Board wants Monifa to step down

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is Monifa pronounced?

Is it like Monica with an F?

Or is it like Moe-Nee-Fuh?

Moe-NEE-Fuh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also have a situation here where people are seemingly ignoring the fact that McKnight was actively protecting a predator, and that, right there, is enough to ask for her to leave. It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right, bottom line, her being loyal to Beidleman and not to the staff and students of this district is straight-up disgusting. (Never mind making an argument that this is a racial witch hunt, when that has nothing to do with what Beidleman actually did. Or what McKnight did. It’s just smoke.)

Isn't the argument that she was letting the personnel investigationand action process play out, rather than publicly condemning someone before due process was completed?

Not exactly. If we assume Khalid Walker can back up his allegations with receipts, the investigation did play out and JB was found to be in wild violation of the MCPS Code of Conduct but also basic human professional norms. That investigation was suppressed and fraudulently rewritten, at the direct instruction of two folks who report to McKnight.

She also appears to have baldly lied to the Board of Education about when she learned of the allegations and what she knew of JB's behavior.

Any of these are grounds for dismissal.

Agreed

Why would anyone risk so much to protect him? It makes no sense

I think she wrongly assumed she'd never get caught. But she did when the teachers fought back and went back to the media with the story.

Once the Washington Post got a hold of the story, McKnight and MCPS lost control of the situation and have been stumbling ever since. It's a very salient example of the power and importance of the press, particularly local journalism.

If you look at the MoCo 360 reporting, it paints a picture of an office operating with absolute impunity. They literally did not think they could ever face consequences for their actions, so they did things like lock their own compliance officer out of the system when he filed a report they didn't like.

It sounds enormously toxic, and a workplace only gets like that if they feel they have a monopoly on employees, and if they feel like no one will ever ask them hard questions about performance/compliance.

You should look at the source. Robbins has a personal agenda here. I'm not saying there isn't value to her reporting, but take everything with a grain of salt.

What agenda? She is an experienced journalist who followed the story. No one involved in the story has called her out for inaccuracies.

Except you. Please share additional information that you personally know that contradicts Robbins' reporting.

[Anonymous]

What all this looks like is a cross of behavior during school times (the worse part) and out of school between a range of folks with different titles. (People keep wrongly believing that what they do on their personal time will not impact their professional lives). Then Beidelmen was up for promotion there was an ongoing investigation which had not completed. Should his promotion have been held up there, yes probably. But then someone also probably pointed out that he could argue that he was being penalized before being found guilty of anything.

Once it became a news article everyone including the BOE lawyered up, some people went into CYA mode(we'll see what Khalid is able to prove) and now two OIG investigations have been completed. Neither has implicated McKnight directly. To all their credit some high level staff have been let go because of the investigation and Jackson Lewis report. But now its out of control and McKnight seems to close to the situation and players involved, seems to have played some things to close to the vest and now the BOE wants to save face and look like they are doing something. And if that's the case then they should have been able to come to agreement with McKnight quietly. The fact that they couldn't is problematic for the BOE. Figure out how to quiet things down, get McKnight out and then find another Super. And go luck with that finding a new Super.

I know one thing for sure if I worked for MCPS(regardless of position) I'd be sure that I had all my i's dotted and t's crossed. Because if I'm the BOE my next Super would be tasked with doing checks on everyone and everything in the system. Everyone's background check, credentials, performance evals, reviews of system audits and plans, etc. A reckoning would be forthcoming

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What all this looks like is a cross of behavior during school times (the worse part) and out of school between a range of folks with different titles. (People keep wrongly believing that what they do on their personal time will not impact their professional lives). Then Beidelmen was up for promotion there was an ongoing investigation which had not completed. Should his promotion have been held up there, yes probably. But then someone also probably pointed out that he could argue that he was being penalized before being found guilty of anything.

Once it became a news article everyone including the BOE lawyered up, some people went into CYA mode(we'll see what Khalid is able to prove) and now two OIG investigations have been completed. Neither has implicated McKnight directly. To all their credit some high level staff have been let go because of the investigation and Jackson Lewis report. But now its out of control and McKnight seems to close to the situation and players involved, seems to have played some things to close to the vest and now the BOE wants to save face and look like they are doing something. And if that's the case then they should have been able to come to agreement with McKnight quietly. The fact that they couldn't is problematic for the BOE. Figure out how to quiet things down, get McKnight out and then find another Super. And go luck with that finding a new Super.

I know one thing for sure if I worked for MCPS(regardless of position) I'd be sure that I had all my i's dotted and t's crossed. Because if I'm the BOE my next Super would be tasked with doing checks on everyone and everything in the system. Everyone's background check, credentials, performance evals, reviews of system audits and plans, etc. A reckoning would be forthcoming

The 2nd OIG report identifies that MCPS had a long history of being dysfunctional at responding to complaints and that their failures had been identified previously and repeatedly. The failure to address this falls very much on McKnight (as well as Jack Smith). The Jackson Lewis report identified that McKnight failed to report the issue with Biedelman to the BOE when she supposedly learned of the investigation. Not to mention when she promoted him she knew there were concerns "swirling around" but didn't ask any questions about that before recommending his promotion. Probably didn't want to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is Monifa pronounced?

Is it like Monica with an F?

Or is it like Moe-Nee-Fuh?

Such innocent times when posters were DEMANDING she be called doctor McKnight, despite her predecessor being called Jack here.

[Anonymous]

Dr this Dr that. Who cares. Care about the children, you so called leaders!

[Anonymous]

McKnight's response to the second OIG report released:

https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/press/index.aspx?pagetype=showrelease&id=13369&type=&startYear=&pageNumber=&mode=

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://x.com/allisonpapson/status/1749993072153256430?s=46&t=VdI4RenOrHVV8qT8bniHxg


Interview w Dr. McKnight and her attorney

That was surprisingly awkward considering it was arranged by McKnight and her lawyer.

