Reply to Judge orders MCPS to turn over "treasure trove" of documentation related to Beidleman case

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]SOURCE: https://montgomeryperspective.com/2024/04/18/judge-orders-mcps-to-surrender-document-treasure-trove/

[QUOTE]MCPS is well-known to MoCo activists for its occasional reluctance to turn over documents.  Even Montgomery County Council President Andrew Friedson has noted that county officials have had to use the Maryland Public Information Act to get the system to release information.  But when MCPS resisted providing information in a lawsuit, a Montgomery County judge got involved.  That didn’t end well for MCPS.

I have previously written about plaintiff Jane Doe’s lawsuit against MCPS and former Principal Joel Beidleman.  Doe filed suit against them last October alleging that Beidleman had harassed her and MCPS had covered up his conduct.  Beidleman responded by asking the court to force Doe to reveal her identity, a motion that is still pending at this writing.

In the meantime, the parties have been wrestling over disclosure.  On December 22, the parties jointly requested that the court institute a Confidentiality Order protecting the public release of disclosure materials.  The court granted the order six days later while cautioning that it would apply only to materials containing “sensitive personal information, including but not limited to personally identifiable information and confidential personnel information, which is in fact confidential.”  So one might expect that this would ease the discovery process, yes?

Not so fast.

A month later, the plaintiff’s attorney – Jerry Hyatt – was embroiled in a discovery dispute with MCPS’s attorney, Kevin Karpinski.  On January 23, Hyatt sent a 14-page letter to Karpinski asking him to comply with his discovery requests.  Hyatt wrote:

[i]This letter is sent in good faith efforts to resolve a discovery dispute.  We have received the Board’s Responses to our Request for Documents and its document production.  There are deficiencies as noted below.  Please supplement the deficiencies on or before February 7, 2023 [sic].  If you are willing to rectify some of these deficiencies but not others, please provide, in detail, which deficiency you are not willing to rectify.

First, in virtually every document request, you provide improper boilerplate objections.  These are often followed up by the statement that “notwithstanding the foregoing objections, this Defendant is producing responsive, non-privileged documents.”[/i]

Among the documents requested by Hyatt but not turned over by MCPS were:

- Beidleman’s complete personnel file.
- Any documents relating to disciplinary action, complaints or other issues concerning Beidleman.  Also, any documents of this kind related to other employees involved with investigations of Beidleman.
- Unredacted documents and exhibits referred to by the Jackson Lewis report.
- “Any and all oral or written protocols, policies, regulations, directives, procedures, guidelines or training programs” relating to sexual harassment, workplace bullying, intimidation and complaints made through the state’s and MCPS’s tip lines.
- Documents related to Khalid Walker’s investigation of Beidleman.  (Walker was the in-house investigator MCPS initially assigned to look into Beidleman.)
- Documents about Beidleman from the specific schools in which he worked.[/QUOTE]

Why does MCPS think it can hide and lie its way out of problems? Looks like there are plenty of skeletons left in the closet related to the Beidleman scandal. And if McKnight is deposed, all bets are off cause she made it clear she has ammo on the board. And it looks like Smondrowski in particular is in danger since she's the only board member named on the deposition list.
[/quote]

How do you know that McKnight has ammo on the board? When did she say that?[/quote]

Maybe the post above yours is from someone who knew/knows what was happening?[/quote]

A couple of things:

When Monifa drew her claws and went straight to the media with her lawyer, she made it clear she felt the board was engaging in racism/discrimination and/or wrongful termination.

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

[QUOTE]Dr. Mcknight’s attorney says no justification has been given as to why she is being asked to step down, but what they do know is her performance has met expectations.

Whether she plans to resign is still uncertain. Downs said that decision has not been made because there hasn't been a fair process.

"There’s been nothing brought to Dr. McKnight’s attention that suggests that she needs to resign at this moment. So, we’re not going to get into that because the process itself has been unfair at the moment."[/QUOTE]

Furthermore, she deployed her most direct threats and attacks to her supporters, such as the NAACP, who claimed on her behalf that the board was being hypocritical and was at least equally as guilty for the sins of MCPS and McKnight. Oh, and that the board hadn't held previous superintendents to the standard they were holding McKnight too:

https://mocoshow.com/2024/01/30/naacp-writes-letter-to-board-of-education-in-support-of-superintendent-monifa-mcknight/

[QUOTE]if a resignation request was made without providing Dr. McKnight; either a full and fair opportunity to address concerns or a delineation of any deficiencies in her performance, it would appear that such a request is based on [b]factors which are external to Dr. McKnight’s performance and comprise a politically expedient solution to address press reports about systemic failures in the MCPS’s process for handling employee complaints—a process which predates her tenure and for which the Board shares responsibility[/b]. In essence, it appears that the Board is attempting to scapegoat Dr. McKnight. We note that expediency is rarely a means to justice and often compromises principle.[/QUOTE]

Then, the fact that both McKnight and the board agreed to [b]mutually[/b] not disparage each other in the separation agreement lets you know that the board feels McKnight could've said things that would have damaged them. If they felt she had nothing and they were justified in terminating her, they wouldn't have included that clause and been so generous with her settlement.

https://moco360.media/2024/03/15/mcps-to-pay-mcknight-1-3-million-in-separation-agreement/

[QUOTE]In addition to receiving the payment, which also includes legal fees and deferred compensation, McKnight agreed not to sue the school board, to [b]a mutual non-disparagement agreement[/b] and secured permission for her son to continue attending county public schools, according to the agreement.[/QUOTE][/quote]

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