The 13-member board that oversees the county school system has been embroiled in controversy in recent years, with Chair Juanita Miller and various board members trading accusations related to contracts and violations of board policies. An independent audit last year found problems on both sides, while separately the State Board of Education requested Miller’s removal from officeover allegations of misconduct. (Following that request, County Executive Angela Alsobrooks asked that Miller step aside.) Miller opted instead for a state disciplinary hearing, which concluded late last year.
A person who picked up the phone at the school board’s office said the body would have no comment on Goldson’s retirement announcement.
Goldson led Prince George’s County Public Schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, and requiring masking by staff and students longer than any other jurisdiction in Maryland. (The county was among the state’s hardest-hit by the virus.) Early in the pandemic’s shift to virtual learning, she published an op-ed in The Washington Post urging federal action to help students get online more easily. (More than half of the students in Prince George’s County Public Schools qualify as low-income.)
“Removing systematic barriers to education is a national emergency every day, but now the urgency is as great as ever before. In these trying times, we are already seeing what happens when we don’t answer the call when an alarm is sounded — or wait too long to act,” she wrote.
Goldson also urged Maryland lawmakers and officials to fully fund a sweeping bill to expand free pre-Kindergarten programs, increase pay for teachers, and speed the modernization of schools across the state.