The Parents' Coalition has a short video from the end of the December 17, 2013, off-site/off-camera Board of Education Retreat at the Universities at Shady Grove.
In this video you can hear the participants summing up what worked at the meeting and what didn't work.
At minute 15:27 you can hear Deputy Superintendent Kim Statham's answer to "what didn't work well": "No sodas."
While MCPS classroom teachers are buying classroom supplies with their own money, MCPS administrators complain that there is "no soda" at a meeting. This is an excellent example of the disconnect between administrators and classrooms.
Here's a suggestion: BRING YOUR OWN SODA.
ReplyDeletestudents can't buy soda at lunch
ReplyDeleteyou people are slightly insane
ReplyDeleteMCPS administrators?
DeleteSlightly? (not referring to MCPS admin.)
DeleteSo teachers are just complainers when they talk about having to spend hundreds of their own (personal) funds on classroom supplies? Better that the MCPS operating budget fund soda and food for administrators than classroom supplies?
DeleteBecause you are talking about taking money away from teachers when you support buffets for the BOE. It's a choice, and if you are good with feeding the BOE and administrators over classroom supplies then you are super happy with the current BOE!
Administrators aren't making a budget choice between "buffets for the BOE" and classroom supplies. That's silliness and you know it. Hopefully next time you get video from one of these "super secret meetings with evil administrators making evil schemes" there's some actual news.
DeleteSo money grows on trees in Montgomery County? Hopefully you aren't a math teacher.
DeleteThe "soda" money that the BOE and administrators are slurping and burping is TAX DOLLARS from the citizens of Montgomery County. Unless you think that MCPS has a cash machine that prints money, these dollars ARE being stolen from classrooms.
YOUR choice. You want to fund sodas over classroom supplies, tell teachers to suck it up and cough over the personal cash for their classrooms and quit whining. Oh, be sure to tell teachers how "silly" they are to whine about using their personal take home pay for classroom supplies.
Oh please. The last time you were concerned about teacher take-home pay was...NEVER.
DeleteSpeak for yourself. You don't have to care, but we have always cared. As parents we have all contributed to classroom supplies and helped teachers with what they needed for the classroom because the MCPS administrators whined that the MCPS "budget" was tight. We investigated and found out they were lying. We have been documenting those lies for years.
DeleteIf you like teachers paying out of pocket, then keep voting in the Apple Ballot and keep the lie alive! Let the teachers pay while the administrators dine. That's what you like, you've got it.
Nice try at some revisionist history. This blog has NEVER cared about teacher take-home pay. Just look back a few years at multiple posts about teacher salaries written by Bob Astrove. YOU published them. YOU don't give a darn about teacher take-home pay.
DeleteHow's it feel getting caught in double speak?
Wow. You really hate teachers. So sorry. No double speak here. Check yourself in your mirror. We've heard that teacher bashing is a national trend, what group of teacher bashers do you represent? Since you are advocating for MCPS to be the next Detroit, why is it that you want the entire system to crash and burn? Do you hate children, too?
DeleteThanks for telling us who you are. You really do hate teachers. Sorry about that. Your goal is to bankrupt Montgomery County, just like Detroit. Anyone that tries to balance the budget is "evil" in your mind. Your plan will, of course, eventually eliminate teacher pensions and jobs when the system fails.
DeleteTake a few basic accounting courses and try and balance your own checkbook. Get back to us when you understand the logic behind a fiscal plan that is sustainable.
How about posting ALL comments submitted? There's obviously one missing. What's the matter...can't take it when you're proven wrong? Pretty thin skinned!
DeleteNo worries. We will not reveal your identity. Teachers would be furious if they knew it was their own union that was trashing them and trying to bankrupt MCPS.
DeleteTry to balance your checkbook, at least once! Go ahead. Give it a try and get back to us.
All that anyone at the Parents' Coalition has ever advocated for is fiscal responsibility. Go ahead, look that up, we'll wait.
Then Google, "Detroit" and see what happens when a city ignores fiscal realities.
Here's a link to get you started:
https://www.google.com/search?q=abandoned+detroit&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=lbe9UsC3KcinsQSf8YHwDQ&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=914
Eventually, you might figure out that bankrupting a city or entity is wrong and hurts citizens, including TEACHERS.
Call me crazy, but she sounds like she was making a joke.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous, not silly to me. This is my money being spent on frivolous purchases and bad choices by elected officials. My money. These dollars add up. In my household we make decisions based on a specific income. That income is less because of the tax dollars that are deducted from my pay. I earn every penny with my labor hours. Every penny of my money counts. So, to watch the elected BOE waste money, and to see the superintentent they hired spending my money on breakfast at The Fontainbleu, and to speak out about it, that is not silly.
ReplyDeleteHere's what is silly. What is silly is the taxpayers of this county not questioning every cent that is spent with their hard-earned money and not speaking up. 'Silly' obviously is not the right word.
ReplyDeleteAlso at the Retreat Shirley Brandman made it clear to Superintendent Starr that she was not interested in seeing Gallup polls. Instead she wanted to have access to data that was meaningful and relevant to the work of the Board.
ReplyDeleteDanuta Wilson
Big deal. Shirley Nranan should have said something before MCPS spent $900k on the Gallup survey. Not after.
Delete$900k buys a lot of hand wipes, Kleenex, sanitizer and supplies that parents and teachers are expected to pay for throughout the school year, not to mention textbooks and workbooks. Teachers, please ask your MCEA leadership that you elected why as your representatives they decided to give almost one million dollars to Gallup staff who couldn't even be bothered to tailor questions to MCPS. The questions (e.g., 'do you have a best friend at work?') are canned questions. Did not cost Gallup one red cent. Please let us know and post here.
ReplyDelete