Administrative Staff

To keep 50 foot patrol officers on Baltimore's streets without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime, city police officials have ordered administrative staff and plainclothes detectives into uniform and placed them on the neighborhood beats.The decision was an attempt to maintain the patrols -- a favorite of communities, politicians and Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke -- in the face of ever-increasing pressures to cut costs and save money, police officials said yesterday.The department spent $525,000 in overtime to staff the foot patrols from July 1, when they began, through the latter part of September, the police said.

T op administrators in the Baltimore City school system were used to staff meetings with fluid agendas that left time for all to speak. But now, Andrés Alonso was presiding. And class was in session. When I send you an e-mail, the schools' new chief executive told them on that summer day in 2007, I expect a reply within 20 minutes. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. This wasn't a conversation, but more like a lecture, one in which students keep quiet for fear of being admonished for falling behind on their homework.

Baltimore City schools chief Carmen V. Russo is cutting 10 percent of the central administrative staff and says more layoffs "may be necessary" to keep spending under control. The layoff and reassignment of 77 of the central administration's 700 to 800 staff members could save as much as $1.5 million and is part of a continuing effort to balance the budget this year and reduce the number of administrators, school officials said. The reduction in central staff is the largest in the past decade, although another significant reduction was made in 1994, when Superintendent Walter G. Amprey got rid of 64 full-time positions at the North Avenue headquarters.

Top administrators in the Baltimore City school system were used to staff meetings with fluid agendas that left time for all to speak. But now, Andres Alonso was presiding. And class was in session. When I send you an e-mail, the schools' new chief executive told them on that summer day in 2007, I expect a reply within 20 minutes. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. This wasn't a conversation, but more like a lecture, one in which students keep quiet for fear of being admonished for falling behind on their homework.

Carroll schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker unveiled a plan yesterday to prune nearly $3.5 million from the school system's proposed operating budget by putting off equipment replacements, sending administrative staff back into the classroom and allowing elementary class sizes to creep up by a child or two. Ecker characterized many of his suggested 16 reductions to the $228 million spending plan as "painless," noting that several involve initiatives that...

Baltimore schools chief Carmen V. Russo said yesterday that fewer Baltimore schoolchildren might be going to summer school this year and that administrative staff would likely face furloughs to help cope with a multimillion-dollar deficit. Russo outlined those and other possible remedies for the system's worsening financial situation - which led to the layoff last week of several hundred temporary employees - during an emergency hearing in front of members of the City Council. "We are going to try ... to put in place solutions that will have as little effect as possible on our classrooms," Russo told Council President Sheila Dixon and members of the council's Budget and Appropriations Committee and its Education and Labor Subcommittee.

Melanie Stoner has been selected Employee of the Month for February by Carroll County General Hospital.Since beginning work for CCGH in 1986 as a word processor operator, she has moved up to administrative secretary in administration, where she provides clerical assistance to the administrative staff.Stoner also gives clerical support to the medical staff and the board of directors as well as the Physicians' Referral Service.Shewas selected in recognition of her clerical abilities and skills andher professional manner in handling her duties.

The county's General Assembly delegation will meet tonight in Ellicott City for a public hearing on two recently drafted bills, including one intended to curb the school superintendent's authority to transfer school administrators.The hearing is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Ellicott Room of county government's George Howard Building, and will be followed by a work and voting session on local legislation.Sen. Christopher J. McCabe, R-14, is sponsoring the bill that would prohibit the county superintendent from transferring all administrative staff members -- principal, vice principals and counselors -- from one school to another.

Baltimore County's new community college chancellor got rave reviews and two standing ovations at his first public appearance yesterday, but said he knows the job won't be that easy.Six-foot-five, with a booming voice and manner to match, Irving Presley McPhail was blunt in telling county and college officials at Catonsville Community College that he intends to build his own administrative staff to reorganize the 70,000-student system."I'm a pretty forceful guy. I believe in what I'm doing.

BaseballBlue Jays: Assigned P Bill Risley to Triple-A Syracuse.Reds: Purchased contract of P Mike Remlinger from Triple-A Indianapolis. Designated P Marcus Moore for assignment.Red Sox: Signed IF Jeff Frye. Designated IF Esteban Beltre for assignment.CollegeConnecticut: Announced it will resume basketball rivalry with Massachusetts. The schools will meet at Hartford Civic Center on Dec. 27 in first game of four-year deal.FootballDolphins: Signed DT Daryl Gardener to five-year contract. Released DL Chuck Klingbeil.

