Pay would more than double for Montgomery County, Md., school board members under proposal

A commission formed to explore a pay increase for school board members in Montgomery County — Maryland's largest school system — is recommending their pay more than double.

The Board of Education Compensation Commission urged this month that the pay for elected school board members be raised to $60,000 annually and that the president of the board get a boost to $70,000.

Currently, board members receive $25,000, and the president earns $29,000.

The commission also recommended that the board’s student representative receive a scholarship that is either 80 percent of the board members’ salary or a $40,000 scholarship, whichever is greater. The student would also receive a 20 percent stipend. Currently, the student representative receives a $5,000 scholarship.

“The commission believes that the current salary level is not reflective of the time and effort needed for a board member to fulfill their duties and responsibilities, nor of the type of work that the board is called on to perform,” Jaye Espy, chairwoman of the commission, said in testimony Dec. 9 before the Montgomery County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly. The pay increase requires the General Assembly’s approval...

...“We have not supported increasing the stipend because we don’t see the effort on their part to participate in the administration of the school system,” said Janis Sartucci of the Parents’ Coalition of Montgomery County, an advocacy organization focused on transparency and performance of Montgomery County’s public schools. “The board members do not do the hard work of running the school system. They are more figureheads.”

Sartucci said board members are not involved in writing the nuts and bolts of the operating budget or the capital budget and said her group is opposed to money being diverted from schools.

“Until our classrooms are getting all the education dollars they need, we do not see the urgency to increase the board member stipend,” she said...

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