MCPS provides County Council with corrective action update following Beidleman scandal

School system to release new reporting system and handbook Aug. 26

June 20, 2024 9:23 p.m.

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) will roll out a new harassment reporting system and process handbook in time for the first day of school on Aug. 26, school system officials said during a hearing Thursday held jointly by the County Council’s Education and Culture and Audit committees.


“We are in the process of implementing step-by-step written procedures around assessing the complaints and the decision-making process,” Henry Johnson, MCPS’ acting chief of staff, said during the hearing.

As part of recommendations made by the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in January, MCPS was tasked with overhauling its current processes for reporting and investigating harassment incidents.

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This came after the inspector general’s office investigated the school system’s handling of a 2023 controversy over sexual harassment allegations involving former middle school principal Joel Beidleman. Beidleman, who is no longer with the school system, has denied the allegations. While the January report did not specifically address what happened with Beidleman, it faulted many aspects of MCPS’ investigative processes and its failures to address problems that had been flagged four times in recent years.

“Positive progress [is] being made in areas of protocol, data management, communications and more,” Interim MCPS Superintendent Monique Felder said Thursday. “We have communicated repeatedly to staff where to find and how to utilize the multiple ways to report incidents.”

Johnson said MCPS will explain in depth how the new system works and how faculty can report incidents if needed during sessions before the school year starts in late August.

In addition to those steps, the school system also has extended its email retention period by three years to keep email records available for a longer period of time for potential investigatory purposes, Felder said.

In April, MCPS created a Corrective Actions Progress Report dashboard on its website, as recommended in the report by the inspector general’s office. The site was not updated again until Thursday.

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The dashboard is a “tool to show the community the progress that we are making to meet” the recommendations outlined in the report, Board of Education President Karla Silvestre said during an April 25 board meeting.

The Corrective Actions Progress Report webpage outlines the status of steps MCPS is taking following the investigation of its mishandling of employee complaints of sexual harassment and bullying against Beidleman.

As of Thursday, the dashboard indicated the school system has made some progress in addressing the majority of the report’s recommendations.

Jessica Boone, who was hired on a temporary contract in April to work on reform efforts as part of the MCPS Department of Compliance and Investigations (DCI), told the council committees that she believes her changes have helped improve the efficiency and culture of the DCI office. She said a new office policy requires employees to check at the beginning and end of each work day to see if any complaints have been submitted.

“We’re moving towards a great culture in the office,” Boone said. “I see a much more collaborative approach.”

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The controversy involving Beidleman erupted about two months after the school board approved in June 2023 his appointment as principal of Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville while MCPS was investigating complaints against him. Following his appointment, The Washington Post published a report in August that detailed years of alleged misconduct from Beidleman and inaction from MCPS officials in charge of investigating complaints. The resulting controversy led to widespread distrust and concern from many in the school community as well as local elected officials.

In February former MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight resigned after the school board allegedly asked her to step down. About a week later, the school board appointed Felder to serve as the interim superintendent as the board conducted a national search for a new superintendent. Thomas Taylor, superintendent of Stafford County Public Schools in Virginia, was nominated for the role on Monday.

Councilmember Gabe Albornoz (D-At-large) said he is concerned about the number of acting and temporary employees who worked on the district’s reform efforts, saying he’s worried about the potential for progress not continuing.

“We hope that the new leadership continues to build off of the work that has been completed and that we don’t start over again, or go in another direction,” Albornoz said.

Councilmember Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) requested the school system look at ways to prevent or identify abuse of the reporting system She said she was concerned about the potential for employees to file false complaints as their own form of harassment against other employees.

“These are complex behaviors,” she said, noting that a victim of bullying could possibly engage in similar conduct “towards subordinates or back in a retaliatory fashion. It’s a known phenomenon.”

Council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) asked MCPS to submit a progress update by Aug. 12.

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