The top 20 highest-paid employees in MCPS in 2020

[Anonymous]

Pretty low pay. In Nassau county Long Island 400k is common

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certainly eye opening to see the list and associated salaries. I was in MCPS for over a decade with a master's degree and came nowhere close to 100K. I'm not even sure what some of these people do. https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/the-top-20-highest-paid-employees-in-mcps-in-2020/

My SIL is an administrator in MCPS and I know when they discussed returning to school, it was suggested by principals at a meeting that instructional specialists and other central office staff be sent out to support students in school buildings. That idea was quickly squashed by the higher ups. Why do you think this system still wasting so much $$$ on fluff positions?

Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. we could definitely solve a lot of staffing issues if central office would step up to help in classrooms

Well, it doesn't help that each area director has three instructional specialists working under him/her. What these three folks are doing on a day to day basis is a mystery for many school-based staff.

Sitting in a LOT of IEP meetings.

[Anonymous]

I would be cautious in jumping to a conclusion that these employees aren't doing anything.

As a teacher, I've read many hundreds of postings on this board that teachers must have cushy jobs during distance learning. You know: Wouldn't it be nice to work only 4 hours a day and have Wednesdays off? These comments are made by people who just don't understand all of the tasks that must be done which result in a workload of 50-60 hours per week.

Although I don't know what the heck people in these positions do all day (especially during distance learning), I shouldn't assume the worst about either them or their positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be cautious in jumping to a conclusion that these employees aren't doing anything.

As a teacher, I've read many hundreds of postings on this board that teachers must have cushy jobs during distance learning. You know: Wouldn't it be nice to work only 4 hours a day and have Wednesdays off? These comments are made by people who just don't understand all of the tasks that must be done which result in a workload of 50-60 hours per week.

Although I don't know what the heck people in these positions do all day (especially during distance learning), I shouldn't assume the worst about either them or their positions.

Anyone ever see Statham? #3 highest

[Anonymous]

I worked at MCPS for a brief period too. So you might want to consider my comments as coming from a disgruntled former employee and I don't know how much things have changed.

But MCPS was one of the very few places that I've been where people acted like six figure salaries were the norm and expected to get a raise for doing the exact same thing year after year.

So there is essentially a high cap on salaries and a lot of administrative assistants/secretaries that make around $70k. There is also a group of people who were brought in by nepotism, where they had parents that worked there and brought them in. So they stayed, brought other people in, etc.

Since the raises are pretty much guaranteed a lot of people, including some management, have the point of view of making sure that their job was to keep everything exactly the same and to not rock the boat. Some of these people didn't do too well when there were unavoidable changes.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of incredibly hardworking and dedicated people in MCPS. But I think they're often undermined by the bigger culture there.

But taking my opinion of the average salaries there, seeing the positions listed in the article and taking into account that Montgomery County is one of the largest and wealthiest counties in the area, along with a wide range of demographics, I don't necessarily see the top salaries listed as unexpected or unreasonable. A lot of comments/complaints I see about central office roles/employees seem to come from people who don't really understand how school systems work and think that schools can operate in their own silos.

Also to the previous poster that went to central office for the job interview and liked the facilities, I assume that they went to Calhoun or West Gude drive for their interview. I think the majority of central office is still located at the Carver Building (CESC) which was originally an all black only high school and junior college and is designated as a historical building. (https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/carver/) So the facility is very old and I wouldn't consider very nice.

Anyways my point is that yes MCPS does have a very bloated and inefficient organization but at the same time it shouldn't be as vilified as much as it is on here sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked at MCPS for a brief period too. So you might want to consider my comments as coming from a disgruntled former employee and I don't know how much things have changed.

But MCPS was one of the very few places that I've been where people acted like six figure salaries were the norm and expected to get a raise for doing the exact same thing year after year.

So there is essentially a high cap on salaries and a lot of administrative assistants/secretaries that make around $70k. There is also a group of people who were brought in by nepotism, where they had parents that worked there and brought them in. So they stayed, brought other people in, etc.

