Breaking: MD State Board of Education Smacks MCPS Once Again. Electric Bus Contract Award Still Illegal. #LegalFees

At today's Maryland State Board of Education meeting, the State Board considered a request by the Montgomery County Board of Education to reconsider the State Board's decision from November 2025, that declared the MCPS award of the electric school bus contract to have been arbitrary, unreasonable and illegal. 

From the November 2025, State Board of Education decision: 

ABC7 reported on the State Board's decision.

In that news report, MCPS gave their typical no comment response and then never spoke about the decision again.  

In a statement to the I-Team, MCPS said it is still reviewing the state’s decision and has not yet analyzed the full implications for the district.

What the public never knew is that MCPS did in fact respond to the State Board's decision.  MCPS and the Board of Education went right back to their outside legal counsel and directed legal counsel to dispute the State Board's decision by filing a request for reconsideration.  MCPS and the Board of Education decided to spend more education dollars on outside lawyers. 

Today, the State Board responded to MCPS' request for reconsideration.  

The State Board DENIED Montgomery County Board of Education's request to reconsider the State Board's November 2025 decision that declared the Montgomery County Board of Education's upholding of the award of the electric school bus contract to HET MCPS, LLC to have been arbitrary, unreasonable and illegal. 

The State Board of Education announced this decision at today's meeting that was broadcast on YouTube.  The video of the announcement of the decision is below.  

 

7News hears from Md. company that objects MCPS' diesel, electric bus contracts

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — 7News took a closer look at an Appellate Court of Maryland document that instructs the State Board of Education to remand to the Montgomery County Board of Education for an administrative review of the MCPS electric bus procurement contract.

“We challenged it with a protest and that has escalated to October 2024,” Luis MacDonald, President of Autoflex Fleet told us.

The action was in response to a complaint filed by his Baltimore-based company.

MacDonald explained he was denied the original Montgomery County Public Schools electric bus contract due to flaws in the vendor evaluation and scoring process.

He told 7News favoritism was given to the selected vendor Highland Electric Fleets...

7News hears from Md. company that objects MCPS' diesel, electric bus contracts

BOE Member Shebra Evans Should Recuse Herself from Discussions of "In the Matter of AUTOFLEX FLEET, INC" After Endorsement from Plaintiff's Attorney

Litigation involving the MCPS electric school bus procurement is currently before the Montgomery County Board of Education. The Parents' Coalition made the Appellate Court Order of March 5, 2024, public.  

AutoFlex Fleet, Inc. has been represented by Ryan Spiegel in this litigation.  

Attorney Ryan Spiegel is also Delegate Ryan Spiegel and he recently endorsed Board of Education member Shebra Evans for re-election in November.  

Shebra Evans should now recuse herself of any further discussions of the AutoFlex Fleet litigation as it now appears that she has a personal connection with the plaintiff's attorney.  

Coming up at the County Council: Sept. 30th - IG Investigation of MCPS' Management of the EV School Bus 'Contract'

 

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/ondemand/index.html

BREAKING: MD Appellate Court Orders MoCo Board of Ed to Review $168M Electric School Bus Contract Award

The Appellate Court of Maryland has issued an Order vacating the Judgment of the Montgomery County Circuit Court In the Matter of AutoFlex Fleet, Inc. 

This Order (shown below) mandates that the matter must be returned to the Montgomery County Board of Education for an administrative review of the augmented evidentiary record with regard to the award of the $168 million dollar contract to HET MCPS, LLC for MCPS electric school buses.  

The Court said, "...the Contract must be reviewed in light of the adjudicated facts supporting the convictions of these DOT directors who were integrally involved in managing MCPS' bidding process, evaluating responding proposals, and awarding the Contract to an affiliate of the vendor they were exploiting." (Page 60 of Opinion below)

This litigation began with a protest filed by a losing bidder on this contract.  

AutoFlex Fleet, Inc. filed a written protest of the decision to award the Contract to HET MCPS, LLC on December 16, 2020.  

On March 5, 2024, the Appellate Court of Maryland released a 64 page opinion (shown below) detailing the matter and their decision. 

This litigation has gone from the initial protest by a losing bidder to MCPS (protest denied) 🠞 Montgomery County Board of Education (appeal denied) 🠞 Maryland State Board of Education (appeal denied) 🠞 Montgomery County Circuit Court (appeal denied) 🠞Maryland Appellate Court (Order issued) 🠞 then mandated back to 🠞 Montgomery County Circuit Court 🠞 Maryland State Board of Education 🠞 Montgomery County Board of Education.

Why has the Contract Award protest been sent back to the Montgomery County Board of Education for review?  

The very short answer is because 2 of the 3 (or 4) MCPS employees who reviewed the initial bids for the MCPS electric school bus contract have since been convicted of crimes including felony theft and misdemeanor misconduct in office in relation to a scheme to divert MCPS funds to an off the books account held by a subcontractor on the HET MCPS, LLC (Highland Electric) electric school bus proposal.  

HET MCPS, LLC was the winning bidder of the $168M MCPS electric school bus contract.  

