The Baltimore County school board seems to be putting the questions over where the superintendent lives to bed.
Board Chair Jane Lichter spoke publicly this week for the first time since an investigative report found Superintendent Myriam Rogers failed to move to the county by the deadline in her contract and cast doubt on where she lives now.
In a school board meeting on Tuesday, Lichter expressed confidence in the superintendent, whom she said answered all of the board members’ questions about her residence in a closed meeting. Rogers “provided factual clarifications to counter inaccurate narratives that have emerged,” Lichter said.
She praised Rogers’ dedication to the community and conveyed a desire to move on from the issue.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
“We have no doubt that Dr. Rogers is invested in Baltimore County,” she said. “Our shared goal must remain centered on student achievement.”
Lichter’s comments came a week after the Maryland Office of the Inspector General found Rogers appeared not to have met the residency clause her four-year contract. The contract states Rogers “shall maintain continuous residency” in Baltimore County no later a year into her job, unless the board extended the deadline in writing.
On Tuesday, Lichter said that because of “logistical issues related to her move,” Rogers “verbally” requested an extension to her moving deadline of June 30, 2024, which was approved by board leadership. Rogers completed her move Sept. 14 and “maintained her residency since then,” Lichter said.
Richard Henry, Maryland’s Inspector General for Education, said in an interview that it wasn’t until after the report was published that his office was told about the verbal request, even though there was an opportunity to share it beforehand.
“Nobody could provide us anything in writing or notation to when this occurred,” he said.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
The office’s initial query of residency-related documents, like her driver’s license, didn’t show Rogers lived in Towson, where she’s since publicly said she resides. When the inspector general’s office directly asked the school system for Rogers’ exact address, “we were then provided with a separate screenshot that the address was changed” in a system the school district uses.
“Since our investigation, now everything has been changed to reflect that she’s a resident in Baltimore County,” Henry said.
A school system spokesperson said via email that Rogers’ license does match the Towson address and did not acknowledge Henry’s claim that it was changed.
The email also stated that the inspector general’s requests to the school system were focused on establishing residency and that the system answered those requests.
The inspector general’s report also found that Rogers is not listed on the lease for a Towson apartment where she told the school board she lives. A spokesperson has said Rogers lives there with a family member whose name is on the lease and that law enforcement advised her not to put her name on the lease for safety reasons.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Rogers owns a home in Prince George’s County listed in tax records as her primary residence. Her former driver said he told the inspector general’s office he would, on occasion, bring paperwork to a Prince George’s County shopping center for Rogers to sign.
The superintendent has called the claims in the investigative report “baseless.” A spokesperson for the school system said the former driver’s claims were “inaccurate and frankly, an outright lie.”
In a report dated April 8, Lichter, the board chair, noted that Rogers’ contract doesn’t require her to live alone, to have her name on the lease or to reside in Baltimore County every day. Rogers has made community involvement a priority, Lichter wrote, citing 69 events throughout Rogers’ tenure that include town halls, press conferences and meet-and-greets as proof.
In her own statement on Tuesday, Rogers said when she took this job she consulted with police “to make sure that we have parameters around my personal safety in this role.”
She said she’s also grateful that she and school system staff kept a record of all the events she’s participated in, and referred to it as “documented evidence of facts.”
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Rogers noted that being a mom of four is “the best part of me” and said her children are off limits. Her former driver told The Banner that the Towson apartment is her son’s place. Through a spokesperson, Rogers declined to answer questions about whether her son lives in the Towson apartment and whether any of her children have attended school in Baltimore County.
“Providing information about my family members means that they, too are sport for keyboard warriors who, without fact or care, make statements and cast aspersions that threaten safety and well-being,” Rogers said Tuesday night.
Henry said his office tries to be as neutral as possible and said it’s fine if the school board takes no issue with where Rogers is living.
The goal of the inspector general’s report, which isn’t a full investigation but referred to as a management alert report, was to inform the board of the complaints they received about Rogers’ residence and the office’s findings, Henry said.
“The response this one has garnered is very unique,” he said.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
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.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.