DCPS Central Office Cuts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These comments just show most people have no idea what central staff do or are skilled in.

1) I have never heard of a central employee going to a school once per month to make sure objectives are on the board and teachers are on pace. Yes, that may come up as part of the feedback, but that is not the sole purpose. The truth is when instruction is not high quality, pacing is often an issue and there are teachers who are literally months behind in the curriculum. Some need to start at as basic of a level as knowing what they are supposed to teach for the day, hence the objective on the board.

2) OSSE is in charge of CAPE. They make decisions that central employees are also upset with. We are literally the only “state” that still uses what used to be the PARCC assessment. It is beyond the control of central employees.

3) Central has no control over the actual assignments your child sees, especially homework. RCTs, yes. But I’m going to guess most teachers aren’t sending copies of those home. Yes, there is typically a purchased curriculum, just like every other district in the nation has a curriculum they use. This is not something only DC does. Not even all teachers choose to use the curriculum and then we end up in situations where students aren’t exposed to grade level content.

4) Having worked at both schools and central, I can say the majority of central employees I have met are extremely skilled at their content and are able to go into classrooms and model what they are asking of teachers. They were hired for a reason.

To respond to #1: I have experienced this for the past two years. The central office staff who does this literally has no idea what my content is or how to teach it. But I must have an objective (full of words this individual does not understand) and standard (also something they don’t understand). That’s all they care about. As for pacing, they want to see we are on the same exact lesson on the same exact day as another teacher. Which is ridiculous given that teacher might be absent for a few days or might have students that needed more time on a topic. We were not months behind. But I understand why some teachers are. When a third of your class misses one day a week it’s hard to teach grade level content.

I don’t believe this. What is the exact CO role of the person who comes to your class monthly to check out your objectives ?

Not monthly, quarterly. Superintendent.

There are monthly walk throughs with instructional superintendents in highly sought after schools. The IS never has nice things to say and totally complains about teachers not teaching exactly the same thing at the same time. Expectation is that you can walk through 5 classes in the same grade and see the lesson progress as you move between rooms.

That’s what ppl need to know. It’s an understanding that everyone needs to justify their jobs so there is ALWAYS a problem. They don’t differentiate the expectations based on class population and keep dinging ppl on the ground. And wait until they hear about 6 figure family engagement specialists who call homes daily. Ask families what help do they need and just send standard papers while schools have social workers.

[Anonymous]

Imagine if those in central office who have the salaries, public speaking skills and expertise had to create programs, run clubs, run a before care, tutoring, after care or any special programming that would have direct daily impact on schools. And they’d be evaluated based on results. The system would transform and we’d share equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If removing positions from CO means that every school can have a nurse, I'm all for it.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if those in central office who have the salaries, public speaking skills and expertise had to create programs, run clubs, run a before care, tutoring, after care or any special programming that would have direct daily impact on schools. And they’d be evaluated based on results. The system would transform and we’d share equity.

Um...they do--ever heard of OSTP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if those in central office who have the salaries, public speaking skills and expertise had to create programs, run clubs, run a before care, tutoring, after care or any special programming that would have direct daily impact on schools. And they’d be evaluated based on results. The system would transform and we’d share equity.

Um...they do--ever heard of OSTP?

How many people from CO actually work onsite at afterschool programs? How many are evaluated on the success outcomes of kids in the programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if those in central office who have the salaries, public speaking skills and expertise had to create programs, run clubs, run a before care, tutoring, after care or any special programming that would have direct daily impact on schools. And they’d be evaluated based on results. The system would transform and we’d share equity.

Um...they do--ever heard of OSTP?

How many people from CO actually work onsite at afterschool programs? How many are evaluated on the success outcomes of kids in the programs?

central employees have goals directly tied to student performance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if those in central office who have the salaries, public speaking skills and expertise had to create programs, run clubs, run a before care, tutoring, after care or any special programming that would have direct daily impact on schools. And they’d be evaluated based on results. The system would transform and we’d share equity.

Um...they do--ever heard of OSTP?

I had to look it up. Paraprofessionals run those programs, teachers lead classrooms for 1-2 hours and central office overlooks for compliance. The same monthly or 1-2 times yearly check in. The audacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was 6% which they said was about 100 or so positions. And that's on top of the past two years which they also had similar level reductions. There will certainly be even more for the next fiscal year given the cuts in federal funding.

So DCPS Central Office has 1600+ employees???

I have no idea about any current staff cuts at central office, but I can assure you that at no time (at least in the last 15 years) has central office had anywhere near 1600 staff. The number was less than 500, then it was reduced further last year when the DC Council forced DCPS to reduce headcount at central office in lieu of reducing staff at schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

It's not pleasant for anyone to get laid off. But trying to equate a few layoffs at bloated CO to the hatchet job of DOGE is silly.

A poster explained above why you are way off-base on the racism allegations.

And you realize that the fundamental purpose of DCPS is to educate students as best as possible, not to provide employment for employment's sake?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was 6% which they said was about 100 or so positions. And that's on top of the past two years which they also had similar level reductions. There will certainly be even more for the next fiscal year given the cuts in federal funding.

So DCPS Central Office has 1600+ employees???

I have no idea about any current staff cuts at central office, but I can assure you that at no time (at least in the last 15 years) has central office had anywhere near 1600 staff. The number was less than 500, then it was reduced further last year when the DC Council forced DCPS to reduce headcount at central office in lieu of reducing staff at schools.

Np. No dog in this fight but it’s so disappointing that anyone would need to “force” central office to reduce their excessive staff of hundreds of people versus taking teachers and support staff out of schools. We need to have legal limits on how much money can be allocated to central office for their staffing and special projects. It should be mandated by law that the vast majority of funding (like 95%) is spent on things like facilities and teachers that directly touch kids rather than layers of bureaucracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

NP—DOGE cuts hit Black women *very* hard: https://www.msnbc.com/know-your-value/business-culture/300000-black-women-left-labor-force-3-months-s-not-coincidence-rcna219355

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

17% of PG County work force worked for the feds before Jan 20th of this year. But yeah, none of us got fired. WHAT? You're trying to be anti racist, I guess? But don't have all the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

It's not pleasant for anyone to get laid off. But trying to equate a few layoffs at bloated CO to the hatchet job of DOGE is silly.

A poster explained above why you are way off-base on the racism allegations.

And you realize that the fundamental purpose of DCPS is to educate students as best as possible, not to provide employment for employment's sake?

It would be helpful to further discussion on this thread if posters would identify what area of DC they live in and their race. Because we all know where all the complaints are coming from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's more than a hint of racism in many of these comments. I have no doubt that those calling for mass firings at DCPS are white.

Why would you say that? Should Black parents and teachers not have higher expectations for CO staff? Who suffers the most from waste and fraud in CO? The under-resourced schools. The kids whose families can’t supplement when CO spends money on BS programs - money that should go to those kids.

It's ok to hate DOGE when most of the feds whose jobs are at stake aren't people of color and were making good money. But then it comes to DCPS, where the majority ARE people of color and these jobs have been paths to the middle class for generations, well . . . off with their heads! The ladies of Upper Caucasia have spoken!

It's not pleasant for anyone to get laid off. But trying to equate a few layoffs at bloated CO to the hatchet job of DOGE is silly.

A poster explained above why you are way off-base on the racism allegations.

And you realize that the fundamental purpose of DCPS is to educate students as best as possible, not to provide employment for employment's sake?

It would be helpful to further discussion on this thread if posters would identify what area of DC they live in and their race. Because we all know where all the complaints are coming from.

Are you the person who doesn’t know who actually got RIFfed?