Taylor "No Snow Delay" Apology Email

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

I don't rely on MCPS to make me happy. That would be a horrible way to live. I would love for them to treat parents and teachers with a basic level of courtesy and honesty. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

+1. I'm actually very often happy with MCPS. This situation was a mistake and the letter from Taylor contains what very much looks like a lie (that the announcement was made in error and should have been a delay). It's fine to be unhappy about that. I can expect both reasonable decision making and honesty about those decisions. That's not "relentless."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

+1

[Anonymous]

The nerve of that guy for what he did!

Sorry.

The nerve of that guy for apologizing for what he did!

Can't win with you whiners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The nerve of that guy for what he did!

Sorry.

The nerve of that guy for apologizing for what he did!

Can't win with you whiners.

He didn't apologize for what he did. He pretended they sent out the wrong announcement when in fact he decided to prevent childcare providers from opening even as high schoolers were traveling to school. It wasn't an announcement sent in error, it was his decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nerve of that guy for what he did!

Sorry.

The nerve of that guy for apologizing for what he did!

Can't win with you whiners.

He didn't apologize for what he did. He pretended they sent out the wrong announcement when in fact he decided to prevent childcare providers from opening even as high schoolers were traveling to school. It wasn't an announcement sent in error, it was his decision.

Correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The nerve of that guy for what he did!

Sorry.

The nerve of that guy for apologizing for what he did!

Can't win with you whiners.

He didn't apologize for what he did. He pretended they sent out the wrong announcement when in fact he decided to prevent childcare providers from opening even as high schoolers were traveling to school. It wasn't an announcement sent in error, it was his decision.

Correct.

His email kind of implies it was the person who sent out the announcement that made a mistake, not him. What a POS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned. Changes are being implemented.

By whom? Don't worry about that...

But it's normal for MCPS to have these ridiculous delays/closures when the weather is fine. Is Taylor saying that's actually going to change?

Not everyone is on the same page on what actually happened yesterday.

The error was in saying before care programs in MCPS facilities were closed instead of saying that those programs are on a delay opening. For example, let's say a high school teacher has their elementary school aged kid at a before child care program that is inside a mcps building. The issue was why can't that HS teacher drop off their kid (whose school was going to start around 11am while mom/dad --- the HS teacher -- had to be at their HS job by 9:30am. In this type of situation, the HS teacher brings their kid along until kid's ES opens up. But that teacher still has to get the kid to kid's ES if no bus service causing them to find a sub or asking another teacher to cover for a period if their lunch time or "free" period isn't around the time they need to transport their own kid to their ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned. Changes are being implemented.

By whom? Don't worry about that...

But it's normal for MCPS to have these ridiculous delays/closures when the weather is fine. Is Taylor saying that's actually going to change?

Not everyone is on the same page on what actually happened yesterday.

The error was in saying before care programs in MCPS facilities were closed instead of saying that those programs are on a delay opening. For example, let's say a high school teacher has their elementary school aged kid at a before child care program that is inside a mcps building. The issue was why can't that HS teacher drop off their kid (whose school was going to start around 11am while mom/dad --- the HS teacher -- had to be at their HS job by 9:30am. In this type of situation, the HS teacher brings their kid along until kid's ES opens up. But that teacher still has to get the kid to kid's ES if no bus service causing them to find a sub or asking another teacher to cover for a period if their lunch time or "free" period isn't around the time they need to transport their own kid to their ES.

+1 their intentional choice to close beforecare yesterday was completely psychotic

[Anonymous]

Malchodi had already sent a message, hadn't she?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

I don't rely on MCPS to make me happy. That would be a horrible way to live. I would love for them to treat parents and teachers with a basic level of courtesy and honesty. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

+1. I'm actually very often happy with MCPS. This situation was a mistake and the letter from Taylor contains what very much looks like a lie (that the announcement was made in error and should have been a delay). It's fine to be unhappy about that. I can expect both reasonable decision making and honesty about those decisions. That's not "relentless."

