@mocoboe Board of Education Consent Agenda is for Unanimous Votes. Superintendent Taylor & BOE Silvestre put purchase of 70 Diesel School Buses on Consent Agenda.

The Montgomery County Board of Education has responded to the ABC7 news report on their purchase of 70 diesel school buses for MCPS by saying:

“Consent agenda items are routine business items that are grouped together to be approved with a single vote. The purpose of a consent agenda is to efficiently address standard administrative and operational responsibilities of the administration that require Board approval...."

But the Board of Education's HANDBOOK (shown below) explains that Consent Agenda items are for unanimous votes.  How did Superintendent Thomas Taylor and Board of Education President Karla Silvetre know in advance that the elected Board of Education members would unanimously vote in favor of this controversial purchase?  

 

 

2024 Board of Education Han... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

Board of Education Removes $30M Agenda Item after Parents' Coalition Complaint Filed with Inspector General

Yesterday, a complaint was filed with the Montgomery County Inspector General with regard to Board of Education Agenda Item 6.2, a resolution for a $30 million purchase that included a reference to using student activity funds to pay for the purchase. 

Today at the Board of Education meeting the first order of business was to have that agenda item removed from today's agenda.  

$10.3 Million in No Bid Spending for MoCo Board of Education in 60 Seconds on Tues. June 11th on Just One Consent Agenda Item

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, the Montgomery County Board of Education has $14.2 million in spending on their Consent Agenda item 6.1.  The Consent Agenda is for items that don't need any discussion and are to be approved without question.  

On June 11th, $10.3 million of that $14.2 million is for purchases that are being made without bids.  In some cases the purchases are just because some MCPS administrator wanted to buy the product or service.  The items are listed as either "extensions" or some reference is made to some out of state contract or "bridge" but there is no explanation or verification of either excuse. 

The Montgomery County Inspector General has already exposed that MCPS' use of the word "bridge" in describing a contract from another jurisdiction is useless.  MCPS administrators freely use that word even when they are not obtaining the same terms as the other jurisdiction.  See Page 4 of the IG Report.  All of the "bridge" purchases have the same status as the "extensions" and show that MCPS has not bid out these purchases to obtain the most competitive prices. 

What could be the savings if MCPS put out this one day of purchases for competitive bids?  

And that's just on one Consent Agenda item.  There are 23 more Consent Agenda purchases. 

The Board of Education won't discuss any of this spending while claiming that the school system is about to collapse for the want of $30 million.  

Once Again, Superintendent McKnight will Try to Get @mocoboe to Hand Over Land Use Decisions to @mcps Staff. [An attempt in August 2022 failed.]

The Montgomery County Board of Education and Superintendent Monifa McKnight want to get the public out of decisions about Public School Land.  

On Thursday April 20, 2023, the Board of Education's Consent Agenda will include a vote to remove public input from some Public School Land decisions.

  

They tried to do this in August of 2022, but the resolution was pulled from the Agenda after a public outcry. 

Placement of an item on the Consent Agenda means that the item being voted on won't even be discussed.  It is assumed that the item is so trivial that Board of Education members will unanimously approve it without discussion. 

This Agenda item will hand over all these Public School Land Use decisions to the Superintendent and she can then hand those decisions over to Seth Adams, Director of Facilities Management, so that he can make the decisions without public notice, without public input and without oversight.  Seth Adams will be able to make these land use decisions even if they are of a controversial nature.  

What decisions might be included in this broad delegation of authority to the superintendent?  Moving bus depots, moving bus parking, cell tower compounds, removing trees/forests etc...? 

How might local Public School Land be changed by these decisions that will now be made by one MCPS employee alone behind closed doors? If the Board of Education approves this Resolution, those questions will be for the Superintendent and Seth Adams to know and the public to never find out.  

6.10 Delegation of Authority to Execute Permanent Easements, Utility Easements, Rights-of-Way, Rights-of-Entry, Memoranda of Understanding for Land-Related Issues, and Land-Related Agreements of a Routine Nature 

Breaking: Another $2.37M to Company of Wife of BOE Member. No BOE Discussion. Not Duly Advertised. Not put out for Bids. @mocoboe @mcps

  

On September 8, 2022, the Montgomery County Board of Education will unanimously approve another payment to the company founded and run by the wife of Board of Education member Scott Joftus.

The payment will be made on the CONSENT AGENDA meaning the item will not have a discussion by the Board of Education.  The matter is considered to be trivial and not worthy of a presentation, justification or discussion.  

The memorandum from Superintendent Monifa McKnight does not disclose that this procurement involves a company founded by, and run by the wife of a sitting Board of Education member.  

The memorandum does not state the name used by the company, instead the memorandum uses the corporate name for the company.  The corporate name is not familiar to most County residents. 

The memorandum says the procurement has been duly advertised.  It has not been advertised.

The memorandum says the procurement was awarded to the low bidder.  It was not awarded to the low bidder because there weren't any other bidders.  

IF this procurement had been duly advertised the memorandum would cite the BID NUMBER as is seen for all other contracts. There is no bid number.  In the space for listing the number of bids received the notation is N/A for not applicable.   

With this payment to the KID Museum, the Board of Education will have diverted $5,675,962 dollars of Operating Budget funds to this private company since 2018.  That's money that could have been spent on public school teacher salaries, support staff, classrooms etc...  Instead, those public school funds have gone to a private company without oversight or accountability to the public. 

The company founded by and run by Board of Education Scott Joftus' wife is MOCO KIDSCO, Inc.  That company does business as Kid Museum in Bethesda. 

