BOE Candidate Brenda Diaz Aims To Give MCPS Parents 'Real Seat At The Table'

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Ahead of the primary elections in June, Patch has invited candidates running to represent the region on the Montgomery County Board of Education to complete a questionnaire touching on a variety of key issues.

Candidate responses will be published verbatim in the run-up to the primaries on Tuesday, June 23.

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Questionnaire responses for Brenda Diaz, who is running to serve as an at-large school board member, can be found below:

Name: Brenda M. Diaz

Age: 48

Hometown: Bronx, New York

Do you have any previous political experience? If so, please state and explain how that experience will influence your time on the Montgomery County Board of Education if elected.

I ran for the District 2 seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education in 2024. That campaign sharpened every instinct I bring to this race.

I learned how MCEA's Apple Ballot operates — how union endorsements shape outcomes regardless of candidate qualifications or student results. I learned which questions the current Board refuses to answer in public and why. I learned that parents across this county are hungry for a candidate who speaks plainly, stands firm, and does not owe anyone a favor.

I also learned the difference between campaigning and governing. I spent 2024 listening — at forums, in schools, in neighborhoods. I heard from teachers who feel unseen, parents who feel dismissed, and students who are being handed below-grade-level work and told it is equity. That listening shapes every position I hold today.

I return to this race with sharper knowledge of the budget process, the governance failures, and the specific policy levers a Board member actually controls. I am not learning on the job. I am finishing what I started — for the parents, students, and teachers who deserve a Board member who answers to them and no one else.

What do you believe is the single-most important issue facing voters in the district you’re looking to represent? How do you intend to address those issues?

The most important issue facing Montgomery County families is MCPS's academic crisis. Despite $3.78 billion spent annually, only 22% of students pass Algebra I and 54.9% of third graders read at grade level. This is outright leadership failure.

I will push the Board to require whole books, textbooks, grade-appropriate assignments, explicit reading and math instruction, core-focused classrooms, less technology, and the return of midterms and final exams. I will enforce the Student Code of Conduct, restore SROs, and advocate for a Teachers' Bill of Rights modeled on the laws in Louisiana and Alabama that restored classroom order and produced the only post-pandemic academic gains in the country.

Professional development will target content mastery, not ideology. Fiscal oversight will redirect every dollar to classrooms — not administrative overhead. And parents will have a real seat at the table, not a check-the-box survey.

Academic excellence is not an aspiration. It is the foundation of every child's long-term success. Our children deserve that foundation — every child, every school, every day, without exception. Only proper leadership will build it, and that is exactly what I will deliver.

How do you differ from other candidates running against you?

The contrast in this race is straightforward.

My opponents have never stood in front of a classroom. One is a restaurant owner and college trustee. The other is a nonprofit advocacy director. Neither has taught a child to read, managed a classroom, or navigated a school system from the inside. I have — for over 20 years, teaching Spanish, ESOL, and U.S. History to multilingual learners across D.C. and Maryland. I am a James Madison Fellow, a nationally competitive honor awarded to exceptional teachers of American history and government, funded by an Act of Congress to strengthen content mastery and constitutional literacy in our classrooms. I will continue teaching if elected, because I am a teacher at heart, and that perspective belongs in the boardroom.

I also served as a union representative. I know exactly how MCEA operates — from the inside. That knowledge makes me a more effective advocate for the teachers and families the union claims to represent but consistently fails.

MCEA's Apple Ballot has shaped this Board for 20 years. The results: a 22% Algebra I pass rate, third-grade reading below 55%, and school buildings rotting with mold and collapsing ceilings. My opponents answer to that machine. I answer to parents, students, and taxpayers. No one else.

How would your work experience benefit the goals/objectives you’ve outlined in your campaign and/or the office you’re seeking?

Every position I have held has prepared me for exactly this work.

Twenty years in multilingual classrooms taught me what academic excellence actually requires — not in theory, but daily, with real children. I know which curricula work, which professional development is meaningful, and which administrative decisions hurt teachers without helping students.

As a James Madison Fellow — a nationally competitive honor awarded by an Act of Congress to outstanding teachers of American history and government — and a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmark participant, I have pursued content mastery at the highest level. I know what rigorous, knowledge-rich instruction looks like. That expertise is exactly what I will bring to every curriculum decision and professional development dollar the Board approves.

As a union representative, I learned how collective bargaining shapes school policy from the inside. I understand MCEA's leverage, its priorities, and the gap between what it claims to do for teachers and what it actually delivers. That knowledge makes me a more effective watchdog on contract negotiations and budget decisions.

As a bilingual educator who worked directly with ESOL families, I understand what multilingual communities need from their school system and what it costs when communication fails.

Between my 2024 campaign and today, I built the Success Toolkit on diazforboe.com — a research-based resource library for the entire MCPS community covering evidence-based instruction for teachers, literacy and math support for parents, academic excellence tools for students, school culture resources for administrators, and governance frameworks for board members. It is the fullest expression of what I believe a Board member should be: someone who serves every stakeholder, not just the ones who endorsed them.

