He called it a “golden parachute.”
Frederick, Md. (NS) – Maryland State Senator Michael Hough said former Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) superintendent Dr Theresa Alban’s $800,000 retirement package received after the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) report is a disgrace.
He said Alban retired with a “golden parachute” after the DOJ report said the school system overused restraint and seclusion on students with disabilities.
“The county has audit ability over FCPS and the first thing the county needs to do is they need to audit that the superintendent walked away with $367,000 in ‘unused leave’ that she hadn’t used in 10 years. I’d be curious to know how many other people, higher level folks in that school system have unused leave that they plan to cash out,” Hough said.
He said FCPS and the Board of Education were well aware of the issues of seclusion and restraint before the DOJ report was made public.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody knew about this. How is it in 10 days I can receive all this information nobody knew for years about? People did reach out to the school board, they reached out to the central office. So I think this really needs a lot more transparency about what happened and how we move forward,” said Hough.
He said an independent investigation needs to be done to find out who is responsible for the use of seclusion and restraint.