Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

He hasn’t done anything nary as villainous as her. Nothing he’s done has caused the OIG to have to EXPAND their oversight.
Now the county council should expand theirs but this has been true for decades

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Checks notes:

“Joel Beidleman promotion and cover up occurred under Dr. McKnight’s watch”

You were so close to making a good argument for McKnight but forgot this key point.

Taylor has topped her.
McKnight introduced a ton of chaos and disruption during her tenure. Were you here in 2021-22?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the replacement people imagine. I’m not sure there will be a line out the door to deal with us. The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking not growing. We are always competing with other nearby counties. Who else wants to be named as a plaintiff in a supreme court case and be told they make too much for their trouble ?

Haha. Taylor makes $360,000 per year. I think there will always be a line out the door for that kind of money. Seriously though, we are the 16th largest school district in the country. There are qualified candidates out there and we will be ready for one to replace this guy.

I'm not trying to say $360k isn't a lot of money and anyone making less then that is poor by DCUM standards.

But when you consider the size of the organization that the superintendent runs, the wide range in student populations/demographics that they have to account for, and the public scrutiny they deal with, $360k doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

Just based on a Google search, and not digging or confirming the data, Michelle Reid at Fairfax County has a base salary of $424,146

Cheryl Dyson at Frederick County Public Schools has a salary of $300000, so MCPS has a high salary but I'm putting other local school systems for illustrative purposes. But Frederick County also has 48054 students compared to MCPS's 159181

Shawn Joseph in Prince Georges County earns $365000. The Google search result says he's the interim but I think I heard somewhere he got appointed as the permanent. PG County's student enrollment was 132151 last year

Myriam Rogers at Baltimore County earns $322524 and the student enrollment was 110024 last year

So another way of looking at it might be, do we really want to compete with Fairfax County? Maybe we need to pony up and offer a salary higher then what their superintendent is getting?

Just wanted to added Loudoun County's superintendent salary too:
Aaron Spence $425,334 with an enrollment of 80517

I would rank Loudoun County, both the area and the schools, very highly. So should be added to any comparables when we're looking at MCPS or comparing different school systems.

Fairfax has a stellar whole-school magnet TJHS. Londoun has Academies of Loundoun where students focus on project-oriented learning and authentic research for half-day everyday for straight 4 years. At MCPS, we have stellar magnet programs producing numerous college professors, wall street traders, high-level officials in federal government and astronauts. Instead of considering expanding it into a whole magnet school, Taylor deteriorates them and claims to build 100 programs with virtually no investment.

Now let's discuss whether they should be paid at the current salary level.

A magnet serving 400 students is the least of most of our concerns. Your w school kids will be fine without it, really.

TJHS is housed and administered by FCPS, but it is a governor's school, state-authorized. One superintendent could not make the decision to de facto close down a magnet program in the state of Virginia, as was done in MCPS.

But in MD the state MSDE hates achievement and constantly adds roadblocks to advanced learning, like eliminating honors high school math pathway and mandating that half of high school students earn menial, irrelevant "industry certifications" instead of learning high school standards.

The issue is the curriculum and lack of teaching. Kids aren’t learning so test scores are down so instead of refocusing on what works they dumb it down.

THIS. People need to be talking more about this. MCPS curriculum is terrible-they've tried too long and too hard to be on the cutting edge and the only thing that has been cut is the presence of tried and true textbooks and teaching methods and our test scores.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Checks notes:

“Joel Beidleman promotion and cover up occurred under Dr. McKnight’s watch”

You were so close to making a good argument for McKnight but forgot this key point.

Taylor has topped her.
McKnight introduced a ton of chaos and disruption during her tenure. Were you here in 2021-22?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Checks notes:

“Joel Beidleman promotion and cover up occurred under Dr. McKnight’s watch”

You were so close to making a good argument for McKnight but forgot this key point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Checks notes:

“Joel Beidleman promotion and cover up occurred under Dr. McKnight’s watch”

You were so close to making a good argument for McKnight but forgot this key point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the replacement people imagine. I’m not sure there will be a line out the door to deal with us. The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking not growing. We are always competing with other nearby counties. Who else wants to be named as a plaintiff in a supreme court case and be told they make too much for their trouble ?

Haha. Taylor makes $360,000 per year. I think there will always be a line out the door for that kind of money. Seriously though, we are the 16th largest school district in the country. There are qualified candidates out there and we will be ready for one to replace this guy.

I'm not trying to say $360k isn't a lot of money and anyone making less then that is poor by DCUM standards.

But when you consider the size of the organization that the superintendent runs, the wide range in student populations/demographics that they have to account for, and the public scrutiny they deal with, $360k doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

Just based on a Google search, and not digging or confirming the data, Michelle Reid at Fairfax County has a base salary of $424,146

Cheryl Dyson at Frederick County Public Schools has a salary of $300000, so MCPS has a high salary but I'm putting other local school systems for illustrative purposes. But Frederick County also has 48054 students compared to MCPS's 159181

Shawn Joseph in Prince Georges County earns $365000. The Google search result says he's the interim but I think I heard somewhere he got appointed as the permanent. PG County's student enrollment was 132151 last year

Myriam Rogers at Baltimore County earns $322524 and the student enrollment was 110024 last year

So another way of looking at it might be, do we really want to compete with Fairfax County? Maybe we need to pony up and offer a salary higher then what their superintendent is getting?

