And she hasn't been officially sworn in yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot stress enough how little the superintendent has to do with this massive exodus. You all have no idea how hateful parents have been over the last 2 years. I don’t know any teacher who is happy in the classroom right now. Between the online (and in real life) abuse from parents last year and the behaviors in the classroom this year, teachers are done. It’s not the superintendent, it’s not the union, it’s the parents. I’m sure you will flame away but when you do, know that you are illustrating my point better than I can.

I appreciate your perspective. Do you think the parents are different people from in past years? If so, what made them change?

The county demographics have changed rapidly over the past 5 years. You have newly arrived residents from all over the world, many who do not speak English. We have some parents who don’t value education.

The county is much different demographically now than it was a decade ago.

Here we go with this BS hot take. ALL parents highly value education, just that some don't always know how to advocate for themselves in the same way or feel that their needs won't be met because of, for example, their immigration status. People who've lived in this country all their lives take for granted how complicated our systems are. Yet these "parents who don't value education" are always the most likely to preach to their kids that they'll go to college, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

I'm an elementary admin and I can attest to the meetings we had on Friday. All of the above regarding those meetings was true. It's a mess right now.

[Anonymous]

Dr. McKnight is focused on fostering bloat in Central Office and has neglected positions that directly work with students. People are leaving teaching because of the low pay and work conditions. None of that gets addressed with the four new Central Office hires. Teachers who hung on this year see no help in the near future so they are resigning,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

I'm an elementary admin and I can attest to the meetings we had on Friday. All of the above regarding those meetings was true. It's a mess right now.

Why is Monica doing the directors job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

I'm an elementary admin and I can attest to the meetings we had on Friday. All of the above regarding those meetings was true. It's a mess right now.

Why is Monica doing the directors job?

She's busy traveling and taking care of her house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

I'm an elementary admin and I can attest to the meetings we had on Friday. All of the above regarding those meetings was true. It's a mess right now.

Why is Monica doing the directors job?

Probably because we just had a few high level admin go to Frederick Co. So, there are holes. These positions need to be officially approved by the board of ed. So, Mcknight can't officially reorganize or assign to them yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

The problem with this group is they stalk the sign-up for speaking during the public forum portion of the BOE meetings preventing anyone else with differing or opposing opinions from speaking. They bully their way and repeat their opinions, over, and over, and over until they get their way. Their voices don’t represent the majority yet they accounted for probably 3/4 of the public input at the meetings.

Imagine how they are about other things and that is why teachers are leaving. They bully admin to get their way, regardless if it’s in the best interest of the children. For some reason some parents think because they were in school once or they have children, they know better than the teachers.

I don't know who you are (I suspect though), but I need to correct you on this. The group to which you are referring were 100% about opening schools last September. When that didn't happen, they pushed to get schools to open sooner than later. If the BOE and Smith had taken their advice (and many of these were health care professionals in the medical and mental health fields as well as scientists familiar with immunology), we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in now with misbehavior, learning loss, and mental health issues. I will go back as far as the first testimony by a pediatrician who said right up front how her patients were suffering. But instead of listening, the BOE and union all chimed in that children were thriving in virtual learning. Oh how they were wrong. I could go back and read every single op ed that was written by Smelkinson and see how very right she was all along. It is amazing to me that some of you just don't want to recognize just how on target they were about everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

99% fictional

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

The problem with this group is they stalk the sign-up for speaking during the public forum portion of the BOE meetings preventing anyone else with differing or opposing opinions from speaking. They bully their way and repeat their opinions, over, and over, and over until they get their way. Their voices don’t represent the majority yet they accounted for probably 3/4 of the public input at the meetings.

Imagine how they are about other things and that is why teachers are leaving. They bully admin to get their way, regardless if it’s in the best interest of the children. For some reason some parents think because they were in school once or they have children, they know better than the teachers.

I don't know who you are (I suspect though), but I need to correct you on this. The group to which you are referring were 100% about opening schools last September. When that didn't happen, they pushed to get schools to open sooner than later. If the BOE and Smith had taken their advice (and many of these were health care professionals in the medical and mental health fields as well as scientists familiar with immunology), we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in now with misbehavior, learning loss, and mental health issues. I will go back as far as the first testimony by a pediatrician who said right up front how her patients were suffering. But instead of listening, the BOE and union all chimed in that children were thriving in virtual learning. Oh how they were wrong. I could go back and read every single op ed that was written by Smelkinson and see how very right she was all along. It is amazing to me that some of you just don't want to recognize just how on target they were

about everything.

