County PTA deciding whether to remove president

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005

After an intense meeting Oct. 26, many members of the Prince George's County Council of PTAs are confident the organization's president, Darren Brown, will soon be ousted.

‘‘I think we are going to get rid of him,” Walter Searcy, first vice president of the county PTA organization, said the day after the meeting. ‘‘The votes were already there.”

Tempers flared as meeting attendees discussed whether to get rid of Brown, who has been accused of financial improprieties and poor leadership. Brown, who was elected in May for a two-year term, previously served as the PTSA president of Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale.

Recently, questions surfaced about Brown and his involvement with an Ohio-based company, Bythwood Sports and Uniform Company, owned by Brown's brother. Bythwood had helped take measurements and order uniforms for the Flowers PTSA.

Eduardo Barea, the owner of Neil Roberts School Uniform Co., the company that provided the uniforms, said he is still owed about $83,000 for uniforms and expenses incurred in the deal.

The breaking point, Barea said, was when Brown issued him a cashier's check from Bythwood for $100,000 that the bank would not cash because the signature was not legitimate. A new check was reissued and the money was paid, Barea said.

Brown has since stepped down from his Flowers PTSA position without explanation but remains the head of the county's PTA.

‘‘All of the allegations read in the paper are false,” Brown said at the meeting held at Bladensburg High School. ‘‘I have leadership. [People] have not given me a chance. They just railroad me.”

Brown has declined The Gazette's requests to comment on the allegations.

Tonya Wingfield, a county PTA member who was a member of the PTSA executive board at Flowers when the uniform deal was struck, defended Brown.

‘‘The PTSA cannot validate what is owed because Mrs. [Flowers Principal Helena Nobles-]Jones and her crew have been handling the money. So until Mrs. Jones turns over the money that was collected since August 22 and shows proof that the amount given to Bythwood is accurate, Mr. Barea cannot be paid,” Wingfield wrote in an Oct. 12 e-mail to The Gazette.

Nobles-Jones said she never collected any money. ‘‘I would not touch a dime,” she said.

Nobles-Jones said she assigned two members of her staff – the financial secretary and financial technician — to collect money Aug. 19 from parents and hand out receipts because of complaints from parents that they were not getting receipts. However, she said that was the only day they collected money and she did not handle the money at all.

Nobles-Jones expressed her disappointment in Brown.

‘‘I trusted this man,” she said after the Oct. 26 meeting. ‘‘I trusted that he was working with the PTSA to find the best vendor possible.”

Some of Brown's supporters continue to seek more information from PTA members and from Brown.

‘‘I haven't seen anything about his leadership that's contrary to his position,” said Edwin Green, public relations official for the council. ‘‘There are only allegations out there.”

Green asked that PTA members bring specific information or proof before the council so they could further address concerns.

While many issues brought up during the meeting were considered legal and could not be discussed, Green said Brown should address some of the concerns.

‘‘I think it's fair for people to know,” he said. ‘‘He needs to do this. He needs to give the folk information and answers to their questions.”

Wingfield told The Gazette that Brown has evidence Barea was paid all the money collected for the uniforms by Aug. 22, but Brown has declined to show the documents to The Gazette.

Nobles-Jones said she has been seeking answers from Brown for quite some time.

‘‘I have given him every chance to come to me with documentation. My fear and my concern are what will happen to the children and the parents and the leadership of [Prince George's] County if this continues.”

Only the county PTA's executive board can decide whether to remove Brown. If he is found to be negligent of failing to perform his duties as president, misrepresenting the council or participating in activities deemed detrimental to the council, he can be voted out of office with two-thirds of the executive board's vote.

Faith Pounds, a county PTA member who resigned as secretary of the organization because of differences with Brown’s leadership, lamented the problems caused by the controversy.

‘‘The clouds that are surrounding this situation are putting up a barrier to the mission of the county PTA, which is to provide support to the local PTAs,” she said.

E-mail Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.