ANSWER:

Executive directors play a vital role in the operation of the school system. Executive directors have a portfolio of work that is dependent on the strategic plan for the school district and for each functional area of the school system. Broadly, executive directors respond to and problem solve with school-based staff, central office staff, elected officials, union leadership, and staff in other agencies by providing policy, contractual, and procedural guidance and leadership. They facilitate a variety of community and employee work groups and stakeholder committees, and they collaborate with partner organizations on a range of school system initiatives and issues. Often, executive directors are school system designees on policy areas and researching and writing reports for MCPS and the Board of Education. They help write polices and regulations, frequently work evenings and weekends to gather community input and feedback, and facilitate community engagement. In addition, executive directors help inform Board of Education positions on legislative items by conducting legislative and fiscal analysis of new legislation introduced in Annapolis or locally.  

Depending on the office, an executive director may supervise and oversee the daily work of units or teams. For example, in the Office of the Chief Operating Officer (OCOO), executive directors serve as the building administrator supervising the building services and security team at Carver Educational Services Center. In the Office of School Support and Improvement (OSSI), executive directors serve as financial resource specialists and the liaison for managing serious incidents involving students, staff, and schools and communications with internal and external stakeholders. Similarly, in the Office of the Chief Academic Officer (OCAO), executive directors manage budgets and negotiate and implement contracts with vendors and partners that support instruction. 

Each executive director is responsible for a range of strategic initiatives and for supporting department level directors, supervisors, team leaders, as well as associate superintendents, in driving forward key initiatives. Executive directors, like assistant principals in schools, are part of the connective tissue that ties departments together. In this year, executive director work has included areas such as:

• Curriculum vendor selection
• Boundary analysis
• School calendar development
• Active assailant implementation
• Innovative school calendar planning
• Negotiations and budget development
• Crisis management
• Legislative analysis and policy development
• Artificial turf oversight
• Commercial space projects
• Employee attendance
• Office budget implementation and fiscal monitoring
• Oversight for reporting and responding to serious incidents
• Facilitating expansion of Alternative Program Academies
• Collaborative planning for principal leadership training and meetings
• Coordination of support to schools for Professional Growth System observations and evaluations
• Managing communications related to school safety
• Partnership engagement with parent, government, and community agencies
• Development and monitoring of systems and supports for reorganization
• Policy and regulation development, implementation, and compliance
• Secondary course fees and school supplies management
• Monitoring staffing and position management processes

The work carried out across the system and within each office is dynamic and evolves during the course of the year. Executive directors touch multiple system initiatives and manage multiple projects.

The request in OCOO is to take the Montgomery County Business Operations Administrators (MCBOA) Grade G Operations Manager and elevate it to the Executive Director Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals (MCAAP) P level. The other two offices (OSSI and OCAO) will retain the two executive directors as in previous years. By having two executive directors in OCOO instead of one executive director and one operations manager, the more complex work associated with the P level position can be accomplished by both executive directors, whereas with the operations manager structure, not all of this work could be distributed to both positions due to the nature and limitations of the job description for the MCBOA G level position. Bringing the position to the P level allows for the more complex work as defined in the job descriptions to be assigned to both people serving in the immediate OCOO, instead of one.  

During the past 10 months that the second executive director position in OSSI has been vacant, some duties have been assigned to a temporary part-time position and other transactional items have been delegated to administrative services managers, a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Grade 17 position.  The nature of work expected in the executive director position cannot be distributed long-term in this manner due to the nature and limitations of part-time employment and the SEIU job descriptions.