How is that "a lie"? He's saying that cancelling morning child care was a mistake, that it should have been delayed instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

I don't rely on MCPS to make me happy. That would be a horrible way to live. I would love for them to treat parents and teachers with a basic level of courtesy and honesty. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

+1. I'm actually very often happy with MCPS. This situation was a mistake and the letter from Taylor contains what very much looks like a lie (that the announcement was made in error and should have been a delay). It's fine to be unhappy about that. I can expect both reasonable decision making and honesty about those decisions. That's not "relentless."

How is that "a lie"? He's saying that cancelling morning child care was a mistake, that it should have been delayed instead.

He said "Today’s delay also meant that we canceled morning childcare for some families, where before school care is provided at some of our schools by community partners. This announcement was made in error and should have been a delay.[b]

This text indicates the error was in the announcement, not the decision, and seems to shift the blame to the person in charge of disseminating the announcement, not the person who made the decision.

The correct way to say this is that "I made the decision to cancel morning childcare provided by community partners, and I now realize that decision was unwise and harmful".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

I don't rely on MCPS to make me happy. That would be a horrible way to live. I would love for them to treat parents and teachers with a basic level of courtesy and honesty. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

+1. I'm actually very often happy with MCPS. This situation was a mistake and the letter from Taylor contains what very much looks like a lie (that the announcement was made in error and should have been a delay). It's fine to be unhappy about that. I can expect both reasonable decision making and honesty about those decisions. That's not "relentless."

How is that "a lie"? He's saying that cancelling morning child care was a mistake, that it should have been delayed instead.

No he isn't.

There's two parts to what happened. There's the substantive decision (to close morning childcare) and there's the communication of that decision (the announcement). Saying that "the announcement was made in error" describes a problem with the communication, that is that the announcement should not have been made in the way that it was. It indicates that the announcement is wrong and what the announcement should have been for a delay.

But we know that that isn't true. The announcement was explained by Cat Malchodi as meaning what it said. KAH also indicated that they heard from the county that they were not allowed to open. The odds that the message that was communicated was not the message that was intended are virtually zero.

What almost certainly happened was a mistake in the substantive decision. Central Office (and ultimately Taylor) made a bad decision. If you wanted to say "we made a the wrong decision," you'd say that. Stating that "the announcement was in error" makes it sound like there was a big mix up, which again, is highly improbable. I hedged a little and said "it very much looks like a lie," because there's a very small possibility that I'm wrong. I don't think there's a good case to be made that there was a problem with the announcement though with a decent amount of public information.

I'm a boss, and I think about this through that lens. If an employee of mine used that language to describe a bad decision. I'd investigate and we'd have a conversation about it. If it happened again, they'd be gone. I've had to do that before (only once thankfully), and I've never regretted that choice. Honesty is important, and I hold public officials to the same standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think I've ever gotten an apology email from MCPS about anything. Did Taylor get an earful from parents for closing down private before care and doing a delayed start for a bit of rain?

Dear MCPS Families,

I want to take a moment to acknowledge the frustration and disruption caused by this morning’s weather-related delay and the decision to delay the opening of both schools and offices. Making the call to delay or close sometimes means that we are working with late or imperfect information. And like today, this often means that there is disruption and inconvenience that follows when we have to make a call later than we’d like. I am writing to let you know that we take this seriously and that I would like to apologize for today’s disruptions and many inconveniences.

Today’s delay also meant that we canceled morning childcare for some families, where before school care is provided at some of our schools by community partners. This announcement was made in error and should have been a delay. Again, I deeply apologize for the added stress that this caused to an already chaotic morning. We are truly sorry for the confusion.

As always, we leaned heavily into one priority today: the safety of our students and all MCPS staff. The forecast called for the high probability of a wintry mix, including freezing rain, and a bit of snow—and in our area, even small amounts of ice and snow can make early-morning travel dangerous. Many of our employees commute from across the region, including areas where conditions may differ significantly from those in central Montgomery County. In the future, please count on us to continue to make inclement weather calls with safety and an abundance of caution as our top priority.

Going forward, we will work to be clearer about any deviation from our usual operating practices, strive to make decisions earlier when possible, and communicate more directly when something changes from what you typically expect. And as always, we will continue to center safety above all else.

Thank you for your patience with us and we are truly sorry for the disruption.

