Reply to Dec 18th: FY 2026 Recommended Operating Budget

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]General education HS teacher here. Paras are not all that useful in high school. Many kids assigned a para in high school who follows them in general ed classes are embarrassed to have a para and ignore them completely. There are a few good paras who will still do a lot and help other kids in the classroom but most just sit in a corner on their phone. The paras often don’t understand the class content so are of limited help to the student. It is an inefficient model. Smaller class sizes would help all students [/quote]

You are not the first MCPS educator I’ve heard complain about the lack of professionalism and efficacy of paras in high school. I hope you’re sharing this opinion with leadership. [/quote]

+1 Because what this show is that it would be more beneficial to have content Paras who could help support the classroom as a whole and thus the individual students by allow for more small group.  Also, some of those dollars could be used for in-school and after school tutoring support.[/quote]

Smaller classroom sizes would help everyone. Math and science teachers could provide more individual help to struggling students. History and English teachers could give better writing feedback. Paras help more with behavior issues than actual learning at least at the high school level. I have seen some paras just do the work for their students (often by googling answers or by asking the teacher). [/quote]

Yes but smaller classroom sizes is a much more costly endeavor requiring personnel and space.  The Superintendent has already acknowledged that is not going to happen in this year’s budget and I suspect not in next year’s either (at least not in totality), so it is time to think of new ideas.  Such as assistant teachers, where and how Paras can better support, providing tutoring, helping teachers with grading, Substitute coverage etc.[/quote]

He isn’t really going to manage the money responsibly.   Sad.  [/quote]

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