Serious Answers Only—How to Fix MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if, when the new high school is opened, it is a "limited cell phone school" meaning that students / parents may elect to go to the school if they agree to a cell phone policy that allows phones in the building but not out in class? There would be a set of consequences that would be consistently followed. MCPS would not need to redistrict because they would probably have enough parents electing to send their students to the school, so many that they may need a lottery to decide who can go.

After a a couple of years, data could be collected to see if putting phones away has an impact on student achievement, behavior, and mental health.

This makes no sense. Why do you need to collect this data? It is already out there. Many public school districts and most private schools have much stricter phone policies than MCPS. There is a ton of data already available on the positive benefits of keeping phones out of classrooms.
When does MCPS listen to data any way? Scientists have clearly established that teenagers need more sleep than adults and they have a late shifted circadian rhythm but yet we have crazy early HS times. Many other states have changed their early HS start times to later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if, when the new high school is opened, it is a "limited cell phone school" meaning that students / parents may elect to go to the school if they agree to a cell phone policy that allows phones in the building but not out in class? There would be a set of consequences that would be consistently followed. MCPS would not need to redistrict because they would probably have enough parents electing to send their students to the school, so many that they may need a lottery to decide who can go.

After a a couple of years, data could be collected to see if putting phones away has an impact on student achievement, behavior, and mental health.

Do you send your kids with phones to school?[/quote

You can send them, but have rules with actual consequences for pulling them out. If you find that it does not help, then this suggestion will no longer be made. If you find that it does help, maybe more schools will pick up the policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if, when the new high school is opened, it is a "limited cell phone school" meaning that students / parents may elect to go to the school if they agree to a cell phone policy that allows phones in the building but not out in class? There would be a set of consequences that would be consistently followed. MCPS would not need to redistrict because they would probably have enough parents electing to send their students to the school, so many that they may need a lottery to decide who can go.

After a a couple of years, data could be collected to see if putting phones away has an impact on student achievement, behavior, and mental health.

This makes no sense. Why do you need to collect this data? It is already out there. Many public school districts and most private schools have much stricter phone policies than MCPS. There is a ton of data already available on the positive benefits of keeping phones out of classrooms.
When does MCPS listen to data any way? Scientists have clearly established that teenagers need more sleep than adults and they have a late shifted circadian rhythm but yet we have crazy early HS times. Many other states have changed their early HS start times to later.

That is true. MCPS seems to like data that they hand pick to prove a point. But maybe they would go for this because it saves some time, energy, and money in not needing to redistrict? Of course there is the question How would you fix schools? And a different question of how can you convince MCPS to fix the schools.

[Anonymous]

Cap class sizes at 20 (ideal is 12-15). Hire more teachers to create more sections. Increase salary and benefits to draw the best candidates.

Build more schools. MoCo has tons of developments without proportional school growth. More accurately estimate numbers of children and plan ahead by building more schools.

Hold students accountable for their actions while providing a path to help them redeem themselves and succeed. Remove violent kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make the BOE a full-time position with more power and oversight focus instead of rubber stamping the superintendent's way and will

Bring back accountability and discipline to schools. Kids need it. It doesn't matter if it hurts their feelings. And don't alway listen to the noisiest, loudest complaining parent in the room. The silent majority want order and structure in schools and expect admins and teachers to bring it.

Focus on equal opportunities and not equal outcomes. Giving everyone the opportunity to do good is the moral and right thing to do. Giving everyone the same or similar outcomes, regardless of effort, ambition or initiative is not good. It creates entitled, lazy people who become piss-poor citizens and employees.

Bring back regular classes. This is tied to previous comment about equal opportunities, not outcomes, but kids who don't care about school should not be allowed to distract and corrupt kids who are interested and motivated to learn. Honors classes should be a safe haven for focused students. Everyone should have the opportunity to sign up for an honors class, but there should criteria those students are expected to meet and if they don't over time rise to meet them, be put back into the regular classes.

Either take PE seriously or remove it altogether. This idea that kids shouldn't change for PE or be forced to do physical activity is nuts. Childhood obesity is an epidemic and the gutting of any kind of mandate or requirement with regard to physical activity is a major contributor to this. Kids, especially those who've been babysat by screens, will be lazy, unmotivated and whine. Push them anyways. Either that, or just drop PE as a requirement altogether and stop wasting everyone's time.

Fix the cafeteria food. School lunches have never been gourmet, but the amount of kids who reject the food the school serves is alarming. That's a lot of money going down the drain. If MCPS is not capable of making food the students will eat, then we should stop having MCPS make lunch and just invite outside entities to serve lunch instead. But the waste that goes on right now is unsustainable.

I like this list. Makes a lot of sense

I like all of this. I also like the idea of splitting the county up. It’s just way too big. I wouldn’t want a split to result in inequity though so not sure how it would work.