AutoFlex Fleet, LLC wants the facts surrounding the criminal convictions of MCPS Department of Transportation (DOT) Director (Watkins) and Assistant (Ewald) to be reviewed in connection with their protest of the award of this contract.  

The Appellate Court of Maryland agrees with them that these criminal convictions should be part of the review of the awarding of the $168M MCPS electric school bus contract and so the matter goes back to the Board of Education for review with these criminal convictions in the record.  

Note:  There's a whole lot of legal fees being generated to pay for the Board of Education's defense of this litigation, with more to come.  The continued failure of the Board of Education to exert any oversight over MCPS continues to divert education funding away from classrooms to outside legal fees.   

539S2022 Mandate by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

539s22 in the Matter of Aut... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

BREAKING: Board of Education to Award $3.3M Contract to Non-Existent Company on Non-Existent Contract. Why not? No one cares. No oversight. No accountability. #electricschoolbuses

 

These are the names and faces of the Montgomery County Board of Education as of today.  

Not one of them knows how to read a contract or check a document.  Read their resumes here.  Multiple lawyers on the Board of Education, on their staff, and a whole team of lawyers on the MCPS payroll and not one of them can read a contract. 

All that education and it is completely useless. 

~~~

On January 12, 2023, the Montgomery County Board of Education will award a contract for $ 3,330,250 for an unknown number of electric school buses to a company that does not exist. 

The memorandum from MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight says she is requesting a contract EXTENSION with a company called Highland Electric Transportation, Inc.

There is currently no such company by that name.

If this were an EXTENSION of a previous contract for electric school buses then the name of the company granted the extension would be HET MCPS, LLC.  That's the company the Board of Education voted to award the original electric school bus contract. That's the name on the existing contract. 

Want to see the existing contract? We have a copy. Here is what the first page looks like:

See the name of the company that the Board of Education contracted with to supply electric school buses?  HET MCPS, LLC.

But wait, there's more. The original contract was for FOUR YEARS.

That contract hasn't expired yet.  

Why then is MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight requesting a contract extension tomorrow for one year?  The first contract hasn't expired.

Why does MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight want a new contract, with a company that doesn't exist, for an unknown number of electric school buses in the middle of the existing contract? 

We can guarantee that this question will not be answered at the Thursday, January 12, 2023, Board of Education meeting.  This item is already on the CONSENT AGENDA which means Board of Education members are being told to unanimously vote approval without questions.

Millions and millions of education dollars are being spent without any accountability, oversight or transparency. How is that working out for MCPS classrooms?

BREAKING: Vendor Files PROTEST with @mcps over Today's EMERGENCY $9.7M Diesel Bus Purchase. EV Vendors weren't able to bid on this purchase.

Hours before the Montgomery County Board of Education is set to approve the "emergency" $9.7 million dollar purchase of DIESEL school buses an electric school bus vendor has filed a PROTEST with the MCPS Procurement Unit.  

Electric School Bus vendors were not permitted to bid on the MCPS procurement of 64 School Buses on August 5th.  That purchase, made without a public bidding process, is set to be ratified at today's Board of Education meeting with a unanimous vote of the Board.  

64 DIESEL school buses were purchased by MCPS staff on August 5th.  Why didn't they consider purchasing 64 ELECTRIC school buses in alignment with the alleged goal to convert the entire MCPS bus fleet to electric?  

AutoFlex Fleet Protest to M... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

Councilmember Tom Hucker: "heard complaints... other bidders...were local felt like status as local & minority owned...wasn't given appropriate number of points..." #MCPSElectricSchoolBuses

On March 29, 2022, the Montgomery County Council discussed funding for a new MCPS bus depot.  

During the discussion Councilmember Tom Hucker states that he was recently speaking at a national conference and heard complaints about the MCPS electric bus procurement. Video below and at this link. 

Councilmember Hucker says he spoke with companies who could have bid on the MCPS Electric School Bus proposal but didn't, and companies who bid on the proposal and were rejected. 

[Twitter Image shows Councilmember Tom Hucker and Luis MacDonald of AutoFlex Fleet at Washington, DC Auto Show 2022.]

In the video clip below, Councilmember Hucker is speaking to Montgomery County Director of General Services David E. Dise.

 

MCPS is spending millions on electric buses, but only 7 are on the road. 7News asks why

ROCKVILLE, Md. (7News) — Montgomery County Public Schools has 24 new electric buses. Highland Electric Fleets delivered the buses starting in December of 2021, but 7News wants to know why four months later, only seven buses are out on the road transporting students?..

...The Parent's Coalition of Montgomery County, a local watchdog group, said Highland gave the State of Maryland an operational start date of August 2021 when it applied for an $817,000 grant to help pay for 19 of the district's buses. The Coalition points out some electric buses have had issues in other states....

https://wjla.com/features/i-team/school-bus-electric-buses-montgomery-county-public-schools-maryland-joe-biden-administration-mcps-highland-electric-fleets-transportation-fuel-epa-gas