Anonymous wrote:Our Career Coach from WSM basically took over the CCN's job. There was alot of tension between the 2 of them. I honestly thought that the WSM employee would be canned first, since we all know many state initiatives tend not to last. Regardless, I guess I understand not needing both of them.

Yes. But I don't like that MCPS went with an outside nonprofit for this super important job! The CCNs at places like BCC and Magruder are amazing and they have been canned!

Our Career Coach from WSM basically took over the CCN's job. There was alot of tension between the 2 of them. I honestly thought that the WSM employee would be canned first, since we all know many state initiatives tend not to last. Regardless, I guess I understand not needing both of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The media assistants will all have their allocations dropped down to .5 regardless of student enrollment. Which has its own inherent issues but there may not be anything that anyone can do about it at this late stage . . .

So are the HS Media Assistants saved from this cut?

Yes. HS media assistants will be 1.0 (full-time) at the HS level. If your HS has 2 media assistants, they will either split that allocation or the school will decide to keep 1 person full-time.

So much money is being wasted on pointless initiatives. MCPS partnered with UMD for PACT Plus (reading), even though our schools have already been using PACT for years. Nothing truly new has been added, yet we’re spending money on teacher trainings, “coaching” from UMD staff, and more. There were three separate PDs for this in May alone, which also means paying for substitutes and additional coverage costs.

What makes it worse is that the district hasn’t even signed off on the MOU yet, meaning all of this could become a complete sunk cost if they decide not to move forward. The district keeps throwing money around with no clear plan or accountability.

We’re cutting jobs for this? (And who knows how many countless other "projects" like this that we don't know about.) People should be absolutely livid.

Anonymous wrote:The media assistants will all have their allocations dropped down to .5 regardless of student enrollment. Which has its own inherent issues but there may not be anything that anyone can do about it at this late stage . . .

So are the HS Media Assistants saved from this cut?

It's criminal that he is cutting social workers and psychologists. Those professionals were a lifeline for my kid, who had a major mental health crisis last year. The school social worker was incredible.

The media assistants will all have their allocations dropped down to .5 regardless of student enrollment. Which has its own inherent issues but there may not be anything that anyone can do about it at this late stage . . .

But when a taxpayer funded school district uses money to pay... employees of another company, and then creates (these are new jobs) in central office to support this new career thing... while cutting psychologists and social workers and career counselors already in schools? that feels DOGE like.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He cut the composition assistants - the ones helping with college essays, with in-class writing, the ones making well below the poverty level. He cut social workers and psychologists. He is on his way to trying to outsource college & career counseling to Worksource Montgomery, a for-profit company.

This is DOGE, MCPS edition.

Taylor is sneaky AF. He didn’t touch any MCEA or teacher positions because he knew parents would mutiny. He went after all sorts of tiny line items on the budget that he counted on people not understanding.

The students in my building deserve college counseling. They deserve social workers. They deserve writing help.

No, WorkSource Montgomery (WSM) is not a for-profit company; it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

As the designated workforce development agency for Montgomery County, it serves as the fiduciary agent for federal funding under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

OK, so it's a nonprofit company. But MCPS isn't paying the salaries (or benefits) of its employees, that's the point. It's a "partnership" that reminds me of the Purple Line.. and not in a good way! And, WSM is a truly terribly run company - the stories I have heard from multiple current and past employees are insane.

So, MCPS got a bunch of money from the state for this career readiness initiative and ... didn't invest in its own employees.

Plus, the org chart in central office of MCPS employees "supporting" this effort is crazy, too. Those high paying jobs? Not touched. School-based employees making peanuts? Canned.

The mission of MCPS is not to provide jobs for its employees.

I totally buy that WSM is poorly managed, but you lost credibility when you falsely and very specifically claimed it is a for profit company.

Anonymous wrote:Did every English class have writing assistants?

English RTs use data to determine where to place the composition assistants. AP classes usually don't use ECAs, but we are in all other classes across grade levels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He cut the composition assistants - the ones helping with college essays, with in-class writing, the ones making well below the poverty level. He cut social workers and psychologists. He is on his way to trying to outsource college & career counseling to Worksource Montgomery, a for-profit company.

This is DOGE, MCPS edition.

