.

Former MCPS administrators making the news in Harford County today.

Link?

Not sure but doing a quick search think that the pp might be referring to this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/harford-county-superintendent-conference-bulson-stolen-schools-property/

https://www.hcps.org/superintendent/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Mcps is one of the highest per pupil funded school systems. It’s mismanagement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Staff seem scared. It's not good. Once Taylor is gone, the stories will come out.

Former MCPS administrators making the news in Harford County today.

Link?

Not sure but doing a quick search think that the pp might be referring to this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/harford-county-superintendent-conference-bulson-stolen-schools-property/

https://www.hcps.org/superintendent/

Mcps will take him back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Mcps cut a bunch of things a few years ago and then proceeded to go on huge spending sprees. Some of our schools are pretty bare bones. Not much to cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Quite right. If the community wants the better experience, it needs to provide the funding.

But MCPS also has to ensure that A) the funding goes to providing the desired service, and B) the desired service is made available across the system to anyon needing it. There should neither be disfavor of addressing the matter by those responsible for policy, regulation & curricular programming nor allowance of a have/have-not dichotomy by those overseeing school implementations. MCPS exhibits both.

We consistently fund MCPS more year after year. We have pumped more money into MCPS consistently and it’s not gotten better.

Money alone will not fix this system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Mcps is one of the highest per pupil funded school systems. It’s mismanagement.

MCPS isn't even one of the highest in the state of Maryland, it's like #5 plus another 3 are like a whisker below them: https://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabPDF/2025PerPupilStateandLocal.pdf

MCPS makes bad choices and I don't blame people for not wanting to hand them more money... but also if someone wanted a magic wand and suddenly Central Office was filled with people doing a perfect job and making the most of every dollar, that would still likely only save a couple percent from the budget at most, and we would still need to invest much more to make the big changes we need like decreasing class sizes, recruiting and retaining more good teachers, providing the supports needed to help kids who are behind and/or who have special needs, etc.

In other words, two things can be true: 1) MCPS Central Office sucks, but also 2) MCPS needs more money if we want it to do a better job of educating kids, in amounts much higher than can be recovered from any wasteful spending. The fact that #1 makes it less likely that people will support #2 is one of the many reasons MCPS central office pisses me off so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Quite right. If the community wants the better experience, it needs to provide the funding.

But MCPS also has to ensure that A) the funding goes to providing the desired service, and B) the desired service is made available across the system to anyon needing it. There should neither be disfavor of addressing the matter by those responsible for policy, regulation & curricular programming nor allowance of a have/have-not dichotomy by those overseeing school implementations. MCPS exhibits both.

We consistently fund MCPS more year after year. We have pumped more money into MCPS consistently and it’s not gotten better.

Money alone will not fix this system

Yeah I agree.

The issue is that they have the wrong initiatives in trying to make things easier for people. Like people say, they work on lowering the bar instead of raising it.

So they do things like implement a no homework policy because it's not fair to families with parents who work long hours and can't devote time to help their kids with schoolwork.

Refuse to discipline kids because it would result in numbers that puts them in a negative light.

Propose to take away advanced pathways because it doesn't benefit the majority of the population who are struggling.

These are all mistakes from previous administrations that need to be fixed too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He has a lot of problems to fix. Hard to blame him for that. MCPS behaved recklessly when MD had a budget surplus. The $$$$ spent on legal fees are not his fault. I’m still not sure what I think of him but he can only do so much

+1
I think the programs proposal is an ambitious move that could have moved the needle to fixing some things, but has been so poorly thought through and so rushed that he’ll ruin what goodwill he could have had if it’s implemented. He strikes me as a sincere and good person though.

He's not sincere. He's a showman which is why he was hired. He's changing things for the sake of change, not to make them better.

Yeah, there's some misdirection going on, too, pulling people's attention with promises of paraeducators while actually gutting special education programs across the district. It is pretty hard for school districts to lose due process proceedings, but I think he's setting things up for that.

Its near impossible to get any help from MCPS and they spend more time fighting parents than helping.

In many cases, those parents want things that contradict what the political masters of MCPS want.

Most parents want their kids reading and writing on grade level.

Not here in Lake Wobegon.

Seriously, though, and understanding the considerable difficulties experienced (kids, families & teachers/admin) in educating a large portion of the MCPS student population to that standard, when "on grade level" is redefined/implemented as below that which many, if not most, would expect from the combination of their own experience and the anecdotes of others they know in good schools, and when the differentiation (and identification for that) needed to mitigate that is implemented inconsistently (sometimes not at all due to school funding allocation algorithms vs. difficult cohorts), this kind of conflict becomes inevitable.

But then why do parents keep blaming school systems instead of counties, states, and our federal governments. Not to mention ourselves. On one had we say we want our kids to have the best of everything especially schools, but then in the next we want to cut taxes. When people say fine, then that means we also need to cut programs and services like sports, arts, and yes extra supports, then there are still complaints.

Even now we have a community in MCPS complaining about getting a new school.

Mcps is one of the highest per pupil funded school systems. It’s mismanagement.

MCPS isn't even one of the highest in the state of Maryland, it's like #5 plus another 3 are like a whisker below them: https://dls.maryland.gov/pubs/prod/NoPblTabPDF/2025PerPupilStateandLocal.pdf

MCPS makes bad choices and I don't blame people for not wanting to hand them more money... but also if someone wanted a magic wand and suddenly Central Office was filled with people doing a perfect job and making the most of every dollar, that would still likely only save a couple percent from the budget at most, and we would still need to invest much more to make the big changes we need like decreasing class sizes, recruiting and retaining more good teachers, providing the supports needed to help kids who are behind and/or who have special needs, etc.

In other words, two things can be true: 1) MCPS Central Office sucks, but also 2) MCPS needs more money if we want it to do a better job of educating kids, in amounts much higher than can be recovered from any wasteful spending. The fact that #1 makes it less likely that people will support #2 is one of the many reasons MCPS central office pisses me off so much.

We don't need more money, we need accountability and financial management. Our property taxes are enough already.

[Anonymous]

some central office staff are amazing and some are total disasters.

I haven't been impressed with Taylor's ability to distinguish between the two.