MCPS Ombudsman quietly disappears

According to reports from parents, the MCPS Ombudsman has become nonresponsive to phone calls, phone messages and emails.

The Ombudsman's name is not listed on the MCPS web site, although a link on the MCPS Ombudsman points to Ryvell_D_Fitzpatrick@mcpsmd.org as an email address for the Ombudsman.  A LinkedIn profile matching that name can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryvell-dontae-fitzpatrick-j-d-imagineer-397255146/

No one at the Ombudsman's phone number is answering questions about the whereabouts of the Ombudsman.

MD State Dept. of Education Has an Ombudsman

MSDE Office of the Ombudsman

​The Ombudsman’s office at the Maryland State Department of Education was established more than 20 years ago to help assist parents and other members of the public with their educational concerns.  The ombudsman works directly with Maryland’s 24 public school systems to gather information and resolve issues.

Prior to contacting the Ombudsman, we ask that you go through the following steps:

Step 1
Report your concern to your child's school principal or to the specific office supervisor or director.

Step 2
If still unresolved, contact the school system Superintendent’s office.

Step 3
If after Step 1 and Step 2, you still do not have a resolution, you may contact Teresa Dantzler,  MSDE’s ombudsman, through email at teresa.dantzler1@maryland.gov or by calling 410-767-0114.

Contact Information
Teresa Dantzler, Ombudsman
Maryland State Department of Education
200 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Email: teresa.dantzler1@maryland.gov
Phone: 410-767-0114

Expense Reports for BOE Chief of Staff and Ombudsman

Roland Ikheloa serves at the Chief of Staff for the Board of Education and as an Ombudsman.  Mr. Ikheloa is also the person whose signature was shown as approving of the expense reports for Board of Education members.

  IkhideRoland Ikheloa by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Elvis and the MCPS Ombudsman have left the building

"Elvis has left the building!" was a phrase used to disperse crowds who lingered after an Elvis concert in the hopes of seeing him one more time.  Parents seeking an independent, impartial, confidential ombudsman to handle school related issues can also cease their search. Elvis is gone and so is the MCPS Ombudsman. 


In a previous post we reported on exactly when the MCPS Ombudsman disappeared.


As Montgomery County looks for a new Superintendent, parents may want to lobby for a Superintendent that will bring back the independent, impartial, confidential ombudsman. 
We know the current Board of Education members aren't interested in an Ombudsman, but maybe a new Superintendent will restore the position.


Here are the standards set by the American Bar Association for the establishment of an Ombudsman's office. Nothing like this in MCPS now, but a thought for the future. 


From the American Bar Association Standards for the Establishment and Operation of Ombuds* Offices

"As a result of the various types of offices and the proliferation of different processes by which the offices operate, individuals who come to the ombuds office for assistance may not know what to expect, and the offices may be established in ways that compromise their effectiveness.

An ombuds should be a person of recognized knowledge, judgment, objectivity, and integrity. The establishing entity should provide the ombuds with relevant education and the periodic updating of the ombuds’s qualifications.

"To ensure the effective operation of an ombuds, an entity should authorize the ombuds to operate consistently with the following essential characteristics. Entities that have established ombuds offices that lack appropriate safeguards to maintain these characteristics should take prompt steps to remedy any such deficiency.

(1) Independence. The ombuds is and appears to be free from interference in the legitimate performance of duties and independent from control, limitation, or a penalty imposed for retaliatory purposes by an official of the appointing entity or by a person who may be the subject of a complaint or inquiry.

In assessing whether an ombuds is independent in structure, function, and appearance, the following factors are important: whether anyone subject to the ombuds’s jurisdiction or anyone directly responsible for a person under the ombuds’s jurisdiction (a) can control or limit the ombuds’s performance of assigned duties or (b) can, for retaliatory purposes, (1) eliminate the office, (2) remove the ombuds, or (3) reduce the budget or resources of the office.

