Why doesn't the BOE speak up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are not required to make statements in response to DCUM.

Oh! We didn't know that. Thanks for explaining.

I’m glad after 9 snow threads that we have this breakthrough. Maybe it will prevent thread number 10.

Perhaps there are so many threads, because people are upset as to how this snow event has been managed. Just a theory...

There are over 150,000 parents with children enrolled in MCPS. A few dozen posters hardly represents consensus. A few posters admittedly don’t have children enrolled.

The outrage was enough to 1) force MCPS to open even when Taylor didn't want to, and 2) have the county council hold special sessions on the fiasco.

Clearly many, many people have been upset by Taylor and MCPS. It is not unique to DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Enough with this obsessive nonsense. Get a life and deal with reality. Weather events happens, the management of them happens and we all move on. So should you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Enough with this obsessive nonsense. Get a life and deal with reality. Weather events happens, the management of them happens and we all move on. So should you.

Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to the incompetent man behind the curtain. And certainly don't expect any accountability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

DP. The tried a virtual learning plan a couple years ago, which led to that Asynchronous Learning Day, and that was unsuccessful, so they decided to drop it the following year, in favor of extending the school year if necessary instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

No one has articulated a plan that addresses elementary students, especially those in child care settings, older kids who would be responsible for child care, or students with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are not required to make statements in response to DCUM.

Oh! We didn't know that. Thanks for explaining.

I’m glad after 9 snow threads that we have this breakthrough. Maybe it will prevent thread number 10.

Perhaps there are so many threads, because people are upset as to how this snow event has been managed. Just a theory...

There are over 150,000 parents with children enrolled in MCPS. A few dozen posters hardly represents consensus. A few posters admittedly don’t have children enrolled.

The outrage was enough to 1) force MCPS to open even when Taylor didn't want to, and 2) have the county council hold special sessions on the fiasco.

Clearly many, many people have been upset by Taylor and MCPS. It is not unique to DCUM.

You forgot 3) Closed on Monday (Feb 2) due to outrage (Larla doesn't have snow shoes, snow banks are blocking Larla's path to school, sidewalk outside Larla's school is unshoveled, Larla's crossing guard can't help her over the snow mounds while simultaneously mitigating traffic. And more reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

No one has articulated a plan that addresses elementary students, especially those in child care settings, older kids who would be responsible for child care, or students with special needs.

Thousands of schools did emergency learning last week. Do you think none of them had elementary students, older kids with responsibility for childcare or students with special needs? MCPS is not a special snowflake.

Clearly better to do things the MCPS way and cut full scheduled days in June to half days so teachers can get their non-instructional time, and add some crap days at the end of the school year, when teachers say they are done teaching and turn videos on instead like the three that were added last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are not required to make statements in response to DCUM.

Oh! We didn't know that. Thanks for explaining.

I’m glad after 9 snow threads that we have this breakthrough. Maybe it will prevent thread number 10.

Perhaps there are so many threads, because people are upset as to how this snow event has been managed. Just a theory...

There are over 150,000 parents with children enrolled in MCPS. A few dozen posters hardly represents consensus. A few posters admittedly don’t have children enrolled.

The outrage was enough to 1) force MCPS to open even when Taylor didn't want to, and 2) have the county council hold special sessions on the fiasco.

Clearly many, many people have been upset by Taylor and MCPS. It is not unique to DCUM.

Many of us could not get our kids to school. We still cannot get to the bus stop, and our roads are barely passable with one car only and no way to get around. It's going to be a nightmare for us with no bus, no ability to walk as streets are not safe (no sidewalks) till this stuff melts. Virtual would have been the best option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are not required to make statements in response to DCUM.

Oh! We didn't know that. Thanks for explaining.

I’m glad after 9 snow threads that we have this breakthrough. Maybe it will prevent thread number 10.

Perhaps there are so many threads, because people are upset as to how this snow event has been managed. Just a theory...

There are over 150,000 parents with children enrolled in MCPS. A few dozen posters hardly represents consensus. A few posters admittedly don’t have children enrolled.

