This article, originally published at 11:29 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2023, was updated at 5:46 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2023, to include information and a website for candidate Aby Thioye. It was updated on March 25, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. to add the candidates’ campaign website links that were not previously included and add information about the candidates from their websites.
Three incumbents are among 14 candidates vying for three seats on the Montgomery County Board of Education during the May primary election.
Board Vice President Lynne Harris (At-Large) is facing five candidates while board member Rebecca Smondrowski (Dist. 2) is up against four challengers and board member Shebra Evans (Dist. 4) is facing two, according to the State Board of Elections records as of the Friday night filing deadline.
The election comes as the school board has been dealing with a controversy that erupted in recent months over Montgomery County Public Schools’ handling of the investigation into sexual misconduct and bullying allegations against former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Beidleman. He was promoted to principal of Paint Branch High School during a pending internal investigation into his misconduct. Beidleman is no longer employed by MCPS. The resulting controversy led to the Feb. 2 resignation of MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight. Some members of the community have called for board members to be removed by the Montgomery County Council.
Council President Andrew Friedson (D-At-large) has said that he would not support that action and that doing so would be an overstep on the part of the council.
The board has also been in the national spotlight after a group of parents sued the school system for not having an “opt-out” policy for LGBTQ+ curriculum and storybooks in schools.
The school board is nonpartisan, and members serve four-year terms. The board consists of seven county residents and a student member. The student member is elected by county high school students and serves for one year. The primary election will be held May 14 and the general election is Nov. 5.
Those who are elected this November will join board President Karla Silvestre and members Brenda Wolff (Dist. 5), Grace Rivera-Oven (Dist. 1) and Julie Yang (Dist. 3).
Here are the candidates:
At-Large
Lynne Harris (incumbent)
Harris, who lives in Silver Spring, is a current At-Large board member and vice president and was elected to her first term in 2020. She is a former MCPS teacher, a former attorney and a previous president of the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA). Within the past year, Harris has been vocal in her support of including LGBTQ+ books and curriculums in schools and has criticized a lawsuit brought forward by parents demanding an “opt-out” option for these topics. According to her campaign website, Harris runs a student internship program to get students involved at the school board and with advocacy.
Sharif Hidayat
Hidayat is a former Montgomery County police officer. The Laytonsville resident ran in the Democratic primary for Montgomery County Council in 2022, coming in fifth and receiving 8% of the vote. He ran for a District 7 seat. According to Hidayat’s campaign website, his priorities include focusing on academic achievement, parent involvement, fiscal responsibility, mental health and safe learning environments.
Melissa Kim
Kim, of Bethesda, is a senior adviser at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a former deputy chancellor and former middle school principal for District of Columbia Public Schools. No further information was available and Kim did not respond to MoCo360’s inquiries.
Jonathan Long
Long lives in Germantown. He does not have a campaign website. Long did not respond to MoCo360’s inquiries.
Rita Montoya
Montoya has two children attending MCPS and is the PTA president at North Chevy Chase Elementary School. She is a small business and nonprofit adviser, lawyer and former juvenile public defender. She’s running on a platform of “Accountability, Leadership, Oversight, and Transparency,” according to her campaign website. Her campaign is also focused on student achievement, curriculum choice, extra-curriculars and school safety. Montoya lives in Silver Spring.
Fitzgerald Mofor
Mofor is a legal personal assistant at the International Law Firm of Bokwe Mofor in Silver Spring, according to his LinkedIn profile. The Brookville resident was a community liaison to the Maryland General Assembly and a campaign manager for state Sen. Craig Zucker (D-Dist. 14). According to Mofor’s campaign website, his priorities include closing the achievement gap, accountability and transparency, wage parity, quelling political polarization, and prioritizing vocational learning and extended learning.
District 2
Brenda M. Diaz
Diaz works as a middle and high school social studies teacher with Fusion Global Academy. In addition, she is the founder of Heart of Joy Learning a “farm and forest program for homeschooled elementary school-aged children” in the county, Diaz wrote in an email to MoCo360. Diaz is a former MCPS high school teacher teaching social studies at Gaithersburg High School. She has three children, one is currently a student at Montgomery College and one is a student at Quince Orchard High School. Diaz lives in Gaithersburg. View her campaign website at this link.
Ricky Fai Mui
Mui was appointed in 2022 to the City of Rockville’s Human Services Advisory Commission. He works as a management consultant at consulting firm Accenture and is a U.S. Navy veteran. Mui, who lives in Rockville, ran unsuccessfully for Rockville City Council in 2023. According to his campaign website, he aims to “mend” the poor administrative performance of the school system.
Rebecca Smondrowski (incumbent)
Smondrowski is serving her third term on the school board representing District 2 after she was first elected in 2012. The Gaithersburg resident is currently chair of the board’s Policy Management Committee. According to her campaign website, she has a son who graduated from Gaithersburg High School and her daughter is a Quince Orchard High School graduate. Smondrowski previously served on the MCCPTA Board of Directors and was a legislative aide for state Sen. Roger Manno (D-Dist. 19). In 2018, she ran unsuccessfully for District 17 in the Maryland General Assembly and then unsuccessfully sought appointment to that seat in 2023.
Aby Thioye
Thioye lives in Derwood and is a mother to five children. She works as a clinical researcher coordinator at the National Institutes of Health, according to her campaign website. Thioye’s focus as a candidate is improving governance and accountability on the board; advocating for initiatives that improve academic performance; respecting the role of parents in the school system, such as the right to opt-out their student from instruction that violates their religion or conscience; and school safety.
Natalie Zimmerman
Zimmerman lives in Rockville and is a second-grade teacher at Wheaton Woods Elementary School in Rockville. According to her campaign website, she has taught at MCPS since 2019 and aims to bring the perspective and voice of teachers to the school board. In addition, Zimmerman is a member of the local teachers union, Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA).
District 4
Shebra Evans (incumbent)
Evans, who lives in Silver Spring, has served two terms as board president since she was first elected in 2016. She is a financial analyst in the cable and energy industry and is the mother of a current MCPS student and an MCPS graduate. Before joining the board, she held several leadership roles with MCCPTA. In addition, she is a former member of MCPS’ Superintendent’s Operating Budget Group and Math Exam Work Group and a former co-leader of the African American Student Achievement Group. Evans’ campaign website is launching soon, according to the website.
Bethany S. Mandel
Mandel is a writer and commentator and is a contributor to Deseret News, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is the co-author of “Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation,” published in 2023. Per Mandel’s LinkedIn, she is an editor and spokeswoman of a children’s book publishing company called Heroes of Liberty. She lives in Silver Spring and homeschools her six children, according to her campaign website.
Mandel filed a lawsuit against the Board of Education and McKnight after she was denied entry to an open session board meeting in June 2023. In the same lawsuit, she is also suing six MCPS staff members, part of an affinity group called Staff P.R.I.D.E Group, after the group blocked her on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Laura M. Stewart
Stewart, of Silver Spring, is the vice president for advocacy for the Free State PTA, a state-level branch of the National PTA, and the former MCCPTA vice president of advocacy. In that role, she frequently served as a spokesperson for the MCCPTA when testifying before the County Council on the MCPS annual budget. She is an MCPS parent and previously worked in telecommunications. She also is the former president of the Montgomery County Women’s Democratic Club. According to her campaign website, her priorities are accountability, collaboration and transparency.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available about the candidates and their campaigns.