#MCPS Legal Fees Continue to Balloon Out of Control

Remember when Montgomery County Public Schools hired a General Counsel? Taxpayers obviously assumed that the new General Counsel would take over some of the legal work in-house, promoting cost efficiencies. Special education advocates were hopeful that a new era of focusing on what is best for special education students and their families would begin, and that the money bleeding out to pay for outside special education counsel could instead be spent on actual special education services for children.

Nope.

Non-special Education Legal Expenses

The total charges for non-special education legal expenses in September 2016 were $152,305.
The year-to-date total of $465,675 is $164,776 (54.8 percent) more than the same period
in the previous year. The non-Capital Improvements Program year-to-date portion totals
$441,947. This is $219,097 (98.3 percent) more than the same period in the previous year.

Special Education Legal Expenses

Special education legal fees for outside counsel for September 2016 totaled $2,980, all of which
were for Jeffery A. Krew. The year-to-date total of $33,698 is $6,608 (24.4 percent) more than
the same period in the previous year.