Taylor's first year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not impressed. He made no real changes and the upcoming ones are all for show.

Going from clusters and 2 consortia to a regional system districtwide? Changing the programs available to students? Those are huge changes and people are in an uproar - particularly W parents. Staff in the system will lose their jobs over these changes. The question is just who will get fired. We'll see.

But he hasn't done any of this. I attended the Board meeting related to high school programs and all they did was to show a vague document of plans with more detailed plans to come in six months. The chief academic officer lady didn't even seem to know that she was supposed to seek Board approval of plans and Taylor said that would need to happen by March 2026. Let's not congratulate him for having made intentions to change things. There's still zero clarity about how things will be changed.

They are changing to change and to deflect from the real issues. There is no real benefit to students and families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think he's had some big wins - mostly the budget, but also the way he engages very well with county officials. The past few supers were not as collaborative with elected officials and it showed at budget time. Taylor played nice with the electeds and got a huge amount of money.

He is also doing well at repairing relationships with the staff associations. He knows when to show up for teachers, etc.

As a pp said, he uses plain language and metaphors that parents understand rather than talking like an EdD trying to sound smart.

I think the work he put into get the added funds will show improvement in security and special ed in the coming year.

The boundaries and programs are going to be his crucible, though. He has not done well at managing the folks managing those processes and it can come back to bite him.

He's a smarter than average, affable guy who actually understands dollars and cents. He is absolutely the best since Starr and I'd venture a bet that he will best Starr since he isn't openly egotistical and combative.

That's fair, at the end of the day, if you don't have the money you can't change anything. So his big accomplishment after 1 year is getting a bigger budget. If he doesn't show actual results next year, he'll be a failure. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not impressed. He made no real changes and the upcoming ones are all for show.

Going from clusters and 2 consortia to a regional system districtwide? Changing the programs available to students? Those are huge changes and people are in an uproar - particularly W parents. Staff in the system will lose their jobs over these changes. The question is just who will get fired. We'll

How is this helpful? It seems worse for the DCC families. There is no way I'd send my kids to Whitman, partly for the distance and its not a reasonable commute with after-school activities and sports but also I don't want the climate there. Its changing to change, not changing for the better. Just have more offerings at DCC schools to meet all the kids needs or offer some classes virtually and align all the HS schedules to be the same to make it happen.

+1 I'm a DCC parent with a child young enough to be impacted by this change (and two kids who are already in HS) and this fells like a win-win. My oldest went to Blair (our home school), and the middle one to Einstein. Both of those options would still be available under the new system, or they could choose Northwood (also currently in the DCC), which will have a new building by then.

Those schools aren’t all in the same region in the new model? Also, it’s not a consortium model. The child would have to get into the magnets at the schools? Maybe I have it wrong though.

[Anonymous]

He managed to moving successfully toward deteriorating the most prestigious programs that make MCPS competitive and attractive. Bravo job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think he's had some big wins - mostly the budget, but also the way he engages very well with county officials. The past few supers were not as collaborative with elected officials and it showed at budget time. Taylor played nice with the electeds and got a huge amount of money.

He is also doing well at repairing relationships with the staff associations. He knows when to show up for teachers, etc.

As a pp said, he uses plain language and metaphors that parents understand rather than talking like an EdD trying to sound smart.

I think the work he put into get the added funds will show improvement in security and special ed in the coming year.

The boundaries and programs are going to be his crucible, though. He has not done well at managing the folks managing those processes and it can come back to bite him.

He's a smarter than average, affable guy who actually understands dollars and cents. He is absolutely the best since Starr and I'd venture a bet that he will best Starr since he isn't openly egotistical and combative.

That's fair, at the end of the day, if you don't have the money you can't change anything. So his big accomplishment after 1 year is getting a bigger budget. If he doesn't show actual results next year, he'll be a failure. .

I guess, but it's pretty damning that the only accomplishment people can say on this thread is a bigger budget. The grading policy maybe, but that was already in the works before he came, wasn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think he's had some big wins - mostly the budget, but also the way he engages very well with county officials. The past few supers were not as collaborative with elected officials and it showed at budget time. Taylor played nice with the electeds and got a huge amount of money.

He is also doing well at repairing relationships with the staff associations. He knows when to show up for teachers, etc.

As a pp said, he uses plain language and metaphors that parents understand rather than talking like an EdD trying to sound smart.

I think the work he put into get the added funds will show improvement in security and special ed in the coming year.

