The worsening relationship between MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast and the County Council combined with Weast’s scheduled departure in 2011 calls into question the future of the school system. Let’s move beyond the politics and look at the facts on the ground.
1. In 1970, roughly 95% of Montgomery County public school students were white. Today, they are 38% white, 23% African American, 23% Latino and 16% Asian American. MCPS claims it has students from more than 164 countries speaking 134 languages. This is an incredibly diverse student body.
2. The percentage of students receiving free or reduced price meals has risen from 22% of enrollees in FY 2001 to 27% today. English-for speakers-of-other-language (ESOL) students have grown from 7% of enrollees in FY 2001 to 12% today. These students require extra effort to help them achieve at the same levels as wealthy children or English speakers.
3. Despite these challenges, a higher percentage of MCPS African American students scored a 3 or higher on Advanced Placement exams (19.6%) than did all students nationwide (15.2%) in the Class of 2008. Latinos did even better (32.2%). MCPS scores were superior to the average for Maryland, which is ranked as the number one statewide public school system in the country.
4. Between 2000 and 2008, every demographic category of the student body recorded massive increases in both the number of Advanced Placement exams taken and the number of scores at 3 or higher. The numbers went up even more in 2009. This is extremely important for college preparation.
5. For the Class of 2001, 28.9% of MCPS African American students earned a college degree – very close to the national average for all students (29.6%). The rate for MCPS Latinos (24.2%) was not much lower.
Given the demographic context for MCPS, the odds-on result would be falling performance. But MCPS has more than held its own. If that success is to continue, the following issues must be addressed.
1. ESOL students and free-and-reduced meal students are only going to increase as a percentage of the student body. That imposes rising costs on the school system that the county cannot escape. It must either fund those costs and support efforts to adequately educate these students or the system’s quality will fall.
2. The county is in sharp competition with other school districts for talent. Fairfax is competitive with MCPS in every way. D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee may ultimately succeed in pushing through a massive pay increase for teachers who forgo tenure. And even though Frederick and Howard Counties may pay less in teacher salaries, their cost of living is much lower than in Montgomery County. While the county may not be able to afford significant wage increases for the moment, many more years of low or non-existent wage hikes will hit Montgomery’s teacher talent base hard.
3. The Board of Education and the County Council are weary of Jerry Weast’s power and his ready willingness to use it. They may be tempted to pick a weakling to succeed him. That will only damage the school system. Weast’s successor must be a strong leader who continues to collaborate with labor, encourages innovative programs like peer-assisted review for teachers, spreads money around to poorer schools and focuses relentlessly on measurable outcomes.
The stakes are high and go far, far beyond clashes of power and ego. Montgomery County is in a fierce economic competition with Fairfax whether its leaders sufficiently appreciate that fact or not. Fairfax has lower taxes than Montgomery in every category except property. The one factor that keeps Montgomery in the game is that its public schools match those in Fairfax. So the county’s leaders will have to bear down and focus on keeping that edge.
Even if it means another eighteen months of dealing with the Rogue Superintendent.
Thursday, December 03, 2009
The Rogue Superintendent, Part Four
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
The Rogue Superintendent, Part Three
Is Council Member Valerie Ervin right when she says that MCPS Superintendent Jerry Weast is a rogue? Here’s what our informant network had to say.
Spy #1:No, I do not agree. He is simply trying to look out for the school system, and keep it most viable and effective. They [the County Council] should not be surprised by this behavior. They have seen it over the last 10 years.
Spy #2:It was a little “rogue” to send that letter to Grasmick without talking to the council - essentially drawing attention to the [maintenance of effort] issue. But, on the whole, I think most people have a problem with him because he is political and people feel that a school superintendent shouldn’t be so political. My opinion is his political nature has been a benefit to the school system - he knows how to get things done.
Spy #3:If by “rogue” Valerie Ervin means operating outside normal or desirable controls, of course he is. He’s been a rogue since he arrived. Now it just looks like he is setting himself up for another contract when his current one expires. He appears to be standing up for “the kids,” but he’s really posturing before the Board and the unions, positioning himself as the only viable successor to himself. Don’t be surprised to see him use the MOE money he gets in the next budget to fund COLA and step increases for school system employees. With Jerry Weast, it is – and always has been – first and foremost about Jerry Weast. And that’s why he meets another definition of “rogue:” an unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person.
