Reply to Karla Silvestre joins Julie Yang in jumping ship from the BOE in favor of County Council

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]SOURCE: https://bethesdamagazine.com/2025/09/16/silvestre-election-county-council/

[QUOTE]Montgomery County school board member Karla Silvestre announced Tuesday she is running for one of the County Council at-large seats in the 2026 gubernatorial election.

“I moved to Montgomery County nearly twenty years ago for the jobs, schools, and public amenities like parks and transportation hubs that gave my family a high quality of life,” Silvestre said in a Tuesday press release. “However, our county faces great challenges with strained resources and now federal actions disrupting our workforce and our community. I want to put my proven experience to work for the people of our county to strengthen our local economy and provide the quality of life that our residents expect and deserve.”

Silvestre, a Silver Spring resident and Democrat, was elected to the school board in 2018 as an at-large member and was re-elected in 2022. She served as county president for two years and is chair of the school board’s Fiscal Management Committee. She also works at Montgomery College as the director of Community Engagement and previously worked for the county government as a community liaison in the Office of Community Partnerships, according to her announcement.

[b]Silvestre is the second school board member to announce her campaign for County Council. School board President Julie Yang announced in July she was seeking the District 1 seat held by Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1)[/b]. Friedson is running for county executive to replace Marc Elrich (D), who cannot run again due to term limits.[/QUOTE]

Looks like no one enjoys or values serving on the MCPS Board of Education. I wonder why?[/quote]

No. They served their time, now they're on to something else. It's hard to give your all to a cause for more than a few years, PP. You're not as effective or enthusastic anymore. That's human nature, and not a reflection on the BOE. [/quote]

DP. Not to mention:

BOE member salary $25K
Council member salary $167K[/quote]

It is an incredibly poor policy decision to expect a Board member to do a high profile full-time job of oversight of one of the largest school districts in the country and pay them less than what you could make working part time at a fast food joint.  [/quote]

That's how all small board/city elected officials are paid, if they are paid at all. [/quote]

Those don't have nearly the time commitments expected as a MCPS board member.

And personally, I think that's the problem. The school board needs to play a role closer to that of a corporate board of directors. Most policies should be written by career staff, and most oversight should be done by an independent inspector general that reports to the school board.[/quote]

I agree.  It would be good if "fit and proper" criteria were applied to MCPS Board members--I would love to get a Board member with finance and operational expertise who could dig into the MCPS budget and explain to us all why we spend billions, and yet our kids are in overcrowded classrooms.  But for $25k a year, and potential reputational risk from the DCUM crowd who love to bash everything and everyone, it's not worth it.[/quote]

I don't understand the confusion over the budget. We're a very large district in a very expensive part of the country. Per pupil costs are consistent with other parts of the country with similar cost of living.[/quote]

No one doubts that we're in a high cost part of the country.  But I wonder if our central office is bloated relative to other school districts, and if those staff could be more usefully deployed, ya know, actually teaching children.[/quote]

Last I looked, it was not, at least compared to other MD school districts.  I am sure there are places they can cut but those would likely be small savings, not big ones.  [/quote]

It could pay for school repairs, school supplies and books or bring back the MVA.  [/quote]

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