Buying in Montgomery County Maryland
Why has Montgomery County’s one-time top school system fallen in the ranks? The last couple years have not been good for Montgomery County Schools in Maryland. It seems as though each day brought another headline about MCPS and they weren’t positive headlines. What’s happening and how will it affect you and your kiddos?
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Montgomery County Public Schools – what happened? The overarching theme for many of the problems comes down to a few issues. Can they be fixed? Let’s get to it!
MCPS is “underfunded”
Budget season just concluded. The MoCo County Council approved $3.32B for the school system. The school board said it was $30.5M short of what they needed.
The powers that be within the school system say that there’s not enough tax dollars to fund what needs to be funded at the schools. Note to all – that means taxes will likely go up. County Executive Erlich says that the taxes in MoCo need to be structured like Virginia’s jurisdictions which uses special taxing districts to tax real estate development and commercial property. So then developers will raise prices on homes, making them even more unaffordable.
Why wasn’t MCPS given the full amount they requested? The county council didn’t believe they needed it. They felt the school system mismanaged their funds. They have the receipts to prove it too. Often cited is their mismanagement of a bus contract that cost the school system millions. The county signed a contract to move to electric buses. The delivery of said buses was late and they had constant mechanical failures. The numbers are stupid. They wasted so much on this and the bus contractor ultimately couldn’t perform.
Then There’s the Leadership
Superintendent Monifa McKnight was in her position for about two years before she left/resigned/parted ways with MCPS – whatever term they use for: “This wasn’t working!” Don’t cry for her Argentina, the truth is she got payout… a $1.3M payout.
Surprise. There’s subsequently been a bill proposed to limit Superintendent termination payouts. Who. Is. Watching. The. Cash. Register. I’d like to know.
In the November elections, the voters pushed out three school board incumbents, bringing in three new people to the school board positions. This wasn’t a surprise considering that many viewed the board as totally screwing up…because how DOES a middle school Principal with dozens of sexual harassment allegations against him get promoted? Ask McKnight and the old board. Nevermind, ask me.
The Beidleman Scandal
Joel Beidleman was a middle school Principal who amassed 25 different written complaints against him for sexual harassment and discrimination. The long story short is he was promoted to be a High School Principal before he was fired. The long story long is online and it’s terrible. He harassed the crap out of a teacher for years because she wouldn’t sleep with him. I can’t believe people had to work under this guy. What a damn failure of an entire school system. If you’ve ever desired to work for someone who tells you to shave your pubic hair and sell it, look this guy up and see if he’ll hire you.
Understaffed & Losing Critical Staff
There’s a lack of funding for student needs and schools don’t have the educators and paraeducators necessary to accommodate student needs. Some of these schools have staff that has turned over completely in the last couple years. I know teachers who are gold, and they left or are leaving because it is that bad. Imagine leaving before you can retire with a full pension. That’s how you know it’s bad.
Do Colleges Still Value MCPS?
Word on the street is that college professors know who went to MCPS because they are completely unprepared.
Crumbling Buildings
A meeting that parents and community members had with the County Executive about the school system was supposed to be at one of the middle schools, until there was a carbon monoxide leak in the school’s boiler room. Air quality is a problem in many of the schools. Bathrooms in disrepair in many schools as well as faulty elevators and inconvenient egress at Wootton High School for students in wheelchairs.
Eastern Middle School’s building is reported to have contaminated water in the water fountains, broken windows, constant roof leaks and flooding and heat and air conditioning issues.
Cold Spring Elementary School also has a leaking roof and faulty heating and air. The school also has an open layout, so there are not classroom walls which parents feel is a safety issue in the world of school shootings, never mind the fact that open spaces are terrible learning environments. We all learned that at my elementary school in the 80’s.
The N Word
Come on you assholes. And I don’t just mean the stupid kids who wrote this word on the desk of a black student. The Wootton Principal was placed on leave for failure to report this. Here’s how it unfolded. On a Monday, someone writes the “N” word on the desk of a black student. The same day, the student reported the incident in writing to the teacher, but nothing happened. On Tuesday, the student’s parent followed up in writing. Still nothing. On Thursday, other students followed up. Still, nothing was sent to the school community until Friday. Teachers reported that this was not the first nor the second time that racist things happened at Wootton.
New Boundaries
With a new high school – Crown in Gaithersburg, the expansion of Damascus High School and reopening Charles W. Woodward High School, the new Superintendent Thomas Taylor announced a boundary study. They wisely hired an independent company to conduct the boundary study, but these never end well. People have made decisions to buy homes in certain areas just for the access to a specific school. In some parts of the county, the difference between one school area and another across the street can mean a hundred thousand dollars difference in your home’s value.
Poor Communication
This is a common complaint. Poor communication and follow through from the school district. Transparency is often cited as a huge problem.
Keep Your Political Opinions to Yourself
Inside Scoop – teachers have been put on leave for comments made about Israeli/Palestine.