With a bagpiper, a chorus of bow-tied vocalists and all the pomp of a college graduation, the Community College of Baltimore County officially celebrated yesterday the arrival of its new president. Sandra L. Kurtinitis described the opportunity to lead the college's three campuses as the capstone of her 39-year career as a professor and administrator of community colleges in Maryland and Massachusetts. "I have been in training for this day and this job for my entire life," she told the audience that crowded into the Catonsville campus's theater and gave her several standing ovations.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced yesterday that it will fire six members of its administrative staff and eliminate another five positions that currently are vacant. The 11 staff reductions will save the orchestra between $500,000 and $1 million, BSO President James Glicker said. They represent 5 percent of the orchestra's 225 full- and part-time staff positions. Though the cuts will occur across most administrative departments, Glicker declined to specify which positions will be eliminated because the holders of those jobs have not been notified.

CANNES, France - Cannes Film Festival organizers yesterday struck an 11th-hour deal with angry French entertainment workers to stop them from wrecking the 12-day event, the world's premier film showcase. On the eve of the glitzy launch of the annual movie bonanza, which runs through May 23, Cannes announced it had agreed after hours of talks to let the workers make several public speeches in exchange for peace on the streets. Festival organizers and the city had feared that scenes of chaos and protest would jeopardize both the future of the event and the economy of Cannes.

After two years of sometimes-stormy negotiations, the University of Maryland, College Park reached a tentative settlement yesterday with the union representing about 1,800 maintenance and service workers and other staff. The agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees calls for a 4.1 percent pay increase in July, the first raise for workers in two years. It also retains the tuition benefit for the families of employees and limits increases in parking rates for workers.

Maryland's two U.S. senators and Fort Meade workers are raising questions about an Army decision to turn over the post's logistical and public works functions - at least 220 jobs - to a contractor that employs a former post commander. As the deadline for an appeal approaches, Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes is questioning whether the private-sector bidder, Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Inc., was able to low-ball its offer to win the contract and will increase its costs now that the competition is over.

Baltimore schools have spent more than double per student on administration than other school systems in the state, according to data from the State Department of Education. State figures from the 2000-2001 school year - the most recent available - show the city school system spent 5.9 percent, or $581 per student, of its revenues on administration, highest among Maryland's 24 school districts. That same school year, the Baltimore County school system spent 2.6 percent, or $214 per student, on administrative costs, and Prince George's spent 2.9 percent, or $222 per student.

Money to design a $42 million Environmental Protection Agency Laboratory in Annapolis passed the U.S. Senate Wednesday night.The 150,000-square-foot chemical analysis and environmental science center would merge EPA research facilities in Annapolis and Beltsville.It would provide office and research space to 180 scientists, technicians and administrative staff -- the analytical brains behind the EPA's Chesapeake Bay and hazardous waste cleanup programs.The EPA is outgrowing the 12-year-old Environmental Science Center on Bestgate Road, which investigates hazardous waste sites in Maryland and the surrounding states.

Sen. Christopher J. McCabe withdrew his bill yesterday that would have restricted the county school superintendent's power to transfer principals and vice principals, saying that county educators appear to be addressing his concerns.Mr. McCabe, R-14th, introduced the bill in response to parents and students who were angered by the transfers of Mount Hebron High School's principal and vice principals last June.The legislation would have prohibited the superintendent from transferring a school's entire administrative staff and established notification requirements and a public hearing process for certain transfers.

Carroll schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker unveiled a plan yesterday to prune nearly $3.5 million from the school system's proposed operating budget by putting off equipment replacements, sending administrative staff back into the classroom and allowing elementary class sizes to creep up by a child or two. Ecker characterized many of his suggested 16 reductions to the $228 million spending plan as "painless," noting that several involve initiatives that...

Baltimore schools chief Carmen V. Russo said yesterday that fewer Baltimore schoolchildren might be going to summer school this year and that administrative staff would likely face furloughs to help cope with a multimillion-dollar deficit. Russo outlined those and other possible remedies for the system's worsening financial situation - which led to the layoff last week of several hundred temporary employees - during an emergency hearing in front of members of the City Council. "We are going to try ... to put in place solutions that will have as little effect as possible on our classrooms," Russo told Council President Sheila Dixon and members of the council's Budget and Appropriations Committee and its Education and Labor Subcommittee.