I am not arriving to learn the job. I am arriving to do it.

What is your opinion of the work being done by the current officeholder, and how will you improve on it?

Karla Silvestre is leaving the Board to run for County Council — and the record she leaves behind speaks for itself.

She voted to permanently close Wootton High School — a 55-year community anchor in Gaithersburg's backyard — over the objections of thousands of families, local elected leaders, and an independent data scientist who documented intentional data manipulation.

The community showed up. She voted them down anyway. I testified before the Board on March 26th to save Wootton, and I support the legal challenge against that decision fully.

Under her watch, the budget ballooned to $3.78 billion while enrollment declined, meetings were cut from 24 to 12 per year, and millions moved through consent agendas without a single question asked — including $10.58 million approved in one sitting without contract review. An illegal electric bus contract cost taxpayers millions more. That is not leadership. That is abdication. I will demand performance metrics tied to every dollar before it is approved.

She was an MCEA Apple Ballot candidate. That endorsement is not free. It comes with commitments to the union machine — not to the families of Montgomery County. Twenty years of Apple Ballot Board members have produced flat scores, crumbling buildings, and a budget nobody controls. I carry no such debt. I answer to families, and only to families.

What is the biggest issue facing Montgomery County Public Schools? How would you address it?

The biggest issue facing MCPS is an academic crisis hiding in plain sight behind a $3.78 billion budget.

Only 22% of students pass Algebra I. Only 54.9% of third graders read at grade level. Enrollment is declining by thousands of students annually. And the Board's response has been to cut public meetings from 24 to 12 per year, rubber-stamp billions through consent agendas without review, and ask taxpayers for a 10% budget increase. This is not a funding problem. It is a leadership problem.

I will address it by demanding the Board require whole books, textbooks, and explicit reading and math instruction in every classroom — the same evidence-based approach that took Mississippi from last in the nation in reading to a national model. I will push for the return of midterms and final exams, grade-appropriate assignments for every student regardless of zip code, and professional development tied to content mastery — not ideology.

I will restore dedicated School Resource Officers, enforce the Student Code of Conduct consistently, and introduce a Teachers' Bill of Rights so that educators feel safe, supported, and empowered to teach.

Every dollar must be tied to outcomes. Every child deserves to read. That is where my leadership will start once elected.

A student brings a gun/weapon to campus without setting off any red flags. What security measures would you advocate for to prevent such an incident?

A student who brings a weapon to campus without detection is a failure of relationships, not just infrastructure. I know this firsthand — I taught at Gaithersburg High School. The adults who catch these situations before they become tragedies are not cameras or algorithms. They are trusted adults who know their students, notice when something is off, and have built the relationships that make a student willing to say something.

That is exactly what School Resource Officers do. SROs are the ears to the ground. They know the student who is struggling, the rumor circulating in the hallway, the backpack that seems heavier than usual. MCPS principals formally requested their return in December 2020. The February 2026 shooting at Wootton — where the assigned officer was not present — proved what happens without them.

I oppose MCPS's AI weapons surveillance pilot. It was approved as a test without Board input or community discussion. That is exactly the kind of unilateral decision-making I will end. I also oppose weapons detectors — children should walk into school feeling trusted and safe, not screened like suspects. That psychological burden undermines the welcoming environment every child deserves.

My answer is straightforward: restore SROs, secure building entrances, enforce locked door policies, and build the human relationships that technology will never replace.

Do you believe schools need stricter security measures? Metal detectors? Move away from CEOs and revert to SROs? Explain.

Yes — but not through metal detectors or AI surveillance.

The incidents speak for themselves.

February 9, 2026: a student shot a classmate at Wootton High School with a ghost gun — the assigned CEO was not present.

March 2026: a Gaithersburg High student was arrested with a loaded handgun.

April 7, 2026: a Watkins Mill High student in Gaithersburg was detained with a gun and a knife.

December 2025: a Northwood student possessed a 3D-printed gun; a Wheaton student stabbed a classmate.

In 2024-2025 alone, MCPS recorded 966 safety infractions — 29% involving knives or weapons.

FOP Lodge 35 President Lee Holland wrote in a February 2026 Bethesda Magazine op-ed: "Politics became the center of the conversation rather than a thoughtful, considerate, and constructive plan for the safety and well-being of our children." He called the former SRO program "nationally recognized" — officers who built daily relationships, knew their students by name, and intervened before situations became crises. His conclusion was unambiguous: remove politics from school safety, bring back SROs, keep our students safe.

I agree completely. I taught at Gaithersburg High School. I know what a dedicated SRO means to a building — they are the ears to the ground, the trusted adult a frightened student tells before something becomes a tragedy.

I oppose metal detectors — children should walk into school feeling trusted and safe, not screened like suspects. I oppose the AI surveillance pilot approved without Board input. Secure entrances and locked doors matter. But no camera replaces the officer who knows every student by name.

Restore SROs. Secure the buildings. End the politicization of our children's safety.