Since the raises are pretty much guaranteed a lot of people, including some management, have the point of view of making sure that their job was to keep everything exactly the same and to not rock the boat. Some of these people didn't do too well when there were unavoidable changes.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of incredibly hardworking and dedicated people in MCPS. But I think they're often undermined by the bigger culture there.

But taking my opinion of the average salaries there, seeing the positions listed in the article and taking into account that Montgomery County is one of the largest and wealthiest counties in the area, along with a wide range of demographics, I don't necessarily see the top salaries listed as unexpected or unreasonable. A lot of comments/complaints I see about central office roles/employees seem to come from people who don't really understand how school systems work and think that schools can operate in their own silos.

Also to the previous poster that went to central office for the job interview and liked the facilities, I assume that they went to Calhoun or West Gude drive for their interview. I think the majority of central office is still located at the Carver Building (CESC) which was originally an all black only high school and junior college and is designated as a historical building. (https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/carver/) So the facility is very old and I wouldn't consider very nice.

Anyways my point is that yes MCPS does have a very bloated and inefficient organization but at the same time it shouldn't be as vilified as much as it is on here sometimes.

While I may agree that there are some over paid people in MCPS, I disagree with lumping everyone who works in Central Office into this category. Yes, many may wonder what they do, but because you don't know what they do doesn't mean it's not important.

Also, agree that given the size of the system, the amount of responsibility many of these people have, their level of education, and how "public" their jobs are, these are not insanely high salaries for this area.

What other employer do you know that has +20,000 employees and +160,000 daily "customers" in over 200 locations that has their 20 highest paid employees all in mostly in the $290.000 to $186,000 range?

I'm not saying these are not impressive salaries, even for this area, but they actually do not seem out of line given that the majority (if not all of them) have a Ph.D., many years of experience, and a lot of responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Without a dedicated Inspector General you will never get to the bottom of the wasteful spending. And frankly this place doesn’t really want to know - MoCo is not really interested in accountability or else they would have an IG. It’s just like 19c - schools are where politicians use the schools to buy their votes. The County exec? Yep. A former teacher. It is not at all focused on the kids or really created for their benefit (sexual abuse, curriculum 2.0, ancient school buildings for anyone in a middle class neighborhood). And more money is coming with Kirwan - as if they don’t have enough money! I’m convinced Andrew Yang had the right call - just give parents the 16,000 a year MoCo supposedly spends on ‘the kids’ (er adults). Make them compete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another indication as to why MCPS is TOO large. In any large (corporate-style) entity, there is often mismanagement and waste.

I grew up in an area with smaller, town-based school district and there was much more accountability. Much easier to identify the waste and call it out.

My SIL teaches in a charter school in Philly and it is WAY better. She loves how she can easily make requests for change and implement practices that support the students easier and quicker.

There is still waste in a town-based school district model. You just have many smaller bureaucracies instead of one large bureaucracy. New Jersey has nearly 700 people who are district superintendents; Maryland has 24.

+100. People in this area think it is "normal" to have an entire county in one school system. When I moved to the DC area, I was shocked that schools were run at the county level. It's better at a town level where you can actually get to know the school board, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another indication as to why MCPS is TOO large. In any large (corporate-style) entity, there is often mismanagement and waste.

I grew up in an area with smaller, town-based school district and there was much more accountability. Much easier to identify the waste and call it out.

My SIL teaches in a charter school in Philly and it is WAY better. She loves how she can easily make requests for change and implement practices that support the students easier and quicker.

There is still waste in a town-based school district model. You just have many smaller bureaucracies instead of one large bureaucracy. New Jersey has nearly 700 people who are district superintendents; Maryland has 24.

+100. People in this area think it is "normal" to have an entire county in one school system. When I moved to the DC area, I was shocked that schools were run at the county level. It's better at a town level where you can actually get to know the school board, etc.

People think that it's normal to have county-based school systems because, in fact, it is normal to have county-based school systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another indication as to why MCPS is TOO large. In any large (corporate-style) entity, there is often mismanagement and waste.

I grew up in an area with smaller, town-based school district and there was much more accountability. Much easier to identify the waste and call it out.

