Churchill Observer: "So far, MCPS has received 16 buses for the fiscal year 2025." (They should have received 120.)

On July 25, 2024, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated MCPS’ management of a multi-million dollar contract to acquire and operate 326 electric school buses. The investigation concluded that MCPS failed to enforce the contract terms, and did not account for hundreds of dollars in fees outlined in the agreement, despite not receiving over half of the buses it ordered within the agreed-upon timeframe. To compensate for not receiving the electric buses they requested, MCPS is now spending over $14 million to acquire diesel buses and has received a failing grade from Montgomery County’s council audit committee for their implementation of electric buses...

MCPS slams the brakes on electric bus program - The Observer

Board of Education Ignores Transportation Audit Financial Warnings, instead sets up Committee and includes former BOE member who abused MCPS credit card.

The Parents' Coalition filed a Maryland Public Information Act request for the members of the new Board of Education committee on transportation.  

Below is the list of members of this new committee.  It is unclear what this committee is supposed to do as the CESO Audit was very clear on the immediate steps that the Board of Education should be taking with regard to the unsustainable financial issues in the MCPS Department of Transportation.  Setting up a random committee was not one of the steps recommended by the CESO Audit. 

~Included on the Committee is former Board of Education member Chris Barclay who was found to have used his Board of Education credit card for personal expenses.  

At this link is a list of the people Mr. Barclay took out to eat using his Board of Education credit card.

FYI:  The Board of Education members were forced to permanently cut up their credit cards after this scandal.  

~Also listed as being on the Committee is the name of a MCPS administrator referenced in the Beidleman scandal last year.  

Nothing about this committee is in compliance with the immediate recommendations of the CESO Audit.   

Board of Education Transpor... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

‘Taxpayers deserve better’: Local taxpayers league wants more oversight of Montgomery Co. schools contracts

It’s time to hit the brakes on a $160 million contract that Montgomery County Public Schools has with an electric bus vendor. That’s the way Montgomery County Taxpayer’s League President Esther Wells sees it.

Wells was alarmed by information provided by MCPS officials on Monday where they revealed that they’re in the middle of negotiations with an electric school bus vendor whose failures to deliver buses on time led to added millions in expenditures by the school system.

Regarding the school system’s contract talks with Highland Electric Fleets, Wells said, “Why are we renegotiating with them? We should take a pause or we should stop negotiations until we’re able to resolve the current contract.”

Wells was referring to some of the statements that Chief of District Operations for MCPS Dana Edwards shared regarding how the school system had “invoiced” Highland Electric for $1.5 million over the delays in delivery of buses and operational issues...

‘Taxpayers deserve better’: Local taxpayers league wants more oversight of Montgomery Co. schools contracts - WTOP News

BOE Member Lynne Harris on Electric Bus Scheme: "Our vendors were not being upfront with us. And they were saying different things to different people."

At the January 29, 2024, Montgomery County Board of Education Fiscal Management Committee Meeting, Board of Education member Lynne Harris commented on problems with the HET MCPS, LLC [Highland Electric Fleets] electric school bus scheme, "We are demanding that they be transparent with us."

Listen to her statement at the Board of Education's Fiscal Management Committee meeting on January 29, 2024, during their discussion of the MCPS Department of Transportation. The video is linked below. 

Note that the CESO Report Deliverable #1 was already completed by this meeting, but the MCPS administrators did not present the report to the Board of Education Committee.  

Board of Education member Lynne Harris thanks the MCPS administrators Dana Edwards, Brian Hull and Michael Lewis for their work.  Did she know they were withholding the CESO Report?  

Click link to hear BOE Member Lynne Harris' comment:

https://mcpsmd.new.swagit.com/videos/296073?ts=8170

or

Go to Minute 2:16:09 of January 29, 2024 BOE Fiscal Management Committee Meeting: