Editor’s note: This article, originally published at 4:07 p.m. June 3, 2024, was updated at 7:15 p.m. June 3, 2024, to add comments from Ritchie Park Elementary School PTA President Amy Haddad and information from a letter the school community received about Winter’s leave. It was updated at 1:00 p.m. June 4, 2024, to include comments from Scott Joftus and add that Winter’s was removed from the FourPoint Education Partners website.
The principal of Ritchie Park Elementary School has been charged with assault in connection with an incident involving a student, Rockville City police announced Monday.
An arrest warrant was issued Monday for Andrew Winter, 54, police said in a statement. Winter turned himself in and was charged with one count of second-degree assault.
In a Monday letter to the Rockville school’s community, Montgomery County Public Schools notified families of Winter’s arrest.
“As we have communicated previously, Mr. Winter has been and remains on leave from the school,” wrote Tamitha Campbell, MCPS director of the Office of School Support and Well-Being. “It is crucial to understand that when any employee is on leave (for any reason) it is considered a personnel matter and by law what can be shared is limited.”
Amy Haddad, a parent of two students at Ritchie Park Elementary and the school’s PTA president, told MoCo360 Monday that the school community was “shocked by the news.”
Haddad said Winter had been on leave from the school since mid-February with little explanation from the district. According to emails viewed by MoCo360, Ritchie Park families were notified on Feb. 26 that the school’s assistant principal, Tracy Tibbs, had been assigned to serve as acting principal and that Winter “remains on leave.”
Winter did not respond to MoCo360’s request for comment via email Tuesday.
According to Haddad, that email was the first time she and other families had been notified of Winter’s leave. She said it was frustrating how MCPS handled the process and she had “tried over the past few months to get more information and updates.”
“There’s been a lack of clear communication from the beginning and that has led to a lot of confusion,” she said.
According to the statement, police became aware Feb. 9 of the alleged assault on a student at the school at 1514 Dunster Road. An investigation by Rockville police and the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office identified Winter.
Winter turned himself in at the county’s Central Processing Unit in Rockville, where he will have an initial appearance before a Montgomery County District Court commissioner, the statement said.
On Friday, Ritchie Park families were notified in a letter from Sean McGee, associate superintendent of the Office of School Support and Well-Being, that Winter would not be returning to the school and that the district would begin the search and selection process for the school’s next principal.
“We would like to thank you for your patience through this transition and also with the changes of the assistant principal position. We understand that changes to school leadership and personnel can be difficult and we apologize for any confusion that this has caused,” McGee wrote.
Haddad said the agenda for Tuesday’s PTA meeting includes discussions about what families want in the next principal, but with the latest news, “people are going to have lots of questions about that as well.”
Campbell will be at the PTA meeting to talk with families and staff about the process of filling the principal role, according to McGee’s letter.
On Monday afternoon, Winters was listed as the principal of Ritchie Elementary on the school’s website.
As of Tuesday, Winter is no longer listed as an associate on the website of FourPoint Education Partners, an education consulting firm co-founded by former Montgomery County School Board member Scott Joftus.
According to his profile on the firm’s website Monday afternoon, Winter “has recently joined the FourPoint Education Partners team as a school-based administrator expert.”
Joftus said Tuesday that Winter joined the company as a contracted associate about a month ago but the firm had not conducted any business with Winter since then.
