MOCO BOE update: Beidleman Report summary

[Anonymous]

McKnight is not commenting on the specifics of the Biedleman complaints on the basis that the IG is investigating.

[Anonymous]

Also she seems to know very little about the complaint investigation process and they don't have any staff here to answer questions about the process.

[Anonymous]

McKnight says they spent a year revamping the school climate survey. Maybe they should have spent an additional day proofreading it because there are repeated questions. And the questions suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also she seems to know very little about the complaint investigation process and they don't have any staff here to answer questions about the process.

I know there's so much to do in a county this size. She has her work cut out for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also she seems to know very little about the complaint investigation process and they don't have any staff here to answer questions about the process.

I know there's so much to do in a county this size. She has her work cut out for her.

They could have someone to answer questions but they decided not to do that to avoid airing their ineptitude publicly.

[Anonymous]

Katz says this happened before McKnight was superintendent

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Will any of the council members ask tough questions at the work session tomorrow or will it just be softballs?

It's only E&C right? Jawando, Mink, Albornoz. Albornoz does not ask tough questions. Mink can, not sure if she will. I think Jawando is too biased to do any real good.

If by biased you mean Jawando has to much integrity to be part of this witch hunt then sure.

I don’t think that’s what the PP meant. All 11 members are showing up. I expect hard questions from Luedtke, Fani-Gonzalez, Friedson, and Stewart.

If this is a witch hunt, how do you explain MCPS’s failure to follow its own investigations policy and the other serious systemic failures that were identified by MCPS’s own lawyers?

Can you please elaborate and substantiate these failures? All I've gotten from this is a bunch of gossip and innuendo from some people that seem to have a bone to pick with public schools.

DP. That has been done already by The Washington Post.

+1 the below is just some excerpts from the WaPo investigation. I left out the most obscene quotes from Biedleman.

( source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023...ry-county-principal/ )

- "MCPS treated Beidleman as a rising star. Despite six staff members’ reports to MCPS about his conduct in 2023, officials promoted him in June to run Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, a position that oversees a larger staff than Farquhar’s and would have raised his salary by $32,000, to $191,000."
- “He is the most vindictive person I’ve ever met,” a Farquhar English teacher said. “Even teachers who left Farquhar are scared of him to this day,” said former Farquhar media assistant Cathy Stanton, who departed MCPS in 2021 because of what she called the school’s “toxic leadership.”
- "In July 2017, former Farquhar PTA president Chelsea Curtis said she hand-delivered a letter to the central office that carbon-copied the principal to request a change of schools for her younger children after Beidleman told her eighth-grade daughter: “Don’t be like [your friend]. She’s a whore.” MCPS granted the transfer."
- "During two Jan. 31, 2018, assemblies for seventh- and eighth-grade students and staff, Beidleman lamented that Farquhar girls were dressing and acting “like hos and thots” (both derogatory terms for promiscuous women), according to multiple witnesses."
- "When parents complained about the assembly, then-Director of School Support and Improvement Eric Minus, Beidleman’s boss, spoke with teachers. One told him about additional instances of workplace misconduct, the teacher said in an interview. But when another tried to do the same, Minus asked to confine the discussion to what Beidleman had said at the assemblies, she said. Several educators were aware that the two men were friends."
- "He berated, humiliated or yelled at staff frequently, according to more than two dozen educators. "
- "A Lakelands teacher said she left that school because of Beidleman, who on numerous occasions “screamed in my face.”
- "Teachers at Lakelands, Clemente and Farquhar said Beidleman often commented on women’s bodies and outfits. During two annual Farquhar staff presentations about professional attire, he showed a picture of a woman’s midsection in tight leggings and said, “Camel toe is not allowed,” several attendees said."
- "When a male science teacher told Beidleman his wife was pregnant, the principal replied that his wife would “change for the worse,” the teacher recounted in an email to Walker obtained by The Post."
- "A teacher told The Post that Beidleman said to her in front of a colleague, who confirmed the conversation in an interview: “You look like you peg your husband and that you do butt stuff.” When that teacher disagreed with Beidleman in discussions, she and a witness said the principal told her: “Maybe your husband needs lessons in bed so you can be calmed down.” The comments were memorialized in a list of aggressions toward staff compiled by Farquhar’s building union representative this year."
- "In April 2021, Beidleman invited an MCPS teacher who had worked with him previously to apply to be his assistant principal at Farquhar, she said....Beidleman told The Post the teacher’s candidacy was rejected “prior to any personal conversations.” But screenshots from the teacher’s phone show that he texted personal messages, including lewd ones, to her more than 400 times between the day he asked if she wanted the job and the date she was informed that she would not be considered for the role."

So you want to convict this guy based on heresay and gossip?

At this point, I think those of us having a serious conversation just have to stop responding to the troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Katz says this happened before McKnight was superintendent

The promotion happened on her watch, though, and the "investigations" happened while she was Deputy Superintendent and then Acting Superintendent.

I'm agog at this idea that only the Superintendent can possibly be responsible for things that happened under senior leadership's watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Katz says this happened before McKnight was superintendent

Shame on him for saying that, and propogating the idea that

1) She wasnt a senior MCPS leader prior to her promotion to superintendent

2) THat she didnt greenlight his promotion to one of the 20 some HS principal jobs.

