Facilities Department

The official at the helm of the Baltimore school system's facilities department while a controversy has raged over safety problems with school boilers is being forced out of his job, sources told The Sun.Anthony A. Fears, 51, senior executive manager for the school system's Management Services Department, has been told that his position is being eliminated as of Dec. 31, according to two sources familiar with the decision.One of those sources said that the decision to eliminate Fears' job had nothing to do with his involvement in the boiler controversy, but rather centered on budget concerns and Fears' leadership style.

The people who clean and care for Harford County schools aren't endorsing a proposal by a private contractor to save the school system as much as $1.8 million in energy costs but say they are open to Johnson Controls Inc.'s suggestions.The board has heard from two private companies -- the other is ServiceMaster Service Management Co. -- in an effort to find ways to run its facilities and construction departments more efficiently.Johnson Controls' proposals include: more efficient lighting, replacing boilers with less expensive natural-gas boilers, combining laundry facilities and installing controls that cut energy use during off hours.

Three years after Baltimore County school officials launched an ambitious plan to renovate Towson High School, the project is about to wrap up, but not without serious snags, including pending lawsuits with two contractors who say school officials served as poor managers. "This was an ill-fated project from Day Two," said Christopher S. Underhill, an attorney who represents Wohlsen/McLaughlin, a Pennsylvania firm hired by the school board in 1996 to act as construction manager.

In an effort to get better-maintained schools at a lower cost and reduce a long list of needed repairs, the Harford County school board is looking at private management companies to improve the school system's facilities and construction departments.The board is paying Servicemaster, a Chicago management firm, nearly $15,000 to study the departments and to offer suggestions on improving management. Servicemaster, which provides everything from custodians to facilities managers in hospitals and schools, is expected to present its findings to the board in the next few months.

Improper purchasing practices in the Baltimore County school facilities department -- similar to those outlined by an internal audit released Tuesday -- were brought to the attention of administrators as early as November.But school board members apparently were not told of such problems until the recent debacle at Deer Park Elementary forced the issue onto center stage.An internal memo written in November by a school purchasing official warned that purchase orders were issued to contractors for work that exceeded the bid price and did not have board approval.

Amid a continuing air-quality crisis at Deer Park Elementary School, a high-level Baltimore County school facilities official is being transferred to a temporary position in another department, the county superintendent said yesterday.Faith C. Hermann, a former principal, has headed the facilities department since July 1993. But she was stripped of some of her duties last month, after parent complaints led the county to close Deer Park for air-quality testing, and she now is being shifted to the curriculum and instruction department.

The Baltimore County school system, working its way out of a bureaucratic mess, has offered jobs back to more than half of its facilities department employees who were slated for layoffs yesterday -- a move some view as an admission that former managers made a big mistake in draining the staff of key technicians.New facilities director Gene L. Neff said his department will retain 10 or 11 workers among the 20 who had been scheduled for layoffs or forced retirements.People were chosen to stay on the basis of skills in roofing, drafting, air and water testing and other technical fields, enabling the school system to avoid costly contracts with private companies, Neff said.

The Baltimore County school board filled two high-profile administrative positions last night -- one to boost minority achievement, the other to oversee a $530 million school rehabilitation program -- after difficulties that kept the jobs open longer than expected.On a unanimous vote, board members appointed James H. Wilson, former principal of Woodlawn High School, as director of minority achievement and multicultural education and named Donald F. Krempel director of the system's physical facilities department -- both effective today.

After weeks of problems related to lead-contaminated water in Baltimore schools' drinking fountains, the system's top facilities manager has been asked to step down, school officials said yesterday. Pradeep Dixit's last day as the system's director of school facilities was Thursday. Officials would not discuss the specifics of Dixit's departure. But schools chief Carmen V. Russo said yesterday that Dixit had a history of poor performance in his position. "The final straw was a lack of responsiveness to the lead-in-the-water issue," Russo said.

Howard County's top parks official is proposing a $4 parking fee for its largest and most popular parks, a move that would continue the county's trend toward charging fees for recreation services.Recreation and Parks Director Jeffrey Bourne is proposing the fee to help pay for the maintenance of Howard's five regional parks, including Ellicott City's hugely popular Centennial Park, which gets more than 700,000 visitors a year.Bourne, pointing out that surrounding counties already have fees for their largest parks, said Howard could get much-needed revenue for parks maintenance by charging users who drive to Centennial, Rockburn Branch, Schooley Mill, Savage and Cedar Lane parks.