Patricia B. O'Neill was elected president of the Board of Education on the fourth ballot by a five-vote majority and Dr. Charles Haughey was elected vice president of the Board on the third ballot by a five-vote majority. The election occurred during the Board's regularly scheduled business meeting on Tuesday, December 14, 2004. Both new officers will serve for a one-year term.

Mrs. O'Neill is in the middle of her second term as a Board member. She has previously served twice as Board president and three times as vice president. She currently is a member of the Board's Policy Committee and representative to the MCPS Education Foundation. O'Neill also is chair-elect of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education (MABE). A former PTSA president and cluster coordinator, she has a daughter who attends Walt Whitman High School and a daughter who is a 1999 MCPS graduate.

Dr. Haughey began his first term as a Board member in 2004. He currently is chair of the Board's Research and Evaluation Subcommittee and of the Ad Hoc Committee on Special Education. A former teacher and administrator with extensive experience at the local, state, and national levels, Haughey was a founding president of Partnership for Education Policy and has two daughters who attended Montgomery County Public Schools.