Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up into smaller districts.

I would like to see this happen, but I don’t think this is something the BOE can do.

Sounds like the OP wants suggestions for how the BOE can improve things.

I know! Why should we have to pay for the poor areas?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

The bathrooms are a nightmare. We had a robbery IN a bathroom at our high school, eh oh shows how bad things are. We have kids overdosing in our bathrooms in both MS and HS.

This needs to be addressed ASAP.

I agree. To date....MCPS' response has been to coerce teachers into being bathroom monitors in their "free time," putting latches on the doors, locking bathroom access and launching an "advisory group," whose decisions are non-binding and undefined from a timeline perspective.

I asked my kids about this but they'd say none of this goes on at their school so I'm kind of curious to what schools is this really going on at?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prioritize safety in classrooms- that means quick removal of students demonstrating physical and verbal attacks of other students or teachers. If students cannot demonstrate safety in the classroom, they don’t return until they can.

This would make all stakeholders happier.

This sounds wonderful. What will it take to make this happen? Is there any way to try to get this proposed?

You can propose anything you want during public comments at the next BOE meeting. But you should think about these questions: If these students are quickly removed, where are they being taken/sent? What if they aren't willing to leave the classroom? Whose job is it to monitor them when they get to wherever they're going? What is the threshhold for demonstrating safety such that they can eventually return?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

The bathrooms are a nightmare. We had a robbery IN a bathroom at our high school, eh oh shows how bad things are. We have kids overdosing in our bathrooms in both MS and HS.

This needs to be addressed ASAP.

I agree. To date....MCPS' response has been to coerce teachers into being bathroom monitors in their "free time," putting latches on the doors, locking bathroom access and launching an "advisory group," whose decisions are non-binding and undefined from a timeline perspective.

I asked my kids about this but they'd say none of this goes on at their school so I'm kind of curious to what schools is this really going on at?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

The bathrooms are a nightmare. We had a robbery IN a bathroom at our high school, eh oh shows how bad things are. We have kids overdosing in our bathrooms in both MS and HS.

This needs to be addressed ASAP.

I agree. To date....MCPS' response has been to coerce teachers into being bathroom monitors in their "free time," putting latches on the doors, locking bathroom access and launching an "advisory group," whose decisions are non-binding and undefined from a timeline perspective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prioritize safety in classrooms- that means quick removal of students demonstrating physical and verbal attacks of other students or teachers. If students cannot demonstrate safety in the classroom, they don’t return until they can.

This would make all stakeholders happier.

This sounds wonderful. What will it take to make this happen? Is there any way to try to get this proposed?

You can propose anything you want during public comments at the next BOE meeting. But you should think about these questions: If these students are quickly removed, where are they being taken/sent? What if they aren't willing to leave the classroom? Whose job is it to monitor them when they get to wherever they're going? What is the threshhold for demonstrating safety such that they can eventually return?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prioritize safety in classrooms- that means quick removal of students demonstrating physical and verbal attacks of other students or teachers. If students cannot demonstrate safety in the classroom, they don’t return until they can.

This would make all stakeholders happier.

This sounds wonderful. What will it take to make this happen? Is there any way to try to get this proposed?

You can propose anything you want during public comments at the next BOE meeting. But you should think about these questions: If these students are quickly removed, where are they being taken/sent? What if they aren't willing to leave the classroom? Whose job is it to monitor them when they get to wherever they're going? What is the threshhold for demonstrating safety such that they can eventually return?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prioritize safety in classrooms- that means quick removal of students demonstrating physical and verbal attacks of other students or teachers. If students cannot demonstrate safety in the classroom, they don’t return until they can.

This would make all stakeholders happier.

This sounds wonderful. What will it take to make this happen? Is there any way to try to get this proposed?

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Break up into smaller districts.

I would like to see this happen, but I don’t think this is something the BOE can do.

Sounds like the OP wants suggestions for how the BOE can improve things.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

The bathrooms are a nightmare. We had a robbery IN a bathroom at our high school, eh oh shows how bad things are. We have kids overdosing in our bathrooms in both MS and HS.

This needs to be addressed ASAP.

I agree. To date....MCPS' response has been to coerce teachers into being bathroom monitors in their "free time," putting latches on the doors, locking bathroom access and launching an "advisory group," whose decisions are non-binding and undefined from a timeline perspective.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

The bathrooms are a nightmare. We had a robbery IN a bathroom at our high school, eh oh shows how bad things are. We have kids overdosing in our bathrooms in both MS and HS.

This needs to be addressed ASAP.

Anonymous wrote:A few things:

1) Prioritize Safety and Security in school. A PP said in the classroom, but safety and security is a problem throughout the school building as bathrooms, hallways and cafeterias are breeding grounds for abuse, physical violence and substance use. MCPS must take its buildings back and get serious about security and safety, which means putting in place meaningful and serious security resources and implementing disciplinary measures that hold violators accountable and deter other kids from following in violators' footsteps.

2) More real-time action, less talk. As a legislative body, the BOE takes too long to respond to urgent and pressing problems. While it's important to be thorough, it's sometimes more important to be present and engaged. Most parents would take an imperfect solution over no solution. But because the BOE is afraid of not pleasing everyone, too often they sit on their hands and do nothing, which also ends up not pleasing everyone either. So they might as well get some credit with some folks for taking action rather than doing nothing and still pissing everyone off.

3) Stop kissing MCPS admin's ass and provide meaningful oversight. The BOE is supposed to be a check on MCPS admin. But the BOE is too cozy and rarely rebukes or punishes MCPS admin for its lackluster results and outcomes. The harshest critics of MCPS should come from the board, but too often, it's parents, teachers and students who are doing most of the critical work that results in any modest improvements that happen within MCPS. This needs to change and the BOE needs to take more seriously its role of holding MCPS accountable as a system. Even if that means hurting some of their friends' feelings.

Anonymous wrote:Break up into smaller districts.