Admin needs to back down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools did not need to be closed for 18 months. Students did poorly with online learning. This all harmed students' learning. Educating students is why schools exist in the first place. To dismiss concerned parents as just wanting school for babysitters is bad faith. And to blame administrators' current behavior on concerned parents is bizarre reasoning. I'm sure this unhinged poster will find some reason to criticize grammar, lodge more personal attacks, or focus on some other irrelevant topic rather than deal with the issue.

Admin should deal with structural problems that interfere with student learning, such as the lack of meaningful consequences for student misbehavior, having serially disruptive students--whoever they may be--remain in the classroom, too much data collection, not providing decent pay or benefits to essential personnel such as paras, subs, etc., rather than try to micromanage teachers.

Wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools did not need to be closed for 18 months. Students did poorly with online learning. This all harmed students' learning. Educating students is why schools exist in the first place. To dismiss concerned parents as just wanting school for babysitters is bad faith. And to blame administrators' current behavior on concerned parents is bizarre reasoning. I'm sure this unhinged poster will find some reason to criticize grammar, lodge more personal attacks, or focus on some other irrelevant topic rather than deal with the issue.

Admin should deal with structural problems that interfere with student learning, such as the lack of meaningful consequences for student misbehavior, having serially disruptive students--whoever they may be--remain in the classroom, too much data collection, not providing decent pay or benefits to essential personnel such as paras, subs, etc., rather than try to micromanage teachers.

No one said they needed to be closed for 18 months. I'm a DP and I can see that wasn't their point. At. All. People were hyperfocused on getting back into schools without thinking about anything else when there were so many opportunities for change. I'm sorry you cannot recognize that and instead choose to call other posters "unhinged" for having perfectly valid points. It's sad, but very expected from this group.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the current sad state of MCPS really the fault of the admins? Seems far more likely that central office, the superintendent and her team and the BOE are the sources of failure here and not the admins, since they don't get to make up the rules and just like teachers and educators, have to comply with whatever diarrhea trickles down from the top.

I am an elementary school teacher and I believe that the largest issue is the BOE and superintendent. Principals have their hands tied with what discipline they are allowed to give and in elementary school, it is pretty much zero. Schools have been told that restorative justice fixes everything even though all research shows that restorative justice is only a piece of the puzzle. When children have no consequences, they learn to take advantage of it. This is true at homes and in schools. So the kids behaviors are worse due to no consequences and even with the escalating behaviors, there is nothing teachers or principals can do. The school board and central office are in offices just looking at data and patting themselves on the back for the lowered rates of detention and suspension when it is all a lie.

What I find most interesting is that it is elementary schools that seem to be experiencing the biggest issues right now. With no security guards, no way to discipline students, and teachers and kids being stuck with the same dangerous children all day (compared to 47-minute periods), everyone is miserable. I can't even imagine what the current elementary schoolers will be like when they get to high school if the current discipline strategies continue.

Central Office staff and the BOE need to be in the classrooms and see the consequences of their decisions.

Thank you for this detail and perspective.

Do you know RJ got such a hold of MCPS and got implemented with seemingly no pushback? And now that we're here, how do we roll it back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools did not need to be closed for 18 months. Students did poorly with online learning. This all harmed students' learning. Educating students is why schools exist in the first place. To dismiss concerned parents as just wanting school for babysitters is bad faith. And to blame administrators' current behavior on concerned parents is bizarre reasoning. I'm sure this unhinged poster will find some reason to criticize grammar, lodge more personal attacks, or focus on some other irrelevant topic rather than deal with the issue.

Admin should deal with structural problems that interfere with student learning, such as the lack of meaningful consequences for student misbehavior, having serially disruptive students--whoever they may be--remain in the classroom, too much data collection, not providing decent pay or benefits to essential personnel such as paras, subs, etc., rather than try to micromanage teachers.

No, some kids didn't do well with virtual learning, especially those without involved parents. Parents, teachers and administrators are all to blame for the bad behavior and they all need to come together to address it. If your kid acts up in school, they should get punished at home. Simple.

They need to stop all the fluffy teaching go back to basics. If test scores are going down, look at the curriculum and how the classrooms are run to start with. Test scores are also going down when things like homework for repetition is being removed. When they stop teaching math facts, grammar, spelling, and all the basics, that's a problem. So, if kids don't have parents who work with them at its going to be rough in elementary school and if kids don't get that foundation early on, they will not be successful in MS or HS.