[Anonymous]

Apparently the staff survey they did this year was a "soft launch" and about 6500 out of 25000 staff responded

[Anonymous]

And now they'll be doing the survey twice a year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will any of the council members ask tough questions at the work session tomorrow or will it just be softballs?

It's only E&C right? Jawando, Mink, Albornoz. Albornoz does not ask tough questions. Mink can, not sure if she will. I think Jawando is too biased to do any real good.

If by biased you mean Jawando has to much integrity to be part of this witch hunt then sure.

I don’t think that’s what the PP meant. All 11 members are showing up. I expect hard questions from Luedtke, Fani-Gonzalez, Friedson, and Stewart.

If this is a witch hunt, how do you explain MCPS’s failure to follow its own investigations policy and the other serious systemic failures that were identified by MCPS’s own lawyers?

Can you please elaborate and substantiate these failures? All I've gotten from this is a bunch of gossip and innuendo from some people that seem to have a bone to pick with public schools.

DP. That has been done already by The Washington Post.

+1 the below is just some excerpts from the WaPo investigation. I left out the most obscene quotes from Biedleman.

( source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023...ry-county-principal/ )

- "MCPS treated Beidleman as a rising star. Despite six staff members’ reports to MCPS about his conduct in 2023, officials promoted him in June to run Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville, a position that oversees a larger staff than Farquhar’s and would have raised his salary by $32,000, to $191,000."
- “He is the most vindictive person I’ve ever met,” a Farquhar English teacher said. “Even teachers who left Farquhar are scared of him to this day,” said former Farquhar media assistant Cathy Stanton, who departed MCPS in 2021 because of what she called the school’s “toxic leadership.”
- "In July 2017, former Farquhar PTA president Chelsea Curtis said she hand-delivered a letter to the central office that carbon-copied the principal to request a change of schools for her younger children after Beidleman told her eighth-grade daughter: “Don’t be like [your friend]. She’s a whore.” MCPS granted the transfer."
- "During two Jan. 31, 2018, assemblies for seventh- and eighth-grade students and staff, Beidleman lamented that Farquhar girls were dressing and acting “like hos and thots” (both derogatory terms for promiscuous women), according to multiple witnesses."
- "When parents complained about the assembly, then-Director of School Support and Improvement Eric Minus, Beidleman’s boss, spoke with teachers. One told him about additional instances of workplace misconduct, the teacher said in an interview. But when another tried to do the same, Minus asked to confine the discussion to what Beidleman had said at the assemblies, she said. Several educators were aware that the two men were friends."
- "He berated, humiliated or yelled at staff frequently, according to more than two dozen educators. "
- "A Lakelands teacher said she left that school because of Beidleman, who on numerous occasions “screamed in my face.”
- "Teachers at Lakelands, Clemente and Farquhar said Beidleman often commented on women’s bodies and outfits. During two annual Farquhar staff presentations about professional attire, he showed a picture of a woman’s midsection in tight leggings and said, “Camel toe is not allowed,” several attendees said."
- "When a male science teacher told Beidleman his wife was pregnant, the principal replied that his wife would “change for the worse,” the teacher recounted in an email to Walker obtained by The Post."
- "A teacher told The Post that Beidleman said to her in front of a colleague, who confirmed the conversation in an interview: “You look like you peg your husband and that you do butt stuff.” When that teacher disagreed with Beidleman in discussions, she and a witness said the principal told her: “Maybe your husband needs lessons in bed so you can be calmed down.” The comments were memorialized in a list of aggressions toward staff compiled by Farquhar’s building union representative this year."
- "In April 2021, Beidleman invited an MCPS teacher who had worked with him previously to apply to be his assistant principal at Farquhar, she said....Beidleman told The Post the teacher’s candidacy was rejected “prior to any personal conversations.” But screenshots from the teacher’s phone show that he texted personal messages, including lewd ones, to her more than 400 times between the day he asked if she wanted the job and the date she was informed that she would not be considered for the role."

So you want to convict this guy based on heresay and gossip?

A victim directly reporting and going on the record with their allegation is not hearsay or gossip. Multiple victims and witnesses reporting the same behavior is evidence that the allegations are true beyond a reasonable doubt. Certainly, people like you may have unreasonable doubts, probably because they have some bias or personal interest in casting doubt on the allegations.

Teachers say they have evidence. Screenshots of texts.

Teachers are directly testifying to their own experience as victims and witnesses are on the record confirming those experiences. In no world is that "hearsay" or "gossip". If you simply don't believe the victims, just say that. Saying it's gossip is offensive and disgusting.

They are not victims

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And now they'll be doing the survey twice a year

God, this is frustrating. The problem was never a lack of information about bad principals, it was a lack of action taken by MCPS leadership as a result of that information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And now they'll be doing the survey twice a year

God, this is frustrating. The problem was never a lack of information about bad principals, it was a lack of action taken by MCPS leadership as a result of that information.

They are very obviously avoiding admitting that they did anything wrong.

[Anonymous]

I find it so galling how Silvestre is complaining (and McKnight has similarly complained) about how this is affecting them and how distracting this is. They messed up, big time. This is their doing. And they haven't even said they're sorry.