By Adam Pagnucco.
One of the lingering questions about the scandal surrounding accused sexual harasser and former Principal Joel Beidleman is whether he received a post-employment agreement or other compensation arrangement from MCPS. After MCPS published its agreement with former Superintendent Monifa McKnight, I sent the school district a Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) request asking for any similar agreement with Beidleman. MCPS responded, “The requested documents have been withheld pursuant to MPIA GP § 4-311, the exemption for personnel records.” And so the matter went unresolved for months.
Yesterday, MCPS Communications Director Chris Cram reached out to me – unsolicited – to clarify the issue further. That resulted in an email exchange containing further questions from me. The entire exchange, unedited, is printed below.
*****
Cram: Mr. Pagnucco, Good Afternoon,
I am writing to respectfully address a repeated characterization in your postings concerning former principal Joel Beidleman. Most recently, from your post on July 22, titled Beidleman Scandal Cost Taxpayers More Than $2 Million, you wrote, “MCPS could have answered that it had no records responsive to the request, but instead it invoked the personnel record exemption in state law to avoid releasing documents.” This statement suggests the existence of an agreement.”
It is true that our response to your MPIA request did cite MPIA exemption GP § 4-311, the exemption for personnel records. Your MPIA request asked for specific types of information that are, in fact, covered by that exemption and prohibited from being released. However, an important context for your consideration is that consistent with any employee that resigns, retires or is terminated from the district, they will only receive benefits due to them as outlined in the employee association (union) contract for their position, in this case, the MCAAP Agreement for 2023-2025.
Superintendents are a contracted employee of the elected Board of Education and not governed by the same process.
I hope you find this helpful.
Pagnucco: This is the exact language of my MPIA request regarding Beidleman:
“Any agreement between MCPS, the Board of Education and former Principal Joel Beidleman relating to his departure from the school system, including but not limited to severance, compensation, indemnification, benefits and any other issues related to his post-employment status.
Any other details about Beidleman’s post-employment compensation.”
The response that I received was this: “The requested documents have been withheld pursuant to MPIA GP § 4-311, the exemption for personnel records.”
So since you are bringing this up, I will ask again: was there an agreement between MCPS and Beidleman relating to his departure from the school system?
Cram: As I said in my email to you, anything that an employee would receive as they separate from MCPS is prescribed by the association contract. Details concerning an employee’s specific benefits are personnel records. To describe that as an “agreement” is not consistent with facts.
Pagnucco: Let me ask this in a different way. Was there any post-employment agreement with Beidleman, or any post-employment compensation paid to Beidleman, aside from what is provided by the MCAAP contract?
Cram: One last time—The only benefits available to any employee who resigns, retires or is terminated from Montgomery County Public Schools are prescribed by the association contract. No others.
I hope this helps.
Pagnucco: OK. Suppose I were to publish this exchange under the headline “MCPS Denies Post-Employment Agreement with Beidleman.”
Is that an accurate characterization of our discussion?
*****
Cram did not answer that last question. The discussion ended. What you see above is the full and unedited exchange.
What do you think of this, readers?