FCPS board member to teach in Montgomery County after ethics policy dispute

Aug. 25—Frederick County Board of Education member Jay Mason said Wednesday that he was set to start as a fifth grade teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools after failing to gain traction on a request to teach locally.

The school board's ethics policy says board members cannot work for Frederick County Public Schools for at least one year following their departure from the board.

But Mason — who ran unsuccessfully in a Democratic primary for the Maryland state Senate and will leave the school board in December — had wanted to seek an exemption under a separate board rule, which says the board can grant waivers to its policies.

"I live here. I grew up here," Mason said Wednesday. "This is my home. Why wouldn't you want to teach in the community where you were born and raised?"

At their most recent meeting, on Aug. 11, board members declined to discuss Mason's request for a waiver.

On Wednesday, after Mason spoke about the issue, they declined to bring the question up for a vote.

Mason said Wednesday that he had been granted pre-approval to teach for MCPS starting Monday. He will work at Bayard Rustin Elementary School in Rockville, he said.

Mason said he originally hoped to secure a teaching job in FCPS for the 2022-23 school year, which began last week. His plan was to request the waiver, apply and interview, and then — if he were offered the job — resign from the board, he said.

Board President Brad Young told the News-Post after the last meeting that the one-year provision was introduced more than a decade ago, after an outgoing board member applied for an FCPS job before their term had ended.

Other board members at the time felt that was inappropriate, Young said.

During the board's Wednesday work session, Mason pushed back against "the narrative that I would try to use my board position to try to influence a principal to hire me."

"My intent was to help FCPS, not myself," Mason said.

Mason earned his teaching certification in 2012 and worked as a long-term substitute at West Frederick Middle School for three months, he said. His teaching certification expired in 2016.

He was hired by MCPS as a "conditional employee," meaning he has to work toward recertification. He has two years to earn six required credits, he said.

By the time Mason will be eligible to apply for an FCPS job, it will be December 2023, and he will be four months into a contract with MCPS, he said.

"I'd have to wait till the summer 2023 — that June and July," he said. "So it's almost two years after my term would end."

During the public comment portion of Wednesday's meeting, Willie Mahone, president of the local NAACP chapter, and Daniel Mahone, legal counsel to the chapter, spoke about the issue in much the same way that they did at the Aug. 11 meeting.

"This board continues to refuse to answer a question presented by one of its own members," Daniel Mahone said. "We've sought to get a discussion on this issue, and we've been told no."

When it was time for board members to give their individual comments, several — Young, Board Vice President Sue Johnson, and members David Bass and Jason Johnson — expressed support for the one-year rule in the ethics policy.

"We have an ethical responsibility to the public to follow what is written in our board handbook," Sue Johnson said. "I find it troubling that we spent 15 minutes today in a meeting — we have an $800 million budget, plus thousands and thousands of staff members — and we spent a good amount of today's meeting discussing this one exception."

As Johnson was wrapping up her comments, Daniel Mahone began shouting over her. Later, during Young's comments, he began applauding loudly when Young mentioned he would be leaving the board in December.

Member Karen Yoho said after the meeting that she would have supported the board discussing Mason's request in more detail.

"The idea that you can't change a policy is kind of ridiculous," she said. "We do it all the time. We update them."

Johnson said Thursday she likely wouldn't have been opposed to updating the policy if Mason had gone through the proper channels and requested a review by the board's policy committee.

She said she took issue with the idea of making an exception to an existing policy for a board member.

This story has been updated.