And she hasn't been officially sworn in yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

99% fictional

I'm the teacher who you claimed wrote a fictional post. I'm not saying this is Dr. McKnight's fault at all. I believe anyone stepping into this position has been set up to fail. I think our board is out of touch with the reality of schools right now. I think that some of us as parents haven't done the best trying to raise our kids in a society with so much access to technology and all the crap that goes with it. Some of our kids are very unwell mentally. I don't know where you go from here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it always her fault? Teachers have been through more than 2 unprecedented years of a whole pandemic, to say the least. I see these vacancies as an opportunity to shape our system into one that focuses on rigor coupled with cultural competency and care. Let's get the new blood in there, slowly but surely.

Why is it always her fault? She's literally in charge. It's called accountability.

Because she has been in charge for less than a year. If you are blaming her and not blaming Jack Smith, you are clearly a racist nut job.

Jack Smith AND his predecessor ran this school district directly into the ground and left McKnight with a disaster. I agree that she is not qualified to pick up the pieces, but you can’t blame her for the mess that Jack Smith left behind.

Huh? The only racist nutjobs are the ones that destroyed the magnet program by making it a lottery because they have it in for Whites and Asians. This isn't about race, it's about competence and leadership. Or are you saying all Blacks must be competent leaders, which sounds pretty Arian Nation to me? That's pretty racist in itself.

She also claims to have 21 years in MCPS with the last 2 1/2 years in top leadership. Remember that she's been Jacks Deputy Superintendent of Schools since August 2019 , and the Interim Superintendent of Schools since March 2021. Before that, she's been a P or assistant P for about 10 years.

If you want to say "blame Jack", I know of CFP documents she signed off on herself that never hit the press. It's her signature on the ESSER III funding request. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it was on her watch that she submitted the most recent rounds of school renovation program requests, and on her watch that she's gerrymandering the boundaries (ex. Gaithersburg #8)? SHE was the one who decided to fly to her old school and pick up personal awards?

Defend her all you want, but in the 2 1/2'ish years she's been at the helm, MCPS has gone from bad to worse.

Honestly, if you think the magnet program was for whites and asians and has been destroyed by letting in more white and non-asian kids, then you are the racist. (I’m a parent of both TPMS and EMS magnet kids).

[Anonymous]

This isn’t about McKnight. It’s a bigger issue that many school districts will be dealing with: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/01/1076943883/teachers-quitting-burnout

[Anonymous]

Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”- attributed to Socrates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

It's crazy that we've reached a point that we can't even fail a student. It's impossible. We pass kids on year after year who have no business going on to the next grade level and before you know it, they're in 5th grade reading on a first grade level. I have a student just like that in my class right now. She has been brought up several times and mom has refused services so the child just keeps getting passed along and absolutely flounders. I don't teach HS but I am beginning to see why people say a HS degree is meaningless these days. I'm curious what colleges are seeing in terms of the quality of students they have received over the last decade. I imagine remedial writing courses would be required for many first year students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fox5dc.com/news/resignations-retirements-rise-among-montgomery-county-teachers

"787 teachers have already indicated they plan to leave at the end of this school year. They're either retiring or resigning."
"It’s you know, far and away, the highest I’ve ever seen in my time in the system"

2019: 494
2020: 444
2021: 543
2022: 787 (indicated)

"267 of the 787 teachers are retirees – meaning more than half are planning to leave for other reasons."
"We still have in the neighborhood of three or 400 positions that were never filled this year."

The McKnight stalker is back!

It's always entertaining to see how far fetched these conspiracy posts will go each week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

It's crazy that we've reached a point that we can't even fail a student. It's impossible. We pass kids on year after year who have no business going on to the next grade level and before you know it, they're in 5th grade reading on a first grade level. I have a student just like that in my class right now. She has been brought up several times and mom has refused services so the child just keeps getting passed along and absolutely flounders. I don't teach HS but I am beginning to see why people say a HS degree is meaningless these days. I'm curious what colleges are seeing in terms of the quality of students they have received over the last decade. I imagine remedial writing courses would be required for many first year students.

