Urgent: contact Board of Ed

[Joanna Pappafotis]

KP Community,

Please consider contacting Board of Education members before June 4 to prevent them from making catastrophic staffing cuts recommended by Superintendent Thomas Taylor who claimed he had no choice, but at the same time has chosen to purchase new curriculum and rollout a costly new regional program model. These cuts will affect everyone: students, teachers, administration, families, and communities in Montgomery County. The services these staff members provide in schools are critical to the safety and well being of our students and speaking as a 26 year veteran secondary English teacher, in the case of composition assistants in high schools, to the academic and intellectual development of our students in English classes.

I will also add that in an MCPS Facebook Educators’ Group, one of our beloved, hard working KP teachers wrote this on social media about a new Language Arts curriculum they just found out they yet again have to learn next year: I am optimistic by nature and I do not mind putting in the work, but this constant switching is a recipe for burnout. I feel like I am always scrambling, even as an experienced teacher with solid skills. Honestly, it just makes me want to cry. Staff are so overextended right now, and two new ES curriculums is just so much, even if the CKLA is similar.

My Facebook Post with Board of Ed # and emails:

Friends and family in Montgomery County, please consider emailing (emails below) or calling the Board of Education [240-740-3030] before their June 4th vote to urge them to REJECT Superintendent Thomas Taylor's proposed cuts due to the County Council underfunding

us by $36 million.

Although he claimed he tried to keep the cuts away from the classroom and from affecting students as much as possible in a video message he sent to us, Taylor is proposing the elimination of critical positions that will have devastating impacts on our schools, families and communities. Here are some of the cuts:

43 School Social Workers

27 Pupil Personnel Workers

18 School Psychologists

15 High School Staff Development Teacher FTE’s

10 Instructional Specialists

3 Consulting Teachers

**Composition Assistants at all high schools (provide daily support to English teachers and students in English classes)

-College and Career Navigators

-Family Engagement Specialists

-Media Assistants

As a 26 year veteran MCPS teacher, I can easily say we are being asked to do more with less and the needs of the students have only increased and our jobs have only become more challenging. We NEED more adults helping us teach, mentor, and guide your children,not LESS. At the same time, I hear my elementary and middle school colleagues are continally being expected to roll out new curriculum and again the curriculum is changing in elementary school math and English. Why do we keep spending money on new curriculum when we have expert teachers who are HIGHLY QUALIFIED and able to adapt curricula to our modern times and our current students' needs and frankly, are usually ahead of those who are not on the ground anyway, with all due respect to those working for textbook companies? For instance, the amazing 3rd grade team at my child's MCPS school had the kids complete 4 or 5 book reports this year. Do you think that was in the canned Amplify curriculum that MCPS has spent millions of dollars on that only focuses on reading non fiction? Yes, we like it, but no, we don't like that they are not reading literature! And my friend teaching 8th grade English reports they are not reading any full length texts anymore, just shorter excerpts? Sounds like teaching to the test and to our ADHD times to me when we should be fighting that and trying to foster a love of reading, reading stamina, and an ability to focus on something for more than 2 minutes. I digress, but I don't. 

From our union president: 

NO new curricula

NO new professional development

NO new positions

NO new programs and initiatives

MCPS needs to prioritize people over programs in next year’s budget.

We, educators, understand the impact these losses would have on our students, our schools, and our own workloads. While this problem is not of the Board’s making, it is their job to ensure these cuts are implemented in a way that minimizes the impact on critical services as much as possible. And these positions are critical services.

The Board must look at the entire budget and eliminate any expenditures that are not current critical services BEFORE it cuts existing positions and triggers potential layoffs.

Email the Board of Education

Grace Rivera-Oven, President, District 1, Graciela_R...@mcpsmd.org   

Brenda Wolff, Vice President, District 5, Brenda...@mcpsmd.org               

Rita Montoya, At-Large, Rita_M_...@mcpsmd.org

Karla Silvestre, At-Large, Karla_S...@mcpsmd.org

Laura Stewart, District 4, Laura_M...@mcpsmd.org

Julie Yang, District 3,  Julie...@mcpsmd.org

Natalie Zimmerman, District 2,  natalie_...@mcpsmd.org

Anuva Maloo, Student Member, Anuva_...@mcpsmd.org