2023-10-02 20:11:35
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Maryland Schools Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury will resign by Friday and become a senior policy adviser to the state Board of Education, keeping his more than $325,000 salary and receiving permission to consult with outside entities, state officials announced Friday.
One of his key aides, Sylvia Lawson, will become acting superintendent on Saturday until an interim superintendent is named, according to an email sent to the staff of the state Education Department from the board. The board will launch a national search for a permanent superintendent at a critical time for a historic $3.8 billion program to reform Maryland’s public schools.
The board has scrambled to put together a new leadership team at the state Education Department following Choudhury, who became superintendent in 2021 and was expected to be appointed to a second term, suddenly lost support this month from a majority of the 14-member board because of the way he ran the department and interacted with other state officials. (In Maryland, the Board of Education hires the superintendent, and the governor appoints members to that board; Democratic Gov. Wes Moore has appointed six so far.)
Choudhury did not respond to Washington Post queries for this article.
Choudhury will keep his salary — $326,000 this year, following starting in 2021 at $310,000 and receiving two cost-of-living increases — until June 30, when his first term was set to expire, or earlier if he obtains “other employment,” according to an agreement released by the board. He will be permitted to do consulting work with board approval. The agreement said, “The State Board acknowledges the superb work Mr. Choudhury has done as State Superintendent.”
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State Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Montgomery), the chair of the education subcommittee of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and a vocal critic of Choudhury’s dealings with the legislature, said she was pleased with the board’s decision to retain Choudhury in an advisory capacity, describing it as “the best way he might land. We’ll still have his services, and he’s not out the door.”
“I don’t have any problem with it,” she said. “He’s really smart and he knows education policy, and he’ll be working under the state board; they will be supervising him.”
Choudhury had been the subject of numerous articles in the media — including a Post investigation that chronicled allegations once morest him that included the creation of a “toxic” work environment, a pattern of micromanagement that held up important work, and an inability to communicate with legislators. Fox45 News ran a story regarding Choudhury’s use of an encryption app to message staff members and others even though he said publicly he did not use one. Moore made public comments last month expressing dissatisfaction with Choudhury’s tenure.
During Choudhury’s tenure, dozens of veterans left the department and school district leaders around the state complained quietly that guidance regarding grant programs and implementation of the reform program, known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, was confusing and often late. Choudhury had said that workers who left might not embrace change.
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Like Choudhury, Lawson has never been the superintendent of a district or a state agency. Lawson, who was named to the transition team on Tuesday and then acting schools superintendent, was hired in 2016 as deputy state superintendent by then-Superintendent Karen B. Salmon following working as an assistant superintendent in Charles County. At the time of her hiring, Lawson had nearly 30 years of experience in Maryland education as a teacher, vice principal, and principal of schools in Charles and Calvert counties.
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