MCAAP Not Pleased with MCPS or McKnight and BOE's Leadership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say MCPS is doing a good job of teaching the counter-story though. If anything, they're sending the message that there's little accountability and revealing the absence of cultural sensitivity. While different people have different ideologies and priorities, I'm struck that right now people across the political spectrum are united in feeling like Central Office continues to bungle everything. I'm on the liberal end politically and recognize that the system is facing changing demographics and rising hate nationwide, but the fact remains that they've lost their way. They've lost the public's confidence by lying, obscuring, defrauding, changing assessment data and policies to make their numbers look better, promoting abusive people and so forth. If the BOE members cared about their constituents, they would bring in new leadership. If they cared about optics and the negative press their own district is receiving, they would bring in new leadership. If they cared about retaining staff and educating students, they would bring in new leadership. I can only conclude that they don't care.

Then people should vote for new BOE members. They don’t elect themselves. The fact that many are still there show a huge portion of the constituents are not upset enough with them or CO enough to vote for someone else. It also shows they others are not willing to step up. It’s easy to say on DCUM that others don’t care. Better to look in the mirror and ask how you are contributing? How many school PTA meetings have you run? How many MCCPTA committees are you on? What election did you add your name to the ballot? What community council meeting did you attend? Etc etc.

I like the current BOE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say MCPS is doing a good job of teaching the counter-story though. If anything, they're sending the message that there's little accountability and revealing the absence of cultural sensitivity. While different people have different ideologies and priorities, I'm struck that right now people across the political spectrum are united in feeling like Central Office continues to bungle everything. I'm on the liberal end politically and recognize that the system is facing changing demographics and rising hate nationwide, but the fact remains that they've lost their way. They've lost the public's confidence by lying, obscuring, defrauding, changing assessment data and policies to make their numbers look better, promoting abusive people and so forth. If the BOE members cared about their constituents, they would bring in new leadership. If they cared about optics and the negative press their own district is receiving, they would bring in new leadership. If they cared about retaining staff and educating students, they would bring in new leadership. I can only conclude that they don't care.

Then people should vote for new BOE members. They don’t elect themselves. The fact that many are still there show a huge portion of the constituents are not upset enough with them or CO enough to vote for someone else. It also shows they others are not willing to step up. It’s easy to say on DCUM that others don’t care. Better to look in the mirror and ask how you are contributing? How many school PTA meetings have you run? How many MCCPTA committees are you on? What election did you add your name to the ballot? What community council meeting did you attend? Etc etc.

You are 100% right. More parents need to invest time in bureaucratic process of managing our school system, which involves the things you mentioned. I hope this is a wake-up call for parents. But I bet they'll still sit on the sidelines and just complain about everything and expect someone else to fix the problems.

As a parent, it's just hard to know how to fix things. We can write to the BOE, but I expect them to ignore that. I did vote for different people last election, but it didn't help. There was a woman running that was a retired teacher, and she seemed like she would really bring an important perspective to the table, but she didn't win. I remember people on this board complaining that she was probably too pro-union -- but that's so shortsighted -- if we can't put some people who have actual experience in the classroom on the Board, then the Board will continue to act like they have NO IDEA how to make the situation better. I think the first step for parents is to stop attacking the teachers and the union. The teachers, for the most part, do a great job in really challenging conditions. We need to unite with them to demand the C.O. start being part of the solution instead of part of the problem.