Montgomery Board of Education incumbents Lynne Harris (At-Large) and Shebra Evans (District 4) are likely to advance to the November general election while District 2 board member Rebecca Smondrowski appeared likely to lose her bid for a fourth term, according to results Tuesday evening from the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Fourteen candidates were running for three open seats on the school board. Candidates run in separate races by district, but all eligible voters can vote for a board member for each seat, regardless of party affiliation or where they live.
The top two vote-getters in the open At-Large and districts 2 and 4 seats in the nonpartisan school board race move on to the general election in November. Elected board members serve four-year terms.
In the At-Large race, Harris, who received 31.08% of votes cast, and challenger Rita Montoya, who won 31.04%, were virtually tied for the lead, based on voting results with nearly all precincts reporting.
District 2 challengers Natalie Zimmerman, with 46.1% of votes cast, and Brenda Diaz at about 22% were defeating Smondrowski, who received nearly 16.9%.
In the District 4 race, candidate Laura Stewart was leading with about 46.1% of votes cast. Evans, who received 26.93%, appeared to hold a slight lead against Bethany Mandel, who has 25.77%.
Montoya, a small business and nonprofit adviser and the PTA president at North Chevy Chase Elementary School, said Tuesday night she was “fortunate to have the support of our community and a lot of teachers, quite frankly, out there fighting for me to be a part of this board. I’m really grateful for that.”
She said she is “excited to bring the energy” of elementary school families to the race, which she believes is a group overlooked by the district.
“I’m really looking forward to being a part of the board and I think I have a really great shot” in November, she said.
Harris did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s request for comment late Tuesday night.
MoCo360 was unable to reach Zimmerman, a Montgomery County Public Schools teacher, and Diaz, a former Gaithersburg High School teacher, for comment Tuesday night.
Stewart, a current MCPS parent and the former vice president of advocacy for the Free State PTA and the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA), said she was “extremely grateful for the support I’ve gotten from across the county.”
“It’s been gratifying to talk to teachers and parents and Montgomery County advocates and activists that really care about the county and I think everyone’s realizing that we need to pay attention to the Board of Ed this time around,” she said.
Evans, who is running for a third term on the school board, didn’t respond to MoCo360’s request for comment.
Stewart noted that with “controversies in the last couple of years,” county residents may be looking for “new faces or new energy on the board.”
This year’s school board race drew attention in the wake of the recent controversy over the Montgomery County Public Schools scandal involving former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Beidleman. The resulting controversy led to widespread distrust and concern from many in the school community as well as local elected officials.
The local teachers union, the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), did not endorse any incumbents in this election. MCEA instead endorsed Montoya, Zimmerman and Stewart.
Ahead of the primary, at more than eight different forums, candidates discussed how they would approach solving various issues within the district such as school safety and security closing the racial achievement gap, the role of parental and teen mental health.
Discussions of school safety rehashed debates around bringing police officers, called School Resource Officers (SROs) back into schools. Currently, MCPS has county police officers, known as Community Engagement Officers (CEOs) who are stationed within and respond to schools in clusters across the county.
Diaz has shared her support for bringing SROs back into schools, which she has said has fostered safer environments and improved relationships among students and county police. Zimmerman has been skeptical of the program and has said that the district needs more data on both the SRO and CEO programs moving forward.
The debate surrounding parental input stems from MCPS parents wanting the ability to opt out their child from the instruction or materials that they object to or consider inappropriate. Incumbents Harris and Evans have stood by the school board’s no opt-out policy.
Harris was first elected to the At-large seat in 2020, Evans was first elected to the District 4 seat in 2016 and Smondrowski was first elected in 2014.