The boundaries and programs are going to be his crucible, though. He has not done well at managing the folks managing those processes and it can come back to bite him.

He's a smarter than average, affable guy who actually understands dollars and cents. He is absolutely the best since Starr and I'd venture a bet that he will best Starr since he isn't openly egotistical and combative.

That's fair, at the end of the day, if you don't have the money you can't change anything. So his big accomplishment after 1 year is getting a bigger budget. If he doesn't show actual results next year, he'll be a failure. .

I guess, but it's pretty damning that the only accomplishment people can say on this thread is a bigger budget. The grading policy maybe, but that was already in the works before he came, wasn't it?

No, Smith/McKnight/Felder weren't interested in that.

[Anonymous]

I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

150 special ed teacher positions posted on Careers...anybody going to fill them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

150 special ed teacher positions posted on Careers...anybody going to fill them?

Is MCPS going to fill any jobs? I moved from out of state. I have 15+ years experience in teaching and stellar recommendations from former principals. MCPS has not acknowledged my initial TeachMCPS application I did months ago and every job I've applied to hasn't responded unless it's the standard rejection letter sent out to all applicants. I've gotten multiple offers from Anne Arundel and PGCPS but I don't want to take the pay cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

150 special ed teacher positions posted on Careers...anybody going to fill them?

Is MCPS going to fill any jobs? I moved from out of state. I have 15+ years experience in teaching and stellar recommendations from former principals. MCPS has not acknowledged my initial TeachMCPS application I did months ago and every job I've applied to hasn't responded unless it's the standard rejection letter sent out to all applicants. I've gotten multiple offers from Anne Arundel and PGCPS but I don't want to take the pay cut.

This is very typical for McPS! At this point in the summer I would email principals director about openings and reference your online application. Also see if you can contact your content area coordinator to speed things up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

I'm a parent, but this tracks with my exchanges with him too.

Thomas is an empty suit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

150 special ed teacher positions posted on Careers...anybody going to fill them?

Is MCPS going to fill any jobs? I moved from out of state. I have 15+ years experience in teaching and stellar recommendations from former principals. MCPS has not acknowledged my initial TeachMCPS application I did months ago and every job I've applied to hasn't responded unless it's the standard rejection letter sent out to all applicants. I've gotten multiple offers from Anne Arundel and PGCPS but I don't want to take the pay cut.

Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your story. This is a system failure to our teacher! We are going to be desperately looking for highly competent teachers for the expanded regional program, only find that we can't find anyone due to system failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in MCPS and have contacted him several times about concerns I've had through email & received responses. I've heard accounts of people having face to face discussions with him. He doesn't really understand a lot of the issues facing MCPS, for example - special ed. He makes a decision and when confronted with how that decision won't practically help anything he just spouts the same decision he made and say "you're mistaken, this decision won't have the bad consequences you're talking about." Without listening to the experience and data the person is presenting.

One example is that losing specialists (part of the central office "reorg") would be balanced out by getting new teacher positions. He was completely unable or unwilling to grasp that specialists *are* in schools nearly everyday already providing support and that losing them will impact teachers getting that support. No, the cross functional teams are not going to be able to fill that void. Cross functional teams were tried many years ago and failed btw... Clearly no at the top had the historical knowledge to tell him of this or he had the similar response to ignore that information.

We're also still all waiting for these special ed teacher positions! I haven't heard of a single school getting extra positions other than the normal allocations they'd always be given every year based on numbers. Where are those positions, or more importantly, where's that money?

150 special ed teacher positions posted on Careers...anybody going to fill them?

Is MCPS going to fill any jobs? I moved from out of state. I have 15+ years experience in teaching and stellar recommendations from former principals. MCPS has not acknowledged my initial TeachMCPS application I did months ago and every job I've applied to hasn't responded unless it's the standard rejection letter sent out to all applicants. I've gotten multiple offers from Anne Arundel and PGCPS but I don't want to take the pay cut.

Oh I'm so sorry to hear about your story. This is a system failure to our teacher! We are going to be desperately looking for highly competent teachers for the expanded regional program, only find that we can't find anyone due to system failure.

Didn’t Taylor say he didn’t foresee new hiring related to these programs changes?

[Anonymous]

Fire him immediately and fire those who hired him. All of them!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He managed to moving successfully toward deteriorating the most prestigious programs that make MCPS competitive and attractive. Bravo job.

Yes. He is buying Ms. Hazel's views on this. They will both be out of jobs by the time they get done with a realignment that is vaguely conceived and likely poorly rolled out.