It doesn’t surprise me that she has hired such an obviously and laughably bad attorney.

It's really a shame they're pretending they have no idea what the issue is. Or should I say sham. If they're that clueless, then that's even more reason not to want her to keep her position.

[Anonymous]

Adam Pagnucco points out the the IG punted on the specifics of the Beidleman case: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/01/24/inspector-general-punts/

Why is that? Did someone pressure her to avoid diving into who did what and why? If so, why? And why did Limarzi comply when that was exactly what the public asked for and expected from her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pretty obvious from that start that she wasn’t up to the job

I really, really liked her in the beginning. But even without this scandal she's made MCPS into a joke.

MCPS has been a joke long before her, don’t kid yourself. No final exams, no LCs for unex abesences, 50% rule, grade inflation, retaking of test. List goes on and on. It’s been declining probably for 15 years now.

I agree. It started with curriculum 2.0. But the whole "Be The Change" thing is a massive waste of time, energy and resources. HUGE waste. MCPS was going down hill but she put vaseline on the slide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://x.com/allisonpapson/status/1749993072153256430?s=46&t=VdI4RenOrHVV8qT8bniHxg


Interview w Dr. McKnight and her attorney

Sweet merciful crap that was painful. And not a good look for her. Or her bumbling attorney. No idea why she is insisting on scorching the earth like this. I know it is going to be hard for her to find work in the ed field again with this scandal attached to her, but at this point her own PR “strategy” is turning future work into an impossibility.

False
She will immediately have a new job. Fired superintendents are no big deal in education.

If she had agreed to leave, sure. Quietly fired superintendents are no big deal. But that's not this. If even 75% of the anonymously sourced items are true, McKnight personally witnessed JB's bad behavior, was well aware of it before he was promoted, directed her team to engage in a cover-up, lied directly to the BoE's faces about what she knew, and then participated in the harassment of the original whistle-blowers.

Every school board in American will know that this could be them, and for what? Is she so incredible and irreplaceable that they'd roll the dice on being in the same position? I can see picking up a superintendent who you could convince yourself was misunderstood by their previous BoE, or who had impeccable educational bona fide and experience. But, again. that's not Dr. McKnight.

Honestly, she's been badly advised but you can also see where her impulse to "dig in" is at its worst in this situation. There was a time about six months ago when she could have come out and said "Yes, I'd heard the rumors and I'd seen him engage in some drunken escapades when we were all young. I thought he'd outgrown those days, and I saw value in providing an opportunity for redemption to a Black man who had found Jesus and was ready to be a role model to the youth of PBHS."

If she'd done that - talked about loyalty and redemption, she'd have a wall of pastors behind her at last night's event. She didn't because she chose cover-up and obfuscation.

She's not the problem and should fight this tooth and nail. She has done an amazing job despite all the crazy posts by the failed board candidates that are out for her head.

LOL you are in the minority among parents, staff and board members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fox5 needs better fact checking. Beidleman wasn’t “going to be” the principal at PB, he actually was the principal for a month! He was the opening speaker at the July RT training and set up individual private meetings with PB staff. That was a creepy request to read on email.

A 1 on 1 meeting is not a creepy invite on email. Plenty of people have them with their boss. Stop the drama.

He said he needed a private meeting with each staff member to build teamwork or some BS like that. I would NEVER be in a room alone with him. Always needed witness for what he did and the gaslighting and continuous lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:McKnight is leaving. Whether today, a year from now or when her contract is up, is to be seen. All the BOE can do is try to save some face or claw back the narrative. That way they’ll still be able to get some quality candidates for the next search. Something that is already going to be hard given the past history of dealing with Supers, the size of the district, and what folks in industry have heard about it.

It sounds like McKnight's main beef with the board, according to the Fox 5 exclusive she sat down for, is that she's being asked to resign before her term is over, which she says is unlike what has happened to her male predecessors.

SOURCE: https://www.fox5dc.com/news/mcps-superintendent-dr-monifa-mcknight-breaks-silence-amidst-boards-request-for-her-resignation

She is the first woman to be the superintendent of MCPS and feels she is being treated differently than the men who have come before her because they were able to finish their term despite any high-profile incidents that came to light.

So it sounds like she's fine with not having her contract renewed, but not ok with being pushed out prematurely. This aligns with some of the chatter that was going around that she only viewed the MCPS superintendent role as a stepping stone in a larger political career ambition. She never cared to do a good job. She just cares about how it looks.

She's pulling a Trump, 'witch hunt' and all, so maybe she has a political future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We also have a situation here where people are seemingly ignoring the fact that McKnight was actively protecting a predator, and that, right there, is enough to ask for her to leave. It doesn’t matter if you’re left or right, bottom line, her being loyal to Beidleman and not to the staff and students of this district is straight-up disgusting. (Never mind making an argument that this is a racial witch hunt, when that has nothing to do with what Beidleman actually did. Or what McKnight did. It’s just smoke.)

Isn't the argument that she was letting the personnel investigationand action process play out, rather than publicly condemning someone before due process was completed?

Not exactly. If we assume Khalid Walker can back up his allegations with receipts, the investigation did play out and JB was found to be in wild violation of the MCPS Code of Conduct but also basic human professional norms. That investigation was suppressed and fraudulently rewritten, at the direct instruction of two folks who report to McKnight.

She also appears to have baldly lied to the Board of Education about when she learned of the allegations and what she knew of JB's behavior.

Any of these are grounds for dismissal.

Andn those are not things that happened before she got there, that she is taking the fall for. They're on her.

[Anonymous]

I want to know who else in MCPS they were partying with.