Spy #4:Weast is very adept at getting his way with the school board, politicians and others, and he has produced results. The man has a lot of power. I do find his “Gosh, gee whiz we’re going to work on that” act a little hard to stomach. He kind of reminds me of a combination of Opie Taylor and Rahm Emanuel - smiling country boy with brass knuckles hidden behind his back. Does that make him rogue? I don’t know, but I am very fond of Valerie Ervin and consider her opinion as something to be taken seriously.
Spy #5:At the federal level, it’s rarely helpful to have Generals or Cabinet Secretaries disagreeing in public with the President. In the same vein, the County is best served when it speaks with one voice on contentious dealings with the State. Where agency heads or other County employees decide to pursue their own independent agendas with the State or seek to undercut our County’s duly elected representatives in their dealings with the State, describing such an individual as a “rogue” employee is entirely appropriate.
Spy #6:I do not think Dr. Weast is a Rogue Superintendent. In fact, I credit him with maintaining one of the best school systems in the country. Obviously, he was provided the tools to succeed with increased education dollars over the years; and the teachers, support staff, and others are part of our success, too. However, I still believe he deserves a good amount of credit. During his tenure, the school system has become even larger and more diverse; there are more students needing English as a second language; and there are more lower-income families in the system and those with greater needs. Yet, we have seen continued progress in closing the achievement gap, more minority students taking AP exams, and our schools continue to maintain high marks when compared to other school systems throughout the country.
Spy #7:
Maryland has been rated nationally as having the number one school system in the country; Montgomery County schools can take a big part of the credit for that recognition. Being #1 does not happen by accident. Dr. Weast has done a great job considering the challenges.Rogue is an understatement. He’s irresponsible at best, a tyrant, a bully, abusive and worse. I’ve heard from board members who’ve been threatened by him in ways that I, and probably a court, would consider blackmail in order to get their acquiescence on a vote. Add into that his willingness to interfere in politics. School wise, he’s driven teachers from the schools, he wastes money on so-called “research indicates” programs that change almost as fast as seasons. His training for teachers are the ed equivalent of drive-by shootings. He over-looked or was involved with the Porter scandal, well covered up, where we buy this palm-based assessment program from his failing company. Carrasco gets caught using school facilities for his private company, during school hours, and Weast promotes him up into the administrative hierarchy rather than firing him.
Spy #8:Of course he’s rogue, that's why he’s been so effective in the past. But I think he’s done more for the school system than any other single person in county history. That happened because he came in with new ideas and the energy to get them done. Now, he’s a little tired from all the political fights and he’s settled in ideologically in such a way that he is now as much a barrier to school reform as a driver of it. He has also become more reliant on bureaucrats who could care less about kids in poverty or making the schools better. So the question for Weast is this: go out on a high note as one of the most widely respected and innovative superintendents in the country, or fade slowly into obscurity, increasingly undercutting a reputation for brilliant reform by opposing new reforms. And the question for Montgomery County is this: do we want to keep putting our schools on the cutting edge, or do we want to rest on our laurels?
Spy #9:I think people need to decide if they want a really nice guy, whom everyone loves, and gets rolled over by the County Council and County Executive, and have a mediocre school system, or do they want someone who holds his own, may not always be the most popular, holds out for the school system, and has one of the top school systems in the country? I don’t think there are too many people out there that could do it both ways.
The opinions of our informants reflect the split in the county’s political community over Weast’s style and his value to the schools. We believe that Weast has lost political capital for two reasons.
Jerry has done more for the unions than any previous superintendent, both in terms of wages and benefits. There has been more involvement by the community, PTA’s, unions in the budget, policy making, major decisions, than with any other superintendent ever. There has been more openness with this superintendent than ever before. I don’t believe there is another school system in the country that has made the strides we have in minority achievement, even with the transformation of our school system from majority white to majority minority. Dr. Weast is respected nationwide for his education initiatives, and is constantly asked for advice by the USDE.
Does Dr. Weast ruffle some feathers and have people dislike him? Absolutely! I can’t imagine doing his job well without getting some people upset.
