Thomas Taylor's $13.9 Million Dollar Mistake

On October 10th the Montgomery County Board of Education agreed to purchase $13.9 million in diesel school buses after discussing the acquisition in a closed session.  

We know that the Board of Education had come to a closed session agreement because the final purchase of the diesel buses was put on the October 10th CONSENT AGENDA.  Consent Agendas are for items that are believed to be unanimous ahead of time.

We also saw the September 26, 2024, Board of Education Closed Session minutes where the ACQUISITION of diesel school buses was recorded.  That would probably be when Superintendent Taylor was able to determine that the Board of Education would unanimously vote for his $13.9 million purchase if he put it on the October 10th Consent Agenda.  

The Parents' Coalition pointed out that this major purchase was being conducted behind closed doors without any transparency or public discussion.  We said that was a problem.

We were correct. 

When the October 10, 2024, Agenda Item for the purchase of $13.9 million in diesel school buses was posted, the Parents' Coalition researched the Resolution.  We called Sourcewell the organization referenced in the Superintendent's Resolution, and we researched the contract that was supposedly being used.  

Superintendent Taylor's Resolution did not add up.  The cited contract did not include the vendor in the BOE Resolution.  

ABC7 reported on the Board of Education's vote to spend $13.9 million on diesel school buses.  In response to that report the Board of Education put out a statement confirming that the acquisition of diesel buses was "covered" in a Closed Session. The Board attempted to claim that was a permitted Closed Session matter.  We will see what the Open Meetings Act Compliance Board has to say about that.   

Not only was the purchase of diesel school buses a change from the Board of Education's stated goal of becoming a 100% electric school bus district, but the Resolution itself did not use a contract that was going to provide for the purchase of diesel school buses from a company in Virginia.  

Superintendent Taylor's Resolution did not make any sense, was not transparent, and did not provide any opportunity for the public to comment on this major change from the Board of Education's stated goal of a 100% electric school bus fleet. 

On October 10, 2024, the Montgomery County Board of Education sat in silence and passed Superintendent Taylor's Resolution without discussion.  Why did they do that?  Because they had already discussed the acquisition of diesel school buses in a Closed Session on September 26th.  On October 10th they sat with their mouths closed and rubber stamped a Resolution to spend $13.9 million without ever seeing the contract or confirming the details.  

And now today, Superintendent Taylor has put forth another Resolution to correct the major mistake in his October 10th Resolution. 

Just as the Parents' Coalition had discovered, his October 10th Resolution was not correct. 

The Montgomery County Inspector General has previously cited the Board of Education for approving Resolutions that claim to be "bridge contracts" but, in fact, are not really using the contracts they claim to be "bridging".  

It is easy for MCPS to fake a Resolution for a procurement when the actual contract is never made public, and the contract is never even seen by the Board of Education members.  

In this case, the Superintendent was able to put forth an inaccurate Resolution on October 10th to spend $13.9 million and the Board of Education happily voted unanimously to approve that expenditure without exerting any oversight.  

Today they will attempt to fix that $13.9 million mistake. 

Again, the Resolution will be on the Consent Agenda.