TPMS is killing the arts, the magnet program, and the autism program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised MCPS would gut TPMS. I thought it was considered one of the golden schools in the system? But the rest of the stuff you described in terms of lack of transparency, disregarding community input, etc. is very much textbook MCPS.

I just didn't think they'd do that to Takoma Park!

The teachers voted to go from teaching 6 classes to 5. They voted to keep class size at current level. Said a few more per class was absolutely not doable.

Translates to one less elective for everyone. And for any special program student, magnet or otherwise, means they only have one. Most of the magnet students were pushed in to taking a language as an elective and so now must choose between an actual elective and language. The majority will choose language. The school openly acknowledges that the number of electives teachers will decrease- the majority of which are music and art teachers. The majority of magnet kids (1/3 of the school) had their “2nd elective” in the arts- many in band/orchestra.

As for the autism program and other programs where kids need enrichments, they will loose those enrichments or have zero electives.


The administration “promises” to review “mitigation strategies” at some point. Fat chance.

That’s normal for most ms.

Most MS are local schools. Who wants a long commute where you don’t get anything more than you’d get locally? Turns out, there are many who don’t.

So only kids whose home school is crappy will choose the magnet. Win for equity.

Locally normed equity! Kids from the “smart schools” with higher test scores will no longer go and many kids already there will not be returning. It will be a shell of a magnet.

Good news. Good neighborhood schools will get their cohort back and stop losing competitions to the cheating all-star magnet teams.

Or more kids will go private. I would not presume that families will go back to their home school. These magnet programs are the last shred of hope for many families who want their kids to get a good education in public schools.

You can pretend that all you want, it the lottery that proves that's not true. Most formerly qualified students lost the lottery, and they didn't go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

No. Translation: with such heavy academics, kids deserve access to the arts and to have their mental health prioritized and the school they help to make look good should put at least some thought in to their wellbeing.

It’s not fear mongering. Making the community aware of a major change. There are many magnet families that only chose TPMS because of the schedule and access to arts as well as academics. Our kids commute nearly 3 hours a day to go to this school. If your kid was looking at that type of commute, do you think they’d choose it just to get the same thing they could get at their local school? Incoming kids and families deserve to know. The schedule is taking a hit and the electives program is taking a hit. It’s not just 1/3 of the school losing an arts elective. It will affect all the kids. More core subject teachers will be needed to make up for the decrease in number of classes taught per teacher but the budget is still for the same amount of teachers. That means less elective teachers because of that and because every kid is taking one less elective. It means less choice, less variety. The robustness and quality of the school will go down overall.


It’s not just parents no getting their way. It has far reaching affects for all students.

It’s a choice. Three hour a day commute is absurd. They should limit it to down county. Go private.

Downcounty and upcounty both have a magnet.

Most of TPMS non-set-aside magnet students are west county.

If TPMS doesn't want west county students, and wants to be another low performing downcounty school, fine. MCPS, open a west county science magnet MS in Rockville, and then add a high school.
Solve the problem of SMCS schools still only having 100+60 students despite the +3SD IQ population tripling in the past 30 years and TJ having 500 students.

The vast majority are NOT west county. Just looking at the magnet directory organized by home HS assignment, it's pretty straightforward. I love these fake assumptions that some people make with no basis in fact.

[Anonymous]

I for one think this is a positive change. These kids already are over worked. Reducing the number of courses and making them prioritize is a step in the right direction. They don't need this much at age 11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to try and summarize so I can keep this straight in my head.

TPMS currently has an 8 period schedule and teachers voted to move it to a 7 period schedule. This is inline with other MCPS MS but the vote did not engage the community (parents). Teachers also voted not to increase class size.

As an example: if a grade has 100 kids. There used to be 5 periods of English available so there would be 20 kids in a class. Now there are only 4 periods of English available so there would be 25 kids in a class. However, teachers also did not want class size to increase.

So budget will have to be allocated to increase teachers for core classes to keep the class size the same. The budget will come from a decrease in the art and music budget. As there will be less teachers for art and music, there will be less elective periods available and now students will be limited to one elective (language, art, or music)

Did I get all of that correct?

This is all correct. As someone inside the school community, I'd say there are two issues here, the content of the decision and the process of the decision.

