By CHRISTIAN LEE
Due to controversy, Dr. Monifa McKnight has stepped down as MCPS Superintendent as of February 2.
On January 22, McKnight released a statement concerning the Montgomery County Board of Education’s desire to remove her from her role as superintendent. In her statement, she noted that “The Board has never written, documented, or communicated any concern about [her] performance, and through the evaluation process has consistently affirmed that [she has] met expectations,” leading her to believe that her intended removal was based on something unrelated to her performance. She continued to state her willingness to “defend [her] reputation and [her] decades-long commitment to the students and families of MCPS.”
Just hours later, the Board of Education released a statement in response to McKnight, claiming that their reasoning concerned “a personnel matter” that was “in alignment with laws related to personnel matters,” and provided no further information.
Montgomery County Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi then announced the release of a new Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report, which detailed numerous deficiencies in MCPS’s complaint handling and investigation processes as they relate to employee misconduct. The report found that MCPS did not have a comprehensive protocol for addressing the evaluation, tracking, and disposition (or transferring) of complaints — additionally, MCPS’s Department of Compliance and Investigations (DCI) neither followed correct criteria when handling complaints, nor did they have comprehensive policies for conducting and documenting investigations. The OIG report proposed numerous solutions, such as implementing comprehensive policies regarding the processing of complaints, and assessing DCI staffing and training needs under stricter oversight.
At the center of these investigations was Dr. Joel Beidleman, who served as the principal of Farquhar Middle School despite being reported to MCPS eighteen times over the last decade for alleged sexual harassment, workplace bullying, and employee misconduct in other schools. On June 27, MCPS promoted him to be the new principal at Paint Branch High School, placing him on “extended leave” a few months later—only after The Washington Post sent MCPS questions relating to an investigative article about complaints surrounding Beidleman’s misconduct.
MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram announced that Beidleman stopped receiving a salary as of December 18 and was no longer an employee of MCPS as of January 24. Personnel privacy laws prohibited him from providing any more information. The same day as the OIG report’s release, Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson, Vice President and Audit Committee Chair Kate Stewart, and Education and Culture Committee Chair Will Jawando expressed their gratitude for the report and announced that the Audit and Education and Culture Committee would meet jointly on February 8 to conduct an oversight hearing of the report. (This meeting will take place before publication but after this article is sent to print.)
McKnight also shared her gratitude for the Montgomery County Inspector General and stated she had been working with her team over the last several months to implement dozens of corrective actions that were in alignment with the report. She shared updates on that work through an MCPS Action Plan Update, both in October 2023 and January 2024. The most recent report in January outlined numerous updates including the enhanced monitoring and resolution of complaints, investigative tracking software, leadership changes and staff expansion in the DCI, and eligibility requirements in promotion processes.
On January 25, the Montgomery County Education Association (MECA), MCPS’s teachers’ union expressed their disappointment with what they characterize as ongoing corruption in MCPS leadership: “Today’s release of the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) report on MCPS complaint processing makes clear that the superintendent and other top executives, either due to incompetence or willful avoidance of duty, allowed credible allegations of sexual harassment and bullying to go unaddressed… [The Board] should appoint leaders who will work to address the challenges we face in our work each day, such as staffing shortages in special education and other crucial areas, unfilled substitute teaching positions and related unpaid class coverage, and concerns over a lack of covid leave.”
Many have speculated that McKnight was at least partly responsible for Beidleman’s promotion, given evidence of their decade-long friendship (as reported in MoCo360) and McKnight’s delayed reaction against the allegations. However, there is evidence of others’ involvement as well.
The DCI coordinator who authored a report on Beidleman that cleared him of misconduct allegations, Khalid Walker, claims that DCI director Michaele Simmons ordered him to change his initial findings.
On July 11, Walker told MoCo360 that Simmons entered his office with a hard copy of his findings of Beidleman. Walker protested, “This isn’t the right thing to do—I really think this is sexual harassment,” after which Simmons replied, “If we find sexual harassment, we have to fire [Beidleman].” She then ordered Walker to change the report. There were no witnesses to the conversation, and Simmons declined to comment on Walker’s claims.
Walker also claims MCPS retaliated against him—specifically, Chief of Human Resources and Development April Key and Chief Operations Officer Brian Hull, whose position in MCPS is second only to McKnight—for speaking to outside investigators about the matter.
With such alleged corruption going unnoticed under McKnight’s leadership, or at worst, being given permission by McKnight, many staff and community members in MCPS are seeking new leadership to refine MCPS and DCI policies. At the same time, numerous MCPS officials, principals, and administrators are leaving their positions.
Cram confirmed to Montgomery Community Media that Chief of District Operations Dana Edwards was on administrative leave as of January 31, but stated personnel privacy laws prohibited MCPS from providing further information. Before her promotion to Chief of District Operations, Edwards served as a director in the Department of Certification and Staffing in the Office of Human Resources and Development, when Beidleman’s complaints were filed.
Following these departures, on February 2, the Board of Education officially announced their parting with McKnight: “In the coming days, we will begin a national search for a new superintendent. On February 6, 2024 the Board will name an interim superintendent to lead the system through the remainder of the 2023-24 school year. In the short term, Brian Hull, Chief Operating Officer, will serve as acting superintendent.”
McKnight then released a statement in response to their announcement, thanking MCPS staff and families for granting her the chance to serve their students. “I have felt over the past several months, there has been a distraction,” she wrote. “When the focus is no longer on whom I have agreed to serve, I must control my own fate. I have also maintained that it is critical that my reputation remains grounded in facts and truth.”
On February 6, the Montgomery County Board of Education appointed Dr. Monique Felder as interim superintendent. Felder has served as the superintendent for Orange County Public Schools in North Carolina; she has also served as the Chief Academic Officer for Metro Nashville Public Schools (TN), as an executive director for Prince George’s County Public Schools (MD), and as a teacher, the Director of Accelerated and Enriched Instruction, and Director of the Interventions Network for MCPS.
Karla Silvestre, President of the Board of Education, stated, “We are confident that her background in district leadership, instruction and administration makes her the right person to carry us through this transition and begin the work to rebuild trust among staff and the community, while we identify the next permanent superintendent.”
While the appointment of a new superintendent has brought relief to many in MCPS, a burning question still lingers in the minds of many—how many others are responsible for Beidleman’s promotion, and how can MCPS ensure this will never happen again? More information regarding the matter will be released to the public on February 8, during the joint committee session between the Audit and Education and Culture Committees.
February 2024
The Prowler 