Of all the things that won't happen, this is one of the things that won't happen the most.

A girl can dream.

[Anonymous]

Stop cherry picking who gets scholarships and who pays through the nose. It's not fair. Make education a free human right or an exploited commodity for everyone or no one. Let's all be screwed I over or have none of us screwed over. But no some here and some there based on sexist or racist policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop cherry picking who gets scholarships and who pays through the nose. It's not fair. Make education a free human right or an exploited commodity for everyone or no one. Let's all be screwed I over or have none of us screwed over. But no some here and some there based on sexist or racist policies.

Like my momma used to say whenever I whined: Who ever said life is fair?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

MCPS can’t just build more schools. Schools aren’t free and they don’t isn’t in air. They require approval, land purchase, millions of dollars in construction, additional staff, and continued maintenance. They can’t snap their fingers and be like let’s build 10 more HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Here's the complete list of municipalities in Montgomery County: Barnesville; Brookeville; Town of Chevy Chase; Chevy Chase View; Chevy Chase Village; Village of Chevy Chase Section 3; Village of Chevy Chase Section 5; Gaithersburg; Garrett Park; Glen Echo; Kensington; Laytonsville; Martin's Additions; North Chevy Chase; Poolesville; Rockville; Somerset; Takoma Park; Washington Grove.

https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/mo/html/momu.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Here's the complete list of municipalities in Montgomery County: Barnesville; Brookeville; Town of Chevy Chase; Chevy Chase View; Chevy Chase Village; Village of Chevy Chase Section 3; Village of Chevy Chase Section 5; Gaithersburg; Garrett Park; Glen Echo; Kensington; Laytonsville; Martin's Additions; North Chevy Chase; Poolesville; Rockville; Somerset; Takoma Park; Washington Grove.

https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/mo/html/momu.html

That list does not encompass a lot of MoCo since huge swaths of the county are unincorporated towns like Germantown, Clarksburg and Silver Spring.

So divvying it up by municipalities wouldn't cut it for dividing MoCo into smaller school districts since much of MoCo is unincorporated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Here's the complete list of municipalities in Montgomery County: Barnesville; Brookeville; Town of Chevy Chase; Chevy Chase View; Chevy Chase Village; Village of Chevy Chase Section 3; Village of Chevy Chase Section 5; Gaithersburg; Garrett Park; Glen Echo; Kensington; Laytonsville; Martin's Additions; North Chevy Chase; Poolesville; Rockville; Somerset; Takoma Park; Washington Grove.

https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/mo/html/momu.html

That list does not encompass a lot of MoCo since huge swaths of the county are unincorporated towns like Germantown, Clarksburg and Silver Spring.

So divvying it up by municipalities wouldn't cut it for dividing MoCo into smaller school districts since much of MoCo is unincorporated.

Bingo.

In Maryland, the county is the local unit of government in most cases, including public schools. Maryland is not New England, and Maryland is not New Jersey. Maryland is Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

The high schools are way too big. Many colleges are the same size.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

MCPS can’t just build more schools. Schools aren’t free and they don’t isn’t in air. They require approval, land purchase, millions of dollars in construction, additional staff, and continued maintenance. They can’t snap their fingers and be like let’s build 10 more HS.

MCPS and the county has given away so much government land, including former schools. They also lease out a few of those schools. They could have those properties returned to them that are leased and they have plenty of money for what's important to them, so they can find the money to build more schools. They wouldn't need that much more staff, that that would be significant if they are reducing the school sizes overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone mentioned, split the county up. It’s too big. That’s one of the main problems. Let towns run districts like they do in New England and in addition, find ways to make sure funding is equitable. Town districts in New England are arguably much better, but they also have issues with inequality when property taxes fund schools.

But, if this can be addressed somehow - then MCPS should break up into a bunch of smaller districts. I’d be so happy to support a candidate with this platform.

How does that even happen? Splitting a district? Has it happened anywhere before?

Or build more schools. Some of the high schools have over 2500 kids. That's too many kids in a building. The one downside to a New England type system is that people will game it and schools will become overcrowded as people will move to higher quality districts.

Not sure how to implement a self-governing board under MD law.

MCPS can’t just build more schools. Schools aren’t free and they don’t isn’t in air. They require approval, land purchase, millions of dollars in construction, additional staff, and continued maintenance. They can’t snap their fingers and be like let’s build 10 more HS.

MCPS and the county has given away so much government land, including former schools. They also lease out a few of those schools. They could have those properties returned to them that are leased and they have plenty of money for what's important to them, so they can find the money to build more schools. They wouldn't need that much more staff, that that would be significant if they are reducing the school sizes overall.

Most of those properties are too small, from schools built when an ES was 350 kids, not 750. They did reuse the Woodward property recently, but it was a tortured squeeze play to get it to fit, and they had to reduce the size to 2000 from the usual 2500 for a HS to make it work.