The content of the decision is fairly defensible. Teachers were working beyond the contract, and it is their right to request a solution that would bring them back in line with their peers. Moreover, there's precedent (Eastern MS) for magnet kids to have only one "true" elective, with another elective taken up with magnet classes.

The [b]process, however, has been so very bad. I mean, the kind of bad that destroys parent faith in administration and damages a school community for years.[/b]

First of all, the decision was presented to parents as "under discussion" when in reality it was a fait accompli. So there were teachers telling the kids it was a done deal even while the administration presented it to parents as "opening discussion."

Then, there was a weird series of lies and half-truths that the administration presented, and then retracted as soon as the parents started fact-checking. For example, parents were told that the change to 7 periods was necessary to keep class sizes from going up, but we learned last night that the shift would actually increase class size.

Then we were told that the shift was needed because of a growing student population at TPMS, but that was also retracted when parents started asking questions about where this increase was coming from.

We were also told that no other MS has block scheduling, and that it is considered too difficult/long for MS-aged brains, but parents found multiple examples in MCPS basically immediately.

The principal told some parents that she was seeking a solution that would preserve electives, but none of those solutions were presented to parents in the end. Maybe worse, she presented three schedules, two of which were clearly chosen only for their impossibility and leaving the community with only one option. It was that trick of showing people two terrible things and one slightly-less-terrible thing and then forcing them into the bad option.

This has been incredibly frustrating. It's clear that the principal is basically throwing explanations at the wall at this point and hoping one will stick. It's doing an incredible amount of damage, particularly given that one of the benefits of TPMS had long been its strong administration. It was previously a very well-run school but the new principal is obviously in over her head juggling multiple constituencies (students, teachers, parents) and failing to facilitate communication between any of them.

This is absolutely spot-on. Thank you. I hope the administration and central office are reading this thread because they should be VERY concerned especially about the bolded part. As a parent I’ve completely lost trust with the school.

Bolding fail - i meant this part:

The process, however, has been so very bad. I mean, the kind of bad that destroys parent faith in administration and damages a school community for years.

I'm the author of that long screed, and I'm also a long-time MCPS parent. I have one in college, one in HS, and one at TPMS. With that kind of longevity, I tend not to get too worked up over things, but this whole fiasco has pulled me out of my complacency.

It is clear that the TPMS administration has a tough challenge - some (not all) teachers want one thing, and a lot of parents/students want another. Bridging that gap, particularly when the teachers are unionized and the parents are....let's say extremely involved....was going to be a challenge for anyone.

But it didn't need to go like this. If the administration had been forthcoming from the beginning rather than setting up a whole Potemkin Village of fake consultation, we might still be stuck with the 7 period schedule next year but the community wouldn't be fractured over it. Parents wouldn't feel like they they'd been lied to, and like they need to fact-check everything the administration says because we've found so many untruths and half-truths to date.

The bottom line is that people don't like to be told untruths, don't like to be manipulated, and don't like to be presented with a wall of bureaucratic language when they ask simple questions about things like class size.

It's kind of funny going into 2025, because as a federal employee I'm getting ready to "welcome" yet another set of political appointees that don't know how to communicate or manage, and who fall back on partial truths and manipulation when something goes poorly, out of lack of experience and desire to appear authoritative. I just didn't think I'd need to see that at my child's school as well.

MCPS is always gonna MCPS. They are professionals at gaslighting parents.

The gaslighting is intentional. Insiders call this the Moran Method.

[Anonymous]

The middle school magnets are already a shell of what they were 6+ years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to try and summarize so I can keep this straight in my head.

TPMS currently has an 8 period schedule and teachers voted to move it to a 7 period schedule. This is inline with other MCPS MS but the vote did not engage the community (parents). Teachers also voted not to increase class size.

As an example: if a grade has 100 kids. There used to be 5 periods of English available so there would be 20 kids in a class. Now there are only 4 periods of English available so there would be 25 kids in a class. However, teachers also did not want class size to increase.

So budget will have to be allocated to increase teachers for core classes to keep the class size the same. The budget will come from a decrease in the art and music budget. As there will be less teachers for art and music, there will be less elective periods available and now students will be limited to one elective (language, art, or music)

Did I get all of that correct?