They also waste a huge amount of time with the social-emotional and other things.

And it’s astonishing that THREE YEARS later, this still needs to be repeated, but schools did not “close for 18 months” anywhere in the country. Public school is not buildings. Sorry. It isn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE could do many things. Starting with eliminating ridiculous excess central office positions....hire full-time building subs, with benefits, at the step and rate the teacher would be hired as a regular classroom teacher. There are way too many positions that are useless in this district and important positions remain unfilled because working conditions, wages are stagnant, lack of benefits for support conditions, etc...etc... MCPS is a sinking ship. I know so many people changing districts next year. Many are taking pay cuts just to get the hell out of MCPS-things are that bad right now.

OMG OMG the sky is falling! What shall we do?

Do you really not think that kids and teachers feeling safe in schools is a priority? Talk to teachers- and not just at the W feeder schools. Try to understand what schools are like. Then report back.

Teacher at a W feeder school. It's just as bad as anywhere else.

My sister moved from a focus school to a W-feeder school (I'm still at a focus school). They are nothing alike. 90% of her kids are on or above grade level. There are still some behavior issues, but they can mostly be managed in the classroom. There are a few extreme kids in the entire school rather than several per classroom. Almost all kids are present daily. Her kids come with school supplies. Her students complete homework and can read. It is possible that she just got lucky in her school, but the difference is pretty extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE could do many things. Starting with eliminating ridiculous excess central office positions....hire full-time building subs, with benefits, at the step and rate the teacher would be hired as a regular classroom teacher. There are way too many positions that are useless in this district and important positions remain unfilled because working conditions, wages are stagnant, lack of benefits for support conditions, etc...etc... MCPS is a sinking ship. I know so many people changing districts next year. Many are taking pay cuts just to get the hell out of MCPS-things are that bad right now.

OMG OMG the sky is falling! What shall we do?

Do you really not think that kids and teachers feeling safe in schools is a priority? Talk to teachers- and not just at the W feeder schools. Try to understand what schools are like. Then report back.

Teacher at a W feeder school. It's just as bad as anywhere else.

My sister moved from a focus school to a W-feeder school (I'm still at a focus school). They are nothing alike. 90% of her kids are on or above grade level. There are still some behavior issues, but they can mostly be managed in the classroom. There are a few extreme kids in the entire school rather than several per classroom. Almost all kids are present daily. Her kids come with school supplies. Her students complete homework and can read. It is possible that she just got lucky in her school, but the difference is pretty extreme.

Seems she got very lucky. I teach at a W high school and it is miserable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE could do many things. Starting with eliminating ridiculous excess central office positions....hire full-time building subs, with benefits, at the step and rate the teacher would be hired as a regular classroom teacher. There are way too many positions that are useless in this district and important positions remain unfilled because working conditions, wages are stagnant, lack of benefits for support conditions, etc...etc... MCPS is a sinking ship. I know so many people changing districts next year. Many are taking pay cuts just to get the hell out of MCPS-things are that bad right now.

OMG OMG the sky is falling! What shall we do?

Do you really not think that kids and teachers feeling safe in schools is a priority? Talk to teachers- and not just at the W feeder schools. Try to understand what schools are like. Then report back.

Teacher at a W feeder school. It's just as bad as anywhere else.

Thank you! We left this cluster (and MCPS) because I was not impressed with staff. I appreciate your honestly. (At the time people thought we were crazy to leave our house). Super thankful to be gone

Kid is at a W middle school and says the principal is constantly screaming at everyone in the hallways, sometimes even scolding teachers in front of students. She thinks he’s losing it. Whether or not it’s thr admins’ fault, they’re the ones running the show in the school. Many seem to be falling apart at the seams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the current sad state of MCPS really the fault of the admins? Seems far more likely that central office, the superintendent and her team and the BOE are the sources of failure here and not the admins, since they don't get to make up the rules and just like teachers and educators, have to comply with whatever diarrhea trickles down from the top.[/quote

Y'all had the chance to vote BOE Brenda Wolff out at the last election and flubbed it. All you can do now is vote out her cronies at the next election then sit tight for two more years. Until Wolff is out, can't fire McKnight or the CO staff and Admins responsible for this mess.

I had no idea how bad Brenda Wolff is until I watched the BOE meeting from Tuesday about discipline. I suggest everyone watches it. It is scary and upsetting.

