Dr. Monifa McKnight announces resignation as superintendent of MCPS

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Dr. Monifa McKnight announced her resignation as superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in a Friday afternoon email to students, parents, and teachers, leaving the foremost position of Maryland's largest public school system vacant. Her resignation concludes a 12-day saga that began when McKnight publicized that the Board of Education called for her resignation in a bombshell Jan. 22 announcement.

McKnight's administration's reported mishandling of widespread sexual assault allegations against former Farquhar Middle School principal Joel Bidelman moved the Board to call for her ouster. However, McKnight did not mention any specific motive for her resignation, only citing "distraction" that caused her to lose motivation for the superintendent role. "I have felt over the past several months, there has been a distraction. When the focus is no longer on whom I have agreed to serve, I must control my own fate," she said.

MCPS chief operating officer Brian Hull will step in as acting superintendent until the Board appoints an interim superintendent on Feb. 6. A nationwide search for a new superintendent will begin next week.