Changes in MCPS in the last 15 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

[Anonymous]

The system is sick and it's falling apart. I've never seen so many colleagues openly discuss their need to attend therapy. One is now considering taking mental health leave b/c admin is on her a** for things beyond her control.

Once discipline was thrown out the window and autonomy was stolen from strong principals and teachers, the system started to decline. And it's been heading toward sh*tsville ever since.

no way to recover at this point

I warn my friends with young kids (been in the system over 20 years) to keep their eyes open, as their "good" schools will eventually crumble.

glad we moved when we did . . . no regrets pulling my own kids out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

That’s because one PE teacher is pretty standard since physical education doesn’t occur every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

Okay, so does the fact that there is only 1 PE teacher stop kids form having PE once a week? That's kind of the question. the MCPS standard is to have PE one time a week. I personally think it should be more, but I don't think there is an MCPS school that offers PE more often.

So if you need 1 teacher in order for each class to get PE once a week, then you are not understaffed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

[Anonymous]

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

This, but ALSO, access to ESOL services is a federal mandate. Schools must engaged English Language Learners per the law.

[Anonymous]

My kid thinks "Textbooks" is something you can text on the phone, like a book or a long story! He said, why do you want to text a book on the phone. wow!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid thinks "Textbooks" is something you can text on the phone, like a book or a long story! He said, why do you want to text a book on the phone. wow!

Your kid probably also thinks that phones are for texting and would be horrified to know that people's phone numbers used to be publicly available in free books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

Except that is NOT true.

We used to have two PE teachers. We used to have a full-time instrumental music teacher. We used to have better ratios all around.

There is only so much money to go around. If there is an increase in one staff position, there will be a decrease in another.

OP is asking about fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, our ES did NOT have 7 ESOL teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

Except that is NOT true.

We used to have two PE teachers. We used to have a full-time instrumental music teacher. We used to have better ratios all around.

There is only so much money to go around. If there is an increase in one staff position, there will be a decrease in another.

OP is asking about fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, our ES did NOT have 7 ESOL teachers.

No, it's not zero sum. MCPS's budget has increased.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the change is that there are a lot more poor brown people now, much like the rest of the US, and many don't like it.

Whether you like it or not, doesn’t change the fact that the demographics of MCPS have changed.

OP’s sister doesn’t really see it at Wootton, but we see it at other schools.

Our MS sends out every email and newsletter in Spanish and spends money to have translators at all events. My friend at Frost doesn’t report the same.

I'm sorry but this has nothing to do with brown skinned children. My kids go to school in mostly white Bethesda and Chevy Chase schools where most kids are wealthy and it STILL SUCKS. It's still the same MCPS lame curriculum taught in some newfangled way. FARMS has absolutely ZERO to do with it.

I think it depends on the school. You’re partially right, but both issues have caused a decline in MCPS.

We are at a high FARMS/high ESOL school and every year we see money getting re-allocated to hiring more ESOL teachers, and less money do music/art/PE. We have 700 kids at our school, and only 1 PE teacher. But we have three (yes, three!) ESOL teachers.

We are in a low FARMS ES (around the same size as yours) and have only 1 PE teacher as well.

How many ESOL teachers?

7

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

Except that is NOT true.

We used to have two PE teachers. We used to have a full-time instrumental music teacher. We used to have better ratios all around.

There is only so much money to go around. If there is an increase in one staff position, there will be a decrease in another.

OP is asking about fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, our ES did NOT have 7 ESOL teachers.

No, it's not zero sum. MCPS's budget has increased.

And the percentage of ESOL students has increased. So it takes up a larger part of the budget. Meaning less money for other things.

MCPs does not have an unlimited budget. Otherwise, my kids’ Compacted Math class would have two classes instead of one class with 35 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

This, but ALSO, access to ESOL services is a federal mandate. Schools must engaged English Language Learners per the law.

Right.

So, MCPS has to get funding for all these ESOL services from somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

LOL

7 ESOL Teachers at one ES, but just one PE teacher

How many students does that one PE teacher serve - at our ES, it's something like 750.
And, how many students do the ESOL teachers serve? At our ES, it's about 30-40% ESOL.

So, we're spending a LOT of staffing hours on ESOL for a minority of the students, while our PE teacher is teaching combined classes of close to 50 kids during PE.

Can you see why parents might find that irritating?

You aren’t getting that this would be the same ratio for PE even if your school had zero ESOL teachers.

This, but ALSO, access to ESOL services is a federal mandate. Schools must engaged English Language Learners per the law.

Right.

So, MCPS has to get funding for all these ESOL services from somewhere.

Yes, and ESOL funds are not always fungible to PE slots or other positions. ESOL positions are largely funded out of Title I funds, and therefore must be used to target specific communities within the school. If the school didn't have those communities, they would not receive those funds.