Elma-Lorraine Diggs
Running for school board in Montgomery County District 5
Email: eld4boe@gmail.com
Website: www.eld4boe.com
Facebook: facebook.com/eld4boe
How old will you be on Election Day (Nov. 3)?
41
Are you currently employed? If so, where, and what is your job title?
Yes. I am the founder and CEO of Legacy Design, a small business
What is the highest level of education that you completed, and where did you get that degree?
Master of Public Health, Mercer University
Why are you running for the school board?
As a Montgomery County Public Schools graduate, a current Montgomery County Public Schools parent, a former long-term substitute teacher and PTA president, it pains me to say the education I received is not the education our children are receiving. Every student must leave Montgomery County Public Schools college and career ready, prepared to thrive as successful, productive citizens. Montgomery County Public Schools is the jewel of Montgomery County, but in recent years, we have lost some of that shine. We are at a turning point. Student achievement is improving, yet only 36.9% of students reached proficiency in math on the most recent state assessments, and gaps between student groups persist. The district absorbed a $36 million budget shortfall this year and carries a $3 billion maintenance backlog.
My platform is grounded in three commitments. Engage means equity is a verb, not a policy position. A child's ZIP code should not determine the quality of instruction, access to enrichment, or exposure to advanced coursework. Empower means students, families and community members are strategic partners, not spectators. Engagement must be meaningful, and what families share has to be reflected in the decisions we make. Elevate means real oversight and real accountability. Policies and budgets must be paired with clear expectations, performance measures and public reporting so the community can see what is working. None of this is possible alone. Real progress happens only when families, educators, students, Montgomery County Public Schools and the community work together as a collaborative.
What makes you a good candidate for the board?
My time in Montgomery County Public Schools classrooms and in PTA leadership has shown me how our schools work from the inside and how families experience them from the outside. As a substitute teacher, I saw what educators carry every day. As a PTA president, I sat with parents trying to make sense of a system that too often felt closed to them.
I was born in Liberia, and my family's experience with civil war shaped my commitment to public service. For more than 15 years, through my work with organizations including the U.S. Agency for International Development and UNICEF, I have managed complex programs and public funds, worked across institutions and helped ensure resources were used effectively.
At USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, my work connected humanitarian policy with program decisions and coordination with multilateral partners, including the World Health Organization. This required navigating competing priorities and translating policy commitments into practical action.
That experience taught me to ask: What problem are we solving? Who is being left behind? How will we measure progress? What must change when results fall short? Those questions are equally important in overseeing a school system.
I will bring preparation, independent judgment and a willingness to collaborate. Effective board service requires listening carefully, setting clear expectations and holding leadership accountable while respecting the expertise of educators. I am prepared to do that work.
What is the most important issue facing your school board and what would you do about it if elected?
Rebuilding trust between Montgomery County Public Schools and the community. This year, Montgomery County Public Schools faces very difficult decisions, including school closures, boundary studies, the regional program model and growing capital improvement needs. In the years ahead, with growing needs and shrinking budgets, our schools will face new challenges. If our district is to weather them and come out strong, we must do so as a community.
Our county's demographics are changing. If we are serious about meaningful community engagement, it cannot look the same as it always has, and it will not look the same for every family. We must reach communities where they are. That means understanding the gatekeepers, many of whom are already connected to their communities, and ensuring Montgomery County Public Schools communications work across cultural, religious and other affiliations to bridge the gap.
Timely communication and feedback collection matter, but they are only the beginning. Montgomery County Public Schools must show the community how its feedback was used in decision making. Our families, community members and local experts offer excellent resources, and their insight must be taken into account.
This cannot be a top-down approach. The board must hold Montgomery County Public Schools accountable for doing this work. Being a parent should not be a spectator sport. Trust grows when families can participate meaningfully and see whether commitments are being fulfilled.
Please name a public leader you admire and explain why.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has been my inspiration. She began her ministerial career as Barbados's Minister of Education. As a female leader in a largely patriarchal society, she has used her brilliance and innovative ideas to bring real change within her country. She has also challenged global structures that tout equity and sign on to U.N. resolutions, yet in actual practice harm smaller nations. She has done so on a global stage, in a way that puts a spotlight on these issues and applies pressure for change. She has also reached mainstream audiences to share her ideas and inspire others. It is one thing to be smart, but it is another to turn that intelligence into wisdom that inspires a younger generation.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, is a 10-year plan that includes increased funding to support early childhood education, higher teacher starting pay, college/career-readiness standards for high school graduates, and expanded services to multilingual and impoverished families, among other goals. Since the Blueprint's implementation, test scores have increased modestly in many parts of the state, but some school officials complain about the costs and administrative burdens placed on them by the Blueprint. Please tell us your views on the Blueprint and how it is affecting your school district.
