Candidates running for the Montgomery County Board of Education discussed spending for Montgomery County Public Schools, security issues and the public’s perception of the school system at a forum Thursday night organized by the Montgomery County Taxpayers League.
In one of the first forums following the primary election, four of the six candidates running in the Nov. 5 general election shared their perspectives on issues impacting MCPS. Those attending the forum held virtually were board Vice President Lynne Harris and challenger Rita Montoya, who are running for an at-large seat; District 2 candidate Brenda Diaz and board member and District 4 candidate Shebra Evans.
Natalie Zimmerman, a candidate in the District 2 race, and Laura Stewart, a candidate in the District 4 race, didn’t participate.
Here’s a glimpse of what the candidates said during the two-hour-long virtual forum, sponsored by the taxpayers league, the Gaithersburg/Germantown Chamber of Commerce, local blog Moderately MoCo, the Parents Coalition of Montgomery County, CleanSlate MoCo and the 480Club.
MCPS budget
In two different questions, candidates tackled budget issues. MCPS has faced budget issues after the County Council approved a budget for fiscal year 2025, that was $30.5 million less than the school board requested, resulting in several budget cuts—though the $3.3 billion in spending was the most ever allotted to the district.
Evans said monitoring the progress of students to ensure the programs instituted are working was important to budgeting. Evans said the district has an evaluation program that allows the district to use data analysis to decide whether or not to continue programs.
“That helps make certain that we’re not wasting money,” said Evans, who’s running for her third term.
Evans said local officials have noted that the district’s funding hasn’t been adjusted for inflation and that she was in favor of the federal government increasing school funding.
Harris said she was interested in “right-sizing” the budget. State funding is tied to enrollment, Harris said, but schools’ needs have fluctuated. Harris said the district needed to match the money allotted to schools matches their needs and demands.
“Since we have a budget that is 90% humans, we need to make sure that the people in our system are in the positions they need to be to serve the needs that we currently have,” Harris said.
Montoya said she didn’t believe in funding increases or decreases to performance because “if we see spaces where are students are … deficient, in some way, that to me indicates a need for more help, not less.” She said the better solution would be to monitor the progress of programs to ensure the district is investing in those that provide the maximum value to students.
While wasteful spending needs to be curbed, Montoya said, the district also needed more money for the schools.
Diaz, on the other hand, said funding should be tied to student performance and focus on ensuring teachers have the resources they need.
“If there’s something in our budget that’s not effective, we need to get rid of it,” Diaz said. “And we need to be brave enough and say, ‘This is not working for our students.’ ”
Diaz said the MCPS budget needed to be more transparent and that “every single dollar needs to be dedicated to our children.”
School security
The candidates also discussed school safety and security, including one member of the public who asked if school resource officers (SROs) should be reintroduced to MCPS schools.
Montoya said schools needed to be staffed properly, which included making it easier for parents and community members to volunteer in schools. She also said the district should partner with local businesses that have security companies that can donate security equipment.
“It really takes an all-hands-on-deck approach to solve this issue,” Montoya said. “Of course, sometimes we just need money, but there are grants available [for security measures.]”
Currently, the district has partnered with county police to provide community engagement officers (CEOs) assigned to a high school cluster. The officers may be present in the high school but don’t monitor the halls, unlike SROs who were assigned to a specific high school and were on-site.
Montoya said there needed to be a stronger connection between schools and law enforcement and a focus on restorative justice and mental health.
Diaz said there needed to be a culture change in MCPS to eliminate drug use in schools, highlighting the recent arrest of an MCPS elementary school teacher who is charged in connection with the fentanyl-related death of a man.
“Teachers want to focus on being professionals and helping our students achieve,” Diaz said. “Then our students want to focus on learning and doing their best in the class.”
Diaz said implementing restorative justice practices were “all well and good,” but that police play a role in schools. Diaz said she supported the reintroduction of SROs, and she didn’t believe CEOs having an office in high schools was enough.
Harris noted that schools are microcosms of communities, and incidents in schools are mirroring incidents outside of schools. Harris said building connections in school and stopping conflict before it starts is important.
