Harford County School Superintendent Jacqueline C. Haas, a former special education teacher who rose to the top of the school system and led it for a decade, died Tuesday night after suffering an asthma attack at her Aberdeen home. She was 59. Her death prompted an emergency meeting yesterday of the county school board.
"You will not find anybody in our educational system that cared more about children than her," said Harford school board President Patrick Hess. "She based every decision on that."
Her husband, James Haas, said she was stricken by a "severe asthma attack" about 6:30 p.m. She was taken by ambulance to Harford Memorial Hospital and died there later that night. Her husband said she had suffered from a progressive lung ailment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, for years. The disease causes a chronic narrowing of the air passages in the lungs, but she had not seemed to be having any severe problems lately, her husband said.
School board members expressed "deep sadness" at Dr. Haas' death. Harford's system does not have a clear line of succession, and board members, meeting yesterday afternoon, identified two candidates to replace Dr. Haas. Mr. Hess said the board will interview them over the next few days. He hopes an interim superintendent will be chosen by Monday. That appointment would last until July, when a new superintendent's term begins.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said Dr. Haas is the first sitting superintendent in Maryland to die in at least two decades.
"I'm just so saddened by this. I just can't even come to grips with it," said Dr. Grasmick, who had known Dr. Haas for many years. She and Talbot County Superintendent Karen Salmon had spent the morning calling all the superintendents in the state to deliver the news.
Mr. Haas said his wife never planned to become superintendent. But she kept getting promotions, liking her jobs and doing well. "She could talk to literally anyone, and make friends right away," he said.
Each year on the first day of classes, the superintendent rode school buses with the students, chatting with grade-schoolers. As an elementary school principal, she and the other administrative staff would occasionally take over for the cooks and servers in the cafeteria.
Dr. Haas had worked for the Harford school system since 1977, beginning as a special education teacher. In 1990, she became assistant principal at Prospect Mill Elementary. After two years, she moved on to become principal at Edgewood Elementary School, and was promoted to assistant superintendent for education services in 1997.
