Reply to When a Leader Loses the Faith of the People They Lead

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Where was Dr. McKnight during the 10 days BEFORE staff and students were to report back to school following winter break? Dr. McKnight and her six figure cohorts took extra vacations. That left no one to track the reports for COVID parents and staff were reporting for those 10 days. That left the lack of bus drivers unidentifiable. There was no one at Central Office to plan for the necessary changes in staffing and bus routes or even to communicate the situation with parents - even after Central Office had supposedly two administrative work days while schools were closed due to snow.

Taking a vacation during a crisis is not leadership. Spending $850,000 on extra leave for the most highly paid employees in MCPS is a waste of resources.[/quote]

This right here is the crux of the issue. Many of this week's communications and logistical catastrophes were the direct result of leaving Central Office unstaffed last week. So you had bus drivers calling in, teachers calling in, and students returning covid forms, but no one on the other end to receive those messages and begin planning for contingencies. Having Central Office work last week would not have avoided every single problem, but it would have meant that the bus shortage could have been communicated sometime before Wednesday morning, and that planning could have been ongoing for staff shortages.

The problem is twofold: First, she abandoned her (highly compensated) duties and allowed her cronies to do the same, leading directly to crisis. Second, the optics/politics are terrible. At a time when public education is under real attack and with a hostile executive branch, THIS is something she thinks is a good idea?

Ditto the "pivot." If you know you are going to need to get a plan vetted by the bureaucracy, why have you not socialized the plan with them ahead of time? It is ridiculous to blame this on the State of Maryland when McKnight or one of her many staffers could have handled this behind the scenes and ensured that their plan would be approved before it went live. Shockingly bad politics from someone in an inherently political role. [/quote]

+1 Where is the coordination between the Governor, State Department of Education, MCPS, the Montgomery County Board of Education, the County Executive, the County Council, and DHHS?  Is there a government liaison within the school system to discuss COVID and develop a comprehensive government plan to prioritize a way to keep schools open while minimizing spread?

MCPS has not been doing enough testing in schools all year. When students and staff come in close contact with someone with COVID there’s not a way to test the people who were exposed? There’s virtually no random testing at my child’s school either. How can a child, who has sat with and at with students with COVID, go through half a school year and never tested at school. How ridiculous is it to expect parents to self test children then self report cases?

If MCPS knew (and how could school administrators not know) that they were not getting enough test kits, why wasn’t someone advocating their own purchase of kits or advocating to DHHS for ramping up testing in schools?

MCPS needs leadership that will work collaboratively with other government agencies through this crisis. Unfortunately, collaboration and communication is not in Dr. McKnight’s wheelhouse.[/quote]

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