Mohammed Choudhury is seen during a 2022 interview about the upcoming academic year and the first 12 months of his tenure as Maryland’s schools superintendent. Maryland Schools Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury will resign by Friday and become a senior policy adviser to the state Board of Education, keeping his more than $325,000 salary and receiving permission to consult with outside entities, state officials announced Friday.
The board has scrambled to put together a new leadership team at the state Education Department after Choudhury, who became superintendent in 2021 and was expected to be appointed to a second term, suddenly lost support this month from a majority of the 14-member board because of the way he ran the department and interacted with other state officials.
During Choudhury’s tenure, dozens of veterans left the department and school district leaders around the state complained quietly that guidance about grant programs and implementation of the reform program, known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, was confusing and often late. Choudhury had said that workers who left could not embrace change.Like Choudhury, Lawson has never been the superintendent of a district or a state agency.