Weast to Lose Key Political Ally on County Council

Montgomery County School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast lost one of his key supporters in last week's County Council primary election and will lose another in December when County Executive Douglas M. Duncan leaves office -- changes many say will open the door to closer scrutiny of Maryland's largest school system.

"It's going to have an enormous effect, without question,'' said Drew Powell, executive director of Neighbors for a Better Montgomery. "The school system has essentially been three people: Doug Duncan, Jerry Weast and Michael Subin. Now with Doug and Michael gone, it is a brave new world for Jerry Weast."

For two decades, Michael L. Subin (D-At Large) has chaired the council's education committee -- the first stop for the school system's budget requests and proposals. The system's $1.8 billion budget accounts for almost half of county spending.

Subin's tenure has spanned four superintendents. Since Weast took over leadership in 1999, the two have built a close working relationship, often chatting several times a day and meeting late in the night to forge compromises. It is, however, a partnership that some critics contend has grown too cozy over the years -- leaving some on the council and in the community feeling excluded from the process.

"Mr. Subin and Jerry Weast have too tight of a relationship,'' said Bob Astrove, a Montgomery County parent and longtime advocate for special education. "I think a lot of things were done behind closed doors. The school system had gotten to the point where it really didn't have to answer fiscal questions of the council largely because Subin has been there so long.''

Weast declined to comment about the outcome of the election but through a spokesman offered e-mail comments praising Subin for his work.

"Mike Subin taught me a great deal about how community leadership and the budgeting process works in Montgomery County, and he was one of the first public officials to welcome me here seven years ago,'' Weast said. "He immersed himself in the details of building a strong, high quality school system, and one of his legacies is that our programs -- particularly those in early childhood education -- have gained national prominence under his watch."

For his part, Subin said talk about his influence is overstated.

"The spin that was given regarding my relationship with the school system gave me a little bit more power than I really had,'' he said. "My relationship with [Montgomery College] was as good as my relationship with the school system. Nobody said I was driving the train at the college.''

Subin has been one of the public school system's most vocal advocates and one of Weast's biggest boosters. He played a key role in shepherding two ambitious Weast proposals -- full-day kindergarten and reducing class sizes at elementary schools -- through the council's arduous budget process.

Nowhere was the two men's bond more apparent than when Weast ran into widespread community opposition this year to his plan to build a new elementary school campus to replace Seven Locks Elementary in Bethesda. When Thomas Dagley, the county's inspector general, criticized Weast's plan in a report, Subin dismissed Dagley's work as a "very poor document" and challenged his authority to even conduct such an audit.

After other County Council members questioned the school system's choice to build a new school, Subin remained firm in his support. In the end, Weast was forced to drop the building project for a compromise plan. It was a rare defeat for the superintendent.

Subin's sway over the council seemed to fade in the days after the Seven Locks controversy. As part of its 2007 budget plan, the council voted to hire two analysts to focus exclusively on the school system's budget.

Montgomery County school board member Stephen Abrams said criticism of Subin's leadership and his relationship with Weast may have stemmed from bruised egos more than anything else.

"It was institutional friction,'' he said. "There may have been some jealousy because Jerry Weast is a player. Jerry's a very forceful personality, and when you combine a forceful personality in a school superintendent and county executive who were both on the same page when it came to education, well, some members of the council felt left out and tried to be more assertive.''

Astrove said he believes Subin's departure will be good for the county, and ultimately, for the schools.

The education committee "had evolved into a one-man committee with three people sitting there," he said. "He had taken control of the committee, and we were not getting the back-and-forth dialogue that we needed.''