Pta Council

The Harford County Council of PTAs (HCCPTA) voted Thursday to support a controversial school job, only to have its president decide Friday to examine the legalities of the motion.Now, in all likelihood, the county school board will discuss the position for a coordinator of community mobilization and the rest of the proposed 1995-1996 operating budget at tomorrow's public work session without a recommendation on the job from the PTA council."HCCPTA will not be able to speak on this, because it's unfinished business," said its president, Andre Fournier.

I am concerned about recent letters to the editor in response to a May 12 article describing costs to the Howard County Public School System of lawsuits brought by Board of Education member Allen Dyer. Most contain either explicit or implicit accusations that leaders in our local public schools are devious, sinister and/or incompetent in their work. I am finishing a three-year term as president of the county PTA Council. I would be the last person to say that our school system is perfect.

The PTA Council of Baltimore County will host "Education: A Team Effort," a countywide educational summit for parents, educators and community leaders, at 6 p.m. today at New Town High School, 4931 New Town Blvd. in Owings Mills. The summit will include a reception with light fare, desserts prepared by Western School of Technology culinary arts students and exhibits by more than 60 organizations and associations. The fee is $10 per person. Information: 410-521-0019.

The Hillcrest Elementary School PTA was honored twice at the PTA Council of Baltimore County awards banquet, which was held at Loch Raven High School in Towson on May 12. In addition to an award for Best PTA Communications, the school group was also recognized as one of only eight PTAs as a Unit of Excellence, a distinction the PTA also received last year. "It just shows all the hard work and dedication of all the volunteers," said Jennifer Parker, the second-year president of the PTA for the school on Frederick Road.

The PTA Council of Howard County elected Mary Jo Neil as president Monday night at its general meeting. Neil, who previously was executive vice president, succeeds Wanda Hurt, who was council president for six months. Hurt resigned as president to become Maryland PTA vice president for state legislative activities. She will maintain a position on the council and the executive board as a state PTA representative. As state PTA vice president for legislative activities, Hurt will be an advocate in the Maryland General Assembly for schoolchildren.

Hours after the cat dissection dispute erupted recently, Michael Franklin, the new president of the PTA Council of Baltimore County, hesitated a moment as he stood before a meeting of the school board. "I may get in trouble for saying this," he remarked. Then he plunged ahead, asking that every one of the school system's 107,600 students get the same amount of attention as the Kenwood High junior who temporarily withdrew from her honors anatomy class because she didn't want to dissect a cat. "They didn't need to put the child out of class because of this, but we're talking about a cat," Franklin explained later.

In a bitterly contested race, Randallstown parent Michael Franklin was re-elected last week as president of the Baltimore County PTA Council. The 44-year-old printing press operator defeated Jasmine Shriver, a special-education activist from Lutherville. He will serve a second two-year term. Franklin said the race focused partly on his critical views of Superintendent Joe A. Hairston, while Shriver generally supports the superintendent. Franklin recently pulled the PTA Council out of the Education Coalition, a countywide advocacy group that has backed Hairston's agenda.

Carroll County's PTA has been without a president for three months because of a rift among the group's executive board over the treatment of Superintendent William H. Hyde at a fall meeting.Laura Rhodes said she resigned as president of the Carroll County PTA Council in October because other board members objected to the way she handled an incident involving Hyde.Rhodes said Hyde was offended after she mistakenly asked him to leave a PTA Council board meeting Oct 5.School board President Gary W. Bauer said he's worried about the PTA Council's effectiveness and its ability to keep the school board abreast of issues at the individual school level while it is lacking a leader.

The Maryland PTA has stripped the Baltimore City Council of PTAs of its authority to operate, amid concerns that the group's president is using his post as a platform to express personal criticism of city schools chief Andres Alonso. State PTA officials said the city group has been operating without two of the three required officers, a secretary and a treasurer. They are concerned that the president of the city's PTA council, Eric White, has been promoting his own views at forums where he's speaking in his official capacity.

As a vocal opponent of a wastewater treatment plant vital to Glenelg High School's much-needed addition, Mary Jane Grauso said her only objective is to ensure the safety of the community's drinking water. But her activism has caused consternation among residents who say Grauso's position as the newly elected president of the PTA Council of Howard County is awkward at best, a potential conflict of interest at worse. "The concern that is voiced most frequently is that people are afraid that her actions as a private citizen may become confused with her actions as the president of the Howard County PTA," said Johnnie Nussbaum, a Glenelg parent and vice president of the school's PTSA, who has fielded similar concerns from other parents.

Howard County's schools represent the county's single largest expense, but the $1.56 billion budget proposed by County Executive Ken Ulman gives the County Council virtually no chance to either cut or add money to the school board's request for more than one-third of that money. That's because Ulman proposed giving the board its full request of $512.6 million in locally raised revenue, which also represents just enough to satisfy the state law that requires counties to maintain per-student spending levels or risk a major loss of state funds.

Incumbent Frank J. Aquino says he will look to build upon his reputation as a leader as he seeks re-election for one of four open seats in the nonpartisan Howard County school board elections. If re-elected, Aquino says he wants to attract and retain qualified teachers; make the best use of financial resources to serve the community; ensure that every student receives educational opportunity and perform at the highest possible level; look for the most effective methods of instruction - including making the most of technology; offer equal opportunities for all students; and increase public involvement in education.

On the front page of the Howard section in the March 14th Baltimore Sun, Howard County budget director Raymond S. Wacks told the county council that we are facing a $20 million deficit, instead of the $13 million deficit projected two weeks prior. "How are we finding $20 million?" asked council Chairwoman Courtney Watson. On the next page, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman is praised for giving each of the county's 12 high schools $2,000 each to use for after-prom parties. According to Lin Guba, committee chairwoman for the PTA Council for Howard County's Safe After Prom, each school's average party costs $20,000-$25,000.

Less than two months after temporarily stripping the Baltimore City Council of PTAs of authority to operate, the Maryland PTA has shut down the group for violating its bylaws. The president and first vice president of the city's PTA council ignored orders to "cease and desist" operations since being notified June 16 that their organization was being made inactive. Mayor Sheila Dixon named the president, Eric White, to a panel last month that interviewed candidates for the school board.

The PTA Council of Howard County has a new e-mail address: ptachc@gmail.com. The council can also be reached at 410-740-5153. Its Web site is: www.ptachc.org.

The PTA Council of Baltimore County will host "Education: A Team Effort," a countywide educational summit for parents, educators and community leaders, at 6 p.m. today at New Town High School, 4931 New Town Blvd. in Owings Mills. The summit will include a reception with light fare, desserts prepared by Western School of Technology culinary arts students and exhibits by more than 60 organizations and associations. The fee is $10 per person. Information: 410-521-0019.

As the new year gets under way, the PTA Council of Howard County plans to continue its advocacy on behalf of the school district's nearly 48,000 children. That means, among other things, working with the school board on policy revisions and promoting programs that help students excel, said Deborah Wessner, who is in her third year as council president. "We want to have living policies that have some meaning to people," Wessner said. "We want documents that people can refer to routinely and understand how they're enforced."

The Hillcrest Elementary School PTA was honored twice at the PTA Council of Baltimore County awards banquet, which was held at Loch Raven High School in Towson on May 12. In addition to an award for Best PTA Communications, the school group was also recognized as one of only eight PTAs as a Unit of Excellence, a distinction the PTA also received last year. "It just shows all the hard work and dedication of all the volunteers," said Jennifer Parker, the second-year president of the PTA for the school on Frederick Road.