Teachers' Union votes to oppose MCPS' current regional program plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

Felder was incompetent, involved in lies and scandals in her previous districts, and destroyed the budget because she did not know what she was doing. I am not a Taylor fan but Felder would have been so much worse.

+1

People who don’t know don’t realize how much of a mess she was because her stint was short, but she had no idea what she was doing.

The shortcomings of previous superintendents will be dwarfed by the problems that Taylor is creating.

Taylor definitely creating problems, but McKnight still holds the worst prize (so far).

Yeah, on this we can agree.

I actually think Taylor is fixing a lot of problems. I think the weekly newsletters are better, the social media is now copy edited (remember that red pen twitter) and I think he is fixing a lot of infrastructure. I like that he is thinking outside the box and isn’t just doing what was always done. Unfortunately, I don’t think he is exhibiting enough flexibility to pivot when enough stakeholders say his plan is a swing and a miss.

I don’t have confidence in Essie Maguire. She is condescending and always shortsighted. You may remember her from the pandemic mask incident where she ordered and bought tens of thousands of masks that were all wrong (adult size for kids, counterfeit).

You are ignoring a deep trough of Taylor problems - regional programming plan, boundary change issues, making big decisions too quickly without consultation (Crown HS holding school decision, closing SSIMS), the FCI reporting system having quality control issues, which are being ignored for the time being, and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

Felder was incompetent, involved in lies and scandals in her previous districts, and destroyed the budget because she did not know what she was doing. I am not a Taylor fan but Felder would have been so much worse.

+1

People who don’t know don’t realize how much of a mess she was because her stint was short, but she had no idea what she was doing.

The shortcomings of previous superintendents will be dwarfed by the problems that Taylor is creating.

Taylor definitely creating problems, but McKnight still holds the worst prize (so far).

Yeah, on this we can agree.

Well, she sucks up to Dr. Taylor enthusiastically, so that is probably all she needs to do.
I actually think Taylor is fixing a lot of problems. I think the weekly newsletters are better, the social media is now copy edited (remember that red pen twitter) and I think he is fixing a lot of infrastructure. I like that he is thinking outside the box and isn’t just doing what was always done. Unfortunately, I don’t think he is exhibiting enough flexibility to pivot when enough stakeholders say his plan is a swing and a miss.

I don’t have confidence in Essie Maguire. She is condescending and always shortsighted. You may remember her from the pandemic mask incident where she ordered and bought tens of thousands of masks that were all wrong (adult size for kids, counterfeit).

She also said the electric school bus contract had been thoroughly vetted.

True story. She’s made a lot of very costly mistakes. I don’t know why she keeps getting entrusted to do things when she’s messed up a lot and isn’t very friendly either.

+1 Essie has got to go! She's not a true public servant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

+1. Felder was effective.

Effective at increasing class sizes.

Effective at calling a spade a spade and then dealing with the problem. It’s not like class sizes are suddenly smaller because Taylor is here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has there been consistency in senior leadership at MCPS across these bad superintendents that can help explain why MCPS is run so terribly?

I think part of the consistency is the culture of "failing up" in MCPS. It has to be demoralizing to work with people who were promoted when they failed at a lower level position.

This is correct.

I think part of the off he consistency issue is that everyone at the level below believes they understand the challenges at the next higher level and that they can do better. Worse they have no interest in being at that level and dealing with those headaches but have lots to say.

Don’t get me wrong complaints and feedback can be good, but sometimes (a lot of times) people don’t see the complete picture and/or they have lots of complaints but yet don’t want to help to solve problems.

Parents in MCPS model the above often. Ask people in MCPS partner organizations how difficult it is to get people to actually do the work, not just offer thoughts and opinions.

[Anonymous]

The problem with the program analysis is not the pace in and of itself. It’s that the team responsible doesn’t seem to understand(and frankly hasn’t understood from the beginning) how much work they need to accomplish to keep that pace. How much data and analysis of things needed to be pulled reviewed, discussed, and brought to the brainstorming table at the beginning. How putting a design team together and not having standing monthly meetings with them was not going to work.

It should have been really really clear when they brought it in house instead of paying people for at least help and support, how much dedicated time and project management was going to be needed.

[Anonymous]

MCPS has the same problem that a lot of organizations now have; groupthink. They are looking to hire people with the same base qualifications and skills from the same industry and it doesn’t let them think out of the box and discover new ways of working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

+1. Felder was effective.

Effective at increasing class sizes.

Effective at calling a spade a spade and then dealing with the problem. It’s not like class sizes are suddenly smaller because Taylor is here.

No, but Felder did make them larger.

[Anonymous]

What Taylor now has is a community that is revolting against his big idea. The program team is working too quickly and without a good process, to develop anything of quality for our community. The teachers have spoken, as has MCCPTA.

Will Taylor listen? Probably not. So, whomever supports Taylor's half-baked "programs for all" scheme on the BOE or on the council, hopefully will face the wrath of the Apple Ballot come election time.

