I spoke with Matthew Molyett via Zoom, as a face-to-face interview wasn’t doable due to COVID-19-related restrictions. As with Robert and his interview of Terri Hill, I was curious to see how it would all play out, as the in-person event is so much a part of our interviews.
As it turns out, Matthew’s kindness, solicitousness, and flexibility made it a fun time–and an instructive one.
As our Zoom meeting began, I saw that Matthew was wearing a blue checkered shirt with no tie. My first thought was: “Abercrombie and Fitch.” And then I thought, as we said our hellos and caught up a little about our personal lives because we’re good friends and had so much to catch up on because of quarantine. I thought about how it was very teen-inspired, his choice of clothing. Matthew has a childlike/teenage (not childish) quality that I would imagine also appeals to everyone. He stops to think while talking, and it makes you feel like he cares about what you’re discussing with him.
War and Peace and Hackers and Malware
Matthew was a Government Contractor in Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) Development (try saying that ten times fast), and now he’s a Technical Leader at Cisco leading malware research, studying and blocking CNE work but there’s still something approachable and lovable about him. I assume his brood–wife, Melissa, is a fitness instructor; Jessica, 12; Julian, 7; and Jericho, 5–keeps him young at heart. He also just seems like one of those people who’s playful. Ever since we met a couple years ago, I could easily picture him as a kid on a playground. He’d be one of the shy kids sharing his sandwich with the new kid. He’s deeply caring. More than once, when some awful Trump-era occurrence hit the news, I got a Facebook message from Matthew asking if I was all right.
In his youth, spent in rural northwest Ohio, Matthew was also surrounded by kids. He’s the middle of three sons. “I attended Seneca East Public High School, so I’m a product of the public schools myself,” Matthew said with a proud glint in his eye. During his last two years of high school, he was dual-enrolled at Heidelburg College. He majored in Computer Science and Mathematics. Later, after moving to Maryland, he got his Master’s in Cybersecurity. He said that having attended public schools himself, he knows how important an individualized education is for each student.
Overcrowding at some of our HoCo high schools make that individualized education difficult, he went on.
“Here in Howard County, our most full high school is so overcapacity that the number of students in that school exceeding the building’s capacity is more than the entire high school I attended,” his voice getting louder in a way it rarely does.
He’s been working in malware and preventing hackers from disrupting systems like factories and power grids for nine years now. In this field, Matthew actually gained his some experiences fashioning a curriculum. As he was completing work on a government contract, he was developing a course for analysts at the Department of Homeland Security.
Education-related ventures runs in his family, too. His father is a physical therapist with the regional school district he graduated from. Both his parents are alive and live in the same house he grew up in. His mother is a retired Roman Catholic Parish Administrator, and watching over a flock struck me as teacher-ish too.
Matthew’s older brother is an Army veteran who lives in Washington state, while his younger brother is a firefighter in Northwestern Ohio. Such derring-do in the family of a strikingly softspoken, gentle person!
“This is what I love doing,” he said. Those are two assets he’ll bring to the BoEd, knowing the joy of doing what you love and having had the luck to pursue that in his own life. He’ll be well-equipped to vote for policies that do the same for Howard County’s kids.
“My mom’s first cousin–he’s in his 70s–lives in Linthicum. Not being able to see him has been one of the hardships of lockdown,” he said. Again, we hadn’t entered even Stage I of reopening, so all the difficulties of stay-at-home were still very real for both of us. Matthew called his mom’s cousin “an absolute lifesaver” in the ten years since they first moved to Maryland. In fact, they lived with him for a time upon their arrival here. Two more of Matthew’s relatives live here, including another one of his mom’s cousins and a second cousin, deepening his roots in the area.
Just like another one of our faves here at rocoinhoco.com, Dr. Scott Berkowitz, he very apparently values the most vulnerable among us: children and the elderly.
I asked Matthew why he decided to run to represent District 1 on the Board of Education (BoEd), the impetus for our interview. He said he’d been looking forward to knocking on doors for the champions of equity on the BoEd. When he learned none of them were seeking reelection, he jumped in the race.
“It became necessary for me to step forward because it’s absolutely vital that the board that’s helping run and controls our school system…approaches the problems that are happening from a strongly anti-racist baseline,” he told me, his words coming firm and emphatic. “I needed to step forward to be that anti-racist champion for equity.”
The Future Is Now
Also: Del. Eric Ebersole told us why he loves being a delegate in the Maryland General Assembly.
What the BoEd does, after all, Matthew said, is fashion they who will inherit this community, and by inheriting it, they will re/create it.
“It’s important that these future community members not only have the best education they can–because they need to be set up to succeed–but they also need to be set up to interact with their wider communities. He pointed out that fellow students, teachers, administrators, and authority figures of all kinds need to be representative of the populations of students they work with.
He asked me, rhetorically, “Do we have the people our students require or are we letting residential development patterns control who our students interact with?”