UPDATED: .@mocoboe Board of Education to Hand Over Power to MCPS' staffer Seth Adams, Remove Transparency, Remove Public Input from Land Use Decisions

 

The Montgomery County Board of Education wants to get the public out of decisions about Public School Land.  

On Tuesday, August 23, 2022, the Board of Education will vote to remove public input from some Public School Land decisions on their Consent Agenda.  

Placement of an item on the Consent Agenda means that the item being voted on won't even be discussed.  It is assumed that the item is so trivial that Board of Education members will unanimously approve it without discussion. 

The Agenda item will hand over all these Public School Land Use decisions to the Superintendent and she can then hand those decisions over to Seth Adams, Director of Facilities Management, so he can make the decisions without public notice, without public input and without oversight.  Seth Adams will be able to make these land use decisions even if they are of a controversial nature.  

What decisions might be included in this broad delegation of authority to the superintendent?  Moving bus depots, moving bus parking, cell tower compounds, removing trees/forests etc...? 

How might local Public School Land be changed by these decisions that will now be made by one MCPS employee alone behind closed doors? If the Board of Education approves this Resolution, those questions will be for the Superintendent and Seth Adams to know and the public to never find out.  

6.10 Delegation of Authority to Execute Permanent Easements, Utility Easements, Rights-of-Way, Rights-of-Entry, Memoranda of Understanding for Land-Related Issues, and Land-Related Agreements of a Routine Nature 

Board of Education Funds Identity, Inc. $212,324 to operate Learning Center

From the October 26, 2021, Montgomery County Board of Education Consent Agenda: 

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers are funded by Grants as shown in this January 28, 2021, Board of Education memorandum.  

Is the Board of Education action above in addition to the Grant funds that have already been designated for these Learning Centers?  

Does the Board of Education know what they are paying Identity, Inc. to do at these Learning Centers?

Again, this item is on the Consent Agenda and the Board of Education approves these expenditures without ever seeing any documentation or contracts associated with these expenditures.

In 2021, payments to Strathmore Hall Foundation total $249,155 even though MCPS students were not attending concerts at Strathmore Hall. #COVID-19

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, MCPS 5th grade students attended an annual fall concert at Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda. 

However, even thought the concerts were not held when schools were closed, Strathmore Hall was still being paid by the Board of Education.  Why?  

This is another no bid, no contract, no discussion vote of the Board of Education.  These items appear on the Board of Education's Consent calendar without supporting documentation or justification for these expenditures.   

In calendar year 2021, the payments to the Strathmore Hall Foundation total at least $249,155.

Source January 12, 2021 Board of Education Consent Agenda:  https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/BWZMWB5CEBBE/$file/Procurement%20Contracts%20210112.pdf

Source October 26, 2021 Board of Education meeting:  https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C82J9S4C225F/$file/Procurement%20Contracts%20REVISED%20211026.pdf

Board of Education payments to Strathmore Hall Foundation:

FY 2022    $123,000*

FY 2021    $126,155*

FY 2020    $128,650

FY 2019    $122,650

FY 2018    $103,350

FY 2017    $  96,000

FY 2016    $  84,000

FY 2015    $  83,000

*Payments shown above in Board of Education meeting documentation. All other payments are from the MCPS Funding Accountability Database. 

Board of Education Continues Approving No Bid Consulting Contracts/Payments without Ever Seeing Contracts or Justification for Expenditures

The Montgomery County Board of Education has been approving the expenditure of tens of thousands of dollars a year to the above company for what?  

The Board of Education doesn't know and never asks.  The Board of Education never sees the contracts or invoices connected to this expenditure.  

Every year the Board of Education simply approves this payment as an "extension" of some previous invoice or contract, or as a procurement based on another school systems purchase.  

10 years ago the Parents' Coalition researched this consulting arrangement and at that time the best we could determine was that this consultant is being paid to fill out forms related to obtaining rebates from the federal government.  In 10 years could MCPS have trained someone how to fill out these forms and saved the consulting fee? 

https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C82J9S4C225F/$file/Procurement%20Contracts%20REVISED%20211026.pdf

$22 Million Dollar Monday at the Board of Education!!!

Do you love to spend? Do you love to spend millions? 
Do you love to spend without knowing how you are spending your money?  
Then a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education is for you!  
It's not too late to sign up to run for one of the four open seats this year!

You too can sit at the Board of Education and spend $22,496,074 in one minute without any discussion or any clue as to what your buying!
That's what is going to happen this evening at the February 24, 2014, Board of Education meeting.

The Consent Agenda for this evening has 5 separate items that total $22,496,074 in spending without any explanation other than the name of the vendor and a brief sentence of the possible items purchased! No details!  Consent Agenda means no discussion!

Let's take a look at just one of those 5 items.  Agenda Item 5.5 is to spend $13,981,044 on a vendor named DISYS Solutions, Inc.

Superintendent Joshua Starr wrote a memo to tell the Board they are buying a bunch of computer stuff from DISYS Solutions, Inc. and that the contract is an "extension."

Extension means this contract was not put out for a competitive bid this year. Superintendent Starr just "extended" the contract into this year.  But, here's the fun part.  Last year (FY 2013) this vendor was only paid $8,036,421.  Superintendent Starr is "extending" the contract to pay this vendor $5,944,623 over what they were paid last year!  Wow! Party at DISYS Solutions, Inc!


7067.4 Computer Network Equipment, Software, and Service-Extension
Awardee

DISYS Solutions, Inc. $13,981,044