Superintendent Taylor Keeps Finding More Cash. How is Taylor Spending without BOE Approval?

 

Law firm to investigate potential ‘personnel wrongdoing’ in MCPS background check backlog

Cost of investigation to add to $1M the district is spending to resolve problem

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has hired the global law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius to conduct an investigation into potential “personnel wrongdoing” by district staff related to a backlog of nearly 13,000 outdated employee background checks, MCPS officials told Bethesda Today on Wednesday.  

The officials said the cost of the investigation would not be known until it is completed. The district is already spending more than $1 million to resolve the issue revealed by a scathing August report by the Montgomery County inspector general’s office. 

The Aug. 4 report released by the county inspector general’s office found that nearly 13,000 MCPS employees had outdated criminal history checks, and almost 5,000 individuals who may have unsupervised access to students hadn’t undergone a Child Protective Services (CPS) check. Also, some contractors and volunteers with unsupervised access to students had begun work prior to the completion of criminal history checks, according to the report.     

In mid-August, the school board approved an $800,000 contract with All American Protective Services, a fingerprinting service with locations in Rockville, Germantown, Bethesda and Silver Spring, to fingerprint its employees...

...MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor told the County Council audit committee during a meeting on Friday about the background check challenges that MCPS had hired a third party to conduct an investigation that was expected to be completed this fall. Taylor didn’t share the name of the third party or the potential cost of the investigation, but MCPS spokesperson Liliana López told Bethesda Today via email Wednesday that the firm was Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, which has offices in Washington, D.C.

López also said the MCPS “will know the cost once the investigation is completed.”..

https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/10/02/potential-personnel-wrongdoing-mcps-investigation/

 

Keep or Toss? Tues. March 9th- County Council to Vote in Closed Session Re: Keeping Public School in BCC Cluster or Permitting Land to be Used without Restriction. No Public Comment.

What is going to happen to the former Montgomery County Public School building and land at 9411 Connecticut Avenue in Kensington?  

The school and land are currently owned by Grace Episcopal Church. The property was transferred to Grace Episcopal Church in 1999.  

The school building was built with tax dollars and has been in continuous use.  Will these empty classrooms be used for public school education or will this public school building be torn down and the land cleared for housing?  

Here's what we know about this property:  The school and land were put up for sale in 2020.  The Offering Summary states that, "Offers will be accepted through October 2020 and seller will evaluate offers and select a purchaser by the end of November 2020."  

The Offering Summary notes that there is a Limitation of Land Use as detailed in the original 1999 Deed for the property.  

The Property has the limitation that it be used for educational purposes.  However, if the Property is to be no longer used for educational purposes the Property is to first be offered back to Montgomery County at the fair market value.  

The Montgomery County Executive may accept the offer subject to Montgomery County Council approval of an appropriation.

IF the Montgomery County Council DECLINES the appropriation of funds to purchase the Property, Grace Episcoal Church may use/transfer the Property for any legal purpose without restriction.  

It appears the Property has been offered back to Montgomery County as the decision on what will become of this former public school site will be made by the Montgomery County Council tomorrow, March 9, 2021 in CLOSED SESSION.  

No public comment, no public notice on what should happen to this paid for public school.  The entire decisionmaking process will happen behind closed doors. 

Will the County Council decide to acquire the school and keep it in use for educational purposes, or will the County Council decline the appropriation and allow the Property to be sold for other uses?  

We would tell you to tune in tomorrow, but the decision will be made in a Closed Session out of the public view. 

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/COUNCIL/Resources/Files/agenda/col/2021/20210309/20210309_AG.pdf

Reminder: The Montgomery County Board of Education Likes Overcrowded Schools. 178.66 acres of school land declared surplus since 1994.

For your information, here is a listing of MCPS school sites that have been declared surplus by the Board of Education.


The yellow highlighted properties were declared surplus since 1994.

178.66 acres of school land declared surplus since 1994: Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Former MCPS School Site Being Vacated. It can now be reclaimed for MCPS use.

 https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/development/housing-opportunities-commission-moving-to-downtown-silver-spring/

MCPS Might Reclaim Housing Opportunities Commission Headquarters

As the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission prepares to move its headquarters to Silver Spring, the county school district is contemplating taking over the Kensington facility the agency was using.

The Housing Opportunities Commission — a commission formed in 1974 to respond to the county’s need for affordable housing — plans to move to a new location in Silver Spring within three years, according to county officials. The commission’s headquarters is now in a former school on Detrick Avenue in Kensington.

MCPS spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala wrote in an email last month that MCPS is “considering the option but [we] haven’t made any specific plans for the site.”

In the Walter Johnson High School cluster, the 45,206-square-foot school has 19 rooms. It sits on 4.54 acres, according to MCPS documents.

Because it is a school site, MCPS gets first dibs, according to Greg Ossont, deputy director of the county’s Department of General Services...

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/news/mcps-might-reclaim-housing-opportunities-commission-headquarters/

KENSINGTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PROPERTY SOON TO BE VACANT

Reminder Why Schools are Overcrowded: 178.66+ acres of school land declared surplus since 1994

178.66 acres of school land declared surplus since 1994:

3PM Today: MCPS Ended with $31.4 Million Surplus

Today at 3 PM, the Montgomery County Council's Education Commitee will discuss MCPS' surplus of $31.4 million and the MCPS request to move around $4.2 million.

MCPS wants to move $4 million from Instructional Salaries to pay off a deficit in the Group Insurance Fund.  This translates to less money for teacher salaries (new or raises) due to the funding of benefits for existing teachers.

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2016/160919/20160919_ED1-2.pdf

BOE Solar Panel Plan - 1st Meeting - Laytonsville Middle School Site

First meeting on the Board of Education and Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers' plan to turn 3 future school sites in to solar power plants.