I support the Blueprint's central goals: expanding access to early childhood education, strengthening the educator workforce, preparing students for college and careers and directing additional support to students facing greater barriers. As a parent at a community school, I have seen what community school liaisons mean to the families they serve. For Montgomery County Public Schools, the Blueprint provides a framework for connecting these priorities. Its emphasis on community schools, multilingual learners and students experiencing poverty aligns with my public health perspective: children's learning is influenced by conditions both inside and outside the classroom.
Montgomery County's wealth on paper does not reflect the reality in our schools. More than 70,000 Montgomery County Public Schools students qualified for free or reduced-price meals in 2023 to 2024, more than total Washington, D.C. public school enrollment. Yet because the state formula adjusts for local wealth, Montgomery County Public Schools receives one of the smallest shares of state aid in Maryland. This year, the county council moved $36 million from the Capital Improvements Program into the operating budget, and Montgomery County Public Schools still had to eliminate 415 positions. To build on our modest gains, the state must reassess how the Blueprint is funded so good intentions are matched by resources.
I will advocate for sustainable state and local funding, clear explanations of implementation costs and coordination that protects educators' time. Montgomery County Public Schools should show families how Blueprint investments reach schools and whether they improve readiness, learning and access to opportunity.
I support the Blueprint's ambitions while expecting disciplined oversight, transparent spending and adjustments grounded in evidence.
Chronic absenteeism has been a problem in many schools since the Covid-19 pandemic. How big of a problem is absenteeism in your school district, and what if anything can the Board of Education do about it?
Chronic absenteeism remains a serious concern. At the end of the 2024-25 school year, nearly 35,000 Montgomery County Public Schools students, about one in five, were chronically absent. We cannot talk about student success when so many students are missing school.
Montgomery County Public Schools has the right structures on paper. Its attendance regulation, updated in August 2026, requires that the most persistent cases be referred to the Student Well Being Team for root cause analysis and intensive collaborative problem solving.
Yet this year's budget cuts reduced the very people who carry out that work, including social workers and pupil personnel workers. Updating a regulation while cutting the staff who implement it is a disconnect. It compromises the infrastructure designed to solve this problem.
We cannot fix chronic absenteeism if the structures built to address it are weakened. Montgomery County Public Schools must fully resource these teams and protect their positions and their time.
Are you satisfied with your school district's policy on AI use by students? If so, why? If not, what would you suggest to improve the AI policy?
I support Board Policy IGS on educational technology and the classroom rules Montgomery County Public Schools added to its grading regulation. Together, they recognize that AI should support teachers, not replace them, and that students must be transparent about how they use it.
AI policy, however, must be a dynamic process. The technology changes quickly, and our oversight must keep pace. Montgomery County Public Schools should track which AI tools are being used, how they are being used and what effect they are having on learning. We must ensure AI is not compromising children's education, weakening critical thinking or creating overreliance.
That requires a consistent implementation plan across every school, so students and families know what to expect from one classroom to the next and from one school to the next. It also requires the board to critically assess, through regular public reporting, whether the policy is achieving its intended outcomes and to adjust when it is not.
Youth mental health has been a growing concern for years now. Do you think your school district has the resources and personnel in place to deal with this issue adequately? If not, what would you suggest to improve the situation?
No, and in the current budget climate, that is unlikely to change on its own. Youth mental health is a crisis that must be addressed now. It cannot wait.
The broader question is whether this should rest on the school system alone. I believe it is a shared responsibility that must be worked out with the county's Department of Health and Human Services and county leadership, so that funding is properly aligned with need.
We already have a model. School nurses in Montgomery County Public Schools are provided through county Health and Human Services, bringing skilled health professionals into our schools without placing the full cost on the school system. We should look at how a similar partnership could bring mental health professionals into schools, where students already are.
Do you think there are circumstances when books should be removed from school libraries? If so, what kind of books should be removed, and who should make those decisions?
No. We should want our children reading and curious. Books open doors to new ideas, other cultures and experiences beyond their own, and that is how young people learn to think critically.
Montgomery County Public Schools already has a careful process. School library media specialists and professional staff evaluate books using professional reviews and established criteria before they reach our shelves. Age-appropriateness matters, and decisions about it belong with trained library professionals and educators, not individual campaigns. When a family has a concern, Montgomery County Public Schools has a formal reconsideration process, and families should use it.
Parents have every right to guide their own children's reading. No single parent or group should decide what every other family's child can read.
