MCPS Plans to Hire Four Administrators After Hearing from the Community

Next year’s Montgomery County Public Schools’ proposed operating budget adds four administrative positions to handle needs Superintendent Monifa McKnight initiated based on community requests.

The proposed Fiscal Year 2023 budget includes a reduction of overall full time equivalent positions by 113 due to a decrease in student enrollment. According to MCPS, enrollment as of the beginning of the current school year dropped by 2,347 due to the pandemic. However, the proposed budget calls for an increase of 2,000 students...

https://www.mymcmedia.org/mcps-plans-to-hire-four-administrators-after-hearing-from-the-community/?fbclid=IwAR3XDg5lYjDMeIt1fCLaoywVqQAuNkrU1ECn8kbQJ0fcEaf8CNNer7ANr90

Montgomery County holds special meeting to approve controversial calendar change

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Montgomery County’s Board of Education convened for a special meeting on Tuesday that critics say should have never happened.

The meeting ended with MCPS’ School Board now officially approving a 2021-2022 calendar change that will give MCPS staffers more time off, starting with this year’s holiday break...

...Martin told FOX 5 Dr. McKnight’s team never contacted the MCEA about the calendar change. Martin confirmed teachers are only getting three half days for planning in this new schedule. 

"I think this is symptomatic of a larger issue and that larger issues is over the last 20 years, there’s been a movement in this country to strip boards of education of their power and turn over the control of our public school systems to a ‘superintendent’ who is then a ‘CEO’ and reports to know one," said Janis Zink Sartucci, a member of the Montgomery County volunteer group, "Parents’ Coalition."

During Tuesday’s special meeting, the group’s twitter handle trailed BOE members, writing in one post:

"While @mocoboe is in recess to read Robert's Rules, exactly WHAT was the procedural error last week that is being corrected today?  Resolution was voted on. Failed. Error was that it failed?" 

The group believes school board members pushed the calendar change through, not properly following voting rules. Some say Tuesday’s special meeting should not have been allowed...

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/montgomery-county-holds-special-meeting-to-approve-controversial-calendar-change

School Administrator's MD License Revoked, But Hired by Morgan State University as Student Services Coordinator

From the Marylanld State Department of Education:  Freddie Dean Smith had his Maryland school administrator license revoked on October 7, 2016. 

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Morgan State Honors College Hires Convicted Felon

NEW ROCHELLE, NY -- Convicted felon, sex offender, serial liar and fraudster, Freddie Dean Smith is alive and well and currently working as the Student Services Coordinator for the Clara I. Adams Honors College at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Morgan State, a state-owned HBCU, ranks among the Top 20 Historically Black College and Universities in the United States.

Smith serves as the Morgan State advisor for the National Honor Society Phi Eta Sigma, a national honor society for first-year college students. He is a member of the steering committee for the 5K Study Abroad Fund, administered by the Morgan State University Foundation.

Smith is scheduled to represent Morgan State at the annual conference of the National Association of African-American Honors Program in November in North Carolina. The NAAAHP website lists Smith as “Dr. Freddie Smith Parliamentarian”.  Smith’s doctorate was revoked in 2009 following a plagiarism investigation by the University of Virginia Curry School of Education.

Morgan State officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on how Smith was hired despite requirements for an employment and criminal background check for school administrators...

http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/morgan-state-honors-college-hires-convicted-felon

Loopholes in Maryland Let Administrators with Criminal Backgrounds in to Schools

...Maryland has strict laws regarding the hiring of individuals who have been convicted of sexual crimes or crimes of violence to work for public and non-public schools. Schools can lose their state certification. An applicant for an education license who is found to have made a material misrepresentation or concealment in an application or filed a false report or record about a material matter in the application for certificate may have their license suspended or revoked.

The Freddie Dean Smith case in New York has been an ongoing travesty but Smith's experience in Maryland suggests loopholes that need to be closed in the Old Line State:

• Smith was able to work in schools in the Baltimore City Public School [BCPS] district by working as a consultant and working for a non-profit which runs BCPS charter schools.
• BCPS does not independently verify to a non-public school that a prospective job candidate has had a background check let alone whether the person passed or failed.
• It appears impossible that BCPS ran a 50-state criminal background check on Smith because several of his convictions would automatically disqualify a candidate and yet he passed, twice.
• MSDE [Maryland State Department of Education] failed to verify Smith's doctorate, relying instead on what may have been an altered UVA transcript. 
• A BTN board member [Charter School operator] flagged Smith based on a Google search but there was no follow up by BTN.
• No one at BTN, BCPS or MSDE bothered to do even the most limited fact-checking of Smith's record.

http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/getting-results-baltimore-charter-school-operator-fires-freddie-dean-smith-following-tots