1. A solid majority of the County Council agrees with Council Member Valerie Ervin’s statement to the Gazette that Weast is indeed a rogue. They are tired of a non-elected official holding so much power, running a separate organization with its own PR operation and making them look bad in the press. Weast makes no effort to massage politicians’ egos or to recognize both the rest of the county government’s budgetary needs as well as the office holders’ political needs. The contempt for Weast in Rockville has approached such a boiling point that he may be a net debit for the school system in terms of appealing to the County Council.
2. Weast’s three sources of leverage are diminishing. First, his in-house media outreach efforts are likely to be contradicted in public by elected office holders much more so than in the past. That will muddy the press coverage of MCPS and its needs.
Second, Weast’s allies on the Washington Post Editorial Board are both more restive and less powerful. A recent Post editorial warned Weast to not bargain any wage increases with the school unions, meaning that the newspaper’s traditional affection for Weast may be overtaken by its fiscal conservatism and anti-union outlook. Furthermore, the Post’s editorial credibility was severely damaged by the Boy King scandal. The Post’s editorial page (including its national and international columns) has just 185 Google subscribers, a lower total than MPW (262) or Just Up the Pike (239). In the online world, the Post’s editorials do not have as much reach as is commonly believed.
Third, Weast’s most powerful collaborator – MCEA – will be working on the margins in the next county election. No District Council Members have declared opponents at this point. On the At-Large side, George Leventhal is a strong bet for re-election with or without the Apple Ballot and Nancy Floreen has won without MCEA’s endorsement before. All of this means that the majority of the County Council Members will be returning with or without MCEA’s help, which reduces the union’s leverage. Furthermore, the horrendous budget situation will give the council an excuse to kill any new initiative if they so choose, even one supported by Weast and the unions.
Weast is a compelling figure and his relationship with the County Council makes for great political theater. But there is a far more important issue at stake: the future of the school system. We will conclude by examining that issue in Part Four.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
The Rogue Superintendent, Part Two
One reason why Montgomery County is struggling so much over its maintenance of effort (MOE) issue is the rocky relationship between the County Council and its “Rogue Superintendent,” Jerry Weast. Why does Weast attract so much resentment from Rockville?
History will look back on Jerry Weast as a towering figure in Montgomery County. He is brilliant, nationally respected, full of energy and devoid of fear. He can also be a head-cracking administrator who is dismissive of opponents. What he builds through his creativity and hard work is sometimes tarnished by his self-aggrandizing nature. He has long had a reputation for riding rough-shod over his board, occasionally talking down to them “as your leader.” Your author once participated in a joint meeting with Weast, a Council Member and several other officials and actually witnessed Weast holding forth on the political prospects of that Council Member as if that person was not in the room! But Weast’s ego, as hard as it may be to take, has also helped him to score victories in situations when a lesser superintendent would have backed down.
Some of Weast’s most important wins have been budgetary. Total MCPS enrollment has not risen much during his term, from 134,180 in FY 2001 (his first budget) to a projected 137,727 in FY 2010. But the cost per pupil has soared from $8,166 to $14,294 over the same period. Some of that cost has stemmed from the increase in students receiving free or reduced price meals from 22% of enrollees in FY 2001 to 27% today. Another cost generator has been the increase in English-for speakers-of-other-language (ESOL) students from 7% of enrollees in FY 2001 to 12% today. Weast has employed a combination of political savvy, ruthlessness and media outreach to make sure those needs are met. Weast has also focused on reducing the test score and graduation gap between different demographic groups and has met with some success. One source with experience in the school system comments, “He may be an [expletive deleted], but he gets things done.”
Weast is a relentless data-driven manager. Everywhere he goes, he carries reams of charts and statistics demonstrating both his challenges and his triumphs. And if he can’t carry enough data himself, he will bring along subordinates with even more. He uses this information to enforce an Empire of Numbers inside his domain. He wants results, results, RESULTS and he reacts poorly to excuses. This constant focus on statistics is both a mark of Weast’s competency and a weakness. Nervous parents value compassion, sensitivity and a willingness to listen. Politicians value deference and diplomacy. Such qualities are seldom shown by Montgomery’s hard-charging superintendent, a man who will never understand why others do not value data as much as he does.
Weast’s influence reaches far outside MCPS. He has cleverly cultivated the county’s school unions, involving them in formulating his budgets and implementing many policies. He has also rewarded good performance with generous contracts. Weast’s collaborative style on labor-management relations, including his use of peer reviews for teachers, contrasts starkly with heavy-handed D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee and the vast majority of private sector firms.
