Magruder school renaming process

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid stupid stupid. MCPS has bigger problems that they should be focusing and spending money on.

MCPS is capable of doing several different things at the same time.

Nope. Actually it’s not. There is only so much money in the budget. MCPS does not have an unlimited source of funds.

+1 It costs money and effort to change the name of the school. If you are so offended by it, then maybe the NCAA could foot the bill. MCPS has *much* bigger issues that they need to deal with. They requested a huge budget increase, and Elrich wanted to raise property taxes to help fund the huge budget. If I knew that the increase in my taxes was going to go to pay for teachers, I would be fine with it. But, I do not want my taxes going to pay for renaming a school because ..exactly who was offended by the name of the school ?

Every penny should be used for teachers and closing the achievement gap and dealing with disciplinary issues (or lack thereof) -- now, those are highly offensive issues in MCPS.

I guarantee that almost no student cares about the name of the school, nor does it impact their ability to learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid stupid stupid. MCPS has bigger problems that they should be focusing and spending money on.

MCPS is capable of doing several different things at the same time.

Nope. Actually it’s not. There is only so much money in the budget. MCPS does not have an unlimited source of funds.

+1 It costs money and effort to change the name of the school. If you are so offended by it, then maybe the NCAA could foot the bill. MCPS has *much* bigger issues that they need to deal with. They requested a huge budget increase, and Elrich wanted to raise property taxes to help fund the huge budget. If I knew that the increase in my taxes was going to go to pay for teachers, I would be fine with it. But, I do not want my taxes going to pay for renaming a school because ..exactly who was offended by the name of the school ?

Every penny should be used for teachers and closing the achievement gap and dealing with disciplinary issues (or lack thereof) -- now, those are highly offensive issues in MCPS.

I guarantee that almost no student cares about the name of the school, nor does it impact their ability to learn.

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid stupid stupid. MCPS has bigger problems that they should be focusing and spending money on.

MCPS is capable of doing several different things at the same time.

Nope. Actually it’s not. There is only so much money in the budget. MCPS does not have an unlimited source of funds.

+1 It costs money and effort to change the name of the school. If you are so offended by it, then maybe the NCAA could foot the bill. MCPS has *much* bigger issues that they need to deal with. They requested a huge budget increase, and Elrich wanted to raise property taxes to help fund the huge budget. If I knew that the increase in my taxes was going to go to pay for teachers, I would be fine with it. But, I do not want my taxes going to pay for renaming a school because ..exactly who was offended by the name of the school ?

Every penny should be used for teachers and closing the achievement gap and dealing with disciplinary issues (or lack thereof) -- now, those are highly offensive issues in MCPS.

I guarantee that almost no student cares about the name of the school, nor does it impact their ability to learn.

Agree with all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is really dumb. The kids at Magruder definitely have better things to have money spent on. Yes, drop Col Zadok from the name but please just keep Magruder and disassociate from person. Please do not make this bigger, there are so many more important things to spend time on.

+1

Please make your voice heard if you are a Magruder parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop naming things after people!

Don't create idols to worship!

AGREE!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid stupid stupid. MCPS has bigger problems that they should be focusing and spending money on.

MCPS is capable of doing several different things at the same time.

Nope. Actually it’s not. There is only so much money in the budget. MCPS does not have an unlimited source of funds.

+1 It costs money and effort to change the name of the school. If you are so offended by it, then maybe the NCAA could foot the bill. MCPS has *much* bigger issues that they need to deal with. They requested a huge budget increase, and Elrich wanted to raise property taxes to help fund the huge budget. If I knew that the increase in my taxes was going to go to pay for teachers, I would be fine with it. But, I do not want my taxes going to pay for renaming a school because ..exactly who was offended by the name of the school ?

Every penny should be used for teachers and closing the achievement gap and dealing with disciplinary issues (or lack thereof) -- now, those are highly offensive issues in MCPS.

I guarantee that almost no student cares about the name of the school, nor does it impact their ability to learn.

IKR! Christian White Nationalists need schools, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am really sad about this. Magruder was a revolutionary war era figure. Yes, he enslaved people, which is awful. But so did everyone with any power in that era. Amerigo Vespucci, George Washington, Richard Montgomery, etc.

Magruder didn’t fight to preserve slavery like confederate leaders did.

If Black families at Magruder want to rename the school, fine. I will abide by this. But the petition was started by a white parent and to me feels much more like performative allyship rather than doing something substantive to help reduce structural racism.

Keeping kids safe at school, especially Black and Latino boys, would be a better goal, in my opinion. But that actually takes work.

John Adams didn’t. Plenty of other powerful men didn’t. Let’s not excuse slavery with “But everyone was doing it!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I too am in favor of place names over people names. And I'm black. But I also wasn't horrified by the school being named after Magruder, since he wasn't PRIMARILY known for being a slaveowner, but for his role in the Revolutionary War. Just like I'm not offended and horrified by the Washington Monument, or the $1 bills I carry around in my pocket.

If we were naming schools after people who are NOTABLE in history for advocating or championing slavery, like say Robert E. Lee, then yes, it's inappropriate to name buildings, schools and streets after that individual. But people, who like many upper class, powerful people at the time participated in slavery, but are being recognized for other significant historical achievements that have nothing to do with slavery, doesn't offend me.

We live in a state called Maryland, named after Queen Mary, who was alive during the 1600s. How much did she benefit from slavery? Are we going to rename the state too?

But anyway, like I said, to avoid the whole issue, let's just go with location-based names for schools and call it a day.

Even MLK Jr., who is a noted civil rights leader, has later been found out to be a pretty serious womanizer and adulterer. Are we going to strip everything with his name on it because he was flawed in that area morally?

Are you really equating adultery with keeping another human being as your property?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a plan to rename a bunch of MCPS schools including RM and Blair. (despite his role in the Dred Scott decision)

Magruder is the only one on that list to submit a petition to the BOE to look into renaming. That's the first step.

There are 6 schools under consideration

https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/six-mcps-schools-under-consideration-for-renaming-due-to-racist-namesakes/article_588b7f8c-483d-11ed-9ae5-3f181799a594.html#:~:text=The%20review%20found%20there%20are,Wootton.

Yup, “Richard Montgomery, Montgomery Blair, Colonel Zadok Magruder and Thomas S. Wootton. Two middle schools are also being considered, Francis Scott Key and John Poole.”

Yes but unlike Magruder, those school communities have not submitted a petition, so no action is happening.

From the article it seemed that they were all being studied petition or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I too am in favor of place names over people names. And I'm black. But I also wasn't horrified by the school being named after Magruder, since he wasn't PRIMARILY known for being a slaveowner, but for his role in the Revolutionary War. Just like I'm not offended and horrified by the Washington Monument, or the $1 bills I carry around in my pocket.

If we were naming schools after people who are NOTABLE in history for advocating or championing slavery, like say Robert E. Lee, then yes, it's inappropriate to name buildings, schools and streets after that individual. But people, who like many upper class, powerful people at the time participated in slavery, but are being recognized for other significant historical achievements that have nothing to do with slavery, doesn't offend me.

We live in a state called Maryland, named after Queen Mary, who was alive during the 1600s. How much did she benefit from slavery? Are we going to rename the state too?

But anyway, like I said, to avoid the whole issue, let's just go with location-based names for schools and call it a day.

Even MLK Jr., who is a noted civil rights leader, has later been found out to be a pretty serious womanizer and adulterer. Are we going to strip everything with his name on it because he was flawed in that area morally?

Are you really equating adultery with keeping another human being as your property?

I did not compare the two as equivalent. I pointed out that MLK, as much as he is lauded as a man of character and moral standing, is flawed and arguably not a role model for our children, given that he was reverend and a hypocrite who said one thing and did another.

Infidelity and adultery lead to broken homes and families, and I don't have to explain to you what that does to children, especially black children, and all of the negative statistics that snowball from adultery.

Go play your game with someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a plan to rename a bunch of MCPS schools including RM and Blair. (despite his role in the Dred Scott decision)

Magruder is the only one on that list to submit a petition to the BOE to look into renaming. That's the first step.

There are 6 schools under consideration

https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/six-mcps-schools-under-consideration-for-renaming-due-to-racist-namesakes/article_588b7f8c-483d-11ed-9ae5-3f181799a594.html#:~:text=The%20review%20found%20there%20are,Wootton.

Yup, “Richard Montgomery, Montgomery Blair, Colonel Zadok Magruder and Thomas S. Wootton. Two middle schools are also being considered, Francis Scott Key and John Poole.”

Yes but unlike Magruder, those school communities have not submitted a petition, so no action is happening.

From the article it seemed that they were all being studied petition or not.

That was the preliminary study. Then they revised policy FFA in June 2022, which specifies how the renaming process would work going forward:

Renaming a school or facility
a) The Board will consider petitions to rename an existing school/facility from students or parents/guardians of that school community. The Board does not vote to rename a school solely on the basis of receiving a petition. It will assess the petition, and if it meets stated criteria, the Board may request community engagement as described below.

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ffa.pdf

A Magruder petition was the first and so far only one submitted following the new policy, in March 2023. The board assessed the petition, and the community engagement is what's starting at Magruder now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stupid stupid stupid. MCPS has bigger problems that they should be focusing and spending money on.

MCPS is capable of doing several different things at the same time.

Nope. Actually it’s not. There is only so much money in the budget. MCPS does not have an unlimited source of funds.

+1 It costs money and effort to change the name of the school. If you are so offended by it, then maybe the NCAA could foot the bill. MCPS has *much* bigger issues that they need to deal with. They requested a huge budget increase, and Elrich wanted to raise property taxes to help fund the huge budget. If I knew that the increase in my taxes was going to go to pay for teachers, I would be fine with it. But, I do not want my taxes going to pay for renaming a school because ..exactly who was offended by the name of the school ?

Every penny should be used for teachers and closing the achievement gap and dealing with disciplinary issues (or lack thereof) -- now, those are highly offensive issues in MCPS.

I guarantee that almost no student cares about the name of the school, nor does it impact their ability to learn.

IKR! Christian White Nationalists need schools, too!

pp here.. I'm not white, dummy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop naming things after people!

Don't create idols to worship!

AGREE!!!

Fine stop naming schools after people. No reason to change a current name that students are used to, and in some cases attached to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am really sad about this. Magruder was a revolutionary war era figure. Yes, he enslaved people, which is awful. But so did everyone with any power in that era. Amerigo Vespucci, George Washington, Richard Montgomery, etc.

Magruder didn’t fight to preserve slavery like confederate leaders did.

If Black families at Magruder want to rename the school, fine. I will abide by this. But the petition was started by a white parent and to me feels much more like performative allyship rather than doing something substantive to help reduce structural racism.

Keeping kids safe at school, especially Black and Latino boys, would be a better goal, in my opinion. But that actually takes work.

John Adams didn’t. Plenty of other powerful men didn’t. Let’s not excuse slavery with “But everyone was doing it!”

Who is excusing slavery?

[Anonymous]

We don't have enough staff, security, resources for kids with SN, and basics like textbooks. They cannot even keep the tutoring due to the budget so this is a huge waste of money.