Just wanted to added Loudoun County's superintendent salary too:
Aaron Spence $425,334 with an enrollment of 80517

I would rank Loudoun County, both the area and the schools, very highly. So should be added to any comparables when we're looking at MCPS or comparing different school systems.

Fairfax has a stellar whole-school magnet TJHS. Londoun has Academies of Loundoun where students focus on project-oriented learning and authentic research for half-day everyday for straight 4 years. At MCPS, we have stellar magnet programs producing numerous college professors, wall street traders, high-level officials in federal government and astronauts. Instead of considering expanding it into a whole magnet school, Taylor deteriorates them and claims to build 100 programs with virtually no investment.

Now let's discuss whether they should be paid at the current salary level.

A magnet serving 400 students is the least of most of our concerns. Your w school kids will be fine without it, really.

TJHS is housed and administered by FCPS, but it is a governor's school, state-authorized. One superintendent could not make the decision to de facto close down a magnet program in the state of Virginia, as was done in MCPS.

But in MD the state MSDE hates achievement and constantly adds roadblocks to advanced learning, like eliminating honors high school math pathway and mandating that half of high school students earn menial, irrelevant "industry certifications" instead of learning high school standards.

The issue is the curriculum and lack of teaching. Kids aren’t learning so test scores are down so instead of refocusing on what works they dumb it down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

McKnight wasted money on performative DEI, but she didn't actively introduce chaos and destruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the replacement people imagine. I’m not sure there will be a line out the door to deal with us. The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking not growing. We are always competing with other nearby counties. Who else wants to be named as a plaintiff in a supreme court case and be told they make too much for their trouble ?

Haha. Taylor makes $360,000 per year. I think there will always be a line out the door for that kind of money. Seriously though, we are the 16th largest school district in the country. There are qualified candidates out there and we will be ready for one to replace this guy.

I'm not trying to say $360k isn't a lot of money and anyone making less then that is poor by DCUM standards.

But when you consider the size of the organization that the superintendent runs, the wide range in student populations/demographics that they have to account for, and the public scrutiny they deal with, $360k doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

Just based on a Google search, and not digging or confirming the data, Michelle Reid at Fairfax County has a base salary of $424,146

Cheryl Dyson at Frederick County Public Schools has a salary of $300000, so MCPS has a high salary but I'm putting other local school systems for illustrative purposes. But Frederick County also has 48054 students compared to MCPS's 159181

Shawn Joseph in Prince Georges County earns $365000. The Google search result says he's the interim but I think I heard somewhere he got appointed as the permanent. PG County's student enrollment was 132151 last year

Myriam Rogers at Baltimore County earns $322524 and the student enrollment was 110024 last year

So another way of looking at it might be, do we really want to compete with Fairfax County? Maybe we need to pony up and offer a salary higher then what their superintendent is getting?

Just wanted to added Loudoun County's superintendent salary too:
Aaron Spence $425,334 with an enrollment of 80517

I would rank Loudoun County, both the area and the schools, very highly. So should be added to any comparables when we're looking at MCPS or comparing different school systems.

Fairfax has a stellar whole-school magnet TJHS. Londoun has Academies of Loundoun where students focus on project-oriented learning and authentic research for half-day everyday for straight 4 years. At MCPS, we have stellar magnet programs producing numerous college professors, wall street traders, high-level officials in federal government and astronauts. Instead of considering expanding it into a whole magnet school, Taylor deteriorates them and claims to build 100 programs with virtually no investment.

Now let's discuss whether they should be paid at the current salary level.

A magnet serving 400 students is the least of most of our concerns. Your w school kids will be fine without it, really.

TJHS is housed and administered by FCPS, but it is a governor's school, state-authorized. One superintendent could not make the decision to de facto close down a magnet program in the state of Virginia, as was done in MCPS.

But in MD the state MSDE hates achievement and constantly adds roadblocks to advanced learning, like eliminating honors high school math pathway and mandating that half of high school students earn menial, irrelevant "industry certifications" instead of learning high school standards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the replacement people imagine. I’m not sure there will be a line out the door to deal with us. The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking not growing. We are always competing with other nearby counties. Who else wants to be named as a plaintiff in a supreme court case and be told they make too much for their trouble ?

Haha. Taylor makes $360,000 per year. I think there will always be a line out the door for that kind of money. Seriously though, we are the 16th largest school district in the country. There are qualified candidates out there and we will be ready for one to replace this guy.

I'm not trying to say $360k isn't a lot of money and anyone making less then that is poor by DCUM standards.

