The Baltimore County’s schools superintendent is disputing a state investigation that casts doubt on whether she is residing in the county as her contract requires. But now, her former driver is speaking out.

The driver, who transported Superintendent Myriam Rogers from the start of her tenure in July 2023 until he resigned in November, said he never picked her up from a Towson apartment where she told the school board she lived and on several occasions brought paperwork for her to sign to Prince George’s County, near where she owns a home.

The driver’s claims are largely backed by an investigative report released Tuesday by the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education. The investigation found that Rogers failed to move to Baltimore County by her contract’s deadline and that she’s not listed on the lease at the Towson apartment.

Rogers called the claims she lives outside the county “baseless” and said that law enforcement advised her not to put her name on the lease for safety reasons. A spokesperson for the school system called the driver’s claims “inaccurate and frankly, an outright lie” in statement Friday evening.

Rogers’ four-year contract “requires that the Superintendent live in Baltimore County, Maryland” and that “she shall maintain continuous residency” there no later than a year into her job. She earns a salary of $331,700.

The school board, the investigation found, paid her expenses to move to the Towson apartment in September, more than two months after her contract required her to become a county resident.

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Investigators were told Rogers would be picked up or meet someone in a shopping center in College Park several times during school hours on weekdays. Rogers’ former driver said he was the one who gave investigators that information.

The driver, who has chauffeured 13 Maryland superintendents, including Baltimore County’s last four, asked not to be named so he can remain a confidant for school system leaders. He said he’s speaking out to stand up for the county’s 110,000 students and because he’s disappointed in the school system’s response to the investigation.

So far, just two of the school board’s 12 members have spoken publicly about the investigation.

Tiara Booker-Dwyer, who served as the board chair until December, said the findings aren’t an issue for her. She said the residency clause is only in the contract because the public wanted a superintendent who was engaged in the community. She said Rogers has been accessible through press conferences, and community events and email.

“I’m just fully confident that she has met the whole intent of that clause,” said Booker-Dwyer. “It is undeniable that she has been grounded and rooted in Baltimore County.”

Booker-Dwyer said she’d advocate to remove the residency clause from the contract. She’s also confident that the superintendent lives in Baltimore County because she’s “seen pictures of her Towson apartment.” Booker-Dwyer said she signed off on Rogers’ Sept. 14 move but the pictures didn’t play a part in that decision.

A school system spokesperson said she couldn’t speak to what Booker-Dwyer discussed with The Banner.

Fellow board member Julie Henn said on Facebook that she doesn’t know where the superintendent is living, nor is Rogers’ address her business.

“I do know that the board’s contract with the superintendent requires residency in Baltimore County. And that is a big concern,” she wrote.

Contract requirements matter, Henn wrote. Every line item is discussed by the board, and reviewed and negotiated by lawyers on both sides.

The past several superintendents were also required to live in Baltimore County, she said, because it “articulates the importance of community engagement.”

Henn and the rest of the school board, aside from Booker-Dwyer, did not respond to interview requests.

School board chair Jane Lichter previously said in a statement that the “Superintendent has met her residency obligations as outlined in the contract.” Board member Maggie Domanowski said in a previous interview that she’s not concerned about where the superintendent lives as long as Rogers is honest about it.

Rogers’ former driver said in an interview that he was accustomed to picking up other superintendents from their homes as early as 4 a.m. He said he never picked up or dropped off Rogers at the Towson apartment or any other home.

Instead, he often met her in the mornings at high schools near I-695 on the west side of the county. That happened at least once last fall, after Rogers told the school board she’d moved, he said. Copies of her professional calendar, obtained through a public records request, show the driver met Rogers on Sept. 25 at Randallstown High School, where she was scheduled to speak at her monthly press conference.

Gboyinde Onijala, a school system spokesperson, said in a statement that Rogers met the driver at high schools when she attended events there, including on several occasions before her moving deadline. The driver also acted as security for Rogers, she said, and that’s what he was there to do at the Sept. 25 press conference.

“The superintendent drove herself to the event from Towson, as she did on multiple occasions, which was also the practice of former BCPS superintendents,” Onijala said in the emailed statement Friday evening.

Rogers’ calendar shows a new driver would pick her up “at home” beginning in January. Rogers changed her voter registration to the Towson address that month.

Rogers’ former driver recalled a time when they passed the Towson apartment after a visit to the nearby George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology last summer.

Rogers was “very clear that her son lives there,” the driver said. “And he goes to Towson [University]. He uses that apartment as his dormitory. The Towson shuttle bus picks him up there.”

Onijala did not answer questions about whether Rogers’ son lives in the Towson apartment, but said that “a family member does reside with her in Towson, Maryland, and that the last names of the individuals on the lease also match her last name.”

Rogers told WYPR on Tuesday, the day the investigation report was released, that her commute to the Baltimore County Public Schools central office is only six minutes.

The driver said on several occasions during school days, he’d drive paperwork Rogers needed to sign to a supermarket in Prince George’s County where Rogers would meet him. Then he’d take the signed papers back to Towson.

Rogers owns a home in the Prince George’s County town of Mitchellville. Tax records list it as her principal residence.

Onijala said in the email that the superintendent’s calendar, community messages and press releases “directly refute” the driver’s claims, including his statements about bringing her paperwork.

The driver said he’s not only disappointed in the superintendent’s response to the investigation report but offended as well. Discrediting the findings is like calling him a liar, he said.

Billy Burke, head of the principals union Council of Administrative and Supervisory Employees, said other people within the school system have been held to high standards when they violate their contracts and protocols. A teacher, for example, isn’t allowed to hold onto field trip money.

“If the teacher turns in the money the next day, they’re still held accountable for not following the protocol,” he said.

He wondered if the school board will maintain the same accountability.

Rogers sent a letter to parents on Wednesday saying it was important for the public to hear directly from her: “I am a Towson resident, and I will remain focused on the important work of the system. I am proud of the progress we have made to improve student outcomes.”

That was enough for Baltimore County Council Chair Izzy Patoka, who said he’s taking Rogers’ word over the inspector general’s investigation. He called her a person of “very high integrity” who’s been “really accessible.”

“If she’s indicated she’s followed the guidelines, then I believe she’s followed the guidelines in terms of residency requirements,” he said.

But Rogers’ defense hasn’t had the same impact on Maryland Inspector General for Education Richard Henry.

“I stand by our reporting 100%,” he wrote in a text message.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.