Satisfactory

With so much expected of public schools these days, the job of superintendent is increasingly becoming a political hot seat. But in some ways that may not be so bad. It usually takes powerful pressure to bring about changes in sluggish bureaucracies -- and political expectations can be powerful forces for change.Mayor Schmoke's great expectations for the Baltimore schools have put pressure on Superintendent Richard C. Hunter, the man who was brought in to turn the schools around. So far, most of those expectations have gone unmet, and now the mayor is asking the school board for a quick decision on whether it will renew Hunter's contract when it expires July 31.Hunter has been here less than three years and his performance has been mixed at best: The board last week gave him only a "satisfactory" rating -- roughly the equivalent of a "C" on the standard academic grading scale.

Richard C. Hunter, who tenaciously held on to his job as Baltimore school chief in the face of a steady stream of mayoral fault-finding over the past school year, received a "satisfactory" grade from the city school board last night.Dr. Hunter himself said last January that he deserved an A for his efforts, but the school board, whose members are appointed by the mayor, gave him its lowest "passing" mark, on a scale that ranged from unsatisfactory to excellent.Several board members declared immediately after last night's meeting that the evaluation, based solely on Dr. Hunter's job performance over the 1989-1990 school year, was in no way a signal as to whether they planned to keep him on as superintendent when his three-year contract expires next summer.

Schools in the Baltimore area are barely passing in their efforts to teach, according to callers to The Evening Sun's SUNDIAL. Of 289 callers, 33 percent (95 callers) said their schools were excellent, 27 percent (78 callers) said their schools were satisfactory and 40 percent (116 callers) said their schools were failing.A city and county breakdown follows:* Baltimore city: Total, 98; Excellent, 39 percent (38 callers); Satisfactory, 14 percent (14 callers); Failing, 47 percent (46 callers)

Area school officials have vowed to meet the state's school performance standards in areas where their districts fall short.But at least one superintendent worried yesterday that the report could lead local school districts to neglect art, music and other programs in their push to meet academic performance standards."

Maryland schools failed to meet all but two of the state's eight performance standards in the last school year, according to a report issued today by the state Department of Education.Overall, the state's public schools failed to make "satisfactory" grades on any of the four basic competency tests given to ninth graders: reading, writing, mathematics and citizenship.The schools' seventh-through-12-grade attendance and the high school dropout rate were less than satisfactory. Maryland schools made satisfactory grades in first-through-sixth-grade attendance and promotion.

It's become a cliche whenever a monstrous crime is revealed. Someone will always say: "He's the last person you would think would do something like that."This time, the speaker is attorney Bill Porter and the subject is his client, a 43-year-old Baltimore man who pleaded guilty Monday to repeatedly raping his three daughters during much of their adolescent years, resulting in at least five pregnancies that ended in abortions. His 43-year-old wife also pleaded guilty to rape for her complicity in the abuse.