The sudden departure of Dr. Joshua Starr from MCPS has been a difficult process to watch for many in the MoCoEdBlog community for several reasons.  One of the most significant of them is that as a collection of education professionals we considered Josh Starr a colleague and have appreciated his openness and his ideas, which many of us found to be well reasoned and good for the educational system.  We are a collection of individuals with different backgrounds and views and we do not speak with one voice, but rather have come together to create a forum for discussion about serious issues affecting Montgomery County’s educational challenges and opportunities.  We have refrained from commenting during the Board’s deliberations.  We are not elected officials with any official role, but rather professionals who come together to share our knowledge of MCPS and the national educational world.  We were not close to the discussions between Dr. Starr and the Board and we don’t know what they know.  We do, however, have a lot of questions.

In the coming weeks, we plan to discuss some issues we believe are important for the Montgomery County education community, including the process by which Dr. Starr was let go and what kind of superintendent MCPS should have in the future.  Having exercised this authority the Board now can and should take responsibility for setting a clear direction for the system.  The days of having the superintendent dictate policy to them (Weast would say openly “The Board works for me”) are over.  Now our Board of Education needs to articulate a vision and explain their thinking.  We at MoCoEdBlog are ready to support whoever is responsible for leading our schools.  It is with great sadness for us that it will not be Josh Starr whose open style, big ideas, and vision for change we admired.

Burnie Bond
Stephanie Halloran
Joe Hawkins
Rick Kahlenberg
Phil Piety
Elena Silva
Mark Simon
Elaine Weiss