The election results are in and Superintendent Weast or his clone can stay on in MCPS.
If you are a parent, take note. While the Board of Education and MCPS will beg parents to "get involved" in their child's education, yesterday's election continues the policy that only certain parents will be permitted to get involved in their local schools. "PIA's" can stay home.
All four incumbents on the Montgomery County Board of Education were on the way to victory by wide margins at the polls Tuesday, with 16 percentage points the smallest lead as of 11 p.m...
...With the four incumbents returning, the odds increase that Superintendent of Schools Jerry D. Weast's successor will follow his policies and share his objectives. Candidates said several times that one of the top priorities facing the school system is replacing Weast, who announced his retirement from the school system's top job. He has been superintendent since 1999.
O'Neill and other board members were criticized by some for their inability or unwillingness to differ from Weast on key policy issues. Challengers also criticized the school system's handling of special education students and fiscal transparency and efficiency.
Direct link to Board of Education member Patricia O'Neill's PIA parent comment here.
Not that I expect this comment to actually get posted because it appears you must agree with the Parent Coalition to have an comment on this site.
ReplyDeleteOpportunities for teachers and parents to get involved in curriculum development and decisions about policies exist. Often they are not utilized. Rather than constantly looking for things to complain about, perhaps it would be more beneficial to become involved in the district in a positive collaborative manner. Much of what is posted here appears directed at seeking the worst in MCPS and slanting everything to negative.
@wandering wifi: Sorry to be posting when Board of Education members call parents pains in the asses. Yes, you are right that was negative.
ReplyDeleteWe will try to only post when Board members are respectful of parents.
I agree that calling parents pains in the asses is not the best decision on the part of an elected official, however, I would also say that your organization deliberately seeks out and spins information to cast MCPS leadership in a negative light.
ReplyDeleteWhy is professional development that involves travel seen as a negative in the Weast Watch. Many of the trip you report are paid for by the staff members taking them and are designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning opportunities in MCPS. Why is that cast as a bad thing?
Prove it. Make the travel records public.
ReplyDeleteWe have. We have obtained a number of travel and expense account records and show that the taxpayers are paying for travel, dinners, breakfasts, clothing and gifts. The records we obtained did not show that these things were being paid out of personal accounts.
And do PLEASE explain how flying to London England to hawk Promethean Boards is "professional development."
And please explain why we should pay administrators to not be here doing their full-time jobs? Lots of opportunities for professional development online these days. No reason to leave their desks.
to Anonymous@5:37pm, I was involved in the PTA on the board, at the MCCPTA, at so-called parent involvement meetings on curricula, etc., for years. I wasted dozens of hours of my free time when I could have spent them with my family, believing MCPS when they said they wanted 'parent involvement.' All for naught.
ReplyDeleteFrom your personal experience, please give us just ONE example of where you worked with MCPS to actually have a change made. I can also tell you I have asked council members to request information from MCPS over the years, and MCPS staff have not answered them, either. Finally, I can tell you even BOE members have told me they cannot get answers from MCPS.
Parents Coalition members and contributers are not 'negative.' We have certain goals, goals that are met by other governments. Transparency. Respectful treatment of the people that are paying your salaries, (i.e., the taxpayers). Careful shepherding of scarce resources. Open deliberations. It is not 'negative' to demand these things, it is good citizenship. Be a good citizen! Get involved.
If all you want is the good news about MCPS, here is the direct link to their public relations department's press releases for the current year:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/
Lots of people in the last election said they were pretty happy with the way things were going and thus voted for the incumbents. But of those that voted, about 1/3 thought change was needed, and voted for someone else. Should those 1/3 just shut up and go away? Just pay our taxes and hope for the best? Leave the decisionmaking to the "insiders" and read about it in the papers after the fact?
Last summer our curriculum was sold to Pearson. What's next? 1/3 of us want to know!
The news there is so good they will even add in fake stuff to keep you happy!
ReplyDelete