The Somerset Education Association is Not For The Best Interest of Children, Parents, and Teachers

At the June 17, 2025 Somerset County Board of Education meeting, the true heart and motive of the Somerset Education Association (teachers’ union) was revealed, having absolutely nothing to do with education. Randi Merritt who currently stands as President of the SEA, announced her retirement as she disrespectfully addressed the Board right after they just approved a budget that provides an allocation for teacher raises, including bus drivers and custodians. Setting an unprecedented district-wide raise allocation in the history of Somerset County Public Schools, this Board has been able to responsibly balance the budget within their means of standard funding. But it’s not about the dollar amount in the pocket of those on the frontline who make education even possible. It’s about control, and the SEA has lost it.

As of January 2025, two Board seats were won in a landslide election. In respect of the democratic process, Matthew Lankford and Mary Beth Bozman were elected by the citizens of Somerset County to serve a term of 4 years. Joining Andrew Gleason who currently serves on the Board, they were all very transparent during the election. What you see today is exactly what the people voted for. Since their commission, the Somerset County Board of Education has accomplished more in 5 months than the last 12 years.

The tide is shifting from low to high in Somerset County.

In just 5 months, the Board has hired new legal representation, created/revised eight (8) Board policies, became the first Maryland district to sign the Title VI certification to end discrimination, created a “Next Step” Board tracking tool to put words into action with a timeline, thoroughly examined and passed a balanced budget, approved a capital improvement plan for Crisfield High School, evaluated organizational structure, evaluated school safety, and voted for a financial performance audit, which will soon take place. That’s just to name a few, as they have been working in many more areas. On each public meeting agenda, you will see a list of goals and the progress being made.

Progress results in opposition when all political control is lost.

For those who have not been paying attention, the national teachers’ unions are run by the Democrat National Convention. Since President Donald J. Trump announced his plan for education, the unions are imploding. Between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten’s DNC resignation, and the unhinged speech by the National Education Association President (NEA) Becky Pringle, they clearly have no direction or know what to do with their social emotional meltdowns. The Democrats are losing their political grip on education, and they’re not used to that.

The Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) is the arm of the national unions at the state level. It then goes down to the local union in each county under the controlled umbrella of the MSEA.

As you can see, the MSEA controls the SEA in order to influence education in Somerset from across the bridge. Union dues are used to fuel political activism right down to the classroom.

The conflict comes from the fact that the majority of the current SCBOE seeks to remove all politics from the classroom that has robbed our children of being academically proficient. Their agenda is to return to a merit-based education of unindoctrinated core subject matter in Math, Science, English, and History, and the teachers’ union doesn’t like it.

With all of that said, Merritt demonstrates her ignorance and hate in her temper tantrum before the Somerset County Board of Education at the last Board meeting. Between her useless rants and misinformation to the local media outlets, this is just the latest example of ignorance and political activism that is not suitable for the county’s needs on education.

Randi Merritt, SEA President

Let’s identify the key areas that the Board is being accused of:

“The Board has an agenda.”

We would hope that they have an agenda to actually fix education, because past board members didn’t have one. They just shot from the hip, taking orders from their superintendent and influence from the SEA and attorney in order to maintain the status quo. Somerset County Public Schools has failed our children due to past ignorance, laziness, and political union control. That grossly negligent leadership ended in January. The Board reclaimed their authority as head of the school system (not the superintendent) as defined by the Maryland Education Article. The roles have been constantly challenged by the superintendent in order to control the Board, and that control is not happening.

“Collaboration no longer exists.”

The accusation of not working together “collaboratively” really means that the Board must accept the suggestions from the superintendent or it’s not collaboration. The superintendent is the only employee of the Board and serves as the Board secretary. The superintendent is assigned to administer the daily operation of the school, reports to the Board, and makes suggestions to the Board for consideration. The Board and superintendent have discussions in work sessions and in meetings in order for the Board to make informed decisions. The Board then considers those suggestions and votes accordingly. That’s collaboration.

“The Board members are not qualified.”

It’s ironic that the union never made that statement towards any of the past Board members that were not educators and served on the Somerset County Board of Education. Of course, that rule only applies when you don’t go along with the liberal agenda and cannot be controlled. However, all currently sitting Board members meet the qualifications for office by the Board of Elections and qualified by the people who voted them into office.

