Washington Post article about Former Farquhar Administrator

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does MCPS keep promoting principals with terrible school climates via their survey.

Because you fail up in MCPS. If you're incompetent, you get promoted. I'm not kidding.

[Anonymous]

MCPS doesn’t actually care about any of the surveys. They just need something to be able to manipulate the data (i.e. spin it about progress instead of failure).

As a staff member, those surveys are the only thing we have to share honest feedback. I know it’s pointless but I can sleep better knowing I didn’t lie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS is stalling for time with the external/independent investigation. And McKnight should be out here demanding heads roll and at the forefront of digging into who did or didn't do their jobs.

But that's not her MO. It's to stall, calling for a lengthy investigation, wait for the heat to die down, and then when the external report inevitably shows that several leaders failed to uphold their responsibilities, to hand wave and say MCPS will try to do better going forward. It's pathetic and the MoCo Council Members need to hold MCPS's feet to the fire and demand some serious repercussions from this embarrassment.

this is exactly what will happen.

If there are any court cases involved expect near silence. A report would only come out once legal issues are completed.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Without change at BOE, you’re probably right. But this makes all of them look awful. Not sure what would tip the balance. Maybe county council will take action.

There needs to be a change at the Board of Education, and I don't mean a change in who is on it. I mean a change in the structural relationship between MCPS and the Board of Education. The Board of Education is supposed to lead MCPS, but right now, MCPS has 99.9% of the power. Does the Board of Education have ANYONE who works for them? In addition, school board member is a part-time position that pays $25,000 a year, unless you're the president, and then you get a whole $29,000 a year. Shouldn't the voters expect more of school board members and also pay them more?

Yes: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/directory/directory_Boxoffice.aspx?processlevel=10711

What does the "internal audit unit" do?

They probably do some investigations/data analyses that don't get made public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does MCPS keep promoting principals with terrible school climates via their survey.

Because you fail up in MCPS. If you're incompetent, you get promoted. I'm not kidding.

100%. I remember being in a masters program to get my administration certification and looking around at some of the people in my cohort wondering how on Earth they functioned as teachers, let alone ever be promoted to assistant principal. Years later, these folks have already become principals, run schools into the ground, and gone on to earn additional promotions and work in central office. I wish the public could experience some of these meetings that administrators attend. I attended a meeting recently where there were 21 instructional specialists sitting around the room with only two folks speaking the entire time. In the back of my mind I was becoming more and more upset that the county keeps adding these positions while those of us who are school-based are stretched thin dealing with the lack of staff, subs, behavior issues, etc. We're trying to do multiple jobs and you have a meeting where 19 of the 21 people are just sitting in chairs and talking with one another. It's shameful.

[Anonymous]

I agree about the survey. It's just sad that they disregard the only component of voice data that staff complete. Academic results don't seem to matter, either do current survey results. However, schools need to build school improvement plans based on three year old anti racist audit data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does MCPS keep promoting principals with terrible school climates via their survey.

Because you fail up in MCPS. If you're incompetent, you get promoted. I'm not kidding.

100%. I remember being in a masters program to get my administration certification and looking around at some of the people in my cohort wondering how on Earth they functioned as teachers, let alone ever be promoted to assistant principal. Years later, these folks have already become principals, run schools into the ground, and gone on to earn additional promotions and work in central office. I wish the public could experience some of these meetings that administrators attend. I attended a meeting recently where there were 21 instructional specialists sitting around the room with only two folks speaking the entire time. In the back of my mind I was becoming more and more upset that the county keeps adding these positions while those of us who are school-based are stretched thin dealing with the lack of staff, subs, behavior issues, etc. We're trying to do multiple jobs and you have a meeting where 19 of the 21 people are just sitting in chairs and talking with one another. It's shameful.

This is the same thing at the county government level. So, not a surprise in mcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does MCPS keep promoting principals with terrible school climates via their survey.

Because you fail up in MCPS. If you're incompetent, you get promoted. I'm not kidding.

