Anonymous
Post 10/17/2023 21:24     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:I'm still upset that McKnight hasn't apologized for the Mai Lai massacre or Guantanamo Bay.


Just like everything related to the Beidelman mess, those all happened before she was superintendent so she’s not responsible and doesn’t have to comment at all
Anonymous
Post 10/17/2023 21:08     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I guess they got tired of Chris Cram and his spectacular failures. I hope this results in better, more coherent explanations for all of the sh*tshows going on in MCPS. Or at least more believable lies than the stuff we've been getting to date.


It’s like they fully realize that this situation is going to continue to be “a crisis” for some considerable time into the future. Which: good.


Has anyone dived into the company that was hired? They are a very political company.

https://www.precisionstrategies.com/who-we-are/

Seems like a good match for MoCo.
Anonymous
Post 10/17/2023 20:51     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

I guess they got tired of Chris Cram and his spectacular failures. I hope this results in better, more coherent explanations for all of the sh*tshows going on in MCPS. Or at least more believable lies than the stuff we've been getting to date.


It’s like they fully realize that this situation is going to continue to be “a crisis” for some considerable time into the future. Which: good.


Has anyone dived into the company that was hired? They are a very political company.

https://www.precisionstrategies.com/who-we-are/
Anonymous
Post 10/17/2023 20:15     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

I'm still upset that McKnight hasn't apologized for the Mai Lai massacre or Guantanamo Bay.
Anonymous
Post 10/17/2023 07:49     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry but that statement makes me disappointed in/embarrassed by the ADL and JCRC. And I say that as a Jewish person with many family members in Israel. I have not been a big fan of Dr. McKnight overall, but I appreciated her recent email and thought it struck the right tone today.


me too


Monica’s second email, which was sent two days AFTER the first disembodied email about “news of war and natural disasters,” was prepared AFTER and in reaction to dozens of angry parent emails and AFTER the JCRC statement. In other words, she prepared a better and improved and more sensitive email after receiving hate mail and being publicly criticized. In the past week, her Deputy Superintendent has left and two associate superintendents are now on leave. They’re now looking at a new crisis communication firm.

She utterly messed up here with her initial tone-deaf, tepid email about “war and natural disasters” and she knows it and she may even be forced out for it. I am Jewish and I want her gone. MCPS has the third largest population of Jewish students in any public school district in the entire country and she was dismissing and ignoring Jewish pain after the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. And her actions are even more egregious when you juxtapose her email with what was sent about George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and consider all the anti-racist emails MCPS parents like me have received over the years. MCPS is NOT apolitical — instead, it seems they only care about certain causes that are consistent with work politics. What a disappointment for the taxpayers like me who moved to this County for the schools.
Anonymous
Post 10/16/2023 20:20     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Did they really approve the contract? Was there any discussion on it or was it just rubber stamped??


They did. There was a lot of discussion about the diesel school bus contract, but not the communications firm.


More MCPS waste. I guess come January we should be prepared for more property tax hikes to cover the growing MCPS budget.
Anonymous
Post 10/16/2023 15:43     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:Did they really approve the contract? Was there any discussion on it or was it just rubber stamped??


They did. There was a lot of discussion about the diesel school bus contract, but not the communications firm.
Anonymous
Post 10/16/2023 15:29     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Did they really approve the contract? Was there any discussion on it or was it just rubber stamped??
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 21:32     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:WOOOOOOW! LOL They really ate Monifa up with that statement. And honestly, this habit of pushing difficult communications onto the shoulders of principals instead of the district is TEXTBOOK MCPS. So they are not wrong and they are not lying.

Monifa, how many fails can you take?

We've had the budget push flop, Magruder shooting, antiracism action plan flop, attendance plan flop, pandemic learning loss, the 2021-2022 bus driver shortage, the vote of no confidence from MCEA, Beidleman scandal and now getting called out for piss poor comms with the Jewish community, the L's are stacked higher than the W's.


It sure seems like anything she does good or bad will be seen by some as a failure.

Everyone hates whoever the current super is - until they've been gone a while. Just ask the last several.
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 20:22     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

That statement went off as soon as McKnight said the well-being of students and staff was her “primary concern”. If that, why Joel Beidleman?
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 20:15     Subject: MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:

I guess they got tired of Chris Cram and his spectacular failures. I hope this results in better, more coherent explanations for all of the sh*tshows going on in MCPS. Or at least more believable lies than the stuff we've been getting to date.


It’s like they fully realize that this situation is going to continue to be “a crisis” for some considerable time into the future. Which: good.
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 20:03     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:Getting back on track— did the BOE approve the contract? Was there any discussion about it?


The meeting is tomorrow.
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 19:41     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Getting back on track— did the BOE approve the contract? Was there any discussion about it?
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 16:52     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry but that statement makes me disappointed in/embarrassed by the ADL and JCRC. And I say that as a Jewish person with many family members in Israel. I have not been a big fan of Dr. McKnight overall, but I appreciated her recent email and thought it struck the right tone today.


embarrassed by? I couldn't disagree more. You have to keep in mind how tirelessly they have been working to help MCPS dig itself out of an unconscionable history of excusing antisemitism (i am not jewish have seen it--and a horrific lack of response--up close myself at more than one MCPS school).

this letter is so much better:
https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-remains-committed-maintaining-safe-and-secure-schools

And this one:
https://4.files.edl.io/6287/10/11/23/120326-a03c5bc1-a4eb-4189-91cf-4f3664118d39.pdf

and many others i've seen as well...
Anonymous
Post 10/11/2023 16:46     Subject: Re:MCPS is hiring a new agency for its crisis communications

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry but that statement makes me disappointed in/embarrassed by the ADL and JCRC. And I say that as a Jewish person with many family members in Israel. I have not been a big fan of Dr. McKnight overall, but I appreciated her recent email and thought it struck the right tone today.


me too