This is all correct. As someone inside the school community, I'd say there are two issues here, the content of the decision and the process of the decision.

The content of the decision is fairly defensible. Teachers were working beyond the contract, and it is their right to request a solution that would bring them back in line with their peers. Moreover, there's precedent (Eastern MS) for magnet kids to have only one "true" elective, with another elective taken up with magnet classes.

The [b]process, however, has been so very bad. I mean, the kind of bad that destroys parent faith in administration and damages a school community for years.[/b]

First of all, the decision was presented to parents as "under discussion" when in reality it was a fait accompli. So there were teachers telling the kids it was a done deal even while the administration presented it to parents as "opening discussion."

Then, there was a weird series of lies and half-truths that the administration presented, and then retracted as soon as the parents started fact-checking. For example, parents were told that the change to 7 periods was necessary to keep class sizes from going up, but we learned last night that the shift would actually increase class size.

Then we were told that the shift was needed because of a growing student population at TPMS, but that was also retracted when parents started asking questions about where this increase was coming from.

We were also told that no other MS has block scheduling, and that it is considered too difficult/long for MS-aged brains, but parents found multiple examples in MCPS basically immediately.

The principal told some parents that she was seeking a solution that would preserve electives, but none of those solutions were presented to parents in the end. Maybe worse, she presented three schedules, two of which were clearly chosen only for their impossibility and leaving the community with only one option. It was that trick of showing people two terrible things and one slightly-less-terrible thing and then forcing them into the bad option.

This has been incredibly frustrating. It's clear that the principal is basically throwing explanations at the wall at this point and hoping one will stick. It's doing an incredible amount of damage, particularly given that one of the benefits of TPMS had long been its strong administration. It was previously a very well-run school but the new principal is obviously in over her head juggling multiple constituencies (students, teachers, parents) and failing to facilitate communication between any of them.

This is absolutely spot-on. Thank you. I hope the administration and central office are reading this thread because they should be VERY concerned especially about the bolded part. As a parent I’ve completely lost trust with the school.

Bolding fail - i meant this part:

The process, however, has been so very bad. I mean, the kind of bad that destroys parent faith in administration and damages a school community for years.

I'm the author of that long screed, and I'm also a long-time MCPS parent. I have one in college, one in HS, and one at TPMS. With that kind of longevity, I tend not to get too worked up over things, but this whole fiasco has pulled me out of my complacency.

It is clear that the TPMS administration has a tough challenge - some (not all) teachers want one thing, and a lot of parents/students want another. Bridging that gap, particularly when the teachers are unionized and the parents are....let's say extremely involved....was going to be a challenge for anyone.

But it didn't need to go like this. If the administration had been forthcoming from the beginning rather than setting up a whole Potemkin Village of fake consultation, we might still be stuck with the 7 period schedule next year but the community wouldn't be fractured over it. Parents wouldn't feel like they they'd been lied to, and like they need to fact-check everything the administration says because we've found so many untruths and half-truths to date.

The bottom line is that people don't like to be told untruths, don't like to be manipulated, and don't like to be presented with a wall of bureaucratic language when they ask simple questions about things like class size.

It's kind of funny going into 2025, because as a federal employee I'm getting ready to "welcome" yet another set of political appointees that don't know how to communicate or manage, and who fall back on partial truths and manipulation when something goes poorly, out of lack of experience and desire to appear authoritative. I just didn't think I'd need to see that at my child's school as well.

Yes, yes, yes. It’s so bad that central office needs to step in and switch out the administration. I mean how can one principal screw up the communication and alienate the parent community in such a short time? I don’t see how she can recover from this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the non magnet part of TPMS currently have the extra 8th period?

Yes. Until this year it meant double math, which was fantastic. Then without telling anyone that changed setting the scene for this change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff. Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.

In other words, kids are supposed to be there for exceptional opportunities in STEM, but will leave over music —which is incredibly easy to supplement at home and most kids who are serious about music take outside lessons anyway. Sure, Jan.

Yes. Because they can still do advanced math at their local school and the science curriculum is basically the same. Nothing really all that advanced. And computer science isn’t much to write home about. What they really gain by going there is being in class with other smart kids and not the usual mcps dum dum population. But, without the extra perks, that isn’t enough for a lot of parents to justify upending the family further.

