A new policy adopted this week by the Montgomery County Board of Education aims to strengthen the board’s oversight of the appointments of county public schools leaders and to provide a bigger role for stakeholders in the process.
In addition to adopting the appointments policy Tuesday, the board also approved revisions to a policy that dictates the school system’s approach to educating students learning English.
The school board introduced the appointments policy in March in response to the county Office of the Inspector General’s investigations into the district’s mishandling of sexual harassment and bullying complaints against former middle school principal Joel Beidleman.
In 2023, the school board approved Beidleman’s appointment as principal of Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville while the district was investigating complaints against him; he has denied the allegations. In August, The Washington Post published a report detailing the allegations made against Beidleman, sparking controversy, concern and distrust from the school community, local elected leaders and county residents.
The resulting situation led to the February resignation of former MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight. She was replaced by former MCPS administrator Monique Felder, who is serving as the interim superintendent while the board searched for a new superintendent. Her contract is set to expire June 30.
The board announced Friday it would share its final candidate with the public on Monday afternoon. It is not known if Felder applied for the position.
School board member Rebecca Smondrowski (Dist. 2), who chairs the board’s Policy Management Committee, told MoCo360 in March the appointments policy was developed because the board “felt that it was imperative that there be something that these [appointment] decisions could be based [on].”
Prior to the new policy, appointments of personnel to administrative or supervisory positions were made by the school board based on the recommendation of the superintendent. The appointments are discussed by the board in closed session and confirmed by majority vote in public sessions, according to the Board of Education handbook.
The new policy is important because the district needs to have “standards and procedures that are practical and clear to staff and the system,” said Smondrowski, who described the board’s past role in the appointments process as “fluid.”
From March 20 to April 24 the draft policy was available for public comment, which garnered feedback from MCPS staff members, parents, guardians and community members.
In response to public input, the draft was revised to allow for stakeholders–such as the teachers, principals and service employees unions, parents/guardians and school communities–to be represented on interview panels for school-based and central office-based positions.
In addition, the final draft further clarified that no candidate for a position would be considered until the outcome of any investigation of the candidate is complete, according to school board documents.
April Key, MCPS chief of human resources and development, told board members at Tuesday’s meeting that MCPS “[takes to] heart the need for transparency in the process.”
“We appreciate the opportunity to formally document our procedures,” Key said. “Institutional memory was insufficient and previous documentation needed to be reviewed, revised and published to bring about greater transparency and accountability.”
English language learners policy
The board also adopted changes to MCPS policy regarding the education of students learning English, who are identified as emergent multilingual learners (EMLs) by MCPS.
The goal of revising the policy was to shift away from a “deficit-orientation of viewing students as only being deficient in English language proficiency,” according to board documents.
One of the main revisions was renaming the existing policy, which was called Education of English Learners.
School board President Karla Silvestre told MoCo360 in April the existing policy name was based on an “antiquated deficit model, in terms of ‘You’re not quite there, you still have to learn English.’ ”
The revisions also align with research and best practices and guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, the Maryland State Department of Education and an evaluation of MCPS programs by the Center for Applied Linguistics–a Washington, D.C.-based private, nonprofit organization focused on language education, research and policy, according to board documents.
When the proposed changes were first introduced to the board in April, members proposed the policy be renamed “Emergent Multilingual Learners.” However, a major theme across the public comments was critiques of the proposed policy name as well as debates over the naming convention for students learning English.
The district has already shifted the language used to identify students receiving English language development services, formerly identified as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, according to MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram.
At the April board meeting when the policy revisions were first introduced, board member Grace Rivera-Oven (Dist. 3) praised the changes but pointed out that the label “emergent multilingual learner” does not directly translate into Spanish.
“I like it, but I like ‘gifted’ better than multilingual learners,” she said. “How would you say ‘emergent’ in Spanish? Most of our students are Spanish speaking so as a former interpreter, I cannot think of something that is similar and I think that’s going to be an issue.”
Subsequently, the board renamed the policy to “English Language Development Programs and Services.”
Students who primarily speak a language other than English are one of the fastest-growing populations in the school system, MCPS officials said. According to MCPS, about 18.6% of all students are emergent multilingual learners this school year, an increase of 2.3 percentage points from the 2021-2022 school year.
In addition, about 43% of county residents speak a language other than English at home and 17% of residents speak Spanish, according to U.S. census data. In the United States, more than 10% of all public school students are classified as English learners, according to U.S. Department of Education data.
Other policy revisions also include clarifying the achievement expectations of English learners in school, effectively allocating staff and resources to English Language Development programs in the district and ensuring language-appropriate accommodations for students who also receive special education services.