Weast and the unions have a common interest in maximizing the school budget and they make for a formidable tag team. County Executive Ike Leggett learned that in 2007, when he recommended a slightly lower increase than Weast requested, only to see a giant rally of school advocates on the council building steps. Weast also has an independent line to the Washington Post and benefits from fawning coverage and glowing editorials. Weast even influences the Post’s election endorsements, whether directly or indirectly. In 2006, the Post declined to endorse then-appointed School Board Member Nancy Navarro on the grounds that “we are disturbed by what we see as her tepid support of Mr. Weast, whose contract comes up for renewal next year.” The triple threat of Weast’s in-house media operation, the strength of the unions and the support of the Post has proven to be too much for most politicians to handle.
The superintendent’s power is not limitless. Community pressure caused Weast to delay his plan to close the county’s special education centers and he was defeated outright in his attempt to close Seven Locks Elementary School in Bethesda. Weast caused an uproar when he urged union leaders to endorse Nancy Navarro in the 2008 County Council special election, a debacle that contributed to her loss. The Board of Education just voted down his attempt to close a small elementary school in the rural western part of the county. And Weast’s tenure has been marred by multiple scandals involving his subordinates. Those problems along with the dispute over maintenance of effort and recent test score issues have emboldened the growing ranks of his enemies.
So is Weast a rogue? We’ll ask our informants in Part Three.
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Rogue Superintendent, Part One
County Council Member Valerie Ervin, the Chair of the Council’s Education Committee, recently called MCPS leader Jerry Weast a “rogue superintendent.” That statement is a culmination of years of tension between the County Council and the school system that has been recently exacerbated by budget difficulties. All of that is threatening to erupt in an all-out battle with consequences for the county’s future.
The immediate cause of this dispute is the county’s maintenance of effort (MOE) quandary. State law requires counties to spend at least as much local funding on education each fiscal year as they have the prior fiscal year. This year, Montgomery County asked the state for a waiver of that requirement in the amount of $79 million due to the poor state of the economy and the tax-limiting Ficker Amendment. The county’s Board of Education and Weast agreed with the grounds for a waiver and testified on its behalf. When the state denied the county’s request, the county arranged to give the school district the money to satisfy the state’s requirement, but took it back as a debt service charge for construction. Weast believed that the maneuver would apply just to one year, but the County Council refused to agree to that restriction. Weast then wrote State Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick asking whether the county’s budget maneuver was legal, prompting an opinion by Attorney General Doug Gansler stating that it was not. That may subject the county to penalties ranging from $23-45 million in lost state aid. Weast then blasted the County Council in a statement that was sent to the media but not to the council, prompting Council Member Ervin, who oversees his budget, to denounce him as a “rogue.”
The immediate issue surrounding the penalty is pressing. The budget gimmick approved by the council sent $79 million to the school system so that that money could be used to pay off bonds to build schools. If the state’s penalty applies directly to the school system, it will likely be paid from the money that was to be used for the bonds. That would leave the county responsible for paying off those bonds from another source of money. But if the county makes the school system eat the money, the impact would be unpredictable.
All of this occurs in the background of severe budget problems. The county learned in November that income tax revenues due from the state are $85.2 million lower than originally projected. A County Council budget analysis states:The total FY10 shortfall, based on the State’s new formula, could be in the range of $95 million, while the FY11 shortfall could be in the range of $110 million. These write downs alone could bring the County's estimated FY11 budget gap, which in September was projected at $364.4 million, to well over $500 million, despite the Council's November 17 approval of a $29.7 Savings Plan for FY10. Other factors could make the gap still larger.
In other words, no part of the county government has money laying around to pay off the penalty.
How did things get to this point? Multiple sources report that the school system offered the county a deal last spring to get around the $79 million MOE requirement. The terms of the deal were that the county would pay the schools the $79 million, but the schools would agree to hold the money in reserve. That money would then be available to finance next year’s budget. The reason that proposal fell apart was that many in Rockville did not trust Jerry Weast to sit on the money. And so the ill-fated budget gimmick was instituted, initiating the fall into the hole that the county now occupies.
That brings us back to a central factor that handicaps the ability of the county to respond to adversity: a basic distrust between Weast and some of the county’s elected officeholders. We’ll look more closely at that issue in Part Two.
