Community Flags Concerns in MCPS Program Study Before Key Vote

As the Board of Education prepares to vote on MCPS’s Program Study, a growing coalition of parents, teachers, and community members is raising concerns about the plan’s impact. In a letter signed by hundreds, the group highlights key “red flags” and is urging leaders to make changes before moving ahead:

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 19, 2026

“RED FLAG” DEMANDS SENT TO BOARD OF EDUCATION

Parents, Teachers & Community Members Call for Major MCPS Program Changes

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Today hundreds of parents, teachers and community members from across Montgomery County called on the Board of Education to force MCPS to commit to nine “Red Flag” changes to its proposed program model. 

The signatories are demanding that MCPS provide detailed and transparent budgets; create a real system to ensure accountability; make certain that low-income students have the information needed to access new programs; and add a sensible process for new curriculum development. Detailed recommendations for implementing each demand were provided.

“The Board of Education must compel MCPS to commit to meaningful reforms that create genuine new opportunities for every student,” said Henriot St. Gerard, Northeast Consortium Area Vice President. “As written, the current plan will only reinforce the existing inequities in Montgomery County, an outcome that is unacceptable to the families of the Northeast Consortium and should be unacceptable to our elected officials.”

“If the Board allows MCPS to go forward without making these basic changes, the most vulnerable students in the county will be harmed yet again,” said Sumayyah Milstein, Kennedy HS parent. “As proposed, the new programs will just be more of the same – wealthy schools getting more while everyone else gets less. It’s up to the Board now to protect our kids and their future. In other words, to do their job.”

The Board is planning to vote on MCPS’s program proposal on Thursday, March 26th. The parents’ letter was clear that if MCPS does not commit to making these changes, the Board should not approve the plan. The full list of signatories is available here.

“Rethinking the suite of secondary programs in MCPS could have been a generational opportunity to bring together students, families, and educators throughout the county to craft visionary options that truly benefit all students and improve equity, access and excellence,” said Rodney Peele, Richard Montgomery Cluster Coordinator. “Instead, MCPS chose to impose a fundamentally flawed, regionally limited concept for which nearly all essential details are lacking.  It’s not too late for the Board of Education and MCPS to change course and reimagine programs the right way in partnership with all cluster communities.” 

“The Blair Magnet Program has been built up over 40 years. It is sad to see the county discard programs like this without a plan for matching the level of quality,” said Zeki Mokhtarzada, Blair Magnet Foundation President. “And Blair isn’t alone. Excellent programs across MCPS will be harmed, and so will students of all backgrounds, unless the Board steps in to require changes.”

The Red Flags document was also shared with the County Council, whose January Office of Legislative Oversight report highlighted county-wide inequities that MCPS’s current program plan would likely make worse.

“Silver Spring is a vibrant and diverse community, and what MCPS is proposing would jeopardize the academic programs that have helped create opportunity for our students and families,” Angie Kronenberg with Save Our Silver Spring Schools. “We want every school in Montgomery County to have more access to quality programs, but without necessary changes, that’s not what MCPS’s plan would do. The Board has the power to make MCPS improve its program model, and we are all counting on the Board to exercise that power.”

The full text of the parents’ letter to the Board is below, and the detailed recommendations for changes are here.

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Parents, Teachers & MCPS Community “Red Flag” Note to Board of Education:

To the Members of the Montgomery County Board of Education:

I am writing to share a letter that hundreds of Montgomery County parents, educators, and community members have signed demanding that MCPS commit to making nine red-flag changes to its program model before the Board’s vote on March 26. 

We are deeply worried that you, our elected representatives, are not holding MCPS accountable for making large-scale changes without following existing regulations and obvious best practices and that rushing to put in a place a new regional program model without doing the required work will harm children across the county, especially students of color and those in high FARMS-rate schools. 

The problems with MCPS’s program model could not be clearer: MCPS still has not released a full itemized budget for their proposal. They have not answered critical questions from the community (and the Board!) about how they will ensure equitable access to programs, how transportation and staffing will work, and how the new model will be evaluated and improved. Students will be expected to apply for programs in fall of this year without any of this information, exacerbating inequities recently identified by the County Council’s Office of Legislative Oversight.

In short, MCPS hasn’t done their job, and you will not be doing yours if you vote to approve this plan without ensuring MCPS first commits to fixing these obvious problems. 

The full text of the letter, the list of signers, and details on the necessary changes are here.

Thank you.

MCPS-Program-Model-Red-Flag-Changes-Letter-3.19.26

https://moderatelymoco.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/MCPS-Program-Model-Red-Flag-Changes-Letter-3.19.26.pdf

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