What is your stance on the "Save Wootton" initiative by community members?

I stand fully with the Save Wootton movement — and I have from the beginning.

My position has been clear and public: Save Wootton. Keep Crown for Crown. Modernize Magruder. As I wrote in my Substack piece, "Preserving the Integrity of Neighborhood Schools," these communities should never have been pitted against each other.

Wootton and Crown families did not create this crisis. Decades of failed leadership did — specifically, the MCEA-endorsed Board of Education that rubber-stamped this decision over the objections of thousands of parents, local elected officials, and an independent data scientist who documented intentional data manipulation.

We would not be here if we had responsible leadership. A Board that actually listened would have recognized the obvious solution: use Crown as a temporary holding school while Wootton and Magruder are renovated and modernized to serve their communities. That is not radical. It is what the Rockville City Council, Mayor Ashton, State Senator Kagan, and Councilmember Van Grack all proposed. The Board dismissed every one of them.

The priority now is to work together — not to harden the divisions this Board created. Wootton families, Crown families, Magruder families, and Gaithersburg neighbors all deserve a Board that brings communities to the table before making irreversible decisions, not after. Neighborhood schools are community anchors. Destroying them without parental voice is not leadership.

I testified on March 26th to save Wootton. I support CEPA's legal challenge fully. And I will fight to ensure no community is ever treated this way again.

What will you do to ensure that concerns of parents and/or guardians of MCPS students are heard and addressed before a vote is held on any new business?

Look no further than March 26, 2026, to understand why this question matters.

On that day, the MCEA-endorsed Board voted 7-1 to permanently close a 55-year neighborhood school after dismissing thousands of parents, ignoring local elected officials, and proceeding despite documented data manipulation. That is what happens when a Board treats community input as a box to check rather than a foundation to build on. It will not happen on my watch.

Here is what I will do concretely. I will restore the Board to 24 annual business meetings. I will end consent-agenda rubber-stamping on significant decisions. I will require a mandatory public engagement period before any vote on boundaries, curriculum, major expenditures, or structural changes. I will demand multilingual outreach before — not after — decisions are made.

I will also push for Board meetings to be held in each school cluster at least once a year. Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Wheaton, Bethesda — every community deserves the Board in their neighborhood, not just in a Rockville hearing room.

As I outline in my Success Toolkit for Board Members, the NSBA's Key Work of School Boards identifies Community Leadership as a core governance function — acting as an ambassador for community values before irreversible decisions are made. The current Board has failed that standard completely.

Parents are not stakeholders to be managed. They are the reason the Board exists.

A 6% property tax increase was proposed for the fiscal 2027 budget to raise funds for schools. Homeowners are reluctant to pay more.

What is your position?

I oppose the property tax increase — and the data makes the case better than I can.

MCPS spends $3.78 billion annually. Only 22% of students pass Algebra I. Barely half of third graders read at grade level. Enrollment is declining by thousands of students per year. The Board cut public meetings from 24 to 12 and approved $10.58 million on a single consent agenda without contract review. An electric bus contract was later deemed illegal. Non-instructional overhead sits at 45% — compared to 35% at Fairfax County. That gap is $250 million not reaching a single classroom.

Asking homeowners to pay more into that system without demanding results first is not fiscal leadership. It is fiscal negligence.

Mississippi was ranked last in the nation in reading. It did not spend its way to improvement — it directed every professional development dollar toward proven, curriculum-specific instruction and held schools accountable for outcomes. Louisiana did the same. Both states now outperform systems that spend far more per student. Montgomery County has every advantage those states lacked. What it lacks is accountability.

My position: maintenance of effort only until MCPS demonstrates measurable academic gains. Attach performance metrics to every budget dollar. Establish an independent Inspector General to investigate waste without interference. Eliminate the overhead gap before asking taxpayers for more.

Results first. Raises second.

What other options would you consider to raise money that does not include raising taxes?

The money is already there. MCEA just wants you to keep paying more anyway.

This is not new. In 2023, MCEA pushed for a full 10% property tax increase — the largest in county history — calling anything less "starving our school system." Taxpayers got a 4.7% hike instead. In 2025, the Apple Ballot machine praised a 3.4% property tax increase as doing "what was right." In 2026, when a 6.3% increase was proposed, MCEA called it standing up for students. And when Council President Natali Fani-González proposed protecting homeowners with no tax increase while still giving MCPS $90 million more, MCEA mobilized against it. Year after year, same answer: raise taxes. Never: spend smarter.

My answer is accountability — not another tax bill. Close the overhead gap — MCPS spends 45% on non-instruction versus Fairfax County's 35%, a $250 million difference not reaching a single classroom. Eliminate spending with no strategic objective, starting with the $30 million annual electric bus program the Montgomery County Taxpayers League flagged. Establish a dedicated independent Inspector General to audit waste without interference. Cut executive-level central office redundancies. Tie compensation increases to outcomes and enrollment reality — not automatic step increases regardless of results.

No more blank checks. No more excuses. That is what governing for families — not unions — actually looks like.