Schools WERE open last September... Please top posting these fictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fox5dc.com/news/resignations-retirements-rise-among-montgomery-county-teachers

"787 teachers have already indicated they plan to leave at the end of this school year. They're either retiring or resigning."
"It’s you know, far and away, the highest I’ve ever seen in my time in the system"

2019: 494
2020: 444
2021: 543
2022: 787 (indicated)

"267 of the 787 teachers are retirees – meaning more than half are planning to leave for other reasons."
"We still have in the neighborhood of three or 400 positions that were never filled this year."

The McKnight stalker is back!

They love to start these grievance posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

Maybe. But egregious student disrespect, and to a smaller extent, school violence, play significant roles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A leader doesn't make excuses. A leader steps up and rises to the occasion. Churchill (you may have heard the name before? Hint, a High School was named after him?) by all accounts was an insufferable dud of mid-level bureaucrat. It wasn't until the attack on Britain that he stood up and gave the people hope during a very dark period of world history.

Compare that to what the board and central office did. Two votes of no confidence, mishandled the January spike ot the point of begging for National Guard drivers, squandered covid money.

They don't even have the excuse of blaming covid. Remember changing the magnet program into a lottery, gerrymandered school boundaries, failing to keep proper maintenance and renovation of schools, catering only to silver spring and poolesville for resources while starving out mid-county / NE / SW, or how they handled discrimination cases to the point of a huge open case backlog at the Dept of Ed OCR? Covid is just the latest excuse within a very long list of leadership failures.

I'm not voting for any incumbents at the next board of election. I'm voting for anyone who will hold MCPS accountable to parents and teachers.

"Do you think parents are different people from past years? If so, what made them change?"

In my case, having witnessed first-hand the sheer incompetence and corruption that was always within MCPS, but just exposed so openly when the chips were down and manifest itself in the multiple leadership failures during the covid pandemic and how they totally disregarded the health and safety of children and teachers, I'm just out of tolerance for B.S. Personally, I want to see the board and McKnight charged with waste, fraud and abuse, or maybe discrimination but will settle for having them removed from making decisions about our children. If you don't believe that it's occurred, there are a few lists that can be reposted.

Fair points.

There is enough blame to go around, IMO. Some blame for this sh$tshow is a school district falls squarely at the feet of the BOE. And also very much at the feet of voters in this County who have voted for politicians who have destroyed Montgomery County.

Yup. People get the government they deserve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

The problem with this group is they stalk the sign-up for speaking during the public forum portion of the BOE meetings preventing anyone else with differing or opposing opinions from speaking. They bully their way and repeat their opinions, over, and over, and over until they get their way. Their voices don’t represent the majority yet they accounted for probably 3/4 of the public input at the meetings.

Imagine how they are about other things and that is why teachers are leaving. They bully admin to get their way, regardless if it’s in the best interest of the children. For some reason some parents think because they were in school once or they have children, they know better than the teachers.

I don't know who you are (I suspect though), but I need to correct you on this. The group to which you are referring were 100% about opening schools last September. When that didn't happen, they pushed to get schools to open sooner than later. If the BOE and Smith had taken their advice (and many of these were health care professionals in the medical and mental health fields as well as scientists familiar with immunology), we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in now with misbehavior, learning loss, and mental health issues. I will go back as far as the first testimony by a pediatrician who said right up front how her patients were suffering. But instead of listening, the BOE and union all chimed in that children were thriving in virtual learning. Oh how they were wrong. I could go back and read every single op ed that was written by Smelkinson and see how very right she was all along. It is amazing to me that some of you just don't want to recognize just how on target they were

about everything.

Schools WERE open last September... Please top posting these fictions.

Yes agree. The post should have Sept 2020. This is what school closures have done to parents' brains.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

The problem with this group is they stalk the sign-up for speaking during the public forum portion of the BOE meetings preventing anyone else with differing or opposing opinions from speaking. They bully their way and repeat their opinions, over, and over, and over until they get their way. Their voices don’t represent the majority yet they accounted for probably 3/4 of the public input at the meetings.

Imagine how they are about other things and that is why teachers are leaving. They bully admin to get their way, regardless if it’s in the best interest of the children. For some reason some parents think because they were in school once or they have children, they know better than the teachers.

I don't know who you are (I suspect though), but I need to correct you on this. The group to which you are referring were 100% about opening schools in Sept. 2020. When that didn't happen, they pushed to get schools to open sooner than later. If the BOE and Smith had taken their advice (and many of these were health care professionals in the medical and mental health fields as well as scientists familiar with immunology), we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in now with misbehavior, learning loss, and mental health issues. I will go back as far as the first testimony by a pediatrician who said right up front how her patients were suffering. But instead of listening, the BOE and union all chimed in that children were thriving in virtual learning. Oh how they were wrong. I could go back and read every single op ed that was written by Smelkinson and see how very right she was all along. It is amazing to me that some of you just don't want to recognize just how on target they were about everything.

Correcting this post above. Should have said Sept. 2020 (not last Sept.).