County Schools Superintendent

When the head of one of the country's largest school systems asked the students how he could be a better superintendent, 17-year-old Scott Carbone didn't hesitate to give his two cents. "I know you've been to my school, but I've never seen you there, and I don't think many others have, either," Carbone, a senior at Chesapeake High in Essex, told Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston during a recent meeting at the system's headquarters in Towson. "Be more visible, more interactive with the kids."

Responding to recommendations from external and legislative audits, Carroll County schools Superintendent Charles I. Ecker has proposed establishing an audit committee. This advisory committee would help the school board with its oversight of the school system's processes for financial reporting, auditing and accounting, as well as reviewing internal controls and financial systems, the proposal said. The group also would help ensure compliance with board policy and other procedures and guidelines and foster regular improvement.

Howard County Schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey is requesting a 7.4 percent budget increase to reduce class sizes, revamp special education programs and make other improvements to keep up with the system's steady growth.Released yesterday, Hickey's proposed 1999-2000 operating budget seeks almost $293 million, which is about a $20 million increase over this year's hard-won operating budget.The proposal -- which will be presented tonight to the school board -- highlights a host of program improvements addressing everything from reading to alternative education to the achievement gap between students of different races and economic backgrounds.

For the first time since 1993, scores dropped for Baltimore County's third- and fifth-graders on Maryland's annual academic exams, mirroring the slight statewide dip in student achievement.The county's eighth-graders, while still above state average, continued to post lukewarm results on the 1999 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, improving in only two categories out of six.Test results show that more than half of Baltimore County's 102 elementary schools experienced a dip in performance compared with last year's exams.

The New Windsor Fire Company saw a spark of hope last night for a new firehouse, when school and county officials agreed to explore the possibility of relinquishing land the firefighters have had their eyes on for more than a decade.Members of the all-volunteer fire company want the county to give or sell them about 6 acres adjacent to the old New Windsor Middle School, which closed last spring, for a new firehouse and meeting hall.The officials seemed sympathetic to the company's need for more space, though they said their decision hinged on several others, primarily the selection of a new site for the school system's alternative Gateway program and county library headquarters, which have been considered for the former middle school.

Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey emerged from the world of school board meetings and curriculum planning sessions into the limelight of the volatile political arena as he led the recent fight for higher school spending.In the process, the 60-year-old Hickey rallied both political and popular support in a way that showed him to be one of the county's most influential leaders. More than 800 people attended a public hearing on the budget, and County Council members scrambled for days to come up with a figure that was acceptable to school supporters in an election year.

AT THE request of county schools Superintendent Carol S. Parham, a group of North County parent, teacher and student volunteers worked together for two months last fall to study the crowding problem at North County High School.The committee, known as the North County Coalition, presented several recommendations to the superintendent in November. The coalition's recommendation for a flexible transfer policy as a partial, short-to-intermediate-term option to the crowding problem was on the agenda of the school board's redistricting hearing held last Monday evening at Arundel High School.

For Baltimore County educators, the proof of improved early reading instruction lies in the numbers.More county first- and second-graders are reading at grade-level than ever before. The percentage of third- and fifth-graders scoring satisfactorily in reading on Maryland's annual tests has jumped over the past two years. And almost three-quarters of the county's 100 elementary schools showed improvement on the state reading tests given last spring."We believe that these results show that we're doing the right things in the early grades," says Baltimore County schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione.

In response to a series of school shootings across the nation, a Baltimore County task force is recommending steps that range from creating alternative schools for violent elementary pupils to better preparing staff for crises.The school district also should provide money to install closed-circuit television and buzzer systems in schools and create "critical incident teams" to respond to violent situations, concludes the school system's task force.The recommendations -- outlined yesterday by the 25-member committee -- will be presented next week to County schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione.

Baltimore County's emphasis on better teaching led to the school district's big gains on the state's annual progress report -- the largest increase in the Baltimore area -- county educators said yesterday.The number of elementary and middle schools that met at least one standard has nearly quadrupled to 38 since 1993, officials said as they released school-by-school results for the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program."We're not just celebrating test scores," said Baltimore County schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione.

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.

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.

Some Baltimore County legislators and Towson residents are urging state officials tomorrow to reject a nearly $4 million proposal to help expand Loch Raven High School, calling it a "haphazard project" and saying the area instead needs a new high school. School and county officials want the money to build a 400-seat addition at the school on Cowpens Avenue to help ease crowding in the county's central and northeast area, which includes Loch Raven, Towson and Perry Hall high schools. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $18 million.

For half of the children at Tracey's Elementary School, the real first day at their school didn't roll around until January. The Tracys Landing school was closed for renovation three and a half years ago, and all the students were shipped to a nearby middle school in southern Anne Arundel County - the only school that students in kindergarten and first and second grade had ever known. Now the youngest students - and their older peers and the staff - are getting used to a completely redone and practically unrecognizable building.

The Anne Arundel County schools superintendent offered yesterday to display a mural depicting a black man breaking free from bondage, after the county executive was criticized by the African-American community for rejecting the artwork as inappropriate. Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell spoke yesterday with an official from ArtWalk, the nonprofit group that commissioned the mural, which also includes a collage of children's paintings Maxwell said he hopes possible sites can be discussed as early as next week.

Ken Shapiro doesn't seem to be a Scrooge. He says he loves the holiday lights, has a Christmas tree in his home and hangs a 9-foot wreath outside. But Shapiro, a longtime Baltimore County teacher who describes himself as a nonpracticing Jew, grows angry when he talks about one particular evergreen that is strung with multicolored lights. That's because the tree is on the grounds of Carney Elementary School - and he says it violates his religious freedom. "In this case, Carney is showing preference for a Christian celebration," said Shapiro, a kindergarten teacher at Deer Park Elementary School in Owings Mills, who has taught in the school system for 30 years.

The first marking period of the school year has come and gone, but the conflicts surrounding the Baltimore County school system's initiative to provide parents more detailed progress reports persist. The teachers union continues to oppose it, maintaining that preparing the reports will add to their already overflowing plates. School board members appear divided, so much so that one member who says the panel should get to vote on whether the program is used recently filed a formal statement demanding that the board include the matter on its meeting agenda - a step he took after members voted against doing so during a meeting last month.

The people who work closely with Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell have gotten used to one thing: book reports. First it was Good to Great, by Jim Collins. His deputies had to be able to discuss how its principles for a successful business could be applied to the smooth running of a school system. Nearly every month since his first day as school chief last July, Maxwell has had a new book for his crew. These days, it's Execution: The Art of Getting Things Done, co-authored by a former General Electric executive who writes that it's not what you plan to do that makes a place successful, but how you carry out the reform that makes the difference.