Principal appointments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in seeing who leads Neelsville (I'm not in that zone, just know that it's one of the most underperforming middle schools and schools in the system overall). Also, surprised that not many HS principals have announced their retirement - especially the Watkins Mill leader. It's early though.

I think they are spacing out the announcements. People would be alarmed if they knew how much change is about to occur. I don’t think principals will announce plans to leave until they are sure what they are doing next, for fear they might jeopardize their current job.

Central Office is advertising a new opening for a Director position. Is that a new position or did someone leave the position?

Dr. Ennis left her director position recently to return to being a principal, at Georgian Forest.

MCPS has Mrs. Schultze in that position (Damascus, Poolesville, and Springbrook are the clusters). Is Mrs. Schultze just a placeholder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in seeing who leads Neelsville (I'm not in that zone, just know that it's one of the most underperforming middle schools and schools in the system overall). Also, surprised that not many HS principals have announced their retirement - especially the Watkins Mill leader. It's early though.

I think they are spacing out the announcements. People would be alarmed if they knew how much change is about to occur. I don’t think principals will announce plans to leave until they are sure what they are doing next, for fear they might jeopardize their current job.

Central Office is advertising a new opening for a Director position. Is that a new position or did someone leave the position?

Dr. Ennis left her director position recently to return to being a principal, at Georgian Forest.

MCPS has Mrs. Schultze in that position (Damascus, Poolesville, and Springbrook are the clusters). Is Mrs. Schultze just a placeholder?

I assume so. She retired a couple years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interested in seeing who leads Neelsville (I'm not in that zone, just know that it's one of the most underperforming middle schools and schools in the system overall). Also, surprised that not many HS principals have announced their retirement - especially the Watkins Mill leader. It's early though.

I think they are spacing out the announcements. People would be alarmed if they knew how much change is about to occur. I don’t think principals will announce plans to leave until they are sure what they are doing next, for fear they might jeopardize their current job.

Central Office is advertising a new opening for a Director position. Is that a new position or did someone leave the position?

Dr. Ennis left her director position recently to return to being a principal, at Georgian Forest.

MCPS has Mrs. Schultze in that position (Damascus, Poolesville, and Springbrook are the clusters). Is Mrs. Schultze just a placeholder?

I assume so. She retired a couple years ago.

Wow. There’s have been so many holes in Central Office lately that they are now removing the term’”Interim”.

[Anonymous]

What would be the reason that Assistant Principal stays in the same position for several years and school gets a different Principal during that time? That is AP was not promoted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would be the reason that Assistant Principal stays in the same position for several years and school gets a different Principal during that time? That is AP was not promoted?

They don’t all want the promotion to Principal. I’ve known a few who, when the time came, chose the path that would keep them in the AP role rather than Principal. It is a lot of extra responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would be the reason that Assistant Principal stays in the same position for several years and school gets a different Principal during that time? That is AP was not promoted?

They don’t all want the promotion to Principal. I’ve known a few who, when the time came, chose the path that would keep them in the AP role rather than Principal. It is a lot of extra responsibility.

There are also a lot of pretty incompetent assistant principals who are never going to be promoted, even if they want the job. It’s very hard to demote someone once they get the assistant principal position but it’s a tough job to do effectively and it quickly becomes apparent who is and isn’t good at it.

[Anonymous]

They don't demote many of the incompetent principals either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don't demote many of the incompetent principals either.

Not true. Churchill principal last year is an AP this year at a different school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't demote many of the incompetent principals either.

Not true. Churchill principal last year is an AP this year at a different school.

That was highly unusual.

[Anonymous]

Carderock Elementary School is advertising for a new principal. The current one announced that he's leaving MCPS - took a job elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Incompetency can run all the way up the chain of command. The slick administrators make their subordinates out to be the scapegoat when the subordinates are only doing what they were told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Incompetency can run all the way up the chain of command. The slick administrators make their subordinates out to be the scapegoat when the subordinates are only doing what they were told.

Are the subordinates you're referring to in this case the principals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The principal at Rustin left? Isnt it a brand new school? Where did she go? Everyone loved her.

Central office - no doubt for less work and more pay.

She was at Rustin for 3 1/2 years. She's now the director of the department of materials management, which actually seems like a big job:

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/materials/

Part of the reason we had no covid supplies was because Dr. McKnight appointed an elementary school principal with no materials acquisition experience to a materials management position. I don't know the woman who took on that role personally so this isn't a complaint about her, but rather about the appointment process. Also, while central is often comparable or more pay for less work, it's also a way to get rid of underperforming principals and principals who create issues (they have an affair with a subordinate staff member, they have some kind of breakdown, they're in legal limbo for something that causes them to lose the public's trust or to attract negative attention to MCPS, the person has had a million complaints made to directors from parents and are considered a PIA). Usually, you can find those people in less high-profile positions in central, hiding in plain sight. They might be appointed to a consulting principal position or put in the equity unit or whatever.

So you're saying the CO jobs are kind of like SRO positions for the police?

No. ?? Why do people keep saying this? You need to be better trained than your average police officer to be an SRO. And go through a highly selective hiring process. It's not a dumping ground, as much as you want it to be.

The impound lot is the dumping ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Incompetency can run all the way up the chain of command. The slick administrators make their subordinates out to be the scapegoat when the subordinates are only doing what they were told.

Are the subordinates you're referring to in this case the principals?

I’ve seen it happen over the last twenty years from teachers all the way up to Associate Superintendents. The higher ranking staff member will direct a subordinate to do XYZ then that staff member catches the blame when crap hits the fan. Sometimes people are so eager to please in order to get that next promotion that they can’t see how they are being set up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would be the reason that Assistant Principal stays in the same position for several years and school gets a different Principal during that time? That is AP was not promoted?

They don’t all want the promotion to Principal. I’ve known a few who, when the time came, chose the path that would keep them in the AP role rather than Principal. It is a lot of extra responsibility.

He also may not have done a principal internship. His need to take over was kind of sudden when the principal left.