Deputy Superintendent

Richard M. Milbourne, acting deputy superintendent of the Baltimore County school system, has been accused of assault and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed by his assistant. A suit on behalf of Kathleen Vockroth was filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday by her attorney, Thomas J. Dolina. Dolina has asked that a jury settle the complaint, which lists Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione and the Board of Education as co-defendants. Vockroth, who worked with Milbourne at school system headquarters in Towson for about a month before she requested leave, is seeking $4.7 million in damages.

Richard M. Milbourne, a high-level administrator with the Baltimore County school system who is acting deputy superintendent, has been accused of assault and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed by his assistant. A suit on behalf of Kathleen Vockroth was filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday by her attorney, Thomas J. Dolina. Dolina has asked that a jury settle the complaint, which lists Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione and the Board of Education as co-defendants. Vockroth, who worked with Milbourne at school system headquarters in Towson for about a month before she requested leave, is seeking $4.7 million in damages.

Baltimore County schools Deputy Superintendent Elfreda W. Massie has accepted a management position with an educational publishing company near Chicago, ending speculation that she might become the county's first African-American schools chief. According to sources in the school system and the community, Massie is expected to leave before June. She has not submitted a letter of resignation to the Board of Education, said board President Donald L. Arnold. "I'm sad to see her go if that is true," Arnold said.

Lt. Col. John Gilbert Blades Sr. was so respected as a Maryland state trooper that if he walked into a barroom brawl, his entrance alone would stop the fight, family members remembered last night.Col. Blades. who ended his 34-year career in the Maryland State Police as the agency's No. 2 official, died Thusday at Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace of respiratory failure. He was 76.Col. Blades held the position of deputy superintendent in the state police from 1978 until his retirement in 1981.

Rebecca E. Carroll, retired city schools deputy superintendent who wrote eloquently about segregated Baltimore and racism, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 81 and was a resident of Morgan Park in Northeast Baltimore.Born in Baltimore, she began her career as an elementary school teacher and ended it as the second-in-command of the entire system. She was offered the superintendent's post but declined and chose retirement in 1981.Over the years, she also was principal of two elementary schools, an area supervisor, area director and assistant superintendent before she became deputy superintendent.

Although her bid for the Montgomery County superintendent's job might be in jeopardy because of personal financial problems, colleagues and supporters of Baltimore County schools Deputy Superintendent Elfreda W. Massie have rallied to her defense.The Montgomery County School Board had named Massie as the leading contender for the superintendent's job in that county. But on Monday, the board suspended consideration of her candidacy after learning that Massie and her husband had filed for bankruptcy protection to avoid more than $800,000 in debt.

Pointing to allegations of personal financial problems, Montgomery County's school board sidetracked yesterday what appeared to be the imminent appointment of a new superintendent -- Elfreda W. Massie, a high-ranking Baltimore County school administrator.Days after Massie was named the leading contender to head the 128,000-student district, school board President Reginald Felton said late yesterday afternoon that he had learned of problems "related to the filing of one or more bankruptcies" on her behalf.

In Baltimore CityFamilies left homeless after three-alarm fire on S. Pulaski St.A three-alarm fire in Southwest Baltimore, blamed by investigators on an electrical short, burned six rowhouses and caused more than $100,000 in damage early yesterday, fire officials said.No injuries were reported in the 1 a.m. fire, but families in two of the houses in the 400 block of S. Pulaski St. were left homeless. The fire also damaged a sub shop; four other rowhouses were vacant.Battalion Chief Hector L. Torres, a Fire Department spokesman, said the fire started in electrical wiring in a vacant rowhouse and quickly spread along the lofts.

George Braxton, the Anne Arundel County Detention Center's deputy superintendent responsible for the commissary and bookkeeping, has resigned abruptly as a financial audit and police investigation dig into the departments he supervised.Braxton told Superintendent Richard Baker late last week that he was leaving his $61,204-a-year post immediately."He decided to resign," Baker said. "I don't know if he'll reconsider."Braxton's sudden departure coincided with County Auditor Teresa Sutherland's review of jail bookkeeping from June 1995 through December 1996.

Richard Steinke, assistant state school superintendent for special education, was named deputy superintendent for school improvement services by the State Board of Education, replacing retiring deputy Joan Palmer.Carol Ann Baglin, special education supervisor in Howard County, will succeed Steinke as assistant superintendent for special education.In another appointment, Lawrence Leak, chairman of the education department at Towson State University, was named assistant superintendent for certification and accreditation.