Gazette: Montgomery school board takes pre-emptive action to protect budget

State action sought to limit cuts

by Erin Cunningham | Staff Writer

...In a March 2 memo, attorneys for the county Board of Education requested that the state board advise the Montgomery County Council that it cannot fund the school system below a state-imposed standard — the maintenance of effort... 

...In the memo, the county board states that the council does not have the authority to reduce the school system's budget under state law... 

...The board is using the same legal opinion it stated in a threatened lawsuit against the council last year. The council disagrees with the legal opinion... 

...They didn't learn anything from last year," Councilman Marc B. Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park said of the school system. "They immediately go to the guns as quickly as possible."
Elrich said the school board is "clueless as far as how they work with people." 

...Montgomery County Council President Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring said she and Councilwoman Nancy Navarro (D-Dist. 4) of Silver Spring met with Barclay on Friday, and he did not mention the memo to the state board. 

The Columbia law firm representing the school board, Carney, Kelehan, Bresler, Bennett & Scherr LLP — the same firm that drafted the lawsuit on behalf of the board last year — sent the memo to the council via regular mail March 2 

Full article at this link. 

The council did not receive it until Monday.
Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland Department of Education, said the state board had not received the memo as of 4 p.m. Monday.