Thoughts on the new Churchill principal?
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Anonymous
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Or she will use the MCPS verbiage:
1) Terrific response rate (for a response rate of less than 25%) 2) People like the traffic pattern changes (even though the majority of parents have seen dangers increase and students can't get out of the Senior Lot till the buses move) 3) Thank you for the positive feedback (Principal lingo for giving parents the middle finger) The only principal I have ever met that called things as she saw it and stepped in to fix problems when she saw them was Mrs. Benson at Hoover. I was really disappointed when MCPS wouldn't consider transferring her from Rockville HS to Churchill HS. Mrs. Benson never lied to me as a parent. She always returned an email or a phone call. Mrs. Benson was a rare gym to the community. Parents liked her, students liked her, and staff liked her. It's sad how Dr. Benz held on for so long that Mrs. Benson took the Rockville HS promotion. It's disappointing how little MCPS listened to what the problems were at Churchill and gave us a newbie principal that is having difficulty just handling the basics. I personally think Mrs. Heckert got the job because she had connections to Mrs. Webster (the previous school Director). They both were at Damascus HS together. Combine a newbie principal and a newbie school director who are clueless where to start, that equals a craptastic plan to fix problems at Churchill. |
Anonymous
The big question is why is Mrs. Heckert focusing on powder puff football when there are real problems at the school? Shouldn't she have spent her time focusing on coach abuse and hazing, and drug use? Maybe by focusing on powder puff football she can district parents so they don't hold her accountable for the real problems at Churchill. |
Anonymous
WRONG - The Board of Education wrote a MCPS Employee Code of Conduct for a reason. It lists behaviors, many listed above, that are known grooming traits of a child predator. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/staff/staff-home-page/2018-2019_EmployeeCodeofConduct.pdf If a staff member violates standards of conduct listed in the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct, that employee can be disciplined including termination. The failure of MCPS is that they are not enforcing the code of conduct. For coaches, MCPS's actions are even more ridiculous because coaching contracts are non-tenure positions. They are issued on a season by season basis. MCPS doesn't need a reason to fire a coach. They also don't need a reason to not rehire a coach, especially if the coach is not a certified teacher and a qualified certified teacher is willing to step in as coach. Teachers actually have hiring preference under Maryland law for public school coaching positions. Protecting your child from abuse begins with knowing the signs of a predator, reading the employee Code of Conduct, and talking with your child to make sure your child knows the standards of conduct for adults and to report to you if any actions of an adult from school depart from the norm. If your discover a violation, email the employee and cc the Principal asking for the behavior to stop. ALL STAFF - teachers, administrators, coaches, counselors, janitorial staff, etc. - were retrained last year and retained this year on the Employee Code of Conduct. Violations are serious and MCPS should know it has a real problem if employees were told not to do these things but still are. That is how school system weeds out child predators. They will continue to violate the rules no matter how many times they are told what the rules are. A child is extra vulnerable with a coach because there are cameras in the school building and more staff and students around in the day than in after school hours. The ability to peel a child away from the group for an opportunity to be alone with a child is endless. The opportunity is all a child predator needs to hurt your child. |
Anonymous
Again with the powder puff football game?? Mrs. Heckert is not focusing on powderpuff football— you are! She enforced an existing school rule, period. If you want to blame someone for your daughter’s disappointment, blame the seniors who broke the rules! Honestly, I am so tired of the schools NOT strongly enforcing the rules. I try to teach my kids there are consequences for their misbehaviour, but they are constantly giving me examples of where the school didn’t enforce the rules. |
Anonymous
The poor freshman class from Hoover. They had a tyrant of a principal there and my son thinks Mrs. Heckert is cut from the same cloth. There is even a BBB movement amongst the students. Bring back Benz. 
