@mcps @mocoboe COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team member tweets:

Silence from the MCPS/Montgomery County Board of Education COVID-19 Advisory Team as Montgomery County Public Schools are in another COVID-19 surge.  No advice, no guidance, no updates, no information whatsoever from this super secret advisory team.

But one member of the team took to Twitter to Tweet advice:  

 

https://twitter.com/clrosche/status/1525245895234793472?s=20&t=Yd_xx5UEUQ96zO4CH_SIyQ

Exclusive: As @mcps @mocoboe COVID-19 Cases Rise, Meet the Secret MCPS COVID Operations Advisory Team

On September 15, 2021, Superintendent Monifa McKnight formed the MCPS COVID-19 Operations Advisory Committee as part of the Montgomery County Board of Education's Five-Point Plan for Further COVID Safety and Mitigation.

Establish a COVID-19 operations advisory committee

The committee will comprise MCPS staff and students, representatives from the employee associations, MCCPTA and community organizations. We will request a DHHS representative to also serve on the committee. Committee feedback will help guide the district’s work in responding to COVID-19 throughout the year. 

But what happened to the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Committee?  First, they were renamed the Team instead of Committee to allow for the cool acronym of COAT.   

COAT began meeting on Thursdays with the first meeting on October 7, 2021. 

Then what happened?  Nothing.

COAT has never issued any reports, they have never presented to the Board of Education, they have never been heard from ever. Further, Board of Education President Brenda Wolff disavowed interest in COAT.

What we now know is that as soon as COAT began meeting attendees were told that meetings were CONFIDENTIAL.  

Apparently the COVID-19 Pandemic is a secret that MCPS administrators and the Board of Education think can be hidden from teachers, staff, students and parents.  

The Parents' Coalition has obtained the list of COAT members. 50 members are adults and 6 are students.  

27 members of COAT are MCPS employees

10 members are from groups outside MCPS, but with MCPS connections (MCCPTA/PTA etc...)

8 members are from Montgomery County Government

5 members are labeled as medical related

6 members are students - student names are not listed 

Meet the Team that isn't telling you what they are doing or recommending during the COVID-19 Pandemic: 

 Lisa Adkins MCPS

Nicole Allain MCPS

Aggie Alvez MCPS

Kea Anderson

Olivia Bailey MCPS

Gary Bartee MCPS

James Bridgers

Nicole Brown

Anita Chan MCPS

Kate Chance

Wylea Chase

Sonya Chawla Medical - internal medicine

Chris Cram MCPS

Jimmy D'Andrea MCPS

Val DaSilva MCPS

Jeanie Dawson MCPS

Ashwin Dharmadhikari

Robbie Dodd MCPS

Heather Dublinske MCPS

Dana Edwards MCPS

Shawn Ellis

Jane Ennis MCPS

Linda Ferrell MCPS

Joanie Glick

Nina Hagan MCPS

Darlene Harris MCPS

Christi Hay Medical - Pediatrics

Mark Hodge

Stephanie Iszard MCPS

Henrietta Jenkins MCPS

Byron Johns

John Landesman MCPS

Jenny Lazo

Michael Lewis MCPS

Sean O’Donnell

Jackie Quan

Dourakine Rosarion

Claire Rosche Matzzie

Oriole Saah MCPS

Mariana Serrani

Stephanie Sheron MCPS

Cynthia Simonson

Jeff Sullivan MCPS

Crystal Townsend Medical - Healthcare

Melanie Travers MCPS

Prabha Viswanathan Reddy Medical - Pediatrics

Diane Vu

Travis Wiebe MCPS

Kathleen Williams Medical - Healthy Communities

Julie Yang MCPS

Exclusive: @mcps Super Monifa McKnight's Secret COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team Meets Once a Week. What do they do? Next Meeting May 5th @ 4:15 PM.

The Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD has obtained the dates for MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight's COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team meetings.   

