County Schools Superintendent

The new Anne Arundel County schools superintendent wants to rehire two recently retired administrators through a third-party contractor - an arrangement that would get around state retirement rules on how much they can be paid while collecting a state pension. But some school board members are questioning the cost and the propriety of the two-year deal. Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell recently asked the board to approve a $1.4 million contract with Human Resources Inc., a Crofton company.

Dallas Dance has been superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools for less than half an academic year, but he is proving himself a quick study. The $1.3 billion budget he has proposed for the next fiscal year strikes the kind of balance that county leaders generally love best: progress with penny-pinching. The usual penurious critics may latch onto the fact that he is seeking a substantial budget increase - $41.9 million, or 3.3 percent - at a time of continued economic challenges for the county (including the closing of the Sparrows Point steel mill)

After serving less than 12 months of an 18-month term in the county jail for raping and sexually abusing an elementary school-age girl, former Carroll County schools Superintendent William H. Hyde is expected to be released today. But he won't be a free man. Officials from the York County, Va., Sheriff's Department said they plan to take him into custody the moment he is released from the Carroll County Detention Center. He is charged with abusing the same girl he was convicted of abusing in Carroll County in the summer of 2002 during a trip to Virginia.

Last night, I presented a $1.3 billion operating budget proposal for Baltimore County Public Schools for fiscal 2014. Due to financial limitations, the proposed budget does not meet all of our needs, but it provides a good foundation related to our three budget priorities: managing continued growth in student enrollment; raising the bar and closing gaps in student academic achievement; and investing in our future by strengthening our infrastructure....

Having heard from hundreds of parents, teachers and students who attended two public hearings this month, Carroll County schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker will begin meeting with town and county officials this week to discuss ways to ease soaring student enrollment at Hampstead's North Carroll High School. This year, about 1,600 students attend the school built for 1,340, forcing administrators to convert offices and storage areas into classrooms, an unused stairwell into a storage closet and a lightly trafficked hallway into an office.

Franklin High football coach Greg Fuhrman was fired yesterday after an investigation into an attack on one of his players by five teammates revealed that the incident occurred in an unsupervised locker room, Baltimore County school officials said. "There has been an appropriate personnel decision made after a thorough investigation into the incident that occurred on Aug. 30 at Franklin High," said Donna Flynn, Northwest area county schools superintendent. "Mr. Fuhrman will not be the coach of the Franklin football team for the remainder of the school year."

Life moved on quickly for one-time Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey. He retired from his county position June 30, 2000, and joined the faculty of Towson University the next day. After 16 years at school headquarters in Ellicott City, he is now teaching and advising about 120 educators -- administrators and classroom teachers -- in the advanced courses he leads. Hickey, who started teaching in 1964, says the past 15 years have been his most exciting time in the profession.

Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith said yesterday that he failed to make the cut for the top schools job in Miami-Dade County, Fla., the nation's fourth-largest school district. Smith said the selection committee - which is narrowing the list of superintendent candidates for the Miami-Dade school board - wanted someone who had led a larger or more diverse school system. Still in the running are the former head of New York City schools and the superintendent in Nashville, Tenn.

ISSUE: Less than five months after Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell called for all 193 staff members at Annapolis High School to reapply for their jobs, the numbers are in: At least 45 of the 111 classroom teachers will not return. Maxwell announced the radical effort to "zero-base" the staff to help improve student performance and graduation rates, particularly among minorities, and head off a state takeover. The school had failed to meet state and federal benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act four years in a row. A handful of teachers who reapplied to stay at the school were turned away, and many more decided to move on. The result is that some departments will look drastically different when classes begin July 1 at the year-round school.

Howard County schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin is proposing an operating budget for the coming academic year that he said calls for the smallest increase in his more than two decades with the school system. Cousin presented the $658.9 million request, which he called "responsive, responsible, and fiscally prudent," to the school board last night. The proposal represents an increase of $1.9 million - 0.3 percent - over the budget for the current year. Cousin said the small increase is needed so the school system can keep pace with the growth in student enrollment.

