Dr. Joshua Starr's Resignation as MCPS Superintendent

Yesterday Dr. Joshua Starr, the Superintendent of schools for Montgomery County, announced his resignation agreement with the county's Board of Education at a raucous press conference.

There's now controversy about whether Starr deserved to go or whether the Board of Education acted improperly in not assuring him of a second term in office. Did Starr do a good job or not?

I don't know the answer to that question, but I can say that in my experience (limited) I found that Dr. Starr promised to discuss issues with the community and then didn't do so. That's a serious matter, in my opinion.

Another serious matter is the almost constant jump to secrecy by the Board of Education. In the past they were found guilty of violating the Maryland Open Meetings Act on several occasions. Even now, they seem to reflexively want to do things in secret whenever possible. That's another serious matter, in my opinion.

I realize that some may say this was a personnel matter so secrecy was appropriate. However, even in this case the Board of Education could have been more open, and in the recent past the Bd of Ed has opted for secrecy whenever they can. See, for example, their announcement they were having a secret meeting to discuss school board policy on their members' use of taxpayer-paid-for credit cards.

Then there's the matter of the agreement signed yesterday by the MoCo Board of Education and Dr. Starr to end his service as superintendent. It provides for Starr to continue to receive his salary for another 5 months, more than $46,000 in vacation, sick, and personal leave, deferred compensation benefit (no details about that are in this agreement), all of his own attorney's fees for the negotiation and writing of this agreement, full payment of his health insurance through December 31, 2015, long after his contract would have ended, and continued use through March 31 of a vehicle provided to him by the MoCo Board of Education.

In return, Starr resigns effective February 16, 2015, and he agrees not to say anything disparaging about the Board of Education, or they about him.

I don't know about others, but this sounds overly generous to me. It sounds as if the Board of Education just wanted Starr to get out quietly and they were willing to give him just about as much money as he wanted to get him to do that.

The problem is that it's not their money; it's the taxpayers' money. I realize I could be wrong, and other contracts might have affected what was in this one, but this resignation agreement appears to be another example of lack of careful concern for the taxpayers' money -- now about $2.4 billion -- given each year to the Board of Education and guaranteed by a Maryland state law called MOE or maintenance of effort.