Sincerely,

Thomas W. Taylor, Ed.D, M.B.A.
Superintendent of Schools

There was ice on roads in communities where teachers live. None of our subs showed up. My coworker was in a three vehicle accident yesterday and didn’t make it to our school until 10:30 AM.

If parents want the schools open on time even if teachers and subs can’t make it at opening, they need to plan to be there to supervise kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned. Changes are being implemented.

By whom? Don't worry about that...

But it's normal for MCPS to have these ridiculous delays/closures when the weather is fine. Is Taylor saying that's actually going to change?

They have gotten increasing ridiculous under Taylor, which is an impressive achievement.

How have they? My youngest is a senior. I remember plenty of 2 hour delays when she was in elementary school - even when it turned out to only rain.

That's not the ridiculous part. In this case, the ridiculous thing was prohibiting child care from opening around the same time as high schools. And previously, Taylor kept schools closed until Thursday for a winter storm on Sunday.

I agree, but a similar situation occured with childcare not being allowed to open last winter when it otherwise would have. I recall KAH was caught off guard and complained about it.

Exactly my point. Why has it suddenly gotten so much worse under Taylor? Is it him? Is it Cat Malchodi? Is it a new budget or staffing issue?

Where I work, decisions regarding facilities are effectively made by the head of operations. For MCPS, I believe that’s Cat Malchodi. I just looked her up. She seems to live in a $3 million, 10,000 square foot mansion in Potomac. She might be a little too out of touch for that position…

Y'all. Stop. Cat makes no decisions. First off, Cat is not the head of operations. She's the Executive Director of Operations, which in MCPS basically means she's the top admin secretary for that division. The actual chief of operations for the system is Adnan Mamoon. But even he is blameless here as Taylor and Essie make all of the decisions.

Please stop looking for someone other than Taylor to blame here for this fumble.

You are mistaken, an executive director is the right hand of the chief and frequently has loads of influence, depending on the chief. The EDs are the ones who are actually making things work. Malchodi is savy and smart and advises Mamoon accordingly. Whether Taylor and crew heed the advice is debatable.

In my experience, the EDs I've encountered have all behaved more like secretaries than decision makers. But I'm willing to believe you that as with all things in MCPS, there's significant variability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He shouldn't have bothered apologizing. You people are relentless. Nothing will make you happy, ever. It's very sad.

I don't rely on MCPS to make me happy. That would be a horrible way to live. I would love for them to treat parents and teachers with a basic level of courtesy and honesty. Apparently, that is too much to ask.

+1. I'm actually very often happy with MCPS. This situation was a mistake and the letter from Taylor contains what very much looks like a lie (that the announcement was made in error and should have been a delay). It's fine to be unhappy about that. I can expect both reasonable decision making and honesty about those decisions. That's not "relentless."

How is that "a lie"? He's saying that cancelling morning child care was a mistake, that it should have been delayed instead.

No he isn't.

There's two parts to what happened. There's the substantive decision (to close morning childcare) and there's the communication of that decision (the announcement). Saying that "the announcement was made in error" describes a problem with the communication, that is that the announcement should not have been made in the way that it was. It indicates that the announcement is wrong and what the announcement should have been for a delay.

But we know that that isn't true. The announcement was explained by Cat Malchodi as meaning what it said. KAH also indicated that they heard from the county that they were not allowed to open. The odds that the message that was communicated was not the message that was intended are virtually zero.

What almost certainly happened was a mistake in the substantive decision. Central Office (and ultimately Taylor) made a bad decision. If you wanted to say "we made a the wrong decision," you'd say that. Stating that "the announcement was in error" makes it sound like there was a big mix up, which again, is highly improbable. I hedged a little and said "it very much looks like a lie," because there's a very small possibility that I'm wrong. I don't think there's a good case to be made that there was a problem with the announcement though with a decent amount of public information.

I'm a boss, and I think about this through that lens. If an employee of mine used that language to describe a bad decision. I'd investigate and we'd have a conversation about it. If it happened again, they'd be gone. I've had to do that before (only once thankfully), and I've never regretted that choice. Honesty is important, and I hold public officials to the same standards.

+1

If the error was only in the announcement, it would have been corrected much more quickly. Taylor made a decision that he didn't understand the implications of and now he has to walk it back.