Every day, more than 106,000 students cross the thresholds onto Baltimore County's school campuses and into our school buildings, and we assume responsibility not just for their education but also for their safety. In the first three weeks of this school year, two separate gun-related incidents have shaken our community and raised questions about the security of our schools. For the last seven school years combined, fewer than nine students have been caught with guns in our schools.

An Air Force squadron commander who grew up in Middle River and graduated from Baltimore County public schools is among those who have applied to be the school system's next superintendent. Timothy T. Tenne, 42, has no experience in education but said he believes the skills he developed in the Air Force will transfer to running a large organization such as the school system. Most recently, Tenne was a leader who helped oversee the NATO Air Operations Center's air mobility in Italy during the conflict in Libya.

Baltimore County will be just one of a number of large school districts in the nation and several in Maryland looking for new leaders this year, but those familiar with the process said that despite the competition, the county will be attractive to many applicants. Superintendent Joe A. Hairston told The Baltimore Sun in an email Thursday afternoon that he planned not to seek another contract after June 30. He has not informed the school board of the decision, but school board President Lawrence Schmidt said the board will conduct a national search that will start soon.

Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said Thursday that he does not plan to seek another contract when his current four-year deal expires in June. "I have always said that I would not seek another term," Hairston wrote in an email to The Baltimore Sun. "Twelve years is a tremendous run for any superintendent. " Hairston has been superintendent of the 26th-largest school district in the country since 2000. School board President Lawrence Schmidt said Hairston has not informed the board of his decision.

In an effort to resolve what he and others have described as "growing pains," Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston met Friday with the leadership of the national nonprofit behind the district's first public charter school. Hairston sought the meeting with Virginia-based Imagine Schools to clarify several issues that emerged in the first year at the Woodlawn-area charter, which did not make adequate yearly progress this year. County and charter school officials have acknowledged challenges in establishing how Imagine Discovery fits in the system and how the district can provide support to a school it authorizes but doesn't control.

When Carroll County schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker presented his proposed operating budget for the coming year recently, he anticipated a $568,000 shortfall in state funding. Then he heard Gov. Martin O'Malley's state budget plan a week later and discovered the cut would be about $4 million. "I guess I'm hoping that's all," Ecker said yesterday. As the school board presented Ecker's fiscal 2010 proposal at a hearing last night before an audience of about 50, he acknowledged that the state allowance could decrease further, and that county funding could also shrink.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. announced yesterday the formation of a committee to explore how the county can better prepare its youngest children for school. The move comes in response to studies showing that many of the county's children do not start kindergarten fully prepared. The committee, which will meet at least once a month and report back to Smith late next year, will study enrichment opportunities for children 3 and younger. It will have about 25 members - one representative for each of several agencies, including the school system and the Health Department.

When Carroll County schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker presented his proposed operating budget for the coming year recently, he anticipated a $568,000 shortfall in state funding. Then he heard Gov. Martin O'Malley's state budget plan a week later and discovered the cut would be about $4 million. "I guess I'm hoping that's all," Ecker said yesterday. As the school board presented Ecker's fiscal 2010 proposal at a hearing last night before an audience of about 50, he acknowledged that the state allowance could decrease further, and that county funding could also shrink.

Howard County schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin is proposing an operating budget for the coming academic year that he said calls for the smallest increase in his more than two decades with the school system. Cousin presented the $658.9 million request, which he called "responsive, responsible, and fiscally prudent," to the school board last night. The proposal represents an increase of $1.9 million - 0.3 percent - over the budget for the current year. Cousin said the small increase is needed so the school system can keep pace with the growth in student enrollment.

Sixth-grade math was a lesson in time management for Jonathan Swann. His second-period advanced math class at Chesapeake Bay Middle School started about 9:40 or so. The teacher got everyone settled and engaged in the lesson, and about 40 minutes later, it was time for lunch. After eating, it was another 40 minutes of math. "It's just boring to sit there for 86 minutes and just write stuff and listen," Jonathan said. "Everybody was just getting ready for lunch. [The teacher] was trying to write on the overhead and tell us something.