Former teacher left MCPS after violating mask mandate, ran unsuccessfully in 2024

Former teacher Brenda Diaz, who left Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) after violating a mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, is making a second attempt to win a seat on the county school board after an unsuccessful 2024 campaign, according to her candidate filing with the state elections board.  

Diaz filed Friday to run for an at-large board seat in the June primary election, according to the state elections board website. She listed a U.S. Postal Service box with a Gaithersburg address on her candidate filing. She did not immediately respond Thursday afternoon to Bethesda Today’s emailed request for comment. 

In 2024, Diaz’s candidacy for the District 2 seat on the traditionally nonpartisan school board sparked interest from the Republican and Democratic parties. She was endorsed by the Montgomery County Republican Party and targeted by the Maryland Democratic Party as a candidate with an “extremist agenda.” Diaz lost to Natalie Zimmerman, who is currently serving on the board, by about 56,000 votes.  

Her campaign website, listed in her state candidate filing,  which does not appear to have been updated since the 2024 race, said she aims to “to transform Montgomery County Public Schools by championing academic excellence, focusing on restoring safety, empowering students, families, and teachers, and ensuring responsible resource allocation through diligent oversight of our schools.”  

According to her LinkedIn profile, Diaz works as a self-employed educational consultant. During the 2024 election, Diaz said she was teaching at Fusion Global Academy, an online private school.  

Diaz worked as a teacher in MCPS for seven years. She was placed on administrative leave in 2021 for refusing to comply with mask mandates and resigned in the summer of 2022, according to Diaz.  

Diaz is one of three candidates seeking to fill the at-large seat being vacated by Karla Silvestre, who is running for an at-large seat on the County Council. Wylea Chase, a former director of operations for the advocacy group Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence, filed her candidacy for the at-large board seat with the state elections board on Nov. 19. The third candidate is Omar Lazo, a Montgomery College trustee and small business owner who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2022. Lazo filed to run for the at-large seat on Nov. 17.   

Three other board seats are on the ballot in the primary election, including the District 3 seat held by Julie Yang, school board President Grace Rivera-Oven’s District 1 seat, and Vice President Brenda Wolff’s District 5 seat. Wolff said Jan. 5 she won’t seek re-election to a third term. 

Rivera-Oven is the only board member who is running for re-election.  

Yang is also running for the County Council, seeking the District 1 seat held by Andrew Friedson (D). Friedson is running for county executive to replace Marc Elrich (D), who cannot run again due to term limits. Two at-large councilmembers, Evan Glass and Will Jawando, are also running for county executive in the Democratic primary, along with Silver Spring resident Mithun Banerjee, a project manager and landlord. 

Elma-Lorraine Diggs, a parent of two MCPS students, on Jan. 2 became the first and remains the only candidate to file to run for Wolff’s seat, according to the state elections board website on Thursday.  

Brett Di Resta, another board candidate, filed to run for the at-large seat in September, then withdrew in October and refiled for the District 3 seat. Sally McCarthy, a former committee chair for the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, is also running for the District 3 seat after filing Nov. 20 with the state elections board  

Candidates must file paperwork with the county and state election boards to officially appear on the ballot. The last day to file is Feb. 24.         

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