Hiring and retaining quality teachers was also at the forefront of Matthew’s mind when it came to his reasons for running for BoEd. Before the state-issued stay-at-home orders, Matthew went to Dunloggin Middle School PTA event. He spoke with a teacher there who worked in Baltimore County. Matthew asked her why, if she lived in Howard County, would she not just teach here. She told him a version of stories he’d heard before, of the difficulties of working through a slow, broken hiring process and the appeal of taking a job, instead, in a community where hiring is swift.
“All the middle schools are facing the problems Dunloggin is facing,” Matthew said.
Matthew told me of a grueling schedule of campaigning, working his full-time job, and parenting (not to mention husband-ing!). He and Melissa don’t get more than five hours of sleep–if that–per night. Matthew showed a bashful pride when he told me how he felt about a big accolade he got at work despite having been campaigning so much lately. Through this last quarter at work, he got a “glowing” performance review. Still, his campaign for BoEd is just as important to him. The tens of thousands of students in HoCo deserve more than they’re getting, which is what inspires Matthew to keep the campaign grind.
“Also through this time of just juggling and barely feeling like I was keeping all the balls in the air, I was able to meet and exceed expectations there,” he said, smiling, returning to why the performance review meant so much to him.
I asked Matthew what campaigning has and will look like in the age of COVID-19. He said a lot of it will be online. The house parties that supporters and their networks attend will go to Zoom. He could also answer questions Zoom party attendees may have, he said. And, unlike the current BoEd, who got to go door-to-door and talk to would-be constituents, Matthew’s campaign relies more on mailers and postcards.
I served on the executive board of the Columbia Democratic Club alongside Matthew in 2019. I remembered, then, how Matthew was more concerned with consensus than forcing his vision upon the club. If there were anywhere this approach would be an asset it’s the Board of Education, where there are not only competing interests vying for dominance, but those who hold those competing interests hold on to them tightly. After all, the topic is children and how we as a community raise them, and that gets people hot under the collar, understandably.
A Nature for Nurture
Matthew knows how to nurture his kids, and I bet it’ll translate to the same kind of knowledge for kids writ large at the District-1-level when he’s on the BoEd. Once, Drs. Tariq and Atiya Khan invited him, Melissa, the three kids, Colleen and me over for tea at their house. Jericho pleaded with his parents to go exploring the domicile. They gave him permission. Within minutes, we heard crying from downstairs, and soon the kids appeared before us, Jericho’s left foot oozing blood. He’d gotten a minor cut on it from the treadmill downstairs. Matthew scooped the tot up in his arms and cradled him until he stopped crying. He and Melissa then put an adhesive bandage on the cut to staunch the bleeding.
Matthew knows when to call it quits, too! He took that mishap as a cue that it was time for him and Melissa to take the family home.
I remembered, then, how local marketing professional and progressive activist Deeba Jafri told me she can always count on Matthew when she calls on him for aid in an activist task.
“Matthew is smart and thoughtful about the impacts on all of our students. I feel comfortable he would make the right decisions in tough budget times,” Deeba told me in a phone conversation later that day.
It’s not just his own experience that Matthew will bring to the table on the BoEd, though.
“We need people who are reasonable and have the ability to see and appreciate various perspectives beyond their own,” said State’s Attorney Rich Gibson when I emailed him about why he thinks his friend, Matthew. “Matt has these qualities, which is why I think he will be a valuable addition to our school board,” Rich said.
Local activist and journalist Steve Charing echoed a similar sentiment.
“Matthew Molyett, a solid family man, has the progressive values, intelligence and passion needed to serve on the Board of Education during these trying and unsettling times.,” Steve told me.
Make Way for the New
So much of the advice I’m given around messaging in this race is how destructive the continuation of the incumbent opponent would be, especially if she’s in a block that makes up the majority of the board,” Matthew noted. He said he’s been surprised how quickly opponents of equity latch onto “bad faith arguments and efforts.”
Still, said Matthew, that’s not why he wants people to vote for him.
“I don’t ever want to be somebody’s vote against. I want to be someone that people are able to vote for,” he told me with a gingerly nod of his head.
It’s been a challenge, though, getting his message out to people. With COVID-19-related stay-at-home orders, it’s been hard connecting with people. But signs are the new votes, he told me of yard signs, laughing. And mailers and social media have proven helpful ways of getting in contact with District 1 constituents. Connecting with the community, increased conversations and visibility, have been rewarding to him during this campaign season so far.
Matthew took our talk back to a simple example of his goals as a BoEd member. He wants kids, when asked, for example, “What does a scientist look like?”, to draw a representation rooted in a diverse group of authority figures they’ve been exposed to in their educations.
He said he hoped he’d be part of enacting policies that expose HoCo’s kids to an array of people in the many leadership roles to be filled at area schools.
It was time for us to wrap up our talk, and just as we did, Jericho appeared on camera. He wanted some attention from his dad, and Matthew didn’t hesitate to put his arm around his son as we bid adieu.
Thanks for reading! Check back with us here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.