School board - who to vote for

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:This is the first year I may consider supporting the Apple Ballot. The Apple Ballot is a list of who the teacher union supports and this time they are not endorsing any incumbents.

The BOE did a horrible job keeping schools closed for 18 months for most students, there’s been a lack of resources at the school level to address the pandemic learning loss, there’s been no plan to address the shortages for in school and substitute positions, and the BOE gave a contract to a Superintendent that had two votes of no confidence by the union members underneath her.

One quick note, while we're discussing incumbents and pandemic - Scott Joftus was appointed to the BoE in December, to fill the seat vacated by Patricia O'Neill's passing. So while he is technically an incumbent he does not bear any responsibility for the Board's handling of the first 18 months of pandemic. I'd urge people to keep this in mind before chucking him out with the rest of the incumbents.

For those who aren't aware of Joftus's background, he has a very different profile / background than the average BoE member and is in my view much more qualified:
https://joftus4boe.com/about/

Did he support McKnight? Because she's just awful and I can't see why they spent so much money looking for people for the job and ended up with her. ugh

Joftus is perfect for the BOE because he and his wife have readymade lies to spew while they suck money away from MCPS. Classic is claiming that you have been evaluated every year when you've never been evaluated and MCPS only took a head count for two years.

https://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2022/11/fact-check-mocoboe-spouse-says-kid.html

To be honest, with all the drama about Joftus and his family with KID Museum, I personally do not think he would be a good choice for BOE.

To be honest if the parents coalition is trying to sink him that’s a point in his favor.

Have to agree. Will probably vote for him just because those nuts are against him.

Great news for fraud, waste and abuse of MCPS Operating Budget! Many, many vendors ready to siphon off MCPS $$$ thank you! Especially the vendors that are embezzling cash like the diesel bus company in Annapolis. You've made their world a happier place.

You mean imaginary fraud since nothing like that happened and no charges have been filed. Just in the minds of a few unhinged right-wing nutjobs.

You sing it sister! Yeah! Right-wing, nutjobs! Yeah. I always spend $1M on bocce ball for disabled kids at MCPS... and loved the $4M discrimination training... I just can't get enough of (I lost count - was it $4M covid money, and $1,632,632, $94,434 on 8/25/20, then another $2.37M On 9/9/22 - so it's 7-8M?) Kid Museum... I totally believe Leader in Me is worth 1.8M... yup...

And the best part was it all was mostly Federal Covid grant money to keep the kids and teachers safe!

It would be great if the leader in me empowered a child to lead a bocce club field trip to the kid's museum.

Exactly Jofus recused himself from this and had been upfront about his conflict. There was nothing to this. Not sure why the same poster has their panties in a bunch over this since it was of no signfiicance.

Joftus (do you misspell on purpose?) never was upfront about anything. It's a fun lie, but it's a lie. Just like his wife said that MCPS had evaluated the program and it had shown results. That never happened either. They are a good team.

Waste of MCPS education dollars is of no significance to parents who don't want teachers in classrooms. For parents that do want teachers in classrooms spending MCPS money on private programs with no benefits and no accountability is a problem. Sort of like having the MCPS transportation department embezzle millions for over 5 years. Stealing from students, is that the new MCPS brand?

He said he had this conflict up front and recused himself from the vote. Not sure you can be more upfront than that.

You mean after his conflict was exposed in the media, after he was already on the board. How could he have been more upfront? He could have disclosed it before he was appointed to the Board of Education. He didn't do that and never did it until the media exposed him.

No I mean he stated it publicly and clearly before even joining the council, but sure in your imaginary world I'm guessing many facts don't line up with reality.

He's not on the council. He is on the Board of Education and he never stated it before he was appointed. He didn't state it clearly or publicly. He didn't state it at all and he's not on the council. Enjoy your imaginary world!

DP. In his interview before he was appointed, he told the board who he was married to. They knew who his wife is, because they had already had been working with Kid Museum for several years prior. After he was selected he went through the required conflict of interest vetting and passed with the condition that he recuse himself from votes relating to Kid Museum. Which he has.

So you agree. He never disclosed his conflict of interest before he was appointed. He kept that a secret until he was on the Board.

If Yang keeps her margin, he's gone after Tuesday.

Man you have serious reading comp problems. The PP said the exact opposite.

It’s pretty clear to me after following this thread for several months that there is one deranged anti-Joftus poster (likely yang or someone closed to her) who keeps posting this stuff. It’s so clearly counterfactual that it’s really slander. I am tempted to flag this for the moderator and ask him to lock the thread, but that will probably make the poster come back on another thread even more deranged, so I hesitate.

It isn't Julie. Julie is a rational, sane individual, and never says anything bad about anyone. Just why she's a better choice.

Now, people around her? No clue.

Completely disagree. I reported my experience with her earlier. She said negative things about Joftus that weren't true, then back pedaled and hedged when I called her out. I was genuinely interested in her, but tgat negativity plus her pusky aggressive behavior was really unappealing.

Yea sure she did. Who are you ???? You ran into at the grocery stairs. Give me a break.

[Anonymous]

Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

District 5 is still very close, may have to wait a while for final tallies.

[Anonymous]

Wolff ended last night with 50.01%, to Coll's 49.05%. There are still mail-in and provisional ballots to be counted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

So no former teachers should ever serve on BOE? They almost always belong to the union.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

So no former teachers should ever serve on BOE? They almost always belong to the union.

DP- Generally not. If they're not a current teacher, then they're probably at an age where they no longer have kids in the system. We've already got way too many board members like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

So no former teachers should ever serve on BOE? They almost always belong to the union.

DP- Generally not. If they're not a current teacher, then they're probably at an age where they no longer have kids in the system. We've already got way too many board members like that.

Like Brenda Wolff? Coll was at lest not far removed from being active. I also think this board is really lacking perspective on needs in elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

District 5 is still very close, may have to wait a while for final tallies.

Not close at all. Coll had an edge in election day votes, but those are done. She can't make up difference. 4 more years of Wolff and her total disregard for board policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Jamie Raskin proves he's useless in Board of Education endorsements.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

LOL

[Anonymous]

I don't think my mail-in ballot has been counted yet. DH dropped it off over the weekend in one of the drop boxes. I just checked its current status and it is not yet "received."

Assuming that it's uncounted, that is 3 more for Coll from the 3 voting members in my household.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my mail-in ballot has been counted yet. DH dropped it off over the weekend in one of the drop boxes. I just checked its current status and it is not yet "received."

Assuming that it's uncounted, that is 3 more for Coll from the 3 voting members in my household.

Same here. I dropped mine off a week ago, and the status hasn't changed yet. I think there are many mail-in ballots that have not been counted yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think my mail-in ballot has been counted yet. DH dropped it off over the weekend in one of the drop boxes. I just checked its current status and it is not yet "received."

Assuming that it's uncounted, that is 3 more for Coll from the 3 voting members in my household.

Same here. I dropped mine off a week ago, and the status hasn't changed yet. I think there are many mail-in ballots that have not been counted yet.

Same for two here and we voted for Coll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well Yang-Joftus folks, you can stop arguing because it’s over and ultimately wasn’t close.

Bummed that Coll lost though.

Coll is a closer...that is what ultimately hurt her. She is also a member of MCEA...we don't need any union representation on the board.

Didn't she skip the debate? I don't know how many people watch those things but when its this close, every vote matters.

You really do have to put in some time/effort to get informed on these races and I just don't think a lot of people do. I know when I was young and had just moved to the area I either would skip voting for BOE or would go with who the WaPo endorsed.