Serious problem with the administration at Magruder

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work there. It’s not really that bad. We have multiple groups of students who wander the hallways and refuse to go class. They often get involved with drama and this lead to a few fights. They ignore teachers, security and admin. MCPS policies and state laws have tied our hands on what we can do with them. They usually just keep to themselves and the vast majority of students just completely ignore them.

They obviously have mental health, education and poverty issues that schools are not designed to solve.

The real issue is the updated grading policy. A lot of these kids have below a 20% 1st quarter or certainly below 50% so it makes it almost impossible for them to pass a course now. So, they don’t bother going to class. MCPS had no plan to deal with this.

Suspend and expel them. Seems like violations of conduct code. Plus no academic merit. Boot them to the streets where they'll end up anyway

There is nowhere to expel them to. They just go to a different high school and become someone else’s problem. State requires education them until age 18. So high school has become day care for a lot of these kids. Businesses don’t hire students below age 18, so they have nowhere to go except the high. Many just show up when the weather is nice

Every single high schooler has a school issued laptop and school provided WiFi for the ones who need it. Load Edmentum onto the devices and tell these students they can log on from home and their grades will be entered into the grade book. They're still offered an education but it's not up to the school to babysit. There are plenty of businesses willing to will hire 15 or 16 year olds if they can show up on time, be polite, and work hard. The group in question probably won't fit the criteria but they will at least get a HS diploma if they do their online classes and then they'll be off to the Amazon warehouse at 18.

Very few places hire at 15. They got rid of virtual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work there. It’s not really that bad. We have multiple groups of students who wander the hallways and refuse to go class. They often get involved with drama and this lead to a few fights. They ignore teachers, security and admin. MCPS policies and state laws have tied our hands on what we can do with them. They usually just keep to themselves and the vast majority of students just completely ignore them.

They obviously have mental health, education and poverty issues that schools are not designed to solve.

The real issue is the updated grading policy. A lot of these kids have below a 20% 1st quarter or certainly below 50% so it makes it almost impossible for them to pass a course now. So, they don’t bother going to class. MCPS had no plan to deal with this.

Suspend and expel them. Seems like violations of conduct code. Plus no academic merit. Boot them to the streets where they'll end up anyway

There is nowhere to expel them to. They just go to a different high school and become someone else’s problem. State requires education them until age 18. So high school has become day care for a lot of these kids. Businesses don’t hire students below age 18, so they have nowhere to go except the high. Many just show up when the weather is nice

Every single high schooler has a school issued laptop and school provided WiFi for the ones who need it. Load Edmentum onto the devices and tell these students they can log on from home and their grades will be entered into the grade book. They're still offered an education but it's not up to the school to babysit. There are plenty of businesses willing to will hire 15 or 16 year olds if they can show up on time, be polite, and work hard. The group in question probably won't fit the criteria but they will at least get a HS diploma if they do their online classes and then they'll be off to the Amazon warehouse at 18.

Very few places hire at 15. They got rid of virtual school.

Nonsense. I have three teenagers. All three started working at 14. Do they have fancy jobs? No. One cleans a shop one night a week and on weekends, one works at a farm that sells various seasonal items depending on the time of year and babysits on the side, one works at a rec center. All their friends have similar jobs. If There are plenty of places willing to hire teens because they can handle the physical work, don't expect to start at high wages, and don't require benefits.

Virtual school can be brought back. Some districts already offer it for students on homebound.

[Anonymous]

Teacher friend at Magruder shared that the principal is pissing off staff because he’s blaming everyone and everything else and not taking any responsibility for how poorly he is managing this school. He’s inexperienced, yes, but he’s also manipulative and spends meeting time gaslighting staff. He is only concerned about his image. Soulless and vile- many want him to resign and many will be leaving at the end of the year (including my friend and a few others in their department). Good luck finding anyone who wants to work in that dumpster fire.