In
September of 2023, the Montgomery County Board of Education put out a
statement announcing their commitment to a transparent, thorough and expeditious process in the Beidleman matter.
By January of 2024, it was clear that the Board of Education had dropped the transparent pledge and was solely focused on expediting whatever they could behind closed doors. After observing multiple violations of the Maryland Open Meetings Act, we finally filed a complaint on January 22, 2024. By then it was clear that the Board of Education had ditched the Maryland Open Meetings Act and they were slipping into closed meetings at every opportunity.
The violations noted in our complaint were clear and the Board of Education members should have had no problem understanding how they were violating the law. Afterall, the Maryland Open Meetings Act requires at least one person to have taken the Maryland Open Meetings Act training for each board that plans on meeting in closed sessions. The Board of Education has at least one person that knows the law, plus they have their own in house lawyers that should be clear on what is required.
Upon receiving the complaint, the Board of Education could have acknowledged their violations and committed once again to being transparent etc...
But the Board of Education decided to hire outside legal counsel to respond to the complaint and allege that they had not violated the Maryland Open Meetings Act. That was a decision to spend MCPS Operating funds on an outside lawyer instead of a) admitting the violation, or b) using an in house lawyer already on the payroll to respond to the complaint.
On April 19, 2024, the Open Meetings Compliance Board issued an opinion finding multiple violations of the Maryland Open Meetings Act by the Montgomery County Board of Education at their January 22, 2024 meeting.
Instead of the Board of Education actually following through on their commitment to be transparent, the Board of Education wasted precious MCPS Operating Budget funds trying to cover up their violation of Maryland law.
The Board of Education broke their commitment to the public and then compounded that breach by wasting education funds that could have gone to classrooms.
From the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board:
