Dandridge

THERE ARE many promising ways to "change the culture" in Baltimore City's troubled public school system. Appointing the head of the teachers' union to the school board is not among them.In announcing his plan to appoint Irene B. Dandridge to the board, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke referred to precedents in which corporations had appointed union representatives to their boards. But this is a very different proposition. Corporate boards do not set day-to-day policy or negotiate contracts. The school board is intimately involved in all these activities.

Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's provocative plan to appoint the city teachers' union president to a city school board seat is facing some legal hurdles and questions from city and state officials who wonder whether the idea will work.Chief among the obstacles is a city residency requirement that would seem to preclude Irene B. Dandridge a Howard County resident from serving on the board. Another possible snag is a state statute that prohibits anyone from serving on a board that has authority over the person's job.Although she is the Baltimore Teachers Union president, Ms. Dandridge is a teacher by trade, creating potential for a conflict of interest.

A 22-year-old Glen Burnie woman was robbed yesterday morning as she prepared to make a transaction at an automated teller machine, police said.Joann Rachel Dandridge told police she was at a First National Bank machine in the 400 block of Old Mill Road around 4 a.m. when a man walked up, pointed a pistol at her and demanded money, police said.Ms. Dandridge gave him her wallet. The bandit took the money, grabbed a cellular phone from Ms. Dandridge's jacket pocket and fled, police said.

A day after apparently reaching a tentative truce with Superintendent Walter G. Amprey, the Baltimore Teachers Union accused him yesterday of reneging on a promise and reiterated a call for his resignation.BTU President Irene Dandridge said Dr. Amprey had broken a promise to hold a news conference with BTU leaders yesterday to respond to teachers' complaints. That and what the union called Dr. Amprey's failure to respond to its concerns, led to a new call for his resignation.Dr. Amprey said Ms. Dandridge's statements to reporters surprised him. He said she did not mention demanding his resignation when he talked to her by telephone yesterday and, in fact, pledged to work with him to deal with teachers' concerns.

Irene Dandridge, the Baltimore Teachers Union president for the past 15 years, will face two challengers when teachers elect their next union leader tomorrow.Ms. Dandridge, who said she has been challenged only twice before, squares off against Donna A. Money, 43, a teacher at Madison Square Elementary, and Deborah Sharpe, 29, a special education teacher at Harford Heights Elementary.Both challengers charge that leaders of the 8,500-member union have failed to organize teachers and parents into a lobbying unit to fight school privatization, to reduce class sizes and to demand higher salaries, among other things.

Ann Dandridge, Baltimore County's communications coordinator, resigned yesterday to take the part-time position of executive director of the Baltimore County Citizens Foundation.Ms. Dandridge also will be a marketing coordinator for the county Department of Economic Development.As communications coordinator, she was a spokeswoman for County Executive Roger B. Hayden.Her resignation is effective Monday."I enjoyed my work in the Office of Communications, but the change is a good career move for me," she said.

The Baltimore Teachers Union ratified a new one-year contract yesterday that provides pay raises ranging from $300 to $2,000 -- the first increases in three years."

High school teacher Barbara Dandridge left education more than five years ago to find ways to improve it.The Howard County foreign language teacher and administrator got tired of seeing schools that were failing to educate their students.She saw some schools that were teaching students well and others that weren't. She ran into wonderful teachers as well as really bad ones."Students should be able to go from one school to another and get the same quality education," said Dr. Dandridge, a Columbia resident who taught at Oakland Mills High School and became an assistant principal at Atholton and Mount Hebron.

High school teacher Barbara Dandridge left education more than five years ago to find ways to improve it.The Howard County foreign language teacher and administrator got tired of seeing schools that were failing to educate their students.She saw some schools that were teaching students well and others that weren't. She ran into wonderful teachers as well as really bad ones."Students should be able to go from one school to another and get the same quality education," said Dr. Dandridge, who taught Oakland Mills High School and became an assistant principal at Atholton and Mount Hebron.

High school teacher Barbara Dandridge left education more than five years ago to find ways to improve it.The Howard County foreign language teacher and administrator got tired of seeing schools that were failing to educate their students.She saw some schools that were teaching students well and others that weren't. She ran into wonderful teachers as well as really bad ones."Students should be able to go from one school to another and get the same quality education," said Dr. Dandridge, who taught Oakland Mills High School and became an assistant principal at Atholton and Mount Hebron.