But when you consider the size of the organization that the superintendent runs, the wide range in student populations/demographics that they have to account for, and the public scrutiny they deal with, $360k doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

Just based on a Google search, and not digging or confirming the data, Michelle Reid at Fairfax County has a base salary of $424,146

Cheryl Dyson at Frederick County Public Schools has a salary of $300000, so MCPS has a high salary but I'm putting other local school systems for illustrative purposes. But Frederick County also has 48054 students compared to MCPS's 159181

Shawn Joseph in Prince Georges County earns $365000. The Google search result says he's the interim but I think I heard somewhere he got appointed as the permanent. PG County's student enrollment was 132151 last year

Myriam Rogers at Baltimore County earns $322524 and the student enrollment was 110024 last year

So another way of looking at it might be, do we really want to compete with Fairfax County? Maybe we need to pony up and offer a salary higher then what their superintendent is getting?

Just wanted to added Loudoun County's superintendent salary too:
Aaron Spence $425,334 with an enrollment of 80517

I would rank Loudoun County, both the area and the schools, very highly. So should be added to any comparables when we're looking at MCPS or comparing different school systems.

Fairfax has a stellar whole-school magnet TJHS. Londoun has Academies of Loundoun where students focus on project-oriented learning and authentic research for half-day everyday for straight 4 years. At MCPS, we have stellar magnet programs producing numerous college professors, wall street traders, high-level officials in federal government and astronauts. Instead of considering expanding it into a whole magnet school, Taylor deteriorates them and claims to build 100 programs with virtually no investment.

Now let's discuss whether they should be paid at the current salary level.

A magnet serving 400 students is the least of most of our concerns. Your w school kids will be fine without it, really.

TJHS is housed and administered by FCPS, but it is a governor's school, state-authorized. One superintendent could not make the decision to de facto close down a magnet program in the state of Virginia, as was done in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious about the replacement people imagine. I’m not sure there will be a line out the door to deal with us. The pool of qualified candidates is shrinking not growing. We are always competing with other nearby counties. Who else wants to be named as a plaintiff in a supreme court case and be told they make too much for their trouble ?

Haha. Taylor makes $360,000 per year. I think there will always be a line out the door for that kind of money. Seriously though, we are the 16th largest school district in the country. There are qualified candidates out there and we will be ready for one to replace this guy.

I don't think so. Where were all those qualified candidates when we were hiring a new super in 2024? And 2022? And 2016?

You act as if we were privvy to all of the applicants who applied. It was all done behind closed doors. We have no idea who is or isn't interested in the job.

This.
The whole selection process is a massive secret. There are always lots of candidates, but they are all a secret.

Somehow Baltimore is able to have 4 candidates and put them out to meet the public.

You think they bypassed a long line of rock star candidates just so they could announce a mediocre pick? Three times in a row?

They did not bypass anyone. They were told who to hire.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taylor is being sabotaged from within. His executive leadership team is working hard to undermine his credibility and leadership.

They post on here anonymously to rile up the community, posting as Taylor haters and Taylor supporters.

He will celebrate when he leaves MCPS because he won’t have to work with them any longer.

If that's the case Taylor can/could have easily cleaned house when he came in.

Other superintendents did it in other counties.

And the previous posters kind of reinforced my point about the MCPS superintendent's salary. I'm not really a fan of Taylor and am not saying he's deserving of that salary or the job. But can MCPS/Montgomery County even afford to pay the type of salaries that Fairfax and Loudoun Counties are able to pay their superintendents?

We might not because according to the 2020 census Loudoun County and Fairfax County were the first and fifth highest income counties in the US ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States ) . Montgomery County is 20th, which isn't bad compared to the overall country, which is what people say about the school system too. But we're not top in the area.

So we might very well have an issue in attracting desirable candidates and are limited to taking what we can get.

He could have cleaned house when he got in for sure, and foolishly appointed saboteurs to his highest positions thinking about continuity. A mistake he gravely regrets.

Now, it’s too late to get rid of them, as they are working hard to get rid of him.

Dr. Taylor earns the better part of a half million dollars per year. The justification for that salary, for a public servant, is that he would make more than that if he took his "CEO" skills to the private sector.

But here's the thing -- in the private sector a new executive is expected to assess the capacity of the leadership team they inherit and to make changes as needed.

The idea that Taylor was blindsided by "saboteurs" is laughable because he willingly kept people who everyone knew were terrible. If he had engaged in genuine community dialogue with key stakeholders regarding their engagement with the Central Office, he would have absolutely cleaned house. But he didn't do that work because he's not that kind of leader, and he got what he got.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This board felt similarly about Monica McKnight, Jack Smith, and Josh Starr (the superintendents over the last 15 years). Angering some people is the nature of the job. And the nature of DCUM. Overall, MCPS is moving forward, lurching though it may be, and stability in the superintends office is worth something.

Taylor is way beyond any other super in angering staff and parents.

Anonymous wrote:Everytime I start wondering if my frustration with Taylor is unreasonable, I run into another parent or a teacher IRL who is livid with him for one reason or another