“Their legal representation is not qualified.”

Merritt said she did her research, but either she’s either being untruthful about researching or she’s suppressing the truth in attempt to discredit the Board’s new legal representation by calling them “nothing but divorce and immigration attorneys.” The law firm she’s referring to has a website, and clearly lists more than what Merritt is trying to discredit through minimization, which the firm has received numerous civil litigation awards. It didn’t take long to find these other credentials on the Internet. What’s also unique is that this Board selected not just attorneys with legal experience, but a certified financial advisor who’s a former Merrill Lynch Executive Manager and possesses a Master’s Degree in Economics and Finance. One of the attorneys even served on a Board of Education and as adjunct professors at the U.S. Naval Academy.

This is obviously not about qualifications. The new legal representation is clearly a threat to the union and political establishment. The Board can select any attorney they want, and that’s none of Merritt’s business or the union she represents.

Merritt also makes an ironic accusation and complains about how much the new attorneys are getting paid, never questioning the last law firm that exploited the taxpayers and regularly escalated matters rather than to deescalate to line the pockets of their firm. The last Board spent over $30,000 on just one case to obstruct one parent who filed a simple grievance for exposing the use of obscene material in his son’s 9th grade English class. Today, that father serves as Board Chair to end the abuse of attorney exploitation and the political weaponizing of the board attorney against parents.

But why is Merritt so upset? Because the past attorneys were compromised and were able to be influenced by the union in order to manipulate the Board. That’s why the Board hired new legal representation. The SEA and the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) are now pissed, since they can no longer influence the Board’s attorney. This past article reveals how the past attorneys were compromised.

A desperate attempt to regain control

The SEA is trying to portray the Board Chairman as incompetent and trying to remove him. The Board Chairman is by far the best we have ever seen on any local Board in the history of advocating for education in Maryland. He has devoted more than full-time to improve education and opportunity for the children of Somerset, and clearly making a huge impact.

In response, the SEA has used misinformation to motivate a base of liberal Democrats to disrupt meetings with disrespectful heckling and civil disorder rather than a unified peaceful forum of order to redress grievances.

In the past, Merritt organized an illegal union strike to rob the citizens of their voice by filling all slots of public comments with “no-shows” that were capped at ten (10) people. Prior to Chairman Lankford ordering the meetings, more than 10 persons could not speak. Lankford has ignored the prior rule to graciously allow more than 10 to speak so that the public is heard.

Of all of the recent public comments, all that can be witnessed was the rambling of baseless complaints and accusations, where not one person provided evidence of their claim or even a solution. It’s so great that people are attending board meetings. However, it’s obvious that people who never cared about education or attended a Board meeting before are now showing up as though they suddenly care. Of the attendees, it was observed that some are motivated by political views, some are motivated by race, some are there for anarchy, some are there for entertainment. Regardless of their motivation, their ambition was clearly fueled by hate and ignorance. They revealed the motivations of their heart when they spoke irrationally, gnashed their teeth, and made grunting sounds.

The SEA is so desperate, that they have stooped to the lowest level by exploiting and scripting children to bully and show disrespect. Adults are validating their behavior despite the district’s bully prevention campaigns and Anti-Bully Policy. This is why the behavior in our schools is out of control, and the exact behavior they’re teaching our children.

Those who cannot civilly contain themselves are having a meltdown from having lost the last election. They are floundering in the dark for a sense of purpose, having no regard for the school district’s history of waste, fraud, and abuse or the statistics of academic failure that they so ignorantly defend:

Source: https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/ReportCards/ReportCardSchool/1/E/1/19/XXXX/2024

Let’s not forget those parents, teachers, and taxpayers who are there to genuinely improve education. The majority of teachers, including many members of the SEA, disagree with the direction of their union President and the union as a whole. Many teachers were interviewed by the DPTC, but did not want to be named in fear of retribution.

The action of the Board can be summarized in this 50-second video below.

In the end, the Somerset Education Association is not for the best interest of children, parents, and teachers. We thank the Somerset County Board of Education for their hard work and dedication to return to quality education.

Fellows & Editors

To stay informed, sign up to the Delmarva Parent Teacher Coalition and follow us on facebook to know what’s really happening with education in our schools.

Subscribe to Updates

Subscribe

What's Hot