ROCKVILLE, Md. — Montgomery County Public School authorities are standing by their decision to keep the results of a damaging investigation of personnel practices secret.
County Council members aggressively ramped up the pressure this week on the Board of Education and Superintendent Monifa McKnight to reveal the report on the promotion of Dr. Joel Beidleman to be principal of High Point High School despite numerous complaints of sexual harassment and bullying from female employees. Only a summary of the report from the law firm Jackson Lewis has been made public. The report found administrators knew that “Dr. Beidleman was under active investigation at the time of his promotions."
In addition, it revealed MCPS has "long standing practices and processes in place that resulted in anonymous and informal complaints not being formally investigated."
Board of Education President Karla Silvestre told Councilmembers the refusal to release the entire report was "because of the Maryland Public Information Act's need to protect personnel information that is within that report, and so the Board has decided to release a summary of that report instead.”
Councilmember Will Jawando pushed back saying names could easily be redacted.
Councilmember Andrew Friedson agreed, pushing for the report's release.
"That report is only as good as the trust of the 25,000 educators, the 160,000 students, their families, and that the entire public," Friedson said. "People can't trust what they can't see.”
Councilmember Gabe Albernoz called the system's handling of the Beidlemen affair "unconscionable."
“Nobody seemed to know about, or know how, to track it through," Albernoz said. "It's unbelievable.”
Parents Coalition of Montgomery County member Janice Sartucci is joining a growing chorus demanding more transparency and accountability. She noted the debate over withholding the report came at the same time the school system was forced to pay out a record $9.7 million to the victims of a sexual attack on four JV football players at Damascus High school in 2018, amid allegations that school officials did not immediately report that incident.
"This is not just a one off, a situation where we can say ‘oops it will never happen again,'" Sartucci said.
Jawando called it a problem of “culture” inside the school system.
Superintendent McKnight explained to council members that she is acting to change the culture, but she cautioned going too fast might result in the wrong results.