ADOPTED Procurement Contracts 230720.pdf (boarddocs.com)
The Board of Education paid $168,380 for Operational Functionality Consulting Services for the MCPS Department of Transportation in July of 2023.
Then they shelved the Report for a year.
The Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, MD made the report public.
Here is the link to the February 2021, Montgomery County Board of Education Contract Approval for the HET MCPS, LLC. electric school bus scheme.
HET MCPS, LLC. was not awarded the contract through the RFP process, a company called Highland Electric Transportation was awarded the contract. Somehow MCPS switched companies, and the Board of Education approved a contract with a company that had not participated in the bidding process.
At the bottom of the 3rd page of the Contract Approval are the initials of the MCPS administrators who approved the Resolution submitted to the Board of Education.
Jack R. Smith, Superintendent
Monifa B. McKnight, Deputy/Acting Superintendent
Derek G. Turner, Chief
Essie McGuire, Associate Superintendent of Operations
Eugenia S. Dawson. Director
Todd M. Watkins, Director Department of Transporation
Watch the video below. Listen to Ms. McGuire sell the electric bus scheme to the Board of Education.
Ms. McGuire, "very excited to bring this forward today..."
"...ongoing effort with legal department, budget office, transportation office..."
Wed, August 21st 2024 at 5:12 PM
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (7News) — 7News has obtained a scathing assessment of how Montgomery County Public Schools is handling the nation’s largest fleet of electric school buses.
In the report, which parents have not seen, CESO, an expert on electric buses, informed MCPS that the actual cost of owning and operating an electric bus fleet remains unclear.
The claim of budget neutrality, or no net increase to the district’s budget to transition into electric buses, was constructed based on false assumptions and estimates...
New report details failures at Montgomery County Public Schools over electric bus fleet (wjla.com)
Never seen report that I have obtained claims @MCPS has major issues with it's electric bus fleet including increased cost, outdated systems & calling the Montgomery County Public Schools transportation system stable but fragile. @7NewsDC @PCMC1 pic.twitter.com/DW2ukpKF0L
— Scott Taylor : 7 News - WJLA TV (@ScottTaylorTV) August 21, 2024
Beidleman no longer works at MCPS. He was accused of bullying and sexual harassment by multiple MCPS employees prior to being promoted from principal at Farquhar Middle School to Paint Branch High School. This was first reported in the Washington Post.
Besides the $300,000 settlement, MCPS paid $78,462.32 in legal fees to Karpinski, Cornbrooks and Karp of Baltimore and $68,369.64 in legal fees to Miller, Miller and Canby of Rockville. Another $1,188.80 was spent for transcripts of court recordings...
By August of that same year, a newspaper reported the promotion happened amid numerous sexual harassment and bullying complaints against Beidleman
Those developments and the fallout have cost Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) millions.
“It's very alarming,” said Esther Wells of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League, who is also an MCPS parent. “We know there are unmet needs in our school system directly linked to our children and our funds need to go there,” she said...
...MCPS also provided documents that show legal fees and court costs in the Beidleman case that amount to more than $148,000. In total, all of these items add up to more than 2.3 million dollars...
Misconduct case against former Montgomery Co. principal is costing taxpayers millions (wjla.com)
WASHINGTON - A former superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools who resigned earlier this year will take a new role with the University of Maryland, officials confirmed this week.
Dr. Monifa McKnight will serve in the inaugural position of "Dean’s Fellow and Superintendent in Residence" with the University of Maryland’s College of Education. The role is expected to support the development of and implementation of special projects within the college and "strengthen partnerships between the college and PK-12 schools across the state," according to UMD.
McKnight stepped down as MCPS superintendent in February, agreeing to a $1.3 million separation deal amid scrutiny over the school system’s handling of sexual harassment and bullying allegations against now-former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Beidleman. For this reason, an online petition with more than 500 signatures Friday is criticizing the university for its hire...
The Change.org petition claims that the hiring of former Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Monifa McKnight to a leadership position at the University of Maryland is “unacceptable and immoral.”..
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) had issued several reports faulting how MCPS follows up on staff complaints and for allowing former Principal Joel Beidleman to be promoted despite multiple harassment complaints against him.
Since receiving the report, 10 administrators have been terminated and five others have had job reassignments. 16 cases were determined to be unsubstantiated, officials said during Thursday’s combined hearing with council’s Audit and Education and Culture committees...
