MSCPS Schools Close Early, Idiot administrators screwed this one up badly

[Anonymous]

MCPS was wrong to open all schools but many schools should have opened. The problem in MCPS is that the kingdom is too large for them to run effectively and there is very poor long range planning and facilities management.

Opening most of the schools was a correct decision. However, elementary schools with portables where young children walk outside to get to the building with a restroom should have been closed. The larger solution would be to effectively plan for capacity so you don't wind up with portables. You can't argue that this is just a money issues that they can't control because the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Fairfax also did a facilities and maintenance check of all buildings. MCPS did not and MCPS has no clue as to the state of their facilities until something breaks. They lack the logistical ability to quickly respond to these problems.

Opening would have been a great decision if the facilities were better managed and there was thought/planning put forward to understand that some schools should have been closed, such as elementary schools with portables and schools with older infrastructure. This is too complicated for them because they don't care.

Only 2% of schools shut down so this was just great is their PR line. The PR statement from MCPS in the press that they don't think it was big deal that they needed to shut down and send kids home because of their lack of understanding/planning is just plain infuriating. This is the attitude that leads to all the incompetency in this system.

[Anonymous]

No...I don't agree PP. Those ES kids can grab a jacket as they head to the rest room. I would rather have that then some hungry unsupervised little ones left at home because their parents have to work and they get a free lunch at school. And are you telling me that Fairfax was able to predict which schools would have weather related issues yesterday? If so I would agree that MCPS should get some of those fortune tellers on staff!

[Anonymous]

the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Where have you seen statements like this? As a member of a committee to select the site for a new school, I disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS was wrong to open all schools but many schools should have opened. The problem in MCPS is that the kingdom is too large for them to run effectively and there is very poor long range planning and facilities management.

Opening most of the schools was a correct decision. However, elementary schools with portables where young children walk outside to get to the building with a restroom should have been closed. The larger solution would be to effectively plan for capacity so you don't wind up with portables. You can't argue that this is just a money issues that they can't control because the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Fairfax also did a facilities and maintenance check of all buildings. MCPS did not and MCPS has no clue as to the state of their facilities until something breaks. They lack the logistical ability to quickly respond to these problems.

Opening would have been a great decision if the facilities were better managed and there was thought/planning put forward to understand that some schools should have been closed, such as elementary schools with portables and schools with older infrastructure. This is too complicated for them because they don't care.

Only 2% of schools shut down so this was just great is their PR line. The PR statement from MCPS in the press that they don't think it was big deal that they needed to shut down and send kids home because of their lack of understanding/planning is just plain infuriating. This is the attitude that leads to all the incompetency in this system.

Overcrowding can be alleviated by redistricting. This is not a politically palatable solution, thus the portable solution. They know how many kids they have and how many are coming down the pipeline. They just don't want to deal with the political mess that shifting school boundaries brings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Where have you seen statements like this? As a member of a committee to select the site for a new school, I disagree.

omg. They get it wrong all the time. Ask the people in Clarksburg, a planned community full of big houses and kids. Those kids have been moved around 2 or 3 times during the elementary years.

For some reason MC also believes that people with children don't live in apartments so I expect them to royally mess up the White Flint numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Where have you seen statements like this? As a member of a committee to select the site for a new school, I disagree.

omg. They get it wrong all the time. Ask the people in Clarksburg, a planned community full of big houses and kids. Those kids have been moved around 2 or 3 times during the elementary years.

For some reason MC also believes that people with children don't live in apartments so I expect them to royally mess up the White Flint numbers.

No child in Clarksburg has been moved around 2 or 3 times during the elementary school years due to rezoning. Once, yes. But not twice, let alone three times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

the statements from MCPS are that planning is great, we always get the numbers right, and we don't have capacity planning problems. This clearly is untrue.

Where have you seen statements like this? As a member of a committee to select the site for a new school, I disagree.

omg. They get it wrong all the time. Ask the people in Clarksburg, a planned community full of big houses and kids. Those kids have been moved around 2 or 3 times during the elementary years.

For some reason MC also believes that people with children don't live in apartments so I expect them to royally mess up the White Flint numbers.

I didn't say they don't get it wrong. You insist that their statements say they never get it wrong. Where are those statements?

[Anonymous]

Ask Ritchie Park, Wood Acres, Poolesville, ask any of the schools that are overcapacity how they feel about MCPS press statements about getting it right. Even the new budget plan press release delaying already broken down infrastructure is written all rosy and everything is just fine.

Geez, MCPS planning is horrible. It doesn't take a fortune teller to assess and understand your infrastructure. It takes competent people!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask Ritchie Park, Wood Acres, Poolesville, ask any of the schools that are overcapacity how they feel about MCPS press statements about getting it right. Even the new budget plan press release delaying already broken down infrastructure is written all rosy and everything is just fine.

Geez, MCPS planning is horrible. It doesn't take a fortune teller to assess and understand your infrastructure. It takes competent people!

Yes, "all is fine and rosy" is definitely the impression I get from sentences like

“This CIP will begin to address the dramatic space needs of our district and provide some relief to our elementary schools, which are bursting at the seams,” Dr. Starr said. “However, we will need to make additional investments in the future if we are going to provide 21st century learning facilities for the students who are here today and those who are coming in the future.”

Dr. Starr’s $1.55 billion recommended CIP represents a $183.9 million increase over the current CIP (FY 2013-2018), but is far less than the district’s actual need. It would require a $2.2 billion CIP to meet all of the district’s pressing facility, infrastructure, and technology needs.

“I look forward to working with our county leaders and state legislators on ways we can increase state funding and meet all of our capital needs,” Dr. Starr said. “I am hopeful that a solution can be found, but I have to develop my budget based on what I know, not on what I hope.”

Or, rather, no it isn't. Here is the press release.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?page=showrelease&id=3424

[Anonymous]

Seriously people expected school to be cancelled because of cold? Wimps!

[Anonymous]

The sole problem of MCPS system is that is too large to maintain effectively. That and the fact that upper county continues to get the shaft (I am in Potomac.) Schools like Damascas and Poolesville are so old, leaking, cold and have limited technology continue to get bumped while schools like Hoover get a complete new building. They need to split the county and stop catering to stop focus on only the poor and below average kids and offer a better education to everyone. GT in every school like 90% of the country. Bases home rooms on skill level instead of being PC and blending them so the smart kids do "busy work" while the kids in need get all the attention. It is such a messed up district. I think the IB and Magnets get everyone thinking it is great but it is not.

[Anonymous]

^^ excuse errors. Typed from phone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The sole problem of MCPS system is that is too large to maintain effectively. That and the fact that upper county continues to get the shaft (I am in Potomac.) Schools like Damascas and Poolesville are so old, leaking, cold and have limited technology continue to get bumped while schools like Hoover get a complete new building. They need to split the county and stop catering to stop focus on only the poor and below average kids and offer a better education to everyone. GT in every school like 90% of the country. Bases home rooms on skill level instead of being PC and blending them so the smart kids do "busy work" while the kids in need get all the attention. It is such a messed up district. I think the IB and Magnets get everyone thinking it is great but it is not.

I have heard other upcounty parents say this. (I live in the upcounty.) I think it's because they don't know about conditions in the rest of the county.

[Anonymous]

I think this thread has been hijacked by the MCPS-Is-A-Failure/Starr-Is-The-Devil poster who manages to destroy any conversation about anything to do with MoCo with her rants.