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       An investigation of a middle school principal who allegedly bullied and harassed dozens of teachers “raises significant issues about the vetting and promotion of personnel within MCPS,” the Montgomery County Board of Education said in a statement Friday after the law firm hired to examine the matter filed its first report.

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       The board did not answer questions about whether or how the investigation – into Farquhar Middle School Principal Joel Beidleman, the subject of at least 18 harassment, bullying and retaliation complaints to the district since 2016 – would proceed. It had said last month that the next phase from Jackson Lewis, the law firm hired to investigate after a Washington Post story documented the complaints, would concern potential Title IX violations by Beidleman, but the board later asked government inspectors general to take over.

       “Next steps will be determined soon,” Board of Education President Karla Silvestre said in a text message, when asked if Jackson Lewis will proceed with phase two of the investigation. She did not respond to further questions, which included what “significant issues” were raised in the law firm’s initial report or when it would release the document to the public.

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       Shebra Evans, the school board’s vice president, also did not respond to questions from The Post. Chris Cram, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools, referred questions to members of the school board, which has purview over the Jackson Lewis investigation.

       Lori-Christina Webb, the chief of staff for the school board, did not respond directly to most questions but said in an email, “What I can share at this point is that the Board is processing the report from Jackson Lewis and will share additional information with the community in the coming days.”

       Beidleman did not respond to a request to comment on the investigation.

       Many teachers said a principal sexually harassed them. He was promoted.

       Maryland Inspector General for Education Richard Henry said in an email he had not received a copy of Jackson Lewis’s report. He has previously said he was waiting for Jackson Lewis’s investigation to be finished before deciding if his office would get involved. On Monday, he said there were no further updates on his involvement. Generally, the office does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. The Montgomery County inspector general’s office said in an email it also hasn’t reviewed a copy of the report and has not decided whether it will investigate Beidleman or the school district.

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       The board’s statement concluded, “We are committed to a transparent, thorough, and expeditious process.” But outside officials questioned those claims.

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       Transparency “would mean knowing exactly what the next phase is and knowing if they were taking the opportunity to review [the report] in greater detail because they might need to redact something. If this was truly transparent and meant to be an independent investigation, they wouldn’t need to redact anything for legal privilege,” said Montgomery County Council member Dawn Luedtke (D-District 7), who called the board’s statement “generic and non-substantive.”

       When Montgomery County Public Schools initially announced that Jackson Lewis would run the investigation, local officials and legal scholars voiced concern about possible bias by the law firm. Jackson Lewis, which specializes in employment law defense and has battled unions, represented the school district in a previous matter. It received $110,674 from the district in 2022 and 2023, according to the district’s funding accountability and transparency website, and has defended other school systems in the past. Skeptics wondered if it would seek to shield district officials from accountability.

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       In an Aug. 22 news conference, Silvestre said, “The board has met with the external investigators and are confident that the team will conduct an independent, unbiased investigation.”

       None of the approximately three dozen teachers who said that Beidleman bullied, targeted, sexually harassed or retaliated against them have met with Jackson Lewis. Teachers who were contacted by Montgomery County Public Schools said they were confused by the urgency with which the school district tried to schedule their meetings with the law firm in mid-August if the first phase of the investigation was not about their allegations against Beidleman.

       The district pushed “a timeline that applied pressure” on educators who had submitted complaints, said a Montgomery County Public Schools employee who previously told The Post that Beidleman bullied and retaliated against her. She didn’t understand why the school system “scheduled interviews with people first that did not pertain to the specifics of why Joel was promoted. That time could have been used for that investigation instead of stressing out MCPS employees who also have to get prepared for the beginning of the school year.”

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