This story was updated at 3:37 p.m., Oct. 13, 2023, to include comments from MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight and information about the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General’s ongoing investigation.
A heavily redacted version of an investigative report into allegations of sexual misconduct by a Montgomery County Public School principal, Joel Beidleman, was released by the Board of Education on Thursday afternoon.
Speaking for the school board, President Karla Silvestre also apologized to district staff for the failures in MCPS’ complaint processes that the report documented, saying members were “deeply sorry” and vowed to rebuilt trust.
MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight spoke at the school board meeting Thursday and thanked the Board for releasing the redacted the report “which many in our community have asked for and is indeed an important step for restoring trust with our staff and community,” she said.
The Jackson Lewis law firm was tapped by the school district to conduct an investigation into Beidleman after a Washington Post investigation revealed that there were at least 18 sexual harassment reports filed by school staff against the principal during his 12-year tenure – including six reports filed in 2021. Beidleman, who most recently served as principal of Olney’s William H. Farquhar Middle School, was slated to be promoted over the summer to principal of Paint Branch High School until the Post began inquiries.
Beidleman has denied the allegations against him to the newspaper.
The redacted report was released at the end of the Board’s business meeting Thursday and has been posted on the MCPS website. The report is redacted to protect the privacy of MCPS staff members, according to Silvestre.
County Council members, parents and community members had expressed dissatisfaction with a five-bullet-point summary of the report which the board released on Sept. 14.
The board previously declined to publish the full, unredacted version of the report from Jackson Lewis, citing confidential personnel information contained in it, and published the summary of the report, which the board said found “significant and troubling failures” by senior central office staff.
County Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-Large), who is chair of the Education and Culture Committee, in a press release praised the board for releasing the report and said it was an important step in accountability and transparency for families, students and staff in the district.
“It has been two months since the allegations of employee misconduct by an MCPS principal were revealed through the press. At the EC Committee session held on Sept. 28, I called for the full release of a redacted report and my colleagues echoed that sentiment,” he said in the release. “It is only through transparency that we are able to have effective accountability and facilitate improvement in processes that protect our school community.”
Others on social media, hungry for more information, criticized the volume of redactions, which made it difficult to glean much additional information. One aspect that came through, however, was the presence of complaints that had not been investigated—and others that had been investigated but did not appear in Beidleman’s personnel file.
During the board’s meeting Thursday, Board President Karla Silvestre addressed the investigation’s findings about MCPS’ system of addressing complaints and its promotion process.
“This has been a difficult time for our staff and our school system as we grapple with the multiple lapses in judgment surrounding the complaint and promotion process in MCPS. The Board wants staff to know that we are reforming and rebuilding the infrastructure of both processes.
“Speaking now, directly to our staff, we are deeply sorry that these processes, intended to provide employees with a way to have their complaints redressed, failed to ensure that all complaints were fully investigated and resolved. We will rebuild that trust by ensuring that there is a robust system for managing and investigating complaints put into place and that there is an infrastructure within the Office of Human Resources to support an organization with over 25,000 employees,” Silvestre said.
“… We believe that restoring trust with our staff and community is of utmost importance and it is our hope that by releasing this document, which is redacted to protect the rights of our employees, will be a step toward a renewed belief in the integrity of our public school system.”
McKnight said that after reviewing the report she has seen that “there are holes in the system” that need to be fixed and a need for accountability. She added that she is still developing a corrective action plan and will continue to cooperate with ongoing investigations.
The Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General is actively conducting two probes surrounding Beidleman investigation. They will be reviewing the school district’s response to “receiving and responding to allegations of misconduct” against employees, and MCPS’ procedures for the “receipt, assignment, investigation, referral, resolution, documentation and retention” of allegations made by its employees, according to a letter from the Office of the Inspector General to the Board.
The Board posted a statement regarding the release of the Jackson Lewis report on X, formerly Twitter on Thursday following the meeting. The statement is nearly identical to Silvestre’s statement but added that they decided to not release a redacted version of the exhibits because it contains personally identifiable information about staff and personnel.
“Releasing that information would result in a document with blacked out pages because of the amount of personally identifiable information found within those exhibits,” the statement said.
Read the full redacted report here, and read Silvestre’s full statement here.
This story is developing and will be updated.