Weast thanks secret budget committee for "hundreds of hours" of work

In a May 23, 2011 memorandum to the Board of Education Superintendent Jerry Weast thanked the people that put together the MCPS budgets. 


No, he didn't thank the Board of Education, he thanked the people at the secret budget table. 


You know them, right? Oh, no? True, the meetings are secret and the public can't observe the discussions. The budget meetings are so secret even school staff don't know when their positions are on the chopping block.


Here's Superintendent Weast's statement:

From the beginning of the process, representatives of each of the employee associations (the Montgomery County Education Association, the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 500) and leaders of the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations (MCCPTA) participated in all of the budget development meetings. They spent hundreds of hours reviewing every proposal and alternative...Executive leadership and many other staff members also played an essential role in providing information and developing new ideas to advance the budget process.