(2) Impartiality in Conducting Inquiries and Investigations. The ombuds conducts inquiries and investigations in an impartial manner, free from initial bias and conflicts of interest. Impartiality does not preclude the ombuds from developing an interest in securing changes that are deemed necessary as a result of the process, nor from otherwise being an advocate on behalf of a designated constituency. The ombuds may become an advocate within the entity for change where the process demonstrates a need for it.

(3) Confidentiality. An ombuds does not disclose and is not required to disclose any information provided in confidence, except to address an imminent risk of serious harm. Records pertaining to a complaint, inquiry, or investigation are confidential and not subject to disclosure outside the ombuds’s office. An ombuds does not reveal the identity of a complainant without that person’s express consent. An ombuds may, however, at the ombuds’s discretion disclose non-confidential information and may disclose confidential information so long as doing so does not reveal its source. An ombuds should discuss any exceptions to the ombuds’s maintaining confidentiality with the source of the information.3

*The term ombuds in this report is intended to encompass all other forms of the word, such as ombudsperson, ombuds officer, and ombudsman, a Swedish word meaning agent or representative. The use of ombuds here is not intended to discourage others from using other terms.

Brandman, "You wouldn't call up and ask for the particular ombudsman"

That's right, in Montgomery County Public Schools there is no Ombudsman. 

Pretty much any way you slice the word "Ombudsman" it refers to a person. The Board of Education website even lists a "person" as having that role! (See image at left.) But don't be fooled, there is no such person at the MCPS Board of Education office.

On November 11, 2008, Board member Shirley Brandman made clear  (see video below) that anyone who picks up the phone at the Board of Education office gets to "ombudsman." Ms. Brandman made it official in the Board of Education Handbook that there was no one person. Instead the Board defines ombudsman as a "function."

Ms. Brandman explained, "You wouldn't call up and ask for the particular Ombudsman..." 

Board member Judy Docca responded that the Ombudsman had always been one person. But she was told that the Board of Education had changed the policy and made ombudsman a "function". 

Ombudsman is a noun. But now, according to the Board of Education, ombudsman is something that staff "do".

The word "ombudsman" now has a new definition. See the Urban Dictionary for the MCPS definition of the word.

Here are some examples from the Urban Dictionary so that parents can understand how the word ombudsman is used by the Board of Education:

 "Please ombudsman that issue."

" I can't take that phone call right now I am in the middle of ombudsmaning this letter."

"Let me ombudsman that for you."

Sorry, there is no MCPS Ombudsman

This Gazette article mentions that a parent thinks she called the MCPS Ombudsman's office. Sadly, the current Board of Education members eliminated the position of Ombudsman. Now anyone who answers the phone at the Board of Education gets to be "Ombudsman for the Day!" Gone are the days when a parent or guardian could seek out a neutral party to investigate issues with MCPS administrators. 

Gazette: Gaithersburg parent seeks new school bus stop, finds dead end
East Deer Park mother wants safer spot for daughter

...Terilynne Butler wants a closer school bus stop for her daughter. The mother of six has lobbied Montgomery County Public Schools officials for a change for nearly two years, without success.

The school system does not keep records of how many requests it gets for bus route changes, or how often such requests are granted, said Dana Tofig, director of public information. Butler and other county parents say the process can be lengthy and frustrating.

Butler's request gained urgency in October 2009, when her then 12-year-old daughter, Amanda, was followed home from her stop by a group of men in a pickup truck. The Forest Oak Middle School student had separated from her friends a block earlier. She ran to a nearby house and pretended to go inside.

Then it happened again in the spring — different vehicle, different driver.

Butler looked at the bus route and realized that with no change to its afternoon run, the bus could stop closer to her house, at one of East Deer Park's two four-way stops. In the morning, the driver could travel one block further north without compromising the neighborhood's two existing bus stops.

She called the school system's transportation department with her idea.

In the months since, Butler said she has been bounced around the system without resolution. Her request was denied by the cluster transportation manager, so she sought help from the ombudsman's office. She then received a conference call telling her the proposal was denied again...