Managing high school students is a balancing act. Prevention of problems is a much more successful tactic and creates a more positive environment than temper tantrums and punishment after punishment. After a while, teenagers start to tune out. You have to pick and choose battles. You also have a higher grounded argument if you warn a child first before issuing the punishment. With that said - I give Mrs. Heckert an A for trying to keep drugs off school campus during quarter 1. At the one PTA meeting this year, I actually liked what she had to say about drugs and what she was doing to deal with the situation. Acknowledging the problem and telling us the plan towards fixing it is moving in the right direction. Next we need follow through. I will say on the drugs front, my child hasn't seen as many drug deals in the hallways as in previous years. Now she needs to acknowledge the other problems in the school: coaches, athletic hazing rituals, anti-semitism, the math department, student mental health issues, etc. and present the plan on what is being done on those fronts. |
Anonymous
If the schools seriously want to deal with the mental health issues, they need to have licensed social workers, psychologists or LPCs on staff. Counselors in MCPS have become glorified paper pushers, and they lack the skills to deal with many of the typical mental health problems. I think eventually more and more schools will be hiring counselors who have a clinical background. The needs are too great these days to leave it to people who've never made a diagnosis in their life. I don't think they should be diagnosing students or doing therapy in the school with students, but having that background would make them much more effective for even drop-in visits with students. I find it kind of shocking that MCPS (and to be fair, many other public systems) think certification is enough. The better public schools--often town models vs big systems-- are augmenting and having at least one psychologist/social worker on site for tougher cases. |
Anonymous
If the schools seriously want to deal with the mental health issues, they need to have licensed social workers, psychologists or LPCs on staff. Counselors in MCPS have become glorified paper pushers, and they lack the skills to deal with many of the typical mental health problems. I think eventually more and more schools will be hiring counselors who have a clinical background. The needs are too great these days to leave it to people who've never made a diagnosis in their life. I don't think they should be diagnosing students or doing therapy in the school with students, but having that background would make them much more effective for even drop-in visits with students. I find it kind of shocking that MCPS (and to be fair, many other public systems) think certification is enough. The better public schools--often town models vs big systems-- are augmenting and having at least one psychologist/social worker on site for tougher cases. MCPS has on staff school psychologists that float in between several high schools. Most have a Master's degree and a certificate from MCPS - not enough in the private sector to be a psychologist. These school psychologists are often task with the job of screening children for disabilities that have an educational impact, not identifying or treating mental illness. They have little foundation on even understanding what a child needs as supports in times of trauma or a severe mental health crisis. They do not have time to actually put eyes on a child in most cases and just deal with statistical data without even getting to know the whole child. I think there should be some mechanism for a school to signal the need for a true expert, someone with a Ph.D. and extra certification in subspecialty areas for cases where a child is reported to have been abused or is reported at risk for suicide. The failure and lack of support within MCPS could actually push a child over the edge and lead to death. Coordination of MCPS services that can be provided in schools or referrals to community services for treatment via outside agencies would be a step in the right direction. At Churchill, the counseling staff does nothing more than assign children classes and write college recommendations. Beyond that, they are useless and don't care if they see a child in crisis. Just like most staff, they truly are just punching the time clock for a paycheck and really don't care to do what it takes to help children especially when that means calling for extra help within a school. |
Anonymous
MCPS has on staff school psychologists that float in between several high schools. Most have a Master's degree and a certificate from MCPS - not enough in the private sector to be a psychologist. These school psychologists are often task with the job of screening children for disabilities that have an educational impact, not identifying or treating mental illness. They have little foundation on even understanding what a child needs as supports in times of trauma or a severe mental health crisis. They do not have time to actually put eyes on a child in most cases and just deal with statistical data without even getting to know the whole child. I think there should be some mechanism for a school to signal the need for a true expert, someone with a Ph.D. and extra certification in subspecialty areas for cases where a child is reported to have been abused or is reported at risk for suicide. The failure and lack of support within MCPS could actually push a child over the edge and lead to death. Coordination of MCPS services that can be provided in schools or referrals to community services for treatment via outside agencies would be a step in the right direction. At Churchill, the counseling staff does nothing more than assign children classes and write college recommendations. Beyond that, they are useless and don't care if they see a child in crisis. Just like most staff, they truly are just punching the time clock for a paycheck and really don't care to do what it takes to help children especially when that means calling for extra help within a school. Now you are starting to venture into the realm where the school is also a health care provider. I don't think there is the political will or frankly the money to create an adequate mental health system within the schools. |
Anonymous
My daughter answered "No" to all these questions. Of course, that does not mean that other students in Churchill track have not experienced problems. It could also mean that there are some overprotective parents of athletes on the team. |
Anonymous
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As a parent of a child who answered yes to all the questions and provided details, be thankful your child has not yet been targeted.
