Embattled MOCO Superintendent Monifa McKnight Leaves School District

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — After weeks of tension and public debate about her job performance, embattled Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Monifa McKnight said Friday she is leaving the district.

The Board of Education held a closed-door meeting Friday afternoon, and a district statement afterward said the board and McKnight had “mutually agreed to separate” effective Friday.

“The Board is grateful to Dr. McKnight for her many years of service to MCPS and public education. We wish her well in her next chapter. The Board will work together with staff to ensure a smooth transition,” the board said, according to WTOP.

Last week, McKnight said she was asked to step down as superintendent by members of the Board of Education. She said the school board provided “no justification for their request.”

In a statement after her departure was made public, McKnight said that “things change” in life.

“And I have lived long enough to understand that. But I am aware of ‘My Why,’ and that must be focused on the students and those who serve them. I have felt over the past several months, there has been a distraction," WTOP reported that McKnight said. "When the focus is no longer on whom I have agreed to serve, I must control my own fate. I have also maintained that it is critical that my reputation remains grounded in facts and truth. Effective today, after careful reflection, prayer, and willingness to demand fairness, I have reached a mutually agreed separation with the Board of Education.”

Brian Hull, chief operating officer, has been named acting superintendent of schools.

The Washington Post reported McKnight resigned amid questions about how the district handled sexual harassment, bullying and other allegations involving a former principal. She was the first woman to serve as the head of Maryland’s largest school system, in the midst of a four-year contract that ran through 2026.

The Montgomery County Council said in statement about McKnight's departure that she led the school system through critical and difficult times, overseeing one of the nation's largest school systems in the unprecedented aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.

"The Council respects the decision of the Montgomery County Board of Education and Dr. McKnight to mutually separate and will remain in close contact with Board of Education members as they begin the process to identify a new superintendent. ... While the Council has no official role in the selection of a superintendent, we encourage the Board of Education to provide regular public updates as it navigates this leadership change," the council said. "We also thank our outstanding teachers, principals and educational support staff for all they do each day to educate our 160,000 students and for their ongoing commitment to Montgomery County Public Schools.”

An investigation by the Post published in August said the school system had received at least 18 written or verbal complaints about former principa Joel Beidleman dating back to 2016. But last year he was promoted to become principal of Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville. An investigation by the Jackson Lewis law firm of Baltimore found seven more complaints.

Last week, Montgomery County’s Office of the Inspector General issued a report that found several deficiencies in the way Montgomery County Public Schools deals with employee complaints.

The OIG “initiated this review in response to assertions that the inadequate response to alleged misconduct committed by former principal Dr. Joel Beidleman was caused in part by shortcomings in how complaints of employee wrongdoing are handled by Montgomery County Public Schools,” the inspector general’s office said in the report.

The Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP sent a letter last week to the Board of Education, expressing its support for McKnight. In the letter, Linda Plummer, president of the Montgomery County Branch of the NAACP, said the civil rights organization finds it “deeply troubling” that the request for McKnight to resign “would be made without a full and fair opportunity for Dr. McKnight to address any concerns which may have led to this action.”

Plummer said if no explanation of any deficiencies in her performance were provided, “it would appear that such a request is based on factors which are external to Dr. McKnight’s performance and comprise a politically expedient solution to address press reports about systemic failure in the MCPS’s process for handling employee complaints — a process which predates her tenure and for which the Board shares responsibility.”

“In essence, it appears that the Board is attempting to scapegoat Dr. McKnight,” Plummer said.

The NAACP branch urged the Board of Education to abandon its efforts to oust McKnight and instead focus on empowering her efforts to address the “systemic failures of the MCPS process for handling complaints,” Plummer added.

RELATED:

• School Officials Trying To 'Scapegoat' Superintendent McKnight: NAACP
• MoCo Schools Superintendent In Battle For Job With School Board
• MoCo Schools In Disarray As Report Faults Handling Of Staff Misconduct