Incumbent Barclay Also Gets Group's Nod
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 17, 2007
Two PTA activists have secured the endorsement of teachers for contested seats on the Montgomery County school board, a blessing that some candidates consider necessary -- maybe even sufficient -- to win.
Alies Muskin, 51, a nonprofit administrator from Silver Spring, won the endorsement of the Montgomery County Education Association to replace Sharon W. Cox in an at-large seat representing the whole county. Cox, of Germantown, is leaving the board after two terms.
The association picked Laura Farthing Berthiaume, a Rockville lawyer, over three-term incumbent Stephen Abrams for the Rockville-Potomac seat. Abrams joined with Cox in voting against a three-year, 15 percent pay increase for teachers in February, citing the weak economy.
No one filed to run against Christopher S. Barclay (Silver Spring), chosen by the board last year to replace the departing Valerie Ervin. A former campaign treasurer of board President Nancy Navarro (Northeastern County), Barclay quickly found his voice on the panel and is regarded as a strong candidate. He has the teachers' endorsement.
All three seats are up for election next year. Because the contests are nonpartisan, the top two vote-getters for each seat in the February primary advance to the general election in November.
"What we were looking for is people who understand the work," said Bonnie Cullison, the teachers association president. She noted that the board's work in the coming term will probably include choosing a superintendent to replace Jerry D. Weast, who has said he will not seek another four-year term in 2011, when his third term expires.
Muskin faces four opponents, including Philip Kauffman, a government lawyer from Silver Spring who collected the endorsement of The Washington Post -- but not of the teachers association -- in a failed bid to unseat Navarro last year. Also running: Tommy Le, an engineer and former teacher who was defeated last year by Shirley Brandman (At Large); Carey Apple, an aquatic-facility supervisor from Germantown; and Rob Seubert, a loan officer and former middle school science teacher from Silver Spring.
Active in PTAs since 1992, Muskin is a longtime advocate of Albert Einstein High School and its feeder schools as well as the Downcounty Consortium of schools. She was instrumental in building the annual college fair at Einstein into one of the largest such events in the region. Her youngest child graduated this year.
"The real measure of how good Montgomery County students are is what they do past high school," she said.
Berthiaume, 43, has a daughter in the French language immersion program at Maryvale Elementary School in Rockville and another at the private Holton-Arms School.
She ran unsuccessfully last year for a District 17 seat in the state House of Delegates. Her priorities include phasing out portable classrooms at schools and reevaluating the system of high-stakes testing created by the federal No Child Left Behind law.
"I like accountability, but I don't think high-stakes testing has worked for our kids," she said.
Abrams appears to be her only rival. Third candidate David Griffith plans to withdraw and offer her his support, Berthiaume said.
Abrams notes that he has won election three times without the support of teachers. He defends the vote against the pay increase, saying he thought the county might not be able to fully fund it. "I believe in honoring our contracts if we vote for them," he said.
The current board's only shortcoming, Abrams said, is "institutional memory," with four of the seven adult members joining the panel in the past three years. "I know the system," he said, "and I think I've contributed to the successes we're having."
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