Schiller

George J. Weiland Sr., 85, insurance sales managerGeorge J. Weiland Sr., former sales manager for Western and Southern Life Insurance Co. of Cincinnati and a longtime Glen Burnie resident, died Tuesday from complications of a stroke at Carrollwood Care Center in Tampa, Fla. He was 85.Mr. Weiland began his insurance career