Embedding here for everyone's ease of viewing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE could do many things. Starting with eliminating ridiculous excess central office positions....hire full-time building subs, with benefits, at the step and rate the teacher would be hired as a regular classroom teacher. There are way too many positions that are useless in this district and important positions remain unfilled because working conditions, wages are stagnant, lack of benefits for support conditions, etc...etc... MCPS is a sinking ship. I know so many people changing districts next year. Many are taking pay cuts just to get the hell out of MCPS-things are that bad right now.

OMG OMG the sky is falling! What shall we do?

Do you really not think that kids and teachers feeling safe in schools is a priority? Talk to teachers- and not just at the W feeder schools. Try to understand what schools are like. Then report back.

Teacher at a W feeder school. It's just as bad as anywhere else.

My sister moved from a focus school to a W-feeder school (I'm still at a focus school). They are nothing alike. 90% of her kids are on or above grade level. There are still some behavior issues, but they can mostly be managed in the classroom. There are a few extreme kids in the entire school rather than several per classroom. Almost all kids are present daily. Her kids come with school supplies. Her students complete homework and can read. It is possible that she just got lucky in her school, but the difference is pretty extreme.

Seems she got very lucky. I teach at a W high school and it is miserable.

I taught in a W feeder and it is the only school I’ve taught in where we had to clear the room repeatedly due to one child. The student was a White, middle class boy who was allegedly NT.

[Anonymous]

Strap yourselves in teachers. I work in early intervention and the "pandemic babies' are coming your way soon. Kids who did not get identified as special needs, kids who are just starting to get identified (there is a backlog at Child Find), kids who spent their whole childhood in front of a TV and kids who were barely around other children or didn't get outside much. We are seeing a rise in disabilities in general. I'm worried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish admin would sit in on some of my child's classes and see what's going on. Some teachers need more managing.

You have no idea what you're talking about. If you did, you'd know for the most part, admin doesn't know what to do in a classroom. Most haven't taught in years. Their advice is useless and filled with buzzwords for whatever is "hot" in education at the moment.

Wow, this is so defensive. YOU don't know what you're talking about because you don't even know what school or classes or principal PP is referring to. The principals I know are in touch w/ teachers and teaching and could absolutely be constructive in the classroom. They don't have time to do that, though. But, there are a variety, and I've known some bad ones too. But, same is true of teachers, so why the blanket statements?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strap yourselves in teachers. I work in early intervention and the "pandemic babies' are coming your way soon. Kids who did not get identified as special needs, kids who are just starting to get identified (there is a backlog at Child Find), kids who spent their whole childhood in front of a TV and kids who were barely around other children or didn't get outside much. We are seeing a rise in disabilities in general. I'm worried.

I teach arts classes after school and have had to up the age range and lower the number of students because kids are just more feral in general. It is much harder to get and keep attention and to organize group activities. I worry about teachers' mental health and kids' classroom experiences. So glad my last is almost done w/ HS. I don't envy all the people dealing w/ COVID fallout from the ES crowd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BOE could do many things. Starting with eliminating ridiculous excess central office positions....hire full-time building subs, with benefits, at the step and rate the teacher would be hired as a regular classroom teacher. There are way too many positions that are useless in this district and important positions remain unfilled because working conditions, wages are stagnant, lack of benefits for support conditions, etc...etc... MCPS is a sinking ship. I know so many people changing districts next year. Many are taking pay cuts just to get the hell out of MCPS-things are that bad right now.

OMG OMG the sky is falling! What shall we do?

Do you really not think that kids and teachers feeling safe in schools is a priority? Talk to teachers- and not just at the W feeder schools. Try to understand what schools are like. Then report back.

Teacher at a W feeder school. It's just as bad as anywhere else.

Thank you! We left this cluster (and MCPS) because I was not impressed with staff. I appreciate your honestly. (At the time people thought we were crazy to leave our house). Super thankful to be gone

Kid is at a W middle school and says the principal is constantly screaming at everyone in the hallways, sometimes even scolding teachers in front of students. She thinks he’s losing it. Whether or not it’s thr admins’ fault, they’re the ones running the show in the school. Many seem to be falling apart at the seams.

I mean, to be fair, Christopher Nardi was doing this before the pandemic

[Anonymous]

Feel free to come to FCPS which was just rated as one of the top large employers in the country by Forbes.

[Anonymous]

Any teacher watching the above posted video before applying to MCPS certainly knows the expectations of its BOE and administrators.