This story was originally published at 4:59 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2023. It was updated at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 1, 2023 to correct that Jennifer Baker was an MCPS principal for 17 years, with 13 years as principal of Walter Johnson High School.
Three Montgomery County Public Schools principals—Jennifer Baker of Walter Johnson High School in North Bethesda, Marc Cohen of Seneca Valley High School in Germantown and Edward Owusu of Clarksburg High School—plan to retire before the end of the academic year. All three have announced their retirement within the past two months.
The three principals said the moves came for personal and career reasons and did not attribute their exits to issues within MCPS or to being pushed out.
The first to announce was Baker on Oct. 2. She wrote a letter to the school community which she described as “one of the most difficult letters I have ever had to write.” Baker will be leaving MCPS after 17 years as a principal, 13 of which were spent leading Walter Johnson High School.
“Despite the happiness each day has brought me, I have made the difficult decision to retire on December 1, 2023. This decision did not come easily, but I think it is the right time for me and my family. Although I am sad, I am also filled with the most amazing memories that will forever be cherished,” she wrote in the letter.
After 29 years as an MCPS educator and administrator, Baker said she loves her job and will miss the feeling of entering the school building each day.
“I get a lot of energy from coming into the building and being around everyone that’s here,” she said.
But she is excited for the freedom that will come from retirement to spend time with family, take cooking classes, learn more Spanish and travel. Baker said she hopes to travel abroad to Croatia, Japan, Barbados, Chile and Peru, and visit the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls.
“I lost my husband a couple of years ago and I just would like to spend more time with my family and my grandkids – I have six grandchildren,” she said. “I have friends that live all over the country that I haven’t seen very much over the last few years. This job is very, very time-consuming. It’s an amazing job, a wonderful job and I love it. But there is very little personal time that I have.”
While the school searches for a new principal, Nicole Morgan, an assistant principal at Walter Johnson, will serve as acting principal.
One month after Baker’s announcement, Cohen wrote a letter to the community that after 14 years at the school he would retire this week. His last day is Nov. 30.
Cohen wrote that he won’t be leaving the education field entirely and is beginning a “new professional journey supporting school leaders across the country as an Instruction and Leadership Coach.” According to his LinkedIn profile, he was hired as a coach for The Center for Model Schools, based in New York.
According to MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram, Ricardo Hernandez, a principal intern at Argyle Middle School was selected to be the school’s acting principal.
In an email to MoCo360, Cohen said that when he leaves Seneca Valley he will miss the students, staff, families and principal colleagues.
“Being a high school principal is arguably the best job in public education and I am proud to call the MCPS high school principals my colleagues and friends,” Cohen wrote. “These instructional leaders work long hours. They are among the first in their buildings each day and the last to leave each night. They sacrifice more than many will ever understand so that our students can have a positive and productive high school experience. I honor their work and will always celebrate their commitment.”
During his tenure, Cohen said the school has “improved across every measured academic area” and is proud of the school’s efforts and success in addressing, access, opportunity and achievement gaps that exist in schools.
“Scores are up, graduation rates are up, college acceptances and scholarship awards are up, and most importantly, we see these improvements across all student groups,” he wrote in the community letter. “Throughout my tenure at SVHS, we have been committed to eliminating the racial and socio-economic access, opportunity, and achievement gaps that exist across our country. And together, we have proven that this goal is attainable.”
Seneca Valley also has International Baccalaureate and Career Technical Education programs. Cohen said students who graduate from the school “understand the importance of service to the community.”
One recent accomplishment for Seneca Valley High School was at the 2023 MCPS Latin Dance Competition in November. Dancers representing the school placed first in all the junior categories for Chacha, Merengue, Bachata, Salsa and parent/student.
Clarksburg High’s Owusu was the most recent principal to announce his retirement. His last day is Jan. 1, 2024.
Owusu’s announcement came less than a week after he faced backlash from community members for approving a pro-Palestine and pro-ceasefire student walkout. However, he told MoCo360 the two developments are unrelated and any effort to connect them would be erroneous.
In an interview, Owusu—who has worked for MCPS for nearly 30 years—said that his retirement stemmed from a personal decision to spend time with family, especially one of his sons. He said that he had been planning his retirement for a while.
Owusu said that hopes to attend the graduation ceremony for the class of 2024 and will “definitely” miss the students and staff members at Clarksburg High School.
“Every day is a new adventure. It’s like a new present. It’s kind of quirky, I guess, but it is a fact. It’s like every day there’s something new that’s fun and exciting that you really can’t plan for, so I’ll definitely miss that,” he said.
For now, Owusu plans to spend more time with his family and will be seeking work after retirement, most likely in the education field, he said.
“I’m grateful and humbled that I had an opportunity to … continue to be an educator [and] to be a leader in such a great school system with so much potential,” he said.
Before his role as principal at Clarksburg High School, Owusu served as an assistant principal at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville and principal of Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg from 2009 to 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile. He began his MCPS career in 1994 working at Argyle Middle School and James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, per his LinkedIn profile.
Owusu said at this time, an acting principal has not been selected for Clarksburg High School. The selection process for an acting principal at the school is “well underway” and the person will be in place by Jan. 1, according to Cram.
Cram praised the principals and said each have “contributed significantly to the educational excellence of the schools they served.”
“…We respect and honor their choices, whether driven by the culmination of a long and illustrious career or motivated by personal reasons such as spending more time with family or pursuing fresh opportunities,” Cram wrote. “Their commitment to creating an environment of academic learning and personal growth has left an unmistakable mark on the students they have served, their school communities, and all of MCPS.”
Now, those leading the high schools will be the selected acting principals and assistant principals. According to Baker, the acting principals will serve at their respective schools until the end of the school year and in the Spring, a new principal for the school will be selected to start in the 2024-2025 school year.
The selection process for principals is currently under much scrutiny after the Washington Post released an investigation that uncovered the school district’s mishandling of more than 25 sexual misconduct allegations against former Farquhar Middle School Principal Joel Beidleman.
Over the summer, Beidleman was promoted to be principal of Paint Branch High School in Burtonsville but was placed on leave before the school year started. When he was promoted, there was a pending internal investigation into the allegations against Beidleman.
The Board of Education and Superintendent Monifa McKnight, who are key actors in the promotion and approval process of MCPS principals, deny having knowledge of the allegations against Beidleman when he was promoted.
When asked whether the Beidleman investigation and other legal troubles had any influence on their decision to retire, Baker said, “It had nothing to do with anything. I am super grateful for my entire career in MCPS. I started here at WJ [Walter Johnson] as a math teacher, and ending it here means a lot to me. So, none of the noise and everything that was happening outside of this building here has [anything] to do with my decision.”
Owusu also said, “No,” and added that retirements like his are planned “especially after 30 years.”
For Cohen, his choice had “everything to do with what is right for me and for my family,” he wrote.
“I am thankful for the relationships I have established with students, families, staff, and members of the community over the years. They have enriched my life in so many ways. And I am grateful to MCPS for allowing me to serve our students. I am excited to watch from a distance as our Screaming Eagles continue to soar,” Cohen wrote.
The school system is now in the process of selecting three new principals which, Cram said, will be a “collaborative effort” that will seek the input of many including students, staff, families and community stakeholders.
“Just as our retiring colleagues have enriched their school communities, we are confident that the vacancies they leave behind will be filled by equally exceptional individuals ready to embrace the challenges of continuing excellence in teaching and learning,” Cram wrote.