MPS Parents React To Newly Elected School Board

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Four newly elected leaders will soon take on new responsibility as members of the Montgomery County Public School Board. They haven’t even sat down for their first meeting, but some MPS parents say they are already setting the bar high.

“If you’re really for the kids that live in Montgomery County then you will make the adjustment that need to be made…you will push” explained MPS parent Doreen Kelly.

Another parent, Tolesha Lewis says she is satisfied that the majority of the board was either voted off or did not seek re-election.  When asked what message she’d like to share with new and returning board members Lewis said  “I would like to say that it’s time, if our motto is ‘MPS moving forward’ then we need to see MPS moving forward”.”We are tired of being last on the list” she added.

Of the five school board seats that were up for grabs, two  former board members (District 6’s Robert Porterfield and District 5’s Melissa Snowden) were ousted  during the primary season. Two others, (Durden Dean of district 2 and Eleanor Dawkins of district 3) chose not to run again.

Only one board member, Lesa Keith of district 1, was re-elected.

Candidate Ted Lowry ran unsuccessfully for the district 2 seat. When asked about his confidence in the newly elected board Wednesday, he said  “this is not a problem for 7 people, this is a problem for 205 thousand people to solve”.

While he sides with parents that are calling on the school board to deliver on their campaign promises of progress, he says it’ll take more than cooperation from a new board to bring about positive changes within the Montgomery Public School System.  “I’ve seen a lot of criticism” he said “and not enough solutions and we have to focus on solutions, that’s why I ran”.

Tuesday’s election finalized the Montgomery County School Board election winners as:

District 1: Lesa Keith (R)

District 2: Clare Weil (D)

District 3:  Brenda Ramus-Coleman (D)

District 4: Mary Briers (D)

District 5: Jannah Bailey (R)

District 6: Claudia Mitchell (D)

District 7: Arica Watkins-Smith (D)

The next MPS board meeting is Tuesday November 13th. The newly elected board won’t be sworn in until December 4th and will officially meet for the first time December 18th.

A full list of all election results and totals are available here