These days kids are amazing half the class has above a 4.0 and 1400 SATs!! They've done such an amazing job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

I completely agree with this. I am at the elementary level ( non classroom ) and many teachers at my school are at their wit’s end. There are 2-3 students in every class that make learning very difficult. It doesn’t help that we have been testing testing testing for the last couple of weeks. Classroom support is used for testing and kids have less consistency in their daily schedules. In addition, staff is out for Covid or taking care of family with Covid.

[Anonymous]

Special ed para here. It's been a truly awful couple years at school. Tons of stress, exhaustion, burnout amongst the staff. Subs are rarely available, so everyone has to cover for each other during what would otherwise be time for planning, grading, IEP meetings, and replying to parents' questions.

The kids are stressed and struggling, too, feeling it from all directions. They're wandering halls, fighting, and disrupting classes. We have so many kids misbehaving that we have a para slot regularly assigned to covering in-school suspensions.

The culture warriors have schools in their crosshairs, trying to control how we can talk with students.

And all we hear is how badly we're failing their kids.

No one should be surprised staff is saying "F*** it!" and moving on.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Try supporting your schools even when it's not all sweetness and light.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

I completely agree with this. I am at the elementary level ( non classroom ) and many teachers at my school are at their wit’s end. There are 2-3 students in every class that make learning very difficult. It doesn’t help that we have been testing testing testing for the last couple of weeks. Classroom support is used for testing and kids have less consistency in their daily schedules. In addition, staff is out for Covid or taking care of family with Covid.

Yes, and bring back the lash and pillory too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass exodous is due to so many factors. The behaviors in elementary children are officially out of control. I have a kid who kicks me in my legs weekly and nothing ever happens. Apparently, suspensions look bad on a school's record. Parents don't take our calls and call us racist.
Central office is also completely out of touch with reality. My sister is a principal, and she was in meetings all day yesterday. In one of the meetings, they went over the new central office organization structure. Monifa shared that in addition to her job, she would be directly supervising 3 high schools rather than a director. How the hell is she going to do that AND the job of a super? I believe in an effort to please everyone she's pleasing nobody. She seems like she's in over her head. In another meeting that day, the science and social studies offices shared the importance of having X number of minutes for each per day. Every school principal pointed out that according to the county provided scheduling guidance, there was literally no time to meet that requirement. Unless the school day was 30 minutes longer the recommendation was impossible to implement. It's as if no offices speak to each other and then just dump it on the schools to figure out.
In addition to the behaviors and out of touch leadership, you have the pandemic. Many more of our kids are not ready to move on to the next grade level if you solely look at test scores and reading levels. Newer teachers take this as a sign of poor teaching when there are so many other factors involved. They don't see the growth the kids have made but rather fixate on these benchmark targets that central office has pushed down our throats. We've all been set up to fail.

I can bet my last bottom dollar that not a shred of this conversation took place the way it's been depicted here. Easy troll post.

99% fictional

Ya they claim to be teachers to try and gain credibility but it's clear they're just right-wing posters spreading their grievances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, there are too many dysregulated students in the classroom. Once you get up to three or four out of control dysregulated students a teacher can't teach. They will be struggling just to maintain control of the classroom. Even having only one or two having a bad day can make everyone miserable as that child will try to distract others to gain attention/ avoid work.

We need more actual therapists in the schools if society expects schools to address student severe emotional needs Not thinking that having teachers look at powerpoints for training suddenly makes us into therapists for a class of 35.

We need calming rooms, physical space with tools to deescalate students, more time to discuss individual students so that staff can be consistent, extra staff who can pull out dysregulated students and still work on their academic needs without disrupting class or violating federal rules, we need to hold students accountable for their choices, and we need to require parent meetings for consistently bad behavior. Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to see a change is to inconvenience the parents.

