Ensuring Ethical Conduct: Inside Montgomery County’s Board of Education Ethics Panel

July 30, 2024 – by Liz Simon

Under Maryland law, each Maryland board of education is required to have an ethics policy that establishes standards of conduct for school system employees, school officials, Board of Education members, and candidates for election to the Board of Education.

Montgomery County’s Board of Education has a 5-member Ethics Panel where members serve for three years and without compensation. Panel members are from the Montgomery County community and may not be incumbent members of the Board of Education, school officials, employees, or persons employed by a business entity subject to the authority of the Board of Education, or spouses of such persons.

A vacancy was announced by the Board of Education and they have invited applications.

There is an application process to be on the Ethics Panel, which consists of submitting a resume and a letter of interest. As noted in Board Policy, BBB, Ethics, among the panel’s responsibilities are:

• Interpreting the Board of Education’s Ethics Policy and issuing advisory opinions concerning its application
• Reviewing complaints filed regarding alleged violations of the ethics policy; and,
• Approving financial disclosure forms

The Panel meets once a year to review financial disclosure forms and as needed to review complaints or requests for advisory opinions. Meetings are held at the Board of Education’s Offices in Rockville.

Service on the Ethics Panel

I served on the Ethics Panel from 2015 – 2021 (two 3-year terms) and was the Chair of the Ethics Panel for several years during those terms. Most of the work we did was issuing advisory opinions. People subject to the Board of Education’s policies would reach out to the Ethics Panel because they want guidance with regard to outside employment or are seeking an interpretation or clarification of a policy relating to potential conflicts of interest in connection with a contract, an event, or an activity.

When such requests were received, the information relevant to the request is gathered, and sent to the members of the Ethics Panel. This was usually a copy of the applicable policy, and the information related to the opinion being sought. The Panel would then schedule a meeting to discuss the information, with external counsel and the Board’s ethics officer. The Panel would review the information, discuss the applicable Policy, and come to a decision regarding the inquiry. Legal counsel would prepare the draft response to the inquiry for review and editing by the Ethics Panel. Once everyone agreed on the response, it would be sent to the requestor. If there were further questions, or if the recipient wanted to discuss the decision further, additional meetings would be scheduled to discuss and, when appropriate, to meet with the requestor to obtain further information or clarifications that may impact the decision.

Once a year, the panel would review the financial disclosure forms required under law. This was usually a longer meeting, as there are forms from certain school officials (like principals), certain employees, current Board members, and candidates for the Board of Education. The forms are reviewed by multiple members of the Ethics Panel for completeness, and incomplete forms are flagged for further follow-up. Policy BBB, Ethics, sets out the timeframes and requirements for the disclosures. 

As a parent of children in MCPS, I volunteered for the Ethics Panel because I have an interest in education policy and was looking for a way to be more involved in what was going on at the Board of Education level. The issues that the Board of Education deals with are different from the kinds of issues that I see in my daily job, and I believe that was a common thread among the members of the Ethics Panel.  My fellow members of the Ethics Panel were hardworking and interested in making sure that the advisory opinions that were issued were consistent with Board Policy, fair and well-reasoned. Everyone was conscientious and came to meetings prepared to work. My last year on the Panel, from 2020-2021 was quite different because of the pandemic, but we shifted our work to on-line and reviewed all of the financial disclosure forms remotely and confidentially through a secure platform.

Get Involved

For people who are interested in getting more involved in the Board of Education and understanding more about issues relating to conflicts of interest and codes of conduct, the Ethics Panel may be a good choice. The work was certainly interesting. People who want to know more about what the Ethics Panel is responsible for can review Policy BBB, Ethics, which sets out the duties of the Ethics Panel. Minutes and meeting agendas are also available online.

---