[Anonymous]

Has Taylor released a statement on the MCEA action? Or was the MCPS communications staff relaying the "Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead," statement the only message released?

Anything from the BOE?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realized reading the Bethesda Beat article from today that this entire concept was only introduced to the BoE/public in May of this article.

Article from May:

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/05/16/mcps-exploring-regional-programming/

That’s astonishing speed without any kind of stakeholder/public involvement until it’s presented as a done deal.

To be honest, while I agree with the speed, there actually HAS been a great deal of stakeholder involvement. The problem is, the stakeholder group MCPS convened was gagged by an NDA initially, and MCPS has continuously ignored and disregarded the input and feedback from this group and principals, teachers and parents, since then.

So there isn't an absence of feedback and input, there's an unwillingness to listen and incorporate it or act on it.

You’re talking about the “design team” I take it? When did those meetings happen? And agreed, maybe it’s not a total lack of engage, but a refusal to listen to the public’s concerns.

I was on the design team. They ignored our feedback. They also manipulated the process to get us to "agree" to the plan they wanted. We never voted to affirm that the regional plan was the model we wanted to pursue. We just showed up to a meeting over the summer and MCPS was treating it like a done deal.

I'm also 100% convinced that the NDA was to prevent us from telling the DCC and NEC that MCPS was planning to dissolve the consortia without any input from the relevant schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

I can’t go that far. Taylor is trash but so was Felder. Sadly, it’s been a long time since MCPS has had a qualified and competent superintendent.

Felder was substantive. Taylor is all style, but substance.

You are correct that he has no substance. But he is worse than that. He doesn't listen and he thinks he has all the answers. He is an extreme change agent who doesn't care if he is breaking things or if what he creates is poor quality. We need to get rid of him and do it in a timely manner so the BOE is not forced into a hasty decision, like it was when they hired him.

He met with a group of parents recently and tried to foist blame for this on the Board of Ed, saying he would have preferred to wait. Yeah, right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

I can’t go that far. Taylor is trash but so was Felder. Sadly, it’s been a long time since MCPS has had a qualified and competent superintendent.

Felder was substantive. Taylor is all style, but substance.

You are correct that he has no substance. But he is worse than that. He doesn't listen and he thinks he has all the answers. He is an extreme change agent who doesn't care if he is breaking things or if what he creates is poor quality. We need to get rid of him and do it in a timely manner so the BOE is not forced into a hasty decision, like it was when they hired him.

He met with a group of parents recently and tried to foist blame for this on the Board of Ed, saying he would have preferred to wait. Yeah, right.

Jfc what an ahole

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

I can’t go that far. Taylor is trash but so was Felder. Sadly, it’s been a long time since MCPS has had a qualified and competent superintendent.

Felder was substantive. Taylor is all style, but substance.

You are correct that he has no substance. But he is worse than that. He doesn't listen and he thinks he has all the answers. He is an extreme change agent who doesn't care if he is breaking things or if what he creates is poor quality. We need to get rid of him and do it in a timely manner so the BOE is not forced into a hasty decision, like it was when they hired him.

He met with a group of parents recently and tried to foist blame for this on the Board of Ed, saying he would have preferred to wait. Yeah, right.

Wait, what? Can you say more about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

I can’t go that far. Taylor is trash but so was Felder. Sadly, it’s been a long time since MCPS has had a qualified and competent superintendent.

Felder was substantive. Taylor is all style, but substance.

You are correct that he has no substance. But he is worse than that. He doesn't listen and he thinks he has all the answers. He is an extreme change agent who doesn't care if he is breaking things or if what he creates is poor quality. We need to get rid of him and do it in a timely manner so the BOE is not forced into a hasty decision, like it was when they hired him.

He met with a group of parents recently and tried to foist blame for this on the Board of Ed, saying he would have preferred to wait. Yeah, right.

Yeah, I’m the pp saying that BOE was behind the scene to push this, as well as the holding school idea. I hope Taylor is smart enough to realize that he is just being used as the target and scapegoat and brave enough to stand out to call a stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should have kept Felder in place. Taylor is terrible.

I can’t go that far. Taylor is trash but so was Felder. Sadly, it’s been a long time since MCPS has had a qualified and competent superintendent.

Felder was substantive. Taylor is all style, but substance.

You are correct that he has no substance. But he is worse than that. He doesn't listen and he thinks he has all the answers. He is an extreme change agent who doesn't care if he is breaking things or if what he creates is poor quality. We need to get rid of him and do it in a timely manner so the BOE is not forced into a hasty decision, like it was when they hired him.

He met with a group of parents recently and tried to foist blame for this on the Board of Ed, saying he would have preferred to wait. Yeah, right.

Wait, what? Can you say more about this?

I heard it secondhand. Parents from some of the magnet programs (RMIB and Blair SMCS) met with him recently and that's what they told me in a conversation after the fact. I'm sorry I don't have more details than that.