Taylor Secret Meetings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at the meeting. He's very affable and a great speaker in person. I cannot say the same about some other BOE people. He broke down some complex issues in a very easy to understand way.

In particular, I feel like the program explanation was interesting (it's not very costly to implement these apparently) and it made me more open to that plan, especially as he said doubling-up certain programs in each region (if the demand exists) would be easy.

Do I feel like he heard the community's concerns on some issues? (Like SS getting the shaft in favor of wealthy west-county areas.) No.

Do I feel like I learned a lot about MCPS failings of the past and how that has gotten us to where we are now? Yes.

He said he has not seen the 3rd round of boundary study options and we should expect that after Thanksgiving. They are still looking for feedback and if you bring up an option they haven't considered, they will be open to that feedback. So basically, if you think you have a better idea/solution, please email him + the BOE and submit a survey response.
Form letters do not work - he was very clear about that.

I was at the meeting also. The one new thing he mentioned was having multiple programs of the same type in the same region. He specifically mentioned the possibility of having an IB magnet at Einstein, in addition to the proposed one at BCC. But he was very squishy on when this could happened. Seemed like a possibility in the future if there was the demand.

What he did not talk about is how these programs will be stood up at all the various schools throughout our county. He minimized the resources needed at the schools and said it was mainly a transportation cost. He did not talk about MCPSs failings in the past at setting up these types programs. Especially when they were designed by the central office, not grown organically at the local school.

Also I am sure MCPS would like to not receive all those form letters expressing opposition to their plans. But volume of response does help, especially at the elected official level. Like the BOE and county council.

Ridiculous, I guarantee you this slimeball has absolutely zero intention of doing this. Within 2 years the IB program at Einstein will be dead due to "lack of interest" (because they siphoned off half the interested students to BCC).

Einstein IB program will be interest-based The BCC program will be criteria-based, so it will be the more competitive option and the one that people go to. So much for Taylor's not wanting to cannibalize programs by having people drive by nearby programs to attend the competitive program.

Well, he’s a BCC graduate so...

I think he’d put preference to the schools his kids are in but maybe they are still in VA. It goes to bcc as they have more IB classes so it costs mcps nothing and they can claim they did something by putting a magnet in. What is a magnet in IB?

[Anonymous]

He spoke at Sligo as well. Didn’t really paint the SSIMS closure as a gift to Sligo but rather talked about how overdue Sligo was for a refresh and that it’s one of a few schools with enough land to expand and absorb more students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He's been doing a whole bunch of these meetings with schools/local PTAs lately... this is maybe the 5th or 6th I personally have heard about just based on my own networks alone, so I assume there are way more I haven't heard about. Presumably it is his strategy to try to counteract opposition to his program analysis and CIP proposals to increase his chances of getting it through... I have heard he is very slick in person and does a good job of making people feel like he is listening and making hard but correct choices for MCPS.

He is very skilled at making you FEEL heard but then doing absolutely nothing substantive to follow-up on the concerns raised to him.

More accurate to say that he thinks he is very skilled at making you feel heard. I was at both SCES and SSIMS meetings and it was very clear that he was not listening—to anyone present.

Yep. He was increasingly dismissive at them. The only comment he even appeared to care about was the teacher who said she hoped the new school was still walkable from metro.