My SIL teaches in a charter school in Philly and it is WAY better. She loves how she can easily make requests for change and implement practices that support the students easier and quicker.

There is still waste in a town-based school district model. You just have many smaller bureaucracies instead of one large bureaucracy. New Jersey has nearly 700 people who are district superintendents; Maryland has 24.

+100. People in this area think it is "normal" to have an entire county in one school system. When I moved to the DC area, I was shocked that schools were run at the county level. It's better at a town level where you can actually get to know the school board, etc.

That's because it is "normal" to have an entire county in one school system in this area, as well as many others around the country. Each model has pros and cons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of them are teachers so DCUM won’t bother hating them.

Bloated overpaid admin at mcps juicing the final average salaries for more pension payouts and retiree healthcare benefits. They prob taught initially and then bounce around higher paid admin until they choose to retire. Thus they paid in other pension at the teacher salary but expect to get paid for decades in retirement at the overpaid admin salary.

Good thing MoCo just keeps raising property taxes to keep this scheme going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another indication as to why MCPS is TOO large. In any large (corporate-style) entity, there is often mismanagement and waste.

I grew up in an area with smaller, town-based school district and there was much more accountability. Much easier to identify the waste and call it out.

My SIL teaches in a charter school in Philly and it is WAY better. She loves how she can easily make requests for change and implement practices that support the students easier and quicker.

There is still waste in a town-based school district model. You just have many smaller bureaucracies instead of one large bureaucracy. New Jersey has nearly 700 people who are district superintendents; Maryland has 24.

+100. People in this area think it is "normal" to have an entire county in one school system. When I moved to the DC area, I was shocked that schools were run at the county level. It's better at a town level where you can actually get to know the school board, etc.

+ 1000. Top largest public school districts are county run and total disasters ruled by teacher union/ local politician corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Without a dedicated Inspector General you will never get to the bottom of the wasteful spending. And frankly this place doesn’t really want to know - MoCo is not really interested in accountability or else they would have an IG. It’s just like 19c - schools are where politicians use the schools to buy their votes. The County exec? Yep. A former teacher. It is not at all focused on the kids or really created for their benefit (sexual abuse, curriculum 2.0, ancient school buildings for anyone in a middle class neighborhood). And more money is coming with Kirwan - as if they don’t have enough money! I’m convinced Andrew Yang had the right call - just give parents the 16,000 a year MoCo supposedly spends on ‘the kids’ (er adults). Make them compete.

Biggest employer and voting block in the county? MCPS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is just another indication as to why MCPS is TOO large. In any large (corporate-style) entity, there is often mismanagement and waste.

I grew up in an area with smaller, town-based school district and there was much more accountability. Much easier to identify the waste and call it out.

My SIL teaches in a charter school in Philly and it is WAY better. She loves how she can easily make requests for change and implement practices that support the students easier and quicker.

There is still waste in a town-based school district model. You just have many smaller bureaucracies instead of one large bureaucracy. New Jersey has nearly 700 people who are district superintendents; Maryland has 24.

True that you have more superintendents.

However, it is easier to identify and manage waste in a smaller budget.

The MCPS budget is incredibly complex. Easier to get away with mismanaging money.

In a smaller district, it is easier to see the positions and ensure that they are solely there to fulfill the mission of educating children.

I have no problem with paying taxes towards schools and having my money go towards teachers and supplies. I do have issue with seeing our tax money go to fluff projects and useless Central Office salaries that support employees who have little impact on our students education.

Maryland has countywide school districts. That is how it is. This has been discussed a million times on this board. Good luck trying to split MoCo into smaller counties.

Covid really highlighted this and its tax issues and sanctuary city issues so no need to move here. In fact accelerating moving out.

[Anonymous]

I still haven't heard any really good adequate explanation for how town-based school systems would save anybody money if you're going to end up having so much redundancy in positions such as having 500 superintendents instead of 24.

The trickle down impact is that you just have a lot fewer resources at the school level and then a lot more inequality in finding. So I'm sure that that's a bonus for the Bethesda and Potomac families