By Adam Pagnucco.
The scandal over sexual harassment allegations against former Principal Joel Beidleman, which was kicked off by an August 11, 2023 Washington Post article, will go down as one of the most devastating PR disasters in MCPS history. It has also proved costly for Montgomery County taxpayers. This post is an attempt to calculate those costs.
MCPS announces the appointment of Beidleman as a high school principal last year.
Let’s start with five known costs.
Jackson Lewis Report: Roughly $275,000
Jackson Lewis was the law firm first hired by MCPS to assemble a report examining the scandal. A June 2024 legal fees report shows MCPS paying the firm a combined $275,339 in August and September 2023, the time period in which the report was prepared. More payments were made later but it’s not clear what work was covered.
Crisis Management Contractor: $210,000
MCPS paid a crisis management contractor $210,000 to help it respond to the scandal starting last fall. The contract was subsequently criticized by the county’s inspector general for violating MCPS’s procurement policy.
Monifa McKnight’s Separation Payment: $1,300,000
Former Superintendent Monifa McKnight, who presided over the Beidleman scandal and MCPS’s initial response, received a separation payment of $1.3 million. That’s despite the Jackson Lewis report’s recounting of her incompetence in handling the scandal.
Superintendent Search Firm: $126,000
In April, the school board approved a $126,000 contract with executive search firm Greenwood Asher & Associates to help it find a new superintendent. This counts as a scandal cost since it would not have been incurred if McKnight had been retained.
Jane Doe Settlement: $448,021
Jane Doe was a teacher who sued MCPS and Beidleman for sexual discrimination. While she was paid $300,000 directly, MCPS’s legal fees and court costs added another $148,021. That included $68,370 for Beidleman’s defense attorneys. Under MCPS’s collective bargaining agreement with its administrators, the latter are “fully indemnified” against legal costs.
The above known costs total $2,359,021. But there may be other costs that are currently unknown. For example, after I obtained McKnight’s separation agreement, I sent a Maryland Public Information Act request to MCPS asking for any similar agreement with Beidleman. 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 suggests the existence of an agreement. Additionally, there were many departures from the central office during the months of the scandal. Did any of the departing officials receive separation agreements? There appears to be a difference in the compensation paid to McKnight and her successor, but since McKnight’s exact pay at the time of her dismissal is not included in her employment contract, it’s hard to quantify that amount. Finally, the scandal was a huge distraction for top staff who had many other responsibilities. The cost of staff time allocated to scandal response may never be calculated.
It’s safe to say that the scandal cost taxpayers at least $2.3 million and perhaps more. That’s why so many MoCo residents are appalled at the hiring of McKnight to a newly created position by the University of Maryland, which like MCPS is a taxpayer-funded institution. McKnight’s tenure generated millions of dollars in losses for taxpayers – including a payout of $1.3 million to her – so why should they be paying her even more?
The whole episode was not the finest moment for good government in Montgomery County and Maryland.