+1 Lots of young musicians will reconsider. But many of them are at W feeder MSs anyway, so they'll be fine.

Why can’t TPMS do like Eastern and have after-school curricular music to accommodate magnet kids who want to do band? Still qualifies you for the honors ensembles, still counts as a class, but doesn’t take up an elective spot. And it follows the activity bus schedule.

Because let’s be real, most of those magnet kids are not getting their primary music education at TPMS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff. Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.

In other words, kids are supposed to be there for exceptional opportunities in STEM, but will leave over music —which is incredibly easy to supplement at home and most kids who are serious about music take outside lessons anyway. Sure, Jan.

Yes. Because they can still do advanced math at their local school and the science curriculum is basically the same. Nothing really all that advanced. And computer science isn’t much to write home about. What they really gain by going there is being in class with other smart kids and not the usual mcps dum dum population. But, without the extra perks, that isn’t enough for a lot of parents to justify upending the family further.

+1 Lots of young musicians will reconsider. But many of them are at W feeder MSs anyway, so they'll be fine.

Why can’t TPMS do like Eastern and have after-school curricular music to accommodate magnet kids who want to do band? Still qualifies you for the honors ensembles, still counts as a class, but doesn’t take up an elective spot. And it follows the activity bus schedule.

Because let’s be real, most of those magnet kids are not getting their primary music education at TPMS.

Mine certainly did. The band director is fantastic.

The principal immediately dismissed that idea on the first call and said that it wasn’t feasible at TPMS. Yesterday when faced with even more angry parents she seemed to soften to the idea. I don’t believe she’ll look at it though, I think she was just trying to appease angry parents in the short term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I for one think this is a positive change. These kids already are over worked. Reducing the number of courses and making them prioritize is a step in the right direction. They don't need this much at age 11.

Bro what are you even talking about. Magnet attracts underworked kids.

Non magnet got extra math support

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearing the conclusion of a “community engagement” over changing the bell schedule where the teachers voted for the outcome prior to any community engagement, the process completely lacked transparency, the community surveys were a joke where questions were overtly biased and obviously meant to support a particular outcome, the consequences of the change in bell schedule where only clearly stated to “shareholders” when the process was too far gone, the administration refused to share the data from the surveys, the administration refused to provide information regarding when the final outcome of the “community engagement” would be sent to central office for approval or who it will be sent to, afterthought meetings to special groups such as the magnet program, and absolutely zero meetings with other majorly affected groups such as the autism program and other programs for children requiring extra enrichment. Not to mention the 14 page Google doc the magnet parents wrote in questions to per administrations request was never responded to.
The bottom line, the arts and music programs at TPMS will be shells of their former selves with little to no magnet students, autism students, or students who need extra support being able to access these programs any longer.
Parents are threatening to pull their children and many feel like it’s been a huge bait and switch.
Any family who is considering this school for next year and wondering if a long commute would be worth your child’s time, should think long and hard.

Translation: I cannot get what I want, so I'm throwing tantrums and fear mongering.

No. Translation: with such heavy academics, kids deserve access to the arts and to have their mental health prioritized and the school they help to make look good should put at least some thought in to their wellbeing.

It’s not fear mongering. Making the community aware of a major change. There are many magnet families that only chose TPMS because of the schedule and access to arts as well as academics. Our kids commute nearly 3 hours a day to go to this school. If your kid was looking at that type of commute, do you think they’d choose it just to get the same thing they could get at their local school? Incoming kids and families deserve to know. The schedule is taking a hit and the electives program is taking a hit. It’s not just 1/3 of the school losing an arts elective. It will affect all the kids. More core subject teachers will be needed to make up for the decrease in number of classes taught per teacher but the budget is still for the same amount of teachers. That means less elective teachers because of that and because every kid is taking one less elective. It means less choice, less variety. The robustness and quality of the school will go down overall.


It’s not just parents no getting their way. It has far reaching affects for all students.

It’s a choice. Three hour a day commute is absurd. They should limit it to down county. Go private.

Downcounty and upcounty both have a magnet.

Most of TPMS non-set-aside magnet students are west county.

If TPMS doesn't want west county students, and wants to be another low performing downcounty school, fine. MCPS, open a west county science magnet MS in Rockville, and then add a high school.
Solve the problem of SMCS schools still only having 100+60 students despite the +3SD IQ population tripling in the past 30 years and TJ having 500 students.

