A task force has approved a plan to reorganize the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Board of Education.
The recommendations include restructuring the board, doing away with the hybrid model of appointed and elected positions and adopting an elected nine-member board with a student member. Board members would be limited to two terms and their compensation would be $27,000 a year. The chair would receive $32,000.
There are also recommendations that the board members engage in “professional development” offered by organizations, such as the National School Boards Association, and hold an annual retreat, in which members “conduct a self-evaluation.”
The Prince George’s County Board of Education Task Force adopted the recommendations at its Wednesday meeting. The recommendations will be forwarded to County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and ultimately to the General Assembly.
Sean Coleman, an associate professor at Bowie State University, chaired the task force.
Coleman said he’s proud of the recommendations, adding, “We looked at best practices locally, across the field, and we listened to the public.”
Alsobrooks called for the formation of a task force in November 2021, after citing the “incivility” and “unprofessionalism,” as well as the infighting among board members.
Alsobrooks thanked the members of the task force Friday for their recommendations. “I look forward to reviewing them further and presenting them to our Delegation for further conversation.”
In order to restructure the school board, the plan must be submitted to the members of the Maryland General Assembly for a vote.
Board of education member David Murray, one of the elected members of the board, was asked if he thinks the restructuring plan will be passed during the current legislative session in Annapolis.
“We’re really hopeful that we’ll return to a fully elected school board,” he said, but, “We can’t take that legislative process for granted.”
Edward Burroughs, a former Prince George’s County school board member who has been elected to the county council, agrees that an elected school board is preferable to the current hybrid with appointed members.
“If there are board members that are acting in a way that is not pleasing to the public, they have the right to vote them out. Right now, with these appointed members, there is no recourse,” Burroughs said.
Board disputes
The task force and the plan to overhaul the school board came after acrimony on the board led to sniping during public meetings, with charges and countercharges of misconduct filed by board members against one another.
Board Chair Juanita Miller sought to have Murray and former school board member Burroughs removed over allegations of “misconduct in office” and “incompetence.”
Miller complained that a social media post from Murray that used the “crying Michael Jordan” meme pasted over a photograph of Miller and another board member was “racist,” “misogynistic” and amounted to bullying.
The post appeared around July 1, 2021, and within 24 hours was removed by Murray, who issued a public apology calling his action “sophomoric” and “inappropriate.”
The state Board of Education found, “Mr. Murray’s social media post was inappropriate and unprofessional, and is not the sort of respectful behavior that we expect from local board members.” But the board decided that it does mean that it constitutes grounds for removal.
The state board of education also said that the request to remove Murray is not “factually and legally sufficient,” but members expressed dismay over what they said was an attempt to have a board member removed “over matters that seem driven by the ongoing political disputes among various members of the local board.”
Murray told WTOP that the charges made against him and Burroughs were “inaccurate and retaliatory in nature.”
Miller’s complaint against Burroughs was dismissed by the state board, which explained that since he had resigned from the county board of education, the issue was moot.
Six members of the Prince George’s County Board of Education filed a complaint against Miller and sought to have her removed from the school board for “misconduct in office, willful neglect of duty, and incompetence,” but the board dismissed the complaint because it didn’t have an accompanying affidavit, which is required by state law.
Murray said the complaint is being refiled.
WTOP contacted Miller for comment.
New board member
Burroughs’ resignation from the school board left a vacancy that has now been filled.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks released a statement announcing Madeline LaSalle as the new member of the county’s school board. LaSalle works as a coordinator of an alternative education program in Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. She is also a licensed clinical social worker and the chair of the board of nonprofit organization Latinas Leading Tomorrow.
“We remain heavily invested in the education of our children, and we are excited to have Ms. LaSalle join us in our efforts to continue to move our school system forward,” Alsobrooks said.
