Saturday, May 21, 2011

Union reps keep budget discussions from membership


Notes from a meeting of MCEA (Montgomery County Education Association) and SLMP (School Library Media Program): 
"Administrators have been advocating for flexibility in making many decisions for their buildings, including staffing decisions.  In this case, the decision to give elementary principals the flexibility to make cuts that included media specialist positions came approximately two weeks before that decision became public
knowledge.  Nothing was finalized at that time. Until decisions are final, they must remain confidential to minimize rumors and misinformation that can arise.
Therefore, MCEA representatives could not inform media specialists in advance."
Thus, Media Specialists had no opportunity to advocate for their positions before a final decision was made. That's how the MCPS Secret Budget Table works. Those select few at the table keep all budget discussions confidential to prevent any public discussions of decisions being made. 


Who's at the MCPS Secret Budget Table? Union reps, MCCPTA and MCPS staff is all we know. When does the group meet? No clue. Public minutes of meetings? None. Public input into budget discussions? Zero.


Final Notes April 7th MCEA SLMP

3 comments:

  1. How about posting my comment which was sent in approximately an hour and a half BEFORE you decided to close the "MCPS in the Green" to comments?

    Interesting that comments were closed well after my comment was sent.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm curious as to whether the college/guidance counselors in the high schools knew ahead of time that their positions were being set up to be cut from 12 months to 10? Wondering if this was discussed in the same meetings as the Media Specialist cuts?

    ReplyDelete

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