Reginald M. Felton was unanimously elected president of the Board of Education for a one-year term, and Patricia B. O’Neill was elected vice president of the Board for a one-year term. The election occurred during the Board’s regularly scheduled business meeting on Tuesday, December 11, 2001.

Mr. Felton has been a Board member since 1994 and served as its president in 1997 and 1999. He is chair of the Research and Evaluation Subcommittee and represents the Board on the Budget Committee of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education.

Mr. Felton received his undergraduate degree from Howard University, a master of science degree from Tulane University, and holds certificates from the Brookings Institution and Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as director of federal relations for the National School Boards Association and has previously held executive positions with the Department of the Navy and served as mayor-commissioner of the Town of Highland Beach, Maryland.

Among his community activities, Mr. Felton has served as president of the Seven Oaks-Evanswood Citizens Association and chair of the Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board. He has been a member of the executive board of the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP and its vice president for programs. Mr. Felton is married and has a son who graduated from Montgomery County Public Schools.

Mrs. O’Neill has served as president and vice president of the Board. She is chair of the Long-range and Strategic Planning Subcommittee, a member of the Audit Committee, and the Board’s representative to the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE) Legislative Committee.

A long-time leader in the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, she has served as co-PTSA president and cluster coordinator of the Walt Whitman cluster. She also was PTSA vice president of Thomas Pyle Middle School and PTA president of Burning Tree Elementary School. She is a founding member of the Walt Whitman Cluster “Pillars of Ethics” character education program and has served on numerous advisory committees for education-related issues, including the Montgomery County Public Schools’ Educational Accountability Oversight Committee.

Mrs. O’Neill is a graduate of Walter Johnson High School and has a degree in social science from Southern Methodist University. She is married and has a daughter who attends Thomas W. Pyle Middle School and a daughter who is a 1999 MCPS graduate.

Mr. Felton and Mrs. O’Neill previously served together as president and vice-president of the Board in 1999.