INTERVIEW — MICHAEL DURSO – President and District 5 School Board Member for the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education

• BIO: Michael A. Durso – President-District 5 // Mr. Michael A. Durso was elected to his second four-year term on November 4, 2014, after being appointed by the Board on June 26, 2009. He currently serves as the Board’s president and as a member of the Board’s Fiscal Management Committee.  Mr. Durso was appointed in 2013 to serve on the Maryland Center for School Safety Governing Board and currently serves as an adjunct professor at McDaniel College. Mr. Durso has a 44-year education career, including 13 years with Montgomery County Public Schools as principal of Springbrook High School (1996 to 2009). He also served as the principal at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, and as principal at Woodrow Wilson High School and Lincoln Junior High School in Washington, D.C. He began his career as a Social Studies teacher.
• Hogan issues executive order mandating Md. schools start after Labor Day
• Montgomery County School Board Opposes Hogan’s Order to Start School after Labor Day. Board president Michael Durso says decision should be left to county. The Montgomery County Board of Education announced Wednesday it strongly opposes Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to require public schools to open after Labor Day and close by June 15 beginning in the 2017-2018 school year. Calling the executive order signed Wednesday afternoon by Hogan an attempt “to usurp local decision-making around school calendars,” board President Michael Durso said in a statement that “prohibiting schools from starting before Labor Day ignores critical issues faced by schools and the potential negative instructional impact on students. Determining the school calendar is complicated and requires balancing educational requirements, operational issues, and unique community needs all in the interest of students.”