“We also need to build stronger partnerships with our positive youth development and street outreach network partners,” Harris said. “Their bread and butter is being out in the community where so many of the issues that end up erupting in schools are having their origins.”
Harris also said she’s a proponent of using prevention strategies, but also supported safety infrastructure investments through technology. She said police officers should be supporting the schools but didn’t think officers needed to be in schools full-time. Still, those officers working in schools needed adequate training, she said.
Evans said more door alarms and staff in hallways were important to improve school safety, but that ultimately, safety was incumbent on schools building relationships.
“What some schools are doing a little bit different is having gathering prior to school starting … to make sure our parents feel welcome and our students feel welcome to know that they have a safe space in place and adults to be able to turn to,” Evans said.
Evans said that before any changes concerning officers in schools are considered, the MCPS community needed to be consulted. Regardless of whether SROs or CEOs work with schools, the officers needed training and understanding of how to build community, she said.
District perception
One question about the perception of MCPS spurred conversations around student and school performance and the reason for declining trust in the district.
Harris blamed unfavorable perceptions of MCPS on only bad news being reported, noting the school system is struggling with similar challenges that other districts also are facing, like the increased needs of students that require more educational resources.
“We are very honestly struggling to meet the needs of the current generation of learners,” Harris said. “This is a school system that is still trying to catch up to reality.”
Diaz said she would empower all teachers to give students the grades they deserve and eliminate grade inflation.
Evans said the district and board members needed to be out in the community more so people can understand what’s going on in the district. “We have some wonderful legislators that have put forth [the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future] that is going to allow us to ensure that our teachers are paid more,” said Evans, noting the 2021 landmark education reform legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly.
Montoya said she still believed in the quality of the school district but added that test scores and safety incidents are creating concerns among families.
“So I think that when we talk about addressing these issues, what we’re talking about is rebuilding that trust,” Montoya said. “[To] spend wisely, invest in proven approaches, to close the gap and have a healthy balance between mental health support and adequate law enforcement coverage.”
The forum also tackled the issue of charter schools, after-school programming and electric bus contracts. The entire forum can be found here.
Candidates who chose not to attend
Zimmerman and Stewart didn’t participate in the forum.
Zimmerman told MoCo360 in an email that she couldn’t attend because she had a school-related event. On social media, Stewart announced she wasn’t attending the forum because of one sponsor: CleanSlateMoCo.
According to the website, CleanSlateMoCo is a “non-partisan,” “citizen journalism” website that posts stories about Montgomery County. Some posts have authors’ names attached while others are anonymous. Although Greg Visscher, Michael Bell and Mark Lautman are listed as “major contributed authors,” it is unclear who runs or who founded the website. Caleb Michaud acted as the CleanSlateMoCo representative at Thursday’s forum.
Stewart told MoCo360 that she agreed with diversity of thought and thought anonymity was a “healthy part of democracy,” but that some of the posts and headlines on the website were “extremely troubling.” She cited articles with headlines like “MCPS expands resources so your child can learn to tuck and bind,” and “MoCo boost ‘storytellers’ video features Jose, is fully in Spanish, and doesn’t confirm if recipient is an American citizen.”
“A lot of the articles were inflammatory,” Stewart said. “I thought that [the posts were] not in line with how we treat others here in Montgomery County, or at least how we should treat others.”
Esther Wells, president of the taxpayers league, said she invited a variety of groups, including CleanSlateMoCo because she wanted diversity of thought. Wells said she understood the concern of anonymity leading to the lack of accountability, but “if no one is being harmed,” maintaining anonymity is up to the group. Wells said she believed candidates should show up to forums regardless of sponsors.
In a message to MoCo360, CleanSlateMoCo didn’t identify themselves or conduct an interview over the phone, saying they “purposefully remained anonymous and would like to continue as such” because some people have thoughts on issues but have become too intimidated to share them. They said anonymity has allowed individuals to bring up issues in the past.
“Unfortunately we have a community where if you do not think tampons should be in boys bathrooms and you happen to say that, or you publish an article with a clever click bait title sharing that, you are now a hateful, inciting, etc.,” CleanSlateMoCo said in a message. “This is absolutely counter to diversity and inclusion and the behavior has been used to silence people and consolidate power around positions or policies.”
