Testimony to MCPS Strategic Planning and
Budgeting Forum
By Cindy Kerr, MCCPTA President
Goal 3: Strengthen Productive
Partnerships for Education
Goal 4: Create a Positive Work
Environment in a Self renewing Organization
Good
Evening, I am Cindy Kerr, President of the
On
behalf of the 56,000 members of the MCCPTA, I want to again thank the BOE for
the opportunity to provide input into the MCPS’ Planning Phase with respect to
MCPS Goal 3: Strengthen Productive Partnerships for Education, and Goal 4:
Create a Positive Work Environment in a Self renewing Organization.
At
MCCPTA we are proud of the thousands of hours of free labor parents donate to
the school system each year as volunteers and the countless thousands of
dollars donated to schools by the work of local PTAs. Taken together, the
contributions of concerned and committed parents make MCCPTA your largest
“business” partner by far. For this reason, one might be surprised by the
minimal discussion of MCCPTA in the Strategic Plan discussion of Goal 3:
Strengthening Productive Partnerships for Education. Parents of public
schoolchildren and their PTA organizations are the primary stakeholders of MCPS
and are therefore the primary collaborators with MCPS.
However,
MCPS has chosen to adopt a strategic planning methodology that focuses almost
exclusively on “Transformational Initiatives”, and it appears that there are no
transformational initiatives that deal directly with MCCPTA. MCCPTA, as a key
stakeholder for MCPS, would like to work with the BOE to remedy this
deficiency. MCCPTA has long enjoyed a mutually productive relationship with the
BOE and MCPS and we are sure that together, we can define ways to continue and
improve that partnership. In addition, we urge the BOE to take care that the
intense focus on Transformational Initiatives, does not come at the expense of
other on-going, yet crucially important, activities and academic needs
especially since exclusive focus on the Transformational Initiatives means that
the Strategic Plan will generally only be able to drive a small portion of the
entire operating budget
One
possible “Transformation initiative” is for MCPS to partner with local PTAs to
“pilot” programs in their schools. There are a myriad of examples of
parent and PTA driven initiatives at the local level, which are designed to
address needs recognized within local communities. MCPS could help evaluate
these grass roots programs, and if proven effective, MCPS would take over
funding of the program. For example, for the last several years, the
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Cluster PTAs, with minimal funding support from MCPS, has
provided a two-week Summer Scholars elementary program for students who are one
or more years below grade level in math or reading. MCPS could partner
with the PTA to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, and it’s suitability
for adoption by MCPS on a county-wide basis.
In
addition, MCCPTA urges a transformation initiative that allows for greater
involvement by non-English speaking communities in “productive partnerships for
education”. Our local PTAs identify the lack of adequate translation
resources as a critical gap. In addition, they decry the decreasing
availability of wrap around services in middle and high school. These gaps
suggest that MCPS could be doing more to bring community resources into the
schools. Partnerships with community-based social services to better support
the health and welfare of our children in the secondary programs are
critical. Work with community ethnic leaders and ethnic media must be
more fully explored to tap into networks that will better serve our non-English
speaking students and their families. MCPS needs to form stronger local
coalitions if we are to reach ALL the children.
Finally,
as we focus on MCPS Goal 3, Strengthening Productive Partnerships for
Education, it is distressing for MCCPTA to realize that the BOE has chosen to
unilaterally disrupt a 20-year practice of hearing concerns from MCCPTA and
from each cluster in our County in testimony. These strategic planning
forums involve a much-needed avenue for greater public involvement in the
identification of selected long-range strategic planning issues before the
development of the recommended operating budget, but they do not offer a
meaningful substitute for the traditional public hearing in January where PTA
can comment on the actual allocation of funds as recommended in the MCPS
Operating budget. We once again urge the BOE to reinstate preset designated
testimony times for MCCPTA and for PTA cluster coordinators. As your
largest partner, MCCPTA merits the designated time to offer coordinated,
thoughtful input from the local schools whose input should be evaluated rather
than dissipated randomly among the spectrum of diverse community interests.
Examining
Goals 3 and 4 it is difficult to judge whether specific strategies and
initiatives are on target to achieve the goal based on available performance
and cost information. As always, the critical question for
our children is—do the partnerships and initiatives MCPS has undertaken
benefit the children directly? For Goal 3, what do our children gain from the
time and effort put into building and maintaining these partnerships? At a time
when we are losing staff support resources, do we have partners in the business
and academic world who will volunteer their time to tutor students regularly in
math or science? At a time when so many of our students need to work, are
there alternatives to the Saturday Schools program that might better suit their
needs? At the end of last academic year, roughly 20% of our high schools
students had below a 2.0 grade point average making them academically
ineligible. We need to explore new and more creative ways of reaching out
to these kids.
For
Goal 4, development, retention, and recruitment of talented teachers are
fundamental to maintaining a high quality of education in
In
addition, consider the following brief comments on a few of the Goal 3 and 4
initiatives:
Goal
3
·
Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education (MCBRE) shows promise in helping
to improve MCPS' financial management and operational efficiency. MCCPTA would
caution MCPS from too direct an alignment of school programs to the needs of
the business community, as the local business community is only one of many
possible futures for MCPS students. MCBRE should be self-supporting and
not require MCPS funds.
·
Partnerships with
·
Montgomery College Partnerships are vital. In addition to the direct
benefit for current students, forty percent of MPCS students attend the College
within two years of graduation.
·
MCPS Partnerships with Employee Organization are fundamental to a well
functioning school system.
Goal
4
·
Professional Growth and Development System for: Teachers, Administrators and
Supervisors, Supporting Services Staff are fundamental to Recruitment,
Retention and Placement of Highly Qualified Staff.
·
Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction Grade-Level Training must be provided
in time for Teachers to effectively implement the revised curriculum
·
Diversity Training and Development is crucial with our increasingly diverse
County
·
The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, if properly executed, should
provide MCPS with mechanisms for better management, alignment with goals, and a
Nationally know framework that can help assess performance on a wide range of
key indicators such as: student learning outcomes, student and stakeholder
satisfaction results, budgetary and financial results, faculty and staff
performance, and operational outcomes.
We
are looking forward to hearing back from MCPS on the results of these forums,
and to having our MCCPTA clusters testify during preset designated times in
January.