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:
But, MCPS teachers can't get any copy paper.
Note that this Resolution was on the Consent Agenda, so no discussion by the Board of Education. The notation on this purchase claims it was a bridge contract through something called TIPS USA.
We looked on the TIPS USA site and found this Georgia vendor. They state that they are not minority or woman owned. No opportunity for minority or woman owned vendors to bid on this contract.
In a bombshell dropped Friday night, FOX 5 received a public information request revealing Montgomery County Public School’s former superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight will receive $1.3 million as part of her separation agreement. FOX 5’s Sierra Fox reports from Rockville with more...
https://www.fox5dc.com/video/1427645
Former Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Monifa McKnight will receive a total of $1.3 million under a separation agreement between herself and the Montgomery County Board of Education, according to documents received Friday by MoCo360.
The agreement, which MoCo360 received from the school district after filing a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request, outlines the conditions reached between the two parties when McKnight resigned in February.
In addition to receiving the payment, which also includes legal fees and deferred compensation, McKnight agreed not to sue the school board, to a mutual non-disparagement agreement and secured permission for her son to continue attending county public schools, according to the agreement...
https://moco360.media/2024/03/15/mcps-to-pay-mcknight-1-3-million-in-separation-agreement/
ROCKVILLE, Md. (DC News Now) — Leaders from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and the Montgomery County Council met Thursday to review and discuss a less-redacted version of a report digging into the school system’s failures to conduct thorough investigations of employee complaints and concerns.
Members of the council pushed over the last few weeks for the county Board of Education to release the report put together by outside firm Jackson Lewis last year. The Board released a version with fewer redactions just before Thursday’s meeting started at 3 p.m...
Why was this redacted the first time the report was made public?
From Page 8 of the "less redacted" Jackson Lewis LLC report released today:
ii. Student Complaints Since arriving to in 2013, there were three complaints against Employee 25 involving sexual harassment and/or bullying behavior towards students, including
(1) a July 2017 complaint that Employee 25 referred to a student as a “whore,”
(2) an October 2017 complaint that Employee 25 utilized an improper restraint technique on a student, and
(3) complaints that Employee 25 made a reference to “hoes and thots” during a January 2018 student assembly. All of these complaints involving students were investigated and resolved by Employee 25’s supervisors.
“Superintendents have particular rights that are defined in one’s contract that is negotiated with the board,” he said. “And if those contract specifics aren’t followed,” then there can be challenges on both sides. “If there are challenges with a board, the board has to be extremely communicative through a defined process” outlined in the superintendent’s contract, he added.
While the turmoil in Montgomery County’s school system has some parents wondering about school governance, Starr said parents should know that “the only decision that a superintendent gets to make on their own is a snow day.” The running of a school district, he said, is a collaborative effort between the board and the superintendent.
Most decisions, said Starr, are bound by state laws, district policies and contractual agreements with employees throughout the system. “There’s so many guardrails and so many strictures on the ability of a superintendent, or a board, for that matter, to make quick moves” on personnel issues...
“We have also heard your request for a better understanding of the Jackson Lewis findings, and we are taking another look at the report to see if there are any areas in which we could redact less,” Board of Education President Karla Silvestre said during a meeting Tuesday.
County Council President Andrew Friedson has said councilmembers want to see the unredacted report...
On Thursday, February 8, 2024, the Montgomery County Council will hold a hearing "To review findings and recommendations of Office of Inspector General Report #OIG-24-08 and discuss next steps."
That's the title of the hearing as stated in the Staff Memorandum.
Why disclose an obvious conflict of interest? Who cares about ethics?
The Council President has already announced his decision to not put any witnesses under oath. Why get into the messy issue of his staff person who should probably be at the witness table instead of on the Council dais?
Exactly what did Council staffer Essie McGuire know about complaints regarding Joel Beidleman and when did she know that information? That question will not be asked by Councilmembers. Ever.
The former MCPS Associate Superintendent who now works for the Council has once again done an excellent job of supplying the Council with a packet of garbage for tomorrow's hearing. 46 pages of MCPS policies and procedures all easily accessible on the MCPS website via a simple link. 46 pages of policies and procedures copied into the packet for the meeting to make it "look" like Councilmembers are being given something of substance.
The former MCPS Associate Superintendent who now works for the Council neglects to mention anything about the powers the Council has to put witnesses under oath or to issue subpoenas.
Once again, a nice thick packet with zero substance.
