Taylor's Operating Budget releases 12/17 at 6:30 pm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

This refers to the number of students in each class. So, each class in K-5 will be reduced by one student (on average).

I know but folks are saying cut by 3-5. That would mean creating a whole new class. Where is that class going to go on many schools that don’t already have space.

[Anonymous]

So $2M to support the regional model? What HS curriculum is included in the curriculum cost? Where is the long overdue Science curriculum?

[Anonymous]

Taylor wants an increase. Where is this money going? How about transparency!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taylor wants an increase. Where is this money going? How about transparency!

Have you even bothered to look at the details? Almost all
of the increase simply goes to pay and benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

If it's reducing class sizes by one, it just means going back to the guidelines in place a couple years ago before they raised them by 1.

With declining enrollment, maybe this is just natural attrition in student numbers than any intentional action by MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any written information provided on the budget yet or just this meeting?

I think it should go up here but hasn't been posted yet: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget/

The one page summary has been posted: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GJKuduRVabGklonUKc2u7VmIcBsrbNW/view?usp=drivesdk

Thank you. 50 people from central services is a lot. Did they clarify what jobs will be cut?

+1. What is being cut?

Getting into the details will be interesting because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of fluff based on the one pager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

If it's reducing class sizes by one, it just means going back to the guidelines in place a couple years ago before they raised them by 1.

With declining enrollment, maybe this is just natural attrition in student numbers than any intentional action by MCPS.

Class size is not the same as absolute size. A school can lose 100 kids and class sizes still stay the same. They just hire fewer teachers. The number of teachers they hire is based on the number of kids they have, and they are talking about adjusting this formula.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

If it's reducing class sizes by one, it just means going back to the guidelines in place a couple years ago before they raised them by 1.

With declining enrollment, maybe this is just natural attrition in student numbers than any intentional action by MCPS.

Class size is not the same as absolute size. A school can lose 100 kids and class sizes still stay the same. They just hire fewer teachers. The number of teachers they hire is based on the number of kids they have, and they are talking about adjusting this formula.

Not sure what you mean. If the number of kids at a school drops, but the number of classroom teachers stays the same, the average class size will drop. That doesn't mean all class sizes at that school will drop, but you'd expect that trend over time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

If it's reducing class sizes by one, it just means going back to the guidelines in place a couple years ago before they raised them by 1.

With declining enrollment, maybe this is just natural attrition in student numbers than any intentional action by MCPS.

Class size is not the same as absolute size. A school can lose 100 kids and class sizes still stay the same. They just hire fewer teachers. The number of teachers they hire is based on the number of kids they have, and they are talking about adjusting this formula.

Not sure what you mean. If the number of kids at a school drops, but the number of classroom teachers stays the same, the average class size will drop. That doesn't mean all class sizes at that school will drop, but you'd expect that trend over time.

DP. But if the enrollment drops, the number of teachers would also decrease. That's how teacher positions are allocated.

[Anonymous]

It's as simple as this:

Enrollment down, yet spending goes up. Per-pupil spending increases higher than the inflation rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any written information provided on the budget yet or just this meeting?

I think it should go up here but hasn't been posted yet: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget/

The one page summary has been posted: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GJKuduRVabGklonUKc2u7VmIcBsrbNW/view?usp=drivesdk

Thank you. 50 people from central services is a lot. Did they clarify what jobs will be cut?

That will hopefully be clearer when the full details are out. Based on other posters it seems like a lot will be from special ed and the social workers, which is concerning as he stated in his presentation that the cuts were to get rid of positions they didn't see as a "priority." Mental health, family support and special education seem to be pretty important! Even when you consider his own slide of what MCPS wants to focus on. And I believe special ed enrollment is increasing, so why limit its support? It's a clever trick to call any non-school based staff "central services" when many are clearly in the schools often, or are benefiting schools directly on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor wants an increase. Where is this money going? How about transparency!

Have you even bothered to look at the details? Almost all
of the increase simply goes to pay and benefits.

That's just part of the money, what about the rest of the money. MCPS has a huge budget and it should be in this kind of mess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any written information provided on the budget yet or just this meeting?

I think it should go up here but hasn't been posted yet: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget/

The one page summary has been posted: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17GJKuduRVabGklonUKc2u7VmIcBsrbNW/view?usp=drivesdk

Thank you. 50 people from central services is a lot. Did they clarify what jobs will be cut?

That will hopefully be clearer when the full details are out. Based on other posters it seems like a lot will be from special ed and the social workers, which is concerning as he stated in his presentation that the cuts were to get rid of positions they didn't see as a "priority." Mental health, family support and special education seem to be pretty important! Even when you consider his own slide of what MCPS wants to focus on. And I believe special ed enrollment is increasing, so why limit its support? It's a clever trick to call any non-school based staff "central services" when many are clearly in the schools often, or are benefiting schools directly on a regular basis.

They deny a lot of students who need IEP's and 504's support even with a documented need. He also cut the MVA, which impacted some of the highest need students in MCPS. Shows where his priorities are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor wants an increase. Where is this money going? How about transparency!

Have you even bothered to look at the details? Almost all
of the increase simply goes to pay and benefits.

That's just part of the money, what about the rest of the money. MCPS has a huge budget and it should be in this kind of mess.

$150M for a now illegal electric bus deal and he wants an additional $170M. Seems pretty clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reducing elementary class sizes by 1

Reducing elementary class sizes is a good goal, but reducing them by one will have a negligible impact on classrooms. I'd want to see reductions of class size by 3-5 before I clap for Taylor.

So by what amounts to another class? Where are these other classes going to be placed in schools?

If it's reducing class sizes by one, it just means going back to the guidelines in place a couple years ago before they raised them by 1.

With declining enrollment, maybe this is just natural attrition in student numbers than any intentional action by MCPS.

Class size is not the same as absolute size. A school can lose 100 kids and class sizes still stay the same. They just hire fewer teachers. The number of teachers they hire is based on the number of kids they have, and they are talking about adjusting this formula.

Not sure what you mean. If the number of kids at a school drops, but the number of classroom teachers stays the same, the average class size will drop. That doesn't mean all class sizes at that school will drop, but you'd expect that trend over time.

As the other poster said, this is how it works: in the spring, principals get their “allocation” number. It’s the number of teachers that their school will get the following year based on their population. If they lose population, then they lose a teacher. Those teachers are involuntarily transferred based on seniority, meaning that they have to go work at another school.