This article, originally published at 11:09 a.m. Feb. 7, 2024, was updated at 11:43 a.m. Feb. 7, 2024, to include background on Monique Felder and staffing at MCPS’ Department of Compliance and Investigations. Updated at 4:34 p.m. Feb. 7, 2024, to include more background on concerns from the community and Felder’s response.
The Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education on Tuesday voted unanimously to appoint Monique Felder as interim superintendent. She in turn responded to questions raised this week about financial disclosure in a previous leadership role.
The school board on Tuesday also grilled MCPS officials about the action plan to improve investigative processes that were faulted in a report last month from Montgomery County’s inspector general.
Felder is a longtime school administrator with a 32-year career in education. She spent 22 years working at MCPS, as a schoolteacher, assistant principal, and principal and later serving leadership roles. Most recently, Felder was the superintendent of Orange County Public Schools in North Carolina from 2019 until 2023.
In the days following Monifa McKnight’s resignation, rumors swirled that Felder was the prospective interim superintendent and questions arose about her past. A 2019 investigation resurfaced, which discovered that Felder failed to disclose fees she pocketed from an educational consultancy. At the time she was the chief academic officer of Metro Nashville Public Schools in Tennessee. In addition, local blogger Adam Pagnucco also flagged this week that she was the defendant in three lawsuits in the early 2000s and had her MCPS wages garnished.
“I have nothing not to disclose,” Felder said.
School board president Karla Silvestre came to Felder’s defense when questioned about financial disclosure concerns from the community.
“I want to start out by saying that the board is well aware of Dr. Felder’s background and has had conversations with her to fully understand it… We are confident that she can do the job she has been asked to do here as interim superintendent,” Silvestre said.
In her opening statement to reporters, Felder said that she was excited, humbled and honored to return to MCPS and ready to bring back focus to teaching and learning. At the press conference, Felder said her issue with financial disclosure stemmed from an error she made in completing an income disclosure form. She said that she filled out the form “prospectively” rather than “retrospectively” and when an auditor caught the issue, she amended the form.
“What I want to say is: You know, certainly in my 32 years in my career, particularly in the 2000s like many families, my family struggled. Having [a] young family, three children, working as an educator, putting myself through college. And so, we fell on some hard times from time to time. But I can say by the grace of God that we were able to address any concerns there and took care of any outstanding issues that needed to be taken care of.”
“Those struggles have made me who I am also,” she continued. “And it helps me in every role that I’ve had – as a teacher, as an assistant principal, as a principal, in central office as a superintendent. It has helped me to do the work with humility. It has helped me to have a clear understanding and connect with what so many of our families and our students deal with each and every day.”
Another area of concern is her abrupt departure from the district in North Carolina (with two years left on her contract). Felder told reporters that while she led the school system a shift in the board’s composition caused misalignment between her and the board.
“It happens. And so as to not cause a distraction, it was best that we separate,” she said.
After being appointed, Felder joined school board members at the round table as they discussed the latest reports from the Office of the Inspector General with Brian Hull, MCPS chief operating officer; April Key, chief of human resources and development; Stacey Ormsby, acting director of the Department of Compliance and Investigations (DCI); and other school officials.
Here are five key takeaways from the discussion:
- On Feb. 15, all emails for all staff will be retained for a minimum of three years except for the Office of the General Counsel which will be unlimited, according to Hull
- MCPS has implemented new case management software with a company called Campus Kaizen. According to school officials, the platform is more “robust” and modernized compared to its old platform, FileMaker. Campus Kaizen is a cloud-based platform that integrates with Title IX and can better track patterns or trends among complaints, school officials said. The school system is awaiting a data transfer and has not fully transitioned to Campus Kaizen
- All anonymous complaints will be recorded and addressed. All complaints will receive a standard acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint from the DCI. “It is good to hear that we now have a process of consistently receiving, processing and record-keeping around clients,” board vice president Lynne Harris said. “It is … disturbing that we did not have that for what we do now, which is a huge step”
- According to Ormsby, currently, the DCI is understaffed. She did not provide more details on staffing levels but said that the department is working with temporary part-time investigators. Hull chimed in to note that the recommended fiscal year 2025 operating budget allocates $500,000. According to Key, this school year (since July) DCI has received 210 reports, highlighting the need for increased staffing
- According to Ormsby and Key, the MCPS Community of Practice has about four more weeks left of meetings. The group is in the works to develop recommendations for the school system regarding compliance and investigations such as standardizing the complaint process
Progress is also underway at the school board. On Tuesday the board released a comprehensive timeline and summary of issues the district has faced and listed the ways they plan to act. According to Silvestre, the board will:
- Oversee and ensure that all corrective actions recommended by the Office of the Inspector General are taken up by MCPS
- Update the OIG on the district’s progress in implementing its recommendations every 90 days
- Work with the administration to bring in a team of experts to ensure that MCPS is implementing best practices in structuring DCI
- Undertake a comprehensive review of policies to ensure stronger reporting structures and processes
- Have a similar discussion with school officials at the board at the April 23 meeting
“We have heard your calls for transparency, and we understand,” Silvestre said. “We agreed that in order for a school system to be successful, stakeholders must have confidence and trust in the system. Part of building confidence and trust is being honest about the system’s failings and acknowledging that improvement must be made.”
To build trust, Silvestre said that the board is looking into releasing a less redacted version of the Jackson Lewis report for public consumption. Due to personnel privacy laws, much of the report was heavily redacted before it was released to the public.
Silvestre acknowledged that the board is not “off the hook” and the oversight body intends to do better.
“We are deeply sorry for the pain that this has caused so many employees and the harm to this district,” Silvestre said. “It has not always listened to its employees. It has not always properly investigated complaints and it has not created a process that ensures employees will feel free to speak up.”
“We understand that something has been broken at MCPS, and the board will work with MCPS leadership to ensure that what is broken will be fixed,” she continued. “It is time to move toward correcting these actions so that we can move past them. It is time for the school system to heal and to return towards focus to delivering quality education to all.”