It's a small world and the County Council can't find anyone to brief them on MCPS education issues except a former MCPS Associate Superintendent who now works for the County Council's Education Committee. The County Council staffer is Essie McGuire and Ms. McGuire has decided that the topic for discussion at the Council's Thursday, September 28, 2023, Education Committee will be:
Discussion - Review of Initial Report Findings and Processes for Investigations of Employee Misconduct in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)
However, after stating that discussion topic Ms. McGuire has papered the Councilmembers with 103 pages of copied MCPS policies and procedures, all easily available on the MCPS website.
Ms. McGuire does not provide the Councilmembers with any information that could assist them in understanding their oversight powers. She does not provide a list of inquiries that could be made by Councilmembers.
Ms. McGuire is also a former Executive Director to the MCPS Chief Operating Officer. In that position Ms. McGuire worked closely with the MCPS Office of Human Resources and was frequently included in Board of Education Closed Meetings.
How about a new topic for the Council's Thursday Education Committee meeting?
What did Ms. McGuire know about the Beidleman allegations? If she knew, when did she know it and what actions did she take to address or investigate those allegations, if any?
And then, how about Ms. McGuire stepping away from any Council deliberations involving MCPS Human Resources issues?
Job description for Executive Director for Chief Operating OfficerJob description includes: Works closely with the Office of Human Resources and Development regarding personnel and other human resources matters.
In this position she was in Closed Sessions of the Board of Education where personnel issues would be discussed.For example: 170314 Report of Closed Sessions.pdf (boarddocs.com)
Superintendent Jack Smith's "vision" with 3 administrative heads, one was Essie McGuire.
Essie McGuire back to County Council job of staff member handling MCPS matters
This seems like a fair question for the County Council and MCPS BOE to address:
ReplyDeleteHow many days of PAID leave have been spent on administrators as a disciplinary action or while some type of appeal was being processed, and what has been the total COST of those days of leave? Beidleman, Munsey, Ewald, Watkins....No idea who else.
What about Brandy Heckert? Moved from principal to AP. Something was covered up there too.
ReplyDeleteThat's speculation: principals have been demoted before. I have never heard even a rumor about Heckert breaking the law. Have you? The other 4 who were mentioned have ALL faced harassment complaints or criminal charges.
DeleteAll MCPS board members need to be fired. All appointments are reviewed and approved by the BOE. So they approved Beidleman being
ReplyDeleteappointed as Paint Branch Principal, which means the BOE did not do their vetting in making sure everything was a green light before appointing him as the new principal of Paint Branch. If Dr. McKnight was asked to step down due to Beidleman's behavior, the BOE member should be fired or asked to step down as well.