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Anonymous
Now you are starting to venture into the realm where the school is also a health care provider. I don't think there is the political will or frankly the money to create an adequate mental health system within the schools. I posted above about adding psychologists/social workers and others with clinical experiences to MCPS staff. I was not referring to school psychologists, who have no home base and float around making edicts about whether kids should get 504 or IEP plans. I think they're some of the least-skilled and least-empathetic people in all of MCPS. I say this as someone who has worked with many of them. The counselors I've worked with have had far more empathy than the school psychologists. I'm talking about clinical therapists getting assigned a school. This happens in some higher-need schools but should happen across the board. I don't think MCPS should become a health care provider per se, but I think they should be screening for mental health issues well beyond ADHD and anxiety, just as they screen for vision or speech or SLDs. The services themselves (therapy, for instance, or partial hospitalization if necessary) should be done elsewhere. I'd rather see fewer counselors if necessary to have one licensed clinician per school, though I think that the system would be better off cutting instructional specialists in central office first. There's no question in my mind that anxiety and depression have become prevalent enough to warrant this--I bet if you surveyed school nurses, they'd tell you that a huge number of kids coming to see them "sick" are actually in need of outside mental health counseling. I'd say they could rely on school counseling services, but the counselors have got no time anymore for that. |
Anonymous
I posted above about adding psychologists/social workers and others with clinical experiences to MCPS staff. I was not referring to school psychologists, who have no home base and float around making edicts about whether kids should get 504 or IEP plans. I think they're some of the least-skilled and least-empathetic people in all of MCPS. I say this as someone who has worked with many of them. The counselors I've worked with have had far more empathy than the school psychologists. I'm talking about clinical therapists getting assigned a school. This happens in some higher-need schools but should happen across the board. I don't think MCPS should become a health care provider per se, but I think they should be screening for mental health issues well beyond ADHD and anxiety, just as they screen for vision or speech or SLDs. The services themselves (therapy, for instance, or partial hospitalization if necessary) should be done elsewhere. I'd rather see fewer counselors if necessary to have one licensed clinician per school, though I think that the system would be better off cutting instructional specialists in central office first. There's no question in my mind that anxiety and depression have become prevalent enough to warrant this--I bet if you surveyed school nurses, they'd tell you that a huge number of kids coming to see them "sick" are actually in need of outside mental health counseling. I'd say they could rely on school counseling services, but the counselors have got no time anymore for that. +1000 Under the IDEA child find provision, schools are required to screen for mental health impairments as it is considered an Other Health Impairment that could have an educational impact. I would agree the expertise within most of MCPS schools is lacking for this function and funding should be shifted from other areas. |
Anonymous
There are policies, but the union contract makes it hard to fire anyone. If you have any doubts, take a look at the 165-page union contract for MCPS teachers. If that isn't enough, there are state law and regulations, which also give teachers due process rights. This article is about PG County Public Schools, but you get the idea. https://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2018/11/prince-georges-co-schools-says-it-cant-fire-employee-in-racial-slur-video/ |
Anonymous
Coaches are part-time, contract, non-union positions. They are hired on a season by season basis. If a coach violates the MCPS Employee Code of Conduct, MCPS has grounds to immediate terminate the employment. A principal or an athletic director can decide for any reason to not rehire a coach simply by not renewing the contract. As far as getting rid of predatory teachers - yes, real difficult because of the union. However, MCPS could transfer the teacher to another assignment away from children while the Due Process procedures are carried out. |
Anonymous
| When children are being targeted based on their gender, the indifference to stop gender discrimination is a blatant violation of Title IX. |