By Adam Pagnucco.
On July 12, I reported on a Change.org petition seeking to persuade the University of Maryland (UMD) to not hire former MCPS Superintendent Monifa McKnight. UMD had announced its hire of McKnight as “its inaugural Dean’s Fellow and Superintendent in Residence,” which appears to be a new position created for McKnight. The petition opposes McKnight’s hire based on her mishandling of the Beidleman sexual harassment scandal, which was chronicled in a report by law firm Jackson Lewis that was commissioned by MCPS. Yesterday, I reported that the scandal cost taxpayers at least $2.3 million, of which $1.3 million was paid to McKnight herself.
That petition cleared 2,000 signatures on Friday. At this writing, it has more than 2,100 of them.
I asked UMD for its response to the petition. A spokesperson emailed me the following statement:
The College of Education is aware of the change.org petition.
In order to become more impactful in our work, we strive to build new and strengthen existing partnerships with school leaders, elected officials and other members of the education community.
Through this one-year appointment, we believe our collaboration and consultation with Dr. McKnight will help us better align our work with the needs of schools and educators.
Our continued focus remains on building safe learning environments that best serve our community.
While looking up records for this post, I noticed that the earliest version I could find of McKnight’s hiring announcement (on July 9) did not mention a one-year appointment. However, the current version of the announcement does mention the one-year duration. I asked the college about this and was told that McKnight’s contract is indeed one year. The college said it updated the press release last week to ensure that anyone viewing their announcement moving forward would have the same information they have been sharing with the media.
Yesterday, Moderately MoCo reported that in answer to a Maryland Public Information Act request, UMD stated McKnight’s 2024-25 salary was $150,000.
The comments on the petition are searing. Here are a few of them.
“I’m a proud alumnus of UMD and I know that you can do better than this. The university has always been associated with top notch professors and administrators and this would be a huge step down.”
“As an alumnae of both MCPS and UMD College of Education, and a current MCPS and UMD parent, I am baffled by your choice to hire Dr. McKnight. Her involvement in scandals that have deteriorated the reputation of MCPS should demonstrate that she is not qualified to perform in the position for which you have hired her.”
“Why on earth would my alma mater hire someone who failed so spectacularly in her last position? This is a slap in the face to all women who went out on a limb to report sexual harassment and were ignored. I realize the allegations have been denied by the alleged perpetrator, but the point is the complaints were ignored and the alleged perpetrator was greenlit for promotion by the superintendent, who nevertheless received a $1.3M payout for her efforts. It is inexcusably bad judgment to hire her at UM and hand her even more of our tax money.”
“I am an UMD alumni and I’m embarrassed that the school of education has made such a poor choice. McKnight did not protect her teachers from a sexual predator. Instead of investigating the complaints, she promoted the disgusting jerk. How can she be a leader for future superintendent when she is a failed superintendent?”
“As an MCPS teacher and parent, I am angry and disturbed about this hiring. Not only was she complicit in covering up complaints about a sexual predator, she enriched her coffers with a 7-figure hush money payment from MCPS, at a time when we are facing class size increases and other negative impacts of budget cuts. I don’t know any MCPS educator who is interested in collaboration with Dr. McKnight. She is certainly not welcome in my classroom!”
“The county is paying her out and as teachers, the county is not buying us toilet paper.”
I hope that the benefit UMD derives from McKnight’s services is worth the above reaction from students, alumni and taxpayers.