100%. I remember being in a masters program to get my administration certification and looking around at some of the people in my cohort wondering how on Earth they functioned as teachers, let alone ever be promoted to assistant principal. Years later, these folks have already become principals, run schools into the ground, and gone on to earn additional promotions and work in central office. I wish the public could experience some of these meetings that administrators attend. I attended a meeting recently where there were 21 instructional specialists sitting around the room with only two folks speaking the entire time. In the back of my mind I was becoming more and more upset that the county keeps adding these positions while those of us who are school-based are stretched thin dealing with the lack of staff, subs, behavior issues, etc. We're trying to do multiple jobs and you have a meeting where 19 of the 21 people are just sitting in chairs and talking with one another. It's shameful.

MCPS at its best. When I was a new RT in HS, I had an Instructional specialist tell me she was assigned to the school and was going to be coming every week. I saw her 4 times in a year. BTW, central office Parent Community Coordinators are allowed to work from home. Some didn't even go to their assigned school when they were supposed to. Now, they are asking for an increase in pay grade and MCPS is listening. Their supervisor doesn't hold those people accountable at all. They were told in a recent meeting not to say anything about MCPS looking into their grade increase because people the public may become upset. Funds positions in schools, the folks that work with kids each day, not people in Central Office that work part-time for a full time salary.

[Anonymous]

If I was a reporter, I would be asking Dr. McKnight and the Board of Education if they knew about the complaints. If the answer is no, the next question would be why not? If the answer is yes, my question would be why didn’t they immediately do anything to stop the sexual harassment and retaliation? Why did they keep giving him promotions?

[Anonymous]

Another thing that isn't being spoken about a lot, if at all, on this thread: these are the consequences of picking a superintendent who was a middle school principal 7 years ago. She taught in a classroom for 7 years, and in the county for 5 before moving into administrative roles. While that seems like a lot, there are other leaders that are way more seasoned and well-versed in situations such as this. You're paying a leader for the security that they'll rise to the occasion in perilous times such as this.

A leader who is in their first big role is bad enough, but in a district like MCPS where the WaPo is your local paper? That's even crazier. A strong leader would not surround themselves with their friends solely to stroke their ego or create an inflated sense of comfort. They wouldn't treat the final principal interviews as a check the box process -- yes, I know you delegated to the directors, but if there's even an iota of concern, you need to look into it. I'm not a betting man, and we need to see how this situation shakes out, but if the public pressure is what I think it's going to be ... I don't see how her contract gets renewed.

[Anonymous]

Principals need to be evaluated regularly by their staff

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I’d love an ama with that teacher who praised him to wapo (though apparently knew the allegations were true.) girl, you need to run your media decisions by someone else next time.

Yes.

But it’s also interesting and I want to know why he chose his victims.

I was wondering about that too. Maybe he wasn’t all bad but it seems a weird time to praise him.

Did I read here or was it in the article that all his victims were white women?

I had a hunch about the teacher who defended him. I googled her to see if my hunch was correct or not. Oh geez, my hunch was correct. This is such a bad look and will do so much damage to racial progress.

Give it a rest-now is not the time for your racist musings. The guy is the worst, that teacher is a dummy, mcps an absolutely failed institution. See? No need to speculate about race and postulate racial conspiracies there isn’t evidence of.

MCPS makes everything about race. For students, staff and stats.

Take it up with MCPS if you do not want to discuss ‘racist musings’.

Right. While he was at one of his previous schools there was a culture of bullying white kids with quips like "check your privilege!" Made by administrators to white students who were committing crimes like standing up during lunch.

They've created a culture of coving up for each other based on a race based fraternity and bullying white students and teachers. Not a word comes out of the schools that isn't attached to something about race and the budget spending follows.


They can now be accountable for what they've created.

I’m sorry to have to explain this to you but here goes: it sounds like you don’t think it’s okay for you or your kids to have racial malice attributed to you when there is no evidence that applies in a specific situation and (now stick with me here) it turns out it’s also not okay to do that to Black people either.

No. You're imposing what you wish was the argument here. The argument was the school district has made everything about race and so this is about race.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this guy married?

Got divorced in April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this guy married?

Got divorced in April.

Wonder if his wife knew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this guy married?

Got divorced in April.

Gee wonder why