The vast majority are NOT west county. Just looking at the magnet directory organized by home HS assignment, it's pretty straightforward. I love these fake assumptions that some people make with no basis in fact.

Now it is, because of lottery. They should finish the job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff. Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.

In other words, kids are supposed to be there for exceptional opportunities in STEM, but will leave over music —which is incredibly easy to supplement at home and most kids who are serious about music take outside lessons anyway. Sure, Jan.

Yes. Because they can still do advanced math at their local school and the science curriculum is basically the same. Nothing really all that advanced. And computer science isn’t much to write home about. What they really gain by going there is being in class with other smart kids and not the usual mcps dum dum population. But, without the extra perks, that isn’t enough for a lot of parents to justify upending the family further.

+1 Lots of young musicians will reconsider. But many of them are at W feeder MSs anyway, so they'll be fine.

Why can’t TPMS do like Eastern and have after-school curricular music to accommodate magnet kids who want to do band? Still qualifies you for the honors ensembles, still counts as a class, but doesn’t take up an elective spot. And it follows the activity bus schedule.

Because let’s be real, most of those magnet kids are not getting their primary music education at TPMS.

I had a child at Eastern, and the model was very different when it came to instrumental music. Orchestra was offered once a week for an hour, on a day when the activity bus did not run, and there were no "levels." So you had beginners and kids who had been in private lessons for years all meeting once a week.

You are of course right that most kids are getting music lessons outside of TPMS, but a lot of kids were getting their ensemble experience at the middle school instead of doing a regional youth orchestra. That might seem like nothing to you, but it's the difference between learning how to dribble a soccer ball and learning how to actually play on a team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school has resolutely failed in communication, lied to parents repeatedly and ignored any feedback, presented flawed data, collected biased surveys and just gone ahead and done what they want to anyway. The principal does not support the magnet and has done her best to drive away some of the best teaching staff. Now she plans to sit back and watch while the arts programming is decimated by this change and magnet students flee back to their home schools.

In other words, kids are supposed to be there for exceptional opportunities in STEM, but will leave over music —which is incredibly easy to supplement at home and most kids who are serious about music take outside lessons anyway. Sure, Jan.

Yes. Because they can still do advanced math at their local school and the science curriculum is basically the same. Nothing really all that advanced. And computer science isn’t much to write home about. What they really gain by going there is being in class with other smart kids and not the usual mcps dum dum population. But, without the extra perks, that isn’t enough for a lot of parents to justify upending the family further.

+1 Lots of young musicians will reconsider. But many of them are at W feeder MSs anyway, so they'll be fine.

Why can’t TPMS do like Eastern and have after-school curricular music to accommodate magnet kids who want to do band? Still qualifies you for the honors ensembles, still counts as a class, but doesn’t take up an elective spot. And it follows the activity bus schedule.

Because let’s be real, most of those magnet kids are not getting their primary music education at TPMS.

I had a child at Eastern, and the model was very different when it came to instrumental music. Orchestra was offered once a week for an hour, on a day when the activity bus did not run, and there were no "levels." So you had beginners and kids who had been in private lessons for years all meeting once a week.

You are of course right that most kids are getting music lessons outside of TPMS, but a lot of kids were getting their ensemble experience at the middle school instead of doing a regional youth orchestra. That might seem like nothing to you, but it's the difference between learning how to dribble a soccer ball and learning how to actually play on a team.

The afterschool band (3 days a week) at Eastern was essential for my kid to gain experience in an ensemble, and also counted as an official class that allowed them to participate in county/state honors ensembles. It made for some pretty long days on top of the magnet commute, though! It's unfortunate that the Eastern orchestra kids don't have the same opportunity. I agree that the new change is a loss to TPMS kids and to their music program, even if the reasoning is justified. I hope the TPMS music teachers and administration can think creatively about options, perhaps taking a closer look at Eastern's program.

[Anonymous]

Why should parents get a say at all whether teachers choose to work beyond their contract?

[Anonymous]

If the other middle schools with 8-period schedules have teachers teaching 5 out of 8 periods, then why can't that be put in place at TPMS? (And why was it not always like that?)