Marchione

The square chalk letters splayed across the hillside at Baltimore County's school system headquarters said it all: "Thank you, Dr. Marchione." About 300 teachers and administrators gathered yesterday in Towson to say goodbye to Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione, who rode away from Greenwood in a school bus on the last day of his 45-year career with the county schools. The send-off was a proud moment for Marchione, who decided as a senior at Kenwood High School that he wanted to be a teacher.

Anthony G. Marchione looks like he'll have the distinction of being the right person at the right time for Baltimore County -- twice. After three years of strained relations between the school system and county government, Marchione, then a 40-year veteran teacher and administrator, became superintendent in 1995. Almost immediately, the conflict stopped. Eight years later, amid the testiest relations between Baltimore County's branches of government in at least a decade, County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s young administration was dealt a severe blow when his pick for the county's No. 2 post withdrew her name from consideration after it became clear that she might not be confirmed.

Baltimore County Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione is expected to announce today that he will retire at the end of the coming academic year as head of the nation's 25th largest school system.The retirement of the 67-year-old veteran educator would set off a nationwide search for a replacement that could take months. Several of the county's top education administrators could compete with outside candidates for the $128,750-a-year job.School officials and others expect an announcement to come today at an annual meeting of district administrators, ending months of speculation about Marchione, who rose from a Baltimore County math teacher to top administrator.

After a months-long stalemate over Baltimore County's school spending, County Council Chairman Vincent J. Gardina said yesterday that the council would consider helping to cover a $10 million budget shortfall.Acting school Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione said yesterday morning that he was pressing forward with his request for money to help balance the books, adding that he was prepared to cut the headquarters staff.Mr. Gardina, who had been unwilling to discuss any extra funding for schools, responded by saying that the council would consider a supplemental budget -- under certain conditions.

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.

FOR A DOZEN YEARS, Anthony G. Marchione toiled in obscurity in the second rank of the Baltimore County school bureaucracy. But a year ago he was tapped as acting superintendent, replacing the mercurial Stuart Berger, and he became "permanent" superintendent early last spring.His first year at the top has not been easy for Marchione, 64. He had to deal with a crisis over school facilities and a related air-quality emergency at Deer Park Elementary School. He was criticized for opening schools on Memorial Day to make up for hours lost to last winter's blizzard.

Struggling to meet the needs of a larger and more demanding student body, Baltimore County interim Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione last night proposed a 1996-1997 school budget that would reduce class size, boost teach salaries and cut administrative positions.He asked the school board for a $623 million operating budget, an increase of $48.4 milllion. The 8.4 percent increase is the largest of any of the suburban Baltimore school systems; the city has not released its budget request.

Schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione was the man who was supposed to restore peace to Baltimore County following the tumultuous leadership of his predecessor, Stuart D. Berger.Instead, since taking office two months ago, he has been caught up in one public relations crisis after another -- fallout from the secretive superintendent selection process, the air quality problems at Deer Park Elementary and the much-criticized expulsion of an honor student.Now, the quiet, deliberative man, who has worked for four decades in a school district culture that often seems more polite TC society than a public body, is facing the glare of the media for the first time.

A man who once wished he could live on a deserted island was thrust yesterday into one of the most public of jobs as Baltimore County's acting school superintendent.Anthony G. Marchione, a 40-year school system veteran who has spent the past 12 years in the shadow of other superintendents, will be in the limelight until July.He said it was a surprise -- one he did not know about until yesterday.Dr. Marchione returned from an eight-day vacation in Nags Head, N.C., Monday to find a message on his answering machine from School Board President Calvin D. Disney, asking to meet with him.The meeting was held at 9 a.m. yesterday.

The mother of a Chesapeake High School student expelled for having pepper spray met yesterday with schools Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione -- but came away with nothing changed in her daughter's status.JoAnn Osborne said after the meeting that Marchione would not reinstate her daughter, Jodie Ulrich, 17, an honor student and three-sport athlete scheduled to return to classes in September. Jodie, a junior, was expelled in March for carrying a pepper spray canister, a device she has for self-defense.