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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Got it, thanks. Did the people you talked to find that argument from him convincing or did you get the sense they thought he was just trying to avoid blame?

[Anonymous]

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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

You heard what from a BOE member? That the BOE came up with the idea of regional programs and insisted that they be implemented immediately?

[Anonymous]

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.

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.

Got it, thanks. Did the people you talked to find that argument from him convincing or did you get the sense they thought he was just trying to avoid blame?

I can't really speculate because I can't shake my own sense that Taylor is an opportunist who cares a lot about his own image. If he was trying to shift blame from himself to a group of women (all of whom have deeper connections to this district than he does), that's pretty gross.

On the other hand, I can totally believe that there is a faction on the BoE who think the DCC and NEC are a waste of resources and want to end them. The ones who are more pro-consortia have drunk the kool-aid about DCC and NEC transportation being too expensive to replicate.

I believe the whole BoE is completed snowed by the marketing job Taylor has launched, saying this will improve equity. They're ignoring years of data on programs MCPS has started, then left to flounder (two-way immersion programs, regional IB magnets). They're also willfully ignoring that all the equity and access issues in current magnets is TOTALLY MCPS'S FAULT. MCPS handles admissions to all the magnets, so if there is lack of equity, they're the reason for it. Expecting them to magically fix that problem in future magnets is like expecting pigs to take flight.

[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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

You heard what from a BOE member? That the BOE came up with the idea of regional programs and insisted that they be implemented immediately?

Am I not clear enough? Some BOE member(s) are the ones behind the scene to push the idea, and the other junior ones decide to be just submissive. Think about it: who are seniors and don’t care about Apple ballot endorsement anymore?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

You heard what from a BOE member? That the BOE came up with the idea of regional programs and insisted that they be implemented immediately?

Am I not clear enough? Some BOE member(s) are the ones behind the scene to push the idea, and the other junior ones decide to be just submissive. Think about it: who are seniors and don’t care about Apple ballot endorsement anymore?

Let me give you one more hint. Who sit on the board currently that were there voting yes to the lottery for CES and MS magnets back in 2018? She was always anti-magnet and anti-consortia model, and right now it's her way to destroy them with zero liabilities because she is not going to run for BOE anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

You heard what from a BOE member? That the BOE came up with the idea of regional programs and insisted that they be implemented immediately?

Am I not clear enough? Some BOE member(s) are the ones behind the scene to push the idea, and the other junior ones decide to be just submissive. Think about it: who are seniors and don’t care about Apple ballot endorsement anymore?

Let me give you one more hint. Who sit on the board currently that were there voting yes to the lottery for CES and MS magnets back in 2018? She was always anti-magnet and anti-consortia model, and right now it's her way to destroy them with zero liabilities because she is not going to run for BOE anymore.

I don't know exactly who you are referring to but how has she managed by herself to compel CO to run around like chickens with their heads cut off developing this model that the BOE has not voted on?

[Anonymous]

That is a ton of staff time based on some secret direction from a BOE member and does not seem plausible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is a ton of staff time based on some secret direction from a BOE member and does not seem plausible

You absolutely have just reason to not believe in me. I don’t understand that motivation either when I first heard. But seeing the BOE member that I had high confidence and high hope about when I casted my vote to her now decided to compromise, I’m just beyond being deeply disappointed.

[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.

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.

There's no way anyone in the board is smart enough to come up with any sort of plan, especially one this complex. They don't even know all of the programs MCPS has. They just nod and smile like smitten school girls agreeing with whatever BS Taylor throws their way.

[Anonymous]

This is basically a consortium model that has each school taking less outside students and limited transportation. They will cherry pick some top kids to go and too bad for the rest. The magnets are no different than schools specializing as they already have the classes at the school it it’s name only as they are not giving more staff. It’s doing some for the sake of doing it vs real change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is basically a consortium model that has each school taking less outside students and limited transportation. They will cherry pick some top kids to go and too bad for the rest. The magnets are no different than schools specializing as they already have the classes at the school it it’s name only as they are not giving more staff. It’s doing some for the sake of doing it vs real change.

That is MCPS's MO - constantly chase the shiny new things, don't support them properly, while the schools are forced to be constantly implementing new curricula, programs etc.

[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 must work closely with Essie because this is a perfect description of her. Very short sighted, doesn't listen, and thinks she knows it all.

Meanwhile she also had the DOT theft scandal on her watch, the total disaster of an attempted boundary study, and the illegal electric bus contract. Why he thought it was a good idea to bring her back was the first major red flag that this was going to be a s-show. I'm glad I left MCPS before she came back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

Have you *seen* the Board of Ed members? They are clearly not on top of the details of how MCPS runs in anywhere near enough depth to come up with a master plan like these behind the scenes. And they are "extremely* deferential to MCPS staff with very few exceptions. This is an absolutely ridiculous conspiracy theory.

Unlike the pp who heard secondhand from Taylor, I heard secondhand from a BOE member in a one-on-one individual chatting. Some BOE members are clearly dominating the board and the rest decide to subordinate, so they were just complaining but planned to vote yes.

I hope the apple ballot could give them some pressure to veto the proposal.

You heard what from a BOE member? That the BOE came up with the idea of regional programs and insisted that they be implemented immediately?

Am I not clear enough? Some BOE member(s) are the ones behind the scene to push the idea, and the other junior ones decide to be just submissive. Think about it: who are seniors and don’t care about Apple ballot endorsement anymore?

No, you're not being clear enough. Are you saying the Board of Ed came up with the idea of regions and pressured Taylor and MCPS into doing it, then pretended to be surprised and gave no hint of this in any public setting? (Despite the fact that Taylor did exactly this in his previous district so it seems far more likely that it was his idea rather than theirs?). That sounds like what you're saying but I'm highly skeptical, so if you're saying something different please clarify

Also the other things you're saying don't make sense. The CES and MS magnet lotteries didn't start in 2018, it was at the beginning of the pandemic. Regardless, the only current members who were around then are Silvestre and Wolff, and frankly neither of them strike me as either smart enough or passionate enough about MCPS to be capable of or interested in pulling off some sort of devious, secret plan like you're mentioning....not that I can't believe they support it, but they don't seem like the puppetmaster type.