Montgomery County Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Brian Hull will serve as the acting superintendent while Superintendent Monifa McKnight is out of the office on medical leave, she told staff in a note Friday.
An email provided to MoCo360 by the school system said that she had been absent from the office for the past week. “I have been dealing with a medical condition that required hospitalization. I am home now, getting better every day, and looking forward to getting back to the office,” McKnight wrote.
Hull has served as the chief operating officer at MCPS since August 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Previously, he was the executive director of finance at Minneapolis Public Schools in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and also worked in various roles within the Tennessee Department of Education, per LinkedIn.
McKnight did not share specifics about her return to the office. An MCPS spokesperson did not immediately respond to inquiries about when she would return.
Hull is stepping in to lead a school system grappling with serious security incidents such as multiple bomb threats and students bringing loaded firearms to schools, as well as rebuilding the trust of the school community the wake of its mishandling of an investigation into sexual misconduct by an MCPS principal.