$1.3M Payout To Former MOCO Schools Superintendent Who Resigned, Agreed Not To Sue

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A $1.3 million payment will be made to former Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Monifa McKnight, who resigned and agreed not to sue the district, reports said of the separation agreement the two sides reached.

The payment amount was detailed in documents received Friday by MoCo360, which received the information from the school district after filing a Maryland Public Information Act request.

In addition to the $1.3 million payout, which includes covering McKnight's legal fees and deferred compensation, McKnight agreed she would not sue the school board, accepted a mutual non-disparagement agreement and obtained permission for her son to continue attending county public schools, the agreement said.

After weeks of tension and public debate about her job performance, embattled Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Monifa McKnight said Feb. 2 she is leaving the district.

The Board of Education held a closed-door meeting Feb. 2, and a district statement afterward said the board and McKnight had “mutually agreed to separate” effective that day.

The Montgomery County Board of Education said it has launched a nationwide search for the next schools superintendent, who will star work in July 2024. The board will hire a firm to recruit and vet the candidates.

Montgomery County residents can weigh in on the search and candidates through an online survey and three upcoming community forums:

• General Feedback Form
• Superintendent Search Survey for students, staff and families. (Now Available)
• Community Engagement events during the first week of April on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — April 2, 3 and 4.
• Stakeholder focus groups

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 Dr. 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 a 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.

An investigation by the Post published in August said the school system had received at least 18 written or verbal complaints about former principal 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.

In late January, 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 in January 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:

• Embattled MOCO Superintendent Monifa McKnight Leaves School District
• 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