Fred Evans

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A former Gaithersburg High School principal and 2010 County Council candidate is running for the Board of Education’s District 2 seat.

Rockville’s Fred Evans, who worked in Montgomery County Public Schools for three decades and has also taught at George Mason and Johns Hopkins universities, filed the required paperwork Dec. 20.

The seat is held by Laura V. Berthiaume, who announced recently that she will not run again for the position. Berthiaume, who also lives in Rockville, won the seat in 2008.

Evans retired from the school system in 2000. He first worked in Montgomery schools in 1970 as a social studies teacher at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville.

“I think I bring a historical perspective,” Evans said.

For example, he said the issue of disparate suspension rates among racial groups has been a concern for some time and deserves more rigorous scrutiny.

“Why are African American kids, just on the data, being suspended more consistently for situations like insubordination? I’ve always been interested in that one,” he said.

Most recently, Evans was an advocate for maintaining the School Resource Officer program, which places Montgomery County Police officers in high schools.

He was defeated in his County Council at-large bid in the Democratic primary elections in September 2010, the first time he had run for elected office in the county.

In response to a candidate questionnaire from The Gazette last year, Evans discussed county public employee unions: “I do not believe that Montgomery County employees are compensated at excessive levels or that ‘powerful unions’ are responsible for driving up government costs.”

But he also said the County Council should exercise more oversight over the Board of Education’s preferred budgets by asking how certain items impact student achievement and where money can be saved, a position he reiterated in an interview Thursday.

The school board should look more closely at reducing staff in offices not working directly with children, Evans said. As an example, he highlighted the system’s Office of School Performance, which monitors classroom instruction and provides administrative support to principals.

“I’d really like to look hard at some of our resource alignment, where we put our money,” he said.

When he ran for the council in 2010, Evans was not on the Apple Ballot, the preferred candidates of the Montgomery County Education Association (the county teachers union).

Evans said the teachers union did not have a favorable or unfavorable reaction when he informed it about his candidacy. Despite its strong influence in county elections, the teachers union has not been able to consistently keep its preferred candidates in the District 2 seat, unlike in other districts.

From the 2010 election, Evans said he learned about how to find his political voice and the challenge of running for a countywide office.

“I think I was naïve about how big of a task it was, and how much money it took,” he said, noting that his political base is in Rockville and Gaithersburg, given his residency and work experience.

He also praised new Superintendent of Schools Joshua P. Starr, saying he appeared willing to take on controversial issues.

Evans has two daughters who are students in Montgomery schools. Another, Diane Gomez, is an assistant principal at Thomas S. Wootton High.

To see Evans’ responses to The Gazette’s Voters Guide questionnaire when he ran for council in 2010, go here. To see his responses to a candidate questionnaire from the teachers union, go here.

aujifusa@gazette.net