Phil Kauffman Selected as President of the Board of Education

December 12, 2013

Patricia O'Neill selected as vice president

Philip Kauffman was selected by his colleagues Thursday (Dec. 12, 2013) to serve as president of the Board of Education. Patricia O’Neill also was selected as vice president. Both officers will serve a one-year term. Mr. Kauffman replaces Christopher S. Barclay, who has served as president for the past year.

“I am honored to be chosen by my peers to serve as president of the Montgomery County Board of Education,” Mr. Kauffman said. “This is an important time in the history of Montgomery County Public Schools and I look forward to working with my colleagues to make sure we provide every student with the opportunity for success today and in the future.”

Mr. Kauffman was first elected to the Board of Education in 2008 and is serving his second four-year term, having been re-elected in 2012. For the past year, he has served as chair of the Board’s Fiscal Management Committee and a member of the Committee on Special Populations.

A resident of Olney, Mr. Kauffman spent 13 years serving in various roles as an elected local and county PTA leader. He has served on the Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations (MCCPTA) Board of Directors as the Area Vice President for the Sherwood Cluster and Northeast Consortium. He has been an MCCPTA Blake Cluster Coordinator and Farquhar Middle School PTA President. In May 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Life Membership to the Maryland PTA.

Mr. Kauffman holds a degree in Economics from the University of
Pennsylvania and a law degree from the University of Maryland. He retired in 2013 as Deputy Assistant General Counsel with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is married with two daughters who graduated from MCPS.

Mrs. O’Neill, a resident of Bethesda, was first elected to the Board of Education in 1998 and is currently the longest-serving member on the Board.

She has served as Board president and vice president four times, each. For the past year, she has been the chair of the Board’s Policy Management Committee and a member of the Strategic Planning Committee. Mrs. O’Neill is past president of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) and past co-chair of the Washington Area Boards of Education.

She has served on numerous advisory committees for education-related issues, including the Maryland Blue Ribbon Panel on Teen Pregnancy and the Maryland Comparable HSA Task Force. Prior to joining the Board, Mrs. O’Neill was a longtime PTA activist in the Walt Whitman Cluster who served in various volunteer and leadership roles. She is married with two children, who both graduated from MCPS.

<<Back to browse