Video Part 1:


Video Part 2:

BOE has $318,581 for Commercial Lease for Classrooms while Existing School Space is Unused

4 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville

Ever been to 4 Choke Cherry Road in Rockville?  Next time you are in the neighborhood drive by and say hello to the MCPS administrators that are housed at that office building.  You'll be able to find them by their reserved parking spaces and MCPS paid for SUVs.

The BOE has decided that they can spare $318,581 each year for administrators to have spacious offices and for classrooms for training.  Yes, you read that correctly.  MCPS is leasing CLASSROOMS.  Meanwhile, existing, paid for, rent free MCPS public school buildings are not in use by the Board of Education.  An entire wing of Sligo Middle School is even unused and available!  But, the MCPS budget is so flush with cash that the Board of Education has no problem spending these funds on perks for administrators.

Teachers, you still buying your own classroom supplies?    

   Commercial Ofc Space Lease Ext by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Surprise! MCPS 4th-graders and middle-schoolers get Chromebooks after all.

...in June, school officials in Montgomery County decided they could not afford the computers and delayed the second phase of a major technology initiative that ranks among the nation’s largest school laptop programs. Then, shortly before school started, the district said it had found money to purchase 20,000 new Chromebooks...

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/surprise-fourth-graders-and-middle-schoolers-get-chromebooks-after-all/2015/09/07/e6d1ecd0-51a1-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html

School System Finds Money to Revive Part of Google Chromebook Rollout #miracle

MCPS had originally said the rest of the program would be delayed because of budget constraints

...MCPS found money for more Chromebooks...

 http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/School-System-Finds-Money-to-Revive-Part-of-Google-Chromebook-Rollout/

 

Surprise! BOE Finds $1.8 Million, Transfers it to BCC Middle School #2 Project #nootherpriorities?

Do you love surprises?  Well here in Montgomery County we do! Check this out.  The Board of Education just found $1,800,000 dollars in a drawer!  

As there is no priority list for Capital projects, no projects that need Capital Budget funding, no emergency Capital repairs, the Board of Education can spend the money anywhere, anytime, right?

Who knew there was a surplus of $1.8 million sitting around in the Capital Budget?  

Here's the message from parents monitoring the BCC Middle School #2 construction project:  
 

[The Board of Education is] Proposing to CIP TRANSFER $1.8M from the Clarksburg Cluster Elementary School Project "unliquidated surplus account" to build the SHELL of the [BCC Middle School #2] addition to "provide for the future expansion of 12 additional classrooms; bus canopy; brick veneer and ornamental railing for the site retaining walls; and other alternates."  They are classifying the retaining wall brick veneer and railings as "alternates," meaning that they only intended to build concrete walls from the start.  They MIS-LED THE COMMUNITY, because the original plan submitted in the Mandatory Referral stated that the walls would be brick with capstone and iron railing on top, AND that there would be a bus canopy. Now the budget submission to the BOE states this was an "ALTERNATE" plan, along with other items!!  It does not mention what other items are "alternate" that we are not aware of.  This is just another example of how the community has been MIS-LED and LIED TO!!!!!

 

   FY16 Cap Bgt FY15-20 CIP Transfer by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

MCPS Should End Year with $33.16 million Surplus

Do you have something you would like to see funded in our public school system this year? There's a pot of surplus cash hanging out at MCPS. 

MCPS is not meant to end up with a surplus. The idea is that all of the funding that MCPS is allocated every year will be spent on the education of that year's group of students. 

What would you do with $33,160,000?

http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/9TCSSV637AA6/$file/Mo%20Finan%20Rpt%20141231.pdf

MCPS ended FY 14 with a year-end surplus of $17.04 million.

Montgomery County Council's Education Committee will meet on Monday, September 15th at 9:30 AM to discuss MCPS' Fiscal year 2014 year end surplus.

Details at this link:

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/cm/2014/140915/20140915_ED2.pdf

MCPS FY 2014 end-of-year fund balance is $39.34 million

MEMORANDUM
To: Members of the Board of Education
From: Joshua P. Starr, Superintendent of Schools

Click this link to read Memorandum - Subject: Fiscal Year 2014 Operating Budget End-of-Year Categorical Transfer 

MCPS 1st Q Projected Surplus of $13,500,000

http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/9D5KZH53EBEB/$file/9.1%20Financial%20Rpt.pdf

Gazette: "MCPS cannot spend its reserves without the council’s OK."

...The school system projected it would end fiscal 2013 with a $21.8 million surplus, up from the $21.4 million it left unspent in fiscal 2012.
Even its latest projection has climbed.
In its previous financial report to the council, the system estimated it would end the year with $18.2 million in the bank. Now it expects to have just shy of $22 million.
“We’re very curious about this because [the surpluses] seem to be getting larger,” Ervin said in a phone interview.
Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring said council members have questions for the school system about the “very large” unappropriated fund balances it reports year over year.
She also said she wanted to know how it could put these funds toward eliminating achievement gaps...

 http://www.gazette.net/article/20130717/NEWS/130719185/1007/montgomery-council-curious-about-school-board-surpluses&template=gazette

MCPS Surplus Could Be Used to Fund Athletic Trainers at High Schools

April 8, 2013: Superintendent Starr at a Community Day at Walter Johnson High School.  At that event, Tom Hearn asked Superintendent Starr the following question:

Starr Tweets He is Leaving Town an hour before Council Committee meeting on $21.8 Million Surplus

See video of Montgomery County Council Education Committee's hearing on the $21.8 million MCPS surplus at this link.  Superintendent Starr and the Board of Education were absent from this Council discussion.