Finally, we need to get reinstate attendance/lateness policies and get rid of the 50% rule. Right now students are basically allowed to wander a school building, refuse to go to class, disrupt/invade classrooms and then turn in a few assignments at the end of a quarter and pass with a D. Yes I have seen this happen repeatedly. It happened before the pandemic but we basically had tends of thousands of students living without a lot of good adult supervision running around like wild ponies for a year and half. In school they have become resistant to redirection and intervention.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”- attributed to Socrates

Yep. Kids learn early that they are able to get away with terrible behavior and it just gets worse.

The kids who want to learn, or are at least willing to learn, suffer while the majority of the teacher’s time and energy are out towards the kids who need extra attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers arent leaving because of McKnight-they are leaving because of parents like Smelkinson, Reesman, Dawn Iannaco-Hahn, etc.

yep - that complain and complain and complain about anything and everything

The problem with this group is they stalk the sign-up for speaking during the public forum portion of the BOE meetings preventing anyone else with differing or opposing opinions from speaking. They bully their way and repeat their opinions, over, and over, and over until they get their way. Their voices don’t represent the majority yet they accounted for probably 3/4 of the public input at the meetings.

Imagine how they are about other things and that is why teachers are leaving. They bully admin to get their way, regardless if it’s in the best interest of the children. For some reason some parents think because they were in school once or they have children, they know better than the teachers.

I don't know who you are (I suspect though), but I need to correct you on this. The group to which you are referring were 100% about opening schools last September. When that didn't happen, they pushed to get schools to open sooner than later. If the BOE and Smith had taken their advice (and many of these were health care professionals in the medical and mental health fields as well as scientists familiar with immunology), we wouldn't be in nearly the mess we are in now with misbehavior, learning loss, and mental health issues. I will go back as far as the first testimony by a pediatrician who said right up front how her patients were suffering. But instead of listening, the BOE and union all chimed in that children were thriving in virtual learning. Oh how they were wrong. I could go back and read every single op ed that was written by Smelkinson and see how very right she was all along. It is amazing to me that some of you just don't want to recognize just how on target they were about everything.

Lol, this is probably Margery herself, knowing her...Anyway, she used the pandemic to do nothing more than further her career. She absolutely WANTED kids to fail during virtual learning in order to prove her narrative correct. Everyone who has spoken with her (besides her lackeys) knows this....most people can see right through her nonsense and see her for what she truly is. Dawn did nothing more than berate and belittle teachers during the pandemic but now that shes running for BOE, she's pretending she cares about teachers and their needs. Again, anyone who listened to her vile vitriol the past two years, can see right through her. They only care about what benefits them and they will change their tune to fit whatever bill they need to in the moment. Truly disgusting people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Special ed para here. It's been a truly awful couple years at school. Tons of stress, exhaustion, burnout amongst the staff. Subs are rarely available, so everyone has to cover for each other during what would otherwise be time for planning, grading, IEP meetings, and replying to parents' questions.

The kids are stressed and struggling, too, feeling it from all directions. They're wandering halls, fighting, and disrupting classes. We have so many kids misbehaving that we have a para slot regularly assigned to covering in-school suspensions.

The culture warriors have schools in their crosshairs, trying to control how we can talk with students.

And all we hear is how badly we're failing their kids.

No one should be surprised staff is saying "F*** it!" and moving on.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. Try supporting your schools even when it's not all sweetness and light.

I was a special ed para in a different district and 100% this. Also, like someone said, we're now responsible for not only the educational needs but also the management of mental health issues that were traditionally handled in inpatient settings. It's not reasonable to expect schools to be able to handle students who are showing signs of paranoid schizophrenia, untreated bipolar disorder, conduct disorders, etc. Hell, regular pediatricians refer these cases to specialists because they know it's beyond their realm. Schools, meanwhile, provide a couple hours of professional development and expect the staff is going to be able to keep these students and their classmates safe and also teach them grade level standards. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.