The outrage was enough to 1) force MCPS to open even when Taylor didn't want to, and 2) have the county council hold special sessions on the fiasco.

Clearly many, many people have been upset by Taylor and MCPS. It is not unique to DCUM.

You forgot 3) Closed on Monday (Feb 2) due to outrage (Larla doesn't have snow shoes, snow banks are blocking Larla's path to school, sidewalk outside Larla's school is unshoveled, Larla's crossing guard can't help her over the snow mounds while simultaneously mitigating traffic. And more reasons.

What sidewalks? What crossing guards? Our neighborhood has limited sidewalks so kids walk in the street. In HS, there are no crossing guards crossing major roads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

DP. The tried a virtual learning plan a couple years ago, which led to that Asynchronous Learning Day, and that was unsuccessful, so they decided to drop it the following year, in favor of extending the school year if necessary instead.

If kids don't log in, they get marked absent and cannot make up the work, simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The all-female BOE has too much of a crush on Taylor to tell him he sucks at his job. Stop hoping they'll hold him accountable. They're not interested.

That's misogynistic. This has nothing to do with being female, and more to do with it being a part-time Board that doesn't have the time or resources to hold a massive school district accountable.

They wouldn't do any better full-time as they defer to MCPS on everything and there is no accountability or transparency. They brought him in to be their yes man. They are partly behind all this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

DP. The tried a virtual learning plan a couple years ago, which led to that Asynchronous Learning Day, and that was unsuccessful, so they decided to drop it the following year, in favor of extending the school year if necessary instead.

If kids don't log in, they get marked absent and cannot make up the work, simple.

Not really simple. Many of these kids have child care responsibilities. If school is closed they are responsible for their siblings. School actually IS child care so when it is closed everyone else has to adjust and many people can't do other things, like participate in a virtual class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

DP. The tried a virtual learning plan a couple years ago, which led to that Asynchronous Learning Day, and that was unsuccessful, so they decided to drop it the following year, in favor of extending the school year if necessary instead.

If kids don't log in, they get marked absent and cannot make up the work, simple.

Not really simple. Many of these kids have child care responsibilities. If school is closed they are responsible for their siblings. School actually IS child care so when it is closed everyone else has to adjust and many people can't do other things, like participate in a virtual class.

NYC got over 80% of their students online during their snow day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they have to say re schools being closed for a week?

What are you expecting them to say? There was a significant weather event, case closed!

You forgot the part about being horribly managed by MCPS leadership. I think that's worth the BoE addressing.

I've got a few questions for the BoE:
1) Why did MCPS build in only 1 snow day into the calendar when we had 4 snow days last year, that resulted in loss of instructional time as they were made up as half-days in June?
2) Why isn't there more automatic action in the school calendar, to instruct MCPS to use the next available makeup days built into the calendar earlier in the school year when kids can benefit from instructional time, rather than allowing so much discretion to add them as half-days in June?
3) Why didn't MCPS submitted the Virtual Learning Plan for Snow Emergencies that it proposed to the Board that it would do in 2024? Why didn't BOE follow up on the lack of submission to MSDE, given that other school districts in Maryland like Baltimore and Anne Arundel have had plans approved and submitted that allowed them to deploy virtual learning last week when MCPS was closed?
4) Given that there was over a week's warning for this storm, why didn't MCPS central office instruct schools to ensure students took home their Chromebooks?

There are lots of good reasons for (3) and (4). (1) and (2) are obvious cases of incompetence, though.

I pay reasonably close attention to these things and have no idea what the good reasons would be for failing to submit a Virtual Learning Plan. Can you enlighten us?

DP. The tried a virtual learning plan a couple years ago, which led to that Asynchronous Learning Day, and that was unsuccessful, so they decided to drop it the following year, in favor of extending the school year if necessary instead.

....and your argument is that the end-of-year days were successful?

I love that one day of asynchronous is somehow a lesson for all of eternity, while numerous fake half-days during which kids packed up the classroom for their teachers is some sort of resounding success that should be replicated.