But what does this Team do?  They don't take minutes, so are these meetings just a social gathering?  

Who is on the Team?  Do any parents or community members ever hear from the Team members?  Do they put out any reports or recommendations with regard to COVID-19 in schools?  

COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team Meetings 

Thursdays, 4:15-5:45 p.m

October 7, 2021

October 14, 2021

October 21, 2021

October 28, 2021

November 4, 2021

November 11, 2021 CANCELED

November 18, 2021

November 25, 2021 No Meeting - HOLIDAY

December 2, 2021 CANCELED

December 9, 2021

December 16, 2021

December 23, 2021 No Meeting - Winter Break

December 30, 2021 No Meeting - Winter Break

January 6, 2022

January 13, 2022

January 20, 2022

January 27, 2022

February 3, 2022

February 10, 2022

February 17, 2022

February 24, 2022

March 3, 2022

March 10, 2022

March 17, 2022

March 24, 2022

March 31, 2022

April 7, 2022

April 14, 2022

April 21, 2022

April 28, 2022

May 5, 2022

Affidavit: BOE President Wolff Swears COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team is NOT part of Board of Education Strategic Plan

Remember in September of 2021, when Interim Superintendent Monifa McKnight Unveiled her Five-Point Plan for Further COVID Safety, Mitigation?  Remember that her "plan" included this:

What exactly happened to that COVID-19 operations advisory committee?  Who is on the committee? Have they met? Do they have recommendations?  

MCPS parents have asked those questions and the answer from Superintendent McKnight is that the answers are a secret. 

And to back up Superintendent McKnight's secrecy around the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team, Board of Education Brenda Wolff has signed an affidavit that the Board of Education has nothing to do with the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team.  

Nonetheless, Superintendent McKnight continues to use the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team as a component of her discussions of the Board of Education's Strategic Plan.  

October 5, 2021 see page 13:  https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C7JHTU46C420/$file/BOE%20Strategic%20Plan%20211005%20PPT.pdf

February 14, 2022 see Page 4:  

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/boe/03.01%20Proposed%20Amends%20FY2023%20Rec%20Op%20Bdgt%20220214%20PPT%20AC.pdf

What does this mean? It means that the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team is an imaginary group as far as teachers and parents are concerned.  The "team" can meet in private, does not post any publicly available minutes or reports, and any recommendations can be kept completely secret from the public.  No transparency, no accountability, means this "team" is effectively non-existent.  

That's the way Superintendent Monifa McKnight wants it.  Secrecy during a global pandemic is part of her Five Point Plan for COVID Mitigation and Safety. 

Montgomery County Public Schools by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

Open Meetings Act Complaint: What Happened to the MCPS COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team?

To the Maryland Open Meetings Act Compliance Board:

This complaint is filed with regard to the Montgomery County Board of Education's COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team.  

The Montgomery County Board of Education's COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team was formed as part of the Montgomery County Board of Education's Strategic Plan.  Please see Page 13 of the attached document detailing the Montgomery County Board of Education's Strategic Plan.  

The Montgomery County Board of Education's COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team has been meeting without the public's ability to attend, report on, or broadcast meetings.  Agendas, meeting dates, minutes and reports for this committee have not been made public.  

The public has not been able to witness the phases of the deliberation, policy formation, or decision making of the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team to ensure accountability to parents, guardians, teachers and residents of Montgomery County, Maryland. 

The stated purpose of the COVID-19 Operations Advisory Team is to help guide the district’s work in responding to COVID-19 throughout the year.  Parents, guardians, teachers and the public have a vested interest in the work of this committee, yet to date have been excluded from any information about this committee.

Thank you for reviewing this complaint.   

Janis Zink Sartucci*

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD

Formed in 2002, the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland seeks to achieve the goals of coherent, content-rich curriculum standards; high expectations combined with timely remediation and acceleration; a wider range of educational options for parents and children; greater transparency and accountability; and meaningful community input.

*Signature under separate cover.