Taylor is sneaky AF. He didn’t touch any MCEA or teacher positions because he knew parents would mutiny. He went after all sorts of tiny line items on the budget that he counted on people not understanding.

The students in my building deserve college counseling. They deserve social workers. They deserve writing help.

No, WorkSource Montgomery (WSM) is not a for-profit company; it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

As the designated workforce development agency for Montgomery County, it serves as the fiduciary agent for federal funding under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

OK, so it's a nonprofit company. But MCPS isn't paying the salaries (or benefits) of its employees, that's the point. It's a "partnership" that reminds me of the Purple Line.. and not in a good way! And, WSM is a truly terribly run company - the stories I have heard from multiple current and past employees are insane.

So, MCPS got a bunch of money from the state for this career readiness initiative and ... didn't invest in its own employees.

Plus, the org chart in central office of MCPS employees "supporting" this effort is crazy, too. Those high paying jobs? Not touched. School-based employees making peanuts? Canned.

Anonymous wrote:He cut the composition assistants - the ones helping with college essays, with in-class writing, the ones making well below the poverty level. He cut social workers and psychologists. He is on his way to trying to outsource college & career counseling to Worksource Montgomery, a for-profit company.

This is DOGE, MCPS edition.

Taylor is sneaky AF. He didn’t touch any MCEA or teacher positions because he knew parents would mutiny. He went after all sorts of tiny line items on the budget that he counted on people not understanding.

The students in my building deserve college counseling. They deserve social workers. They deserve writing help.

No, WorkSource Montgomery (WSM) is not a for-profit company; it is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

As the designated workforce development agency for Montgomery County, it serves as the fiduciary agent for federal funding under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He cut the composition assistants - the ones helping with college essays, with in-class writing, the ones making well below the poverty level. He cut social workers and psychologists. He is on his way to trying to outsource college & career counseling to Worksource Montgomery, a for-profit company.

This is DOGE, MCPS edition.

Taylor is sneaky AF. He didn’t touch any MCEA or teacher positions because he knew parents would mutiny. He went after all sorts of tiny line items on the budget that he counted on people not understanding.

The students in my building deserve college counseling. They deserve social workers. They deserve writing help.

Did he say that the college and career counseling would be outsource to Worksource Montgomery? Or is this just speculation?

This is already happening. Because the state blueprint for Maryland’s future mandates a certain number of career counseling hours per graduate, MCPS hired WSM a few years ago. Rolled it out with a fancy consultant and gave tiny stipends to teachers to be career “champions” in the school buildings “supporting” this work of having “career conversations” with students.

This already a public/private partnership situation in middle and high schools for career counseling. If you don’t work for the schools you probably wouldn’t know this.

The MCPS program is called MoCo CAP and involved a career coach in all buildings- who is paid by WSM, not MCPS.

So Taylor unloaded the college and career counselors, with their health insurance and benefits and union protection, and is counting on this company’s partnership with MCPS to carry the day. He is outsourcing college counseling to a company plain and simple.

The writing has been on the wall for a while, as these WSM coaches have entered buildings basically doing what the college and career people were already doing. Sitting in the offices next to them, duplicating their work in some instances.

Plus, there are layers and layers of highly paid people up in central office “supporting” this public/private effort. Look at the org chart for career stuff at central office and you’ll see.

That’s why I call it DOGE. It feels similar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He saved the high school media assistants but not the college/career navigators?
Clearly he doesn’t know what people do in high schools.

He’s probably looked at the data. Media centers track every student and staff member who uses the MC daily. In my HS it’s several hundred per day. All day. The MC is never closed unless it was reserved for a special event. No other facility in my HS gets that level of foot traffic. Without the Media Assistant, the MC would need be closed most of the day.

I 100% agree with this poster... Our HS Media Center always has a minimum of 50 students at any given time. The media specialist is either working with classes or individual students. Without the media asst, you would have to close the doors.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He saved the high school media assistants but not the college/career navigators?
Clearly he doesn’t know what people do in high schools.

He’s probably looked at the data. Media centers track every student and staff member who uses the MC daily. In my HS it’s several hundred per day. All day. The MC is never closed unless it was reserved for a special event. No other facility in my HS gets that level of foot traffic. Without the Media Assistant, the MC would need be closed most of the day.

Are the HS media assistants saved? What about ES and MS? I think ES media assistants do a ton more than HS media assistants.