Former MCPS principal Beidleman out amidst controversy and ongoing investigations

ROCKVILLE, Md. - On the same day a second inspector general report was released, Montgomery County Public Schools Spokesperson Chris Cram confirmed the former MCPS middle school principal at the center of the controversy is now out.  

"Dr. Joel Beidleman is no longer an employee as of today. Personnel privacy law prohibits me from providing any more information," Cram told FOX 5.

Former Farquhar Middle School Principal, Dr. Joel Beidleman has been at the center of multiple MCPS and OIG investigations since 2023. He was promoted despite having nearly 20 complaints of sexual harassment and bullying lodged against him since at least 2017, according to county and private investigators.

Cram said the former principal stopped receiving an MCPS salary on Dec. 18. Beidleman was on administrative leave since August 2023, which happened just days before the Washington Post published an explosive report detailing how Beidleman had been promoted despite the serious claims he faced.

A previous OIG report substantiated the allegations of sexual harassment and bullying.   

The second OIG report released on Wednesday did not detail who knew what, and when, as many had hoped it would.

Instead, the summary makes clear the county inspector general was looking into the big-picture policy and procedure failures that led to Beidleman’s promotion.

The county inspector general found multiple areas of failure. 

The report also focused on the MCPS Department of Investigations and Compliance. This is the department responsible for investigating employee conduct allegations.

"Since 2019, MCPS has been notified at least four times of deficiencies with DCI management and operations," one portion of the report reads. The OIG found failures in their "chaotic condition of DCI’s files and record keeping," and faulted the department and chair for not following investigation policies. 

In one example, the report said a confidentiality policy was not followed, leading at least one person to no longer want to cooperate in an investigation.

The former DCI director was interviewed for the report, which also cites two former employees "familiar with DCI’s complaint handling process" as saying, "the director would often ‘downplay or minimize’ allegations.'"

Superintendent Dr. McKnight submitted a letter dated Monday, Jan. 22, accepting the OIG’s findings and five specific recommendations. The superintendent also outlined what changes she has already started to implement.

There was no specific language from the school system’s chief, speaking to the school board now wanting to oust her, which is what the superintendent had revealed in a Monday statement. 

The Montgomery County School Board still has not publicly said their reasoning for now wanting Dr. McKnight to step down, although many county officials believe it has to do with the Beidleman investigation.

Wednesday’s latest report drew calls from the school board to finally release the unredacted Jackson Lewis report into Beidleman’s investigation, to have full transparency and public trust – and at least answer some questions.

"It’s a personnel matter, and they keep saying that, and obviously it is, but I’ve said look, they certainly have discretion to talk about how well the superintendent’s doing, whether they think she’s doing a bad job. They have a formula evaluation process. There are many avenues in which they can report back to the public and parents like myself on how they think the school system is going," said Councilmember Will Jawando, who chairs the Education and Culture Committee, "People need to know what happened, why it happened and how you’re going to prevent it from happening in the future. That’s like step one of transparency and accountability and to get community input into what we want to see changed. You know half of our budget is MCPS."

Jawando informed FOX 5 that on Feb. 8th at 3 p.m., a joint Audit/Education and Culture Committee hearing will dig into these latest details.

"We and the public still have unanswered questions about the promotion process of Dr. Joel Beidleman. Questions that must be answered to have full accountability and transparency within our school system. The public’s trust has been eroded, and the school board must commit itself to leading with transparency and accountability," read a joint statement from former Montgomery Council President Evan Glass and Councilmember Dawn Luedtke.

"The MCCPTA Executive Committee is concerned about ongoing issues involving MCPS and the Board of Education, as recently reported in the media. We continue to urge system-wide accountability and transparency, including prompt disclosure and resolution of these issues so that everyone can focus their attention on ensuring a safe working environment for teachers and staff and the best possible learning environment for students," read a statement from the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations.

"I’m not very happy with the way this thing’s being handled," said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich in his regular Wednesday media briefing when asked about the situation. 

He went on to say, "I’m interested in where it went to MCPS. You know, at what level did the information go and where did the information go from there? And we can’t answer that question from any of these, and you know, it’s hard to judge who did what if we’re not getting basic answers to who saw the information and who decided to act or not act on that basis …"

Elrich spoke about how he hoped this latest OIG report would shed more light on the DCI employee who said on record they were ordered to change their report findings regarding Dr. Beidleman’s promotion. 

FOX 5 did get to ask Councilmember Jawando about his knowledge of this in his role as E&C Committee Chair.

"Well, it’s clear that that person who no longer works with the system did multiple things wrong. Changed the report, directed a subordinate to change the report, which is against the law and unethical," Councilmember Jawando said. "Clearly [they] didn’t document or truly didn’t investigate in the case of Beidleman and – so there were a lot of problems. The person went on leave and then retired before any administrative action could be taken, but I think that’s a good thing they’re no longer with the system. They clearly were not up to the task and were not completing their duties in a way I think people would expect."

The latest OIG report did not name that previous DCI director, but various other sources have. MCPS Spokesperson Cram did confirm for FOX 5 that Michaele Simmons was the former DCI director at the time of that claim made in June 2023.

Cram confirmed Simmons formerly served as Weller Road Elementary School’s principal before taking over as DCI director in 2017. FOX 5 was told her last day with MCPS was Dec. 1, but Cram could not confirm any more details, again due to employee privacy laws.

FOX 5 did go to Simmons’ home and was told by a man who identified himself as her husband, that they were not commenting.

The full second OIG report released Wednesday can be found here: