Bill to curtail Maryland student school board members’ voting power dies in House committee
A bill in the General Assembly aimed at curtailing the voting power of student school board members in Maryland has died in committee.
The legislation, filed by Del. Reid Novotny in January, received an “unfavorable” report from the House Ways and Means committee Feb. 12, killing the bill with a 14-7 vote. The bill would have stripped student school board members in the state of their vote if it were a “deciding vote” on a motion.
“It was unfortunate that the [bill] failed on a party-line vote,” Novotny said in an email. “I will always believe that gridlock is best for D.C. and not our school boards.”
Novotny, a newly appointed Republican who represents parts of Howard and Carroll counties, had said his legislation would end the “gridlock” in the Howard County Board of Education.
The school board governs the 77-school system that has been online-only since April after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered buildings in March. Panel members have reached tie votes in recent months on motions regarding reopening plans and a possible hybrid model. In some of those votes, the motion would have passed if the student member’s vote were counted.
The board has eight members — seven elected by Howard County voters and one student member elected by county middle and high school students. Howard High School senior Zach Koung is the board’s student member this academic year.
A week after Novotny filed the legislation, Howard’s school board switched gears. The board, which had previously voted to extend virtual learning from Feb. 1 to April 12, approved the school system’s hybrid model to begin rolling out March 1.
About 4,000 students, and the staff to support them, will be returning March 1, while about half the system’s 57,000 students will return to classrooms for the hybrid model by mid-April.
Novotny’s bill was his first after being appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan to fill former Del. Warren Miller’s seat. Miller retired Dec. 30, and Novotny was selected by the Republican central committees of Howard and Carroll counties to fill the vacancy.
“My whole intent was to ensure the elected members by the voting populace of Howard County were able to do their job, which obviously has been sort of at a stalemate because of the number eight, an even number,” Novotny, a Glenelg resident, said in January.
While his bill didn’t make it out of committee, Novotny said he plans to refile the legislation to change the structure of the seven county school boards that do have student members who can vote. The bill would force those school boards — including Howard, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City and Harford — to have an odd number of voting members, “while leaving it up to the county to decide [whether] to add an additional student member, the superintendent or a representative teacher, for example,” he said.
Seventeen of the 25 Maryland school boards don’t allow students to vote. However, most school boards in the Baltimore region, including the state board, have one student member who can vote on most topics. The student — a junior or senior — is appointed by middle and high school students and serves a one-year term. In Howard County, the student member can vote on most topics except those involving redistricting, personnel, legal issues, the budget and “other restricted matters,” according to the school system’s website.
In December, two Howard County parents with children in the school system filed a lawsuit to strip the student school board member’s right to vote.
The lawsuit argues that giving a high school student the right to vote on school board decisions violates Maryland’s constitution because the student is not 18 years old and is not eligible to vote in elections or to hold an elected office.
This month, more than 100 former student school board members in Maryland weighed in on the suit, saying it is an “egregious attack” on student representation. The group of 128 former student board members, with the aid of the Washington-based law firm Venable LLP, filed an amicus brief, arguing that the lawsuit is invalid.
Reid Novotny, a newly appointed Republican who represents parts of Howard and Carroll counties, had said his legislation would end the “gridlock” in the Howard County Board of Education.
A member of the far-right Oath Keepers charged with rioting at the U.S. Capitol met with Secret Service agents before the siege and received a VIP pass to the rally where then-President Donald Trump spoke, according to a court filing.
A defense attorney for Jessica Watkins said in Saturday’s filing that the Oath Keeper was in Washington to “provide security” for the speakers at the Jan. 6 rally, where she stood within 50 feet of the stage.
Watkins is one of nine people linked to the Oath Keepers charged with conspiring to block the certification of the election results in the most sweeping indictment prosecutors have issued in the investigation into the violence at the Capitol.
The filing suggests Watkins had a more formal role than previously known at the rally, where hundreds of Trump supporters gathered before walking to the Capitol and forcing their way inside.
In asking a judge to grant Watkins bail, the lawyer, public defender Michelle Peterson, said the government’s filings in the case are “filled with rhetorical flourishes design to inflame the passions of its readers without supporting evidence.”
“Watkins was present not as an insurrectionist, but to provide security to the speakers at the rally,” according to the filing.
The Secret Service didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the nature of Watkins’ meeting with the agents.
The filing also blamed Trump for contributing to the violence.
Watkins “believed that the President of the United States was calling upon her and her small militia group to support the President and the Constitution,” the filing said. “She was ready to serve her Country in that manner.”