New Blair principal

[Anonymous]

He was a pretty good principal that was liked by most from what my wife tells me who worked for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here’s the plawsuit against Monteleone:
https://marylandpublicschools.org/stateboard/Documents/legalopinions/2019/032019/Hoover.Op.19-12.pdf

So Monteleone was not found to have bullied this teacher.

I teach at RM and know all about this. That dismissed administrator was ineffective, mean, and corrupt. She was just mad she got held accountable and had the resources to make a (failed) stink. This isn’t your smoking gun that Damon is bad.

Now do rigging the AP scores.

Now provide some evidence.

DP here. I was there when Hoover vanished in the middle of AP testing. She didn’t rig scores, but she allowed at least one student without extended time to have extra time on the AP testing Hoover was proctoring. That’s what triggered the administrative leave and investigation. Monteleone covered up the extent of whatever had happened, because he didn’t want the entire school scores to be cancelled. Hoover then held that over him, which meant that a lot of the stuff she had been doing never came out.

Good times.

Yet another reason why the "extended time" sham needs to stop and the test should be made longer for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pissed about this. We already went through this at TPMS when an excellent principal well liked by staff, with a very well run school, was replaced by one who is doing her best to destroy the place and has overseen many staff departures and initiated a major rupture in the school community.

Now it sounds like we’re in for more of the same at Blair.

You can have Deeny back. She brought a middle school mindset to a well functioning high school and has been grinding morale down for four years being over controlling and refusing to listen to any ideas she didn’t come up with herself. Monteleone was far better than she is.

Deeny was outstanding at TPMS and very supportive of staff - very high morale, all ruined by the current principal. I find this hard to believe.

Believe it. I don't disagree with you about the new TPMS principal, but Deeny has not excelled at RM. Her approach worked for both the community (Takoma Park) and for the level (middle school) but the transition to RM has been rocky at best.

As for Martin, I genuinely don't know what the problem is there. Day-to-day management seems more or less fine, and she's well organized. But her communications style and political instincts are Capital-B Bad. There is no doubt that she's been dealt a difficult hand in terms of parent concerns, a mini teacher rebellion over the workday, etc, but she's made it worse at every step by refusing to listen to concerns and responding like a CO robot instead of a human being.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a massive school. I doubt they would pick someone incompetent for the job. That being said, there are slim pickings these days for the principal positions.

There are slim pickings...

There are slim pickings if you only look at internal candidates. MCPS refuses to HS principals from outside of the system.

I thought MCPS opened up an outside-the-system search for Blair candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pissed about this. We already went through this at TPMS when an excellent principal well liked by staff, with a very well run school, was replaced by one who is doing her best to destroy the place and has overseen many staff departures and initiated a major rupture in the school community.

Now it sounds like we’re in for more of the same at Blair.

You can have Deeny back. She brought a middle school mindset to a well functioning high school and has been grinding morale down for four years being over controlling and refusing to listen to any ideas she didn’t come up with herself. Monteleone was far better than she is.

Deeny was outstanding at TPMS and very supportive of staff - very high morale, all ruined by the current principal. I find this hard to believe.

Believe it. I don't disagree with you about the new TPMS principal, but Deeny has not excelled at RM. Her approach worked for both the community (Takoma Park) and for the level (middle school) but the transition to RM has been rocky at best.

She cannot manage a parent meeting without magnet parents running over her.
As for Martin, I genuinely don't know what the problem is there. Day-to-day management seems more or less fine, and she's well organized. But her communications style and political instincts are Capital-B Bad. There is no doubt that she's been dealt a difficult hand in terms of parent concerns, a mini teacher rebellion over the workday, etc, but she's made it worse at every step by refusing to listen to concerns and responding like a CO robot instead of a human being.

[Anonymous]

So is this a demotion for Damon or same salary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pissed about this. We already went through this at TPMS when an excellent principal well liked by staff, with a very well run school, was replaced by one who is doing her best to destroy the place and has overseen many staff departures and initiated a major rupture in the school community.

Now it sounds like we’re in for more of the same at Blair.

You can have Deeny back. She brought a middle school mindset to a well functioning high school and has been grinding morale down for four years being over controlling and refusing to listen to any ideas she didn’t come up with herself. Monteleone was far better than she is.

Huh, I thought people generally liked Alicia Deeny.

NP. Really know nothing about her. Scant communication, kid never met her in their 4 years there. Definitely not impressed about her cultivating any sense of community, but can't say beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a massive school. I doubt they would pick someone incompetent for the job. That being said, there are slim pickings these days for the principal positions.

There are slim pickings...

There are slim pickings if you only look at internal candidates. MCPS refuses to HS principals from outside of the system.

I thought MCPS opened up an outside-the-system search for Blair candidates.

None of the three open high school principals went to external candidates. They all went to internal Central Office people.

What does that tell you about the MCPS hiring process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a massive school. I doubt they would pick someone incompetent for the job. That being said, there are slim pickings these days for the principal positions.

There are slim pickings...

There are slim pickings if you only look at internal candidates. MCPS refuses to HS principals from outside of the system.

I thought MCPS opened up an outside-the-system search for Blair candidates.

None of the three open high school principals went to external candidates. They all went to internal Central Office people.

What does that tell you about the MCPS hiring process?

It's connected to the central office restructuring. Former principals were bound to get open principal positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair is a massive school. I doubt they would pick someone incompetent for the job. That being said, there are slim pickings these days for the principal positions.

There are slim pickings...

There are slim pickings if you only look at internal candidates. MCPS refuses to HS principals from outside of the system.

I thought MCPS opened up an outside-the-system search for Blair candidates.

None of the three open high school principals went to external candidates. They all went to internal Central Office people.

What does that tell you about the MCPS hiring process?

That they bent to parents on here chanting "cut central office!" You wanted them in schools, there you go!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pissed about this. We already went through this at TPMS when an excellent principal well liked by staff, with a very well run school, was replaced by one who is doing her best to destroy the place and has overseen many staff departures and initiated a major rupture in the school community.

Now it sounds like we’re in for more of the same at Blair.

You can have Deeny back. She brought a middle school mindset to a well functioning high school and has been grinding morale down for four years being over controlling and refusing to listen to any ideas she didn’t come up with herself. Monteleone was far better than she is.

Huh, I thought people generally liked Alicia Deeny.

according to my kids, none of the students like deeny. but according to my oldest (now in college), the students liked damon.

from my perspective as someone who doesn’t interact with her much, i prefer her weekly emails compared to the ones damon sent out. more to the point. i remember damon’s would just be too much with touchy feely crap. my eyes would glaze over.

NP. Really know nothing about her. Scant communication, kid never met her in their 4 years there. Definitely not impressed about her cultivating any sense of community, but can't say beyond that.

[Anonymous]

Monteleone was my history teacher for a year early in his career. He was the best and most effective teacher I ever had.

Maybe classroom teaching skill does not equal administrator skill. Regardless, he’s proactive and really cares about educational outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Monteleone was liked by most when my child was at RM but the IB parents hated hiim. I wonder how he will be for Blairs Magnet..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Monteleone was liked by most when my child was at RM but the IB parents hated hiim. I wonder how he will be for Blairs Magnet..

Why did the IB parents have an issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Monteleone was liked by most when my child was at RM but the IB parents hated hiim. I wonder how he will be for Blairs Magnet..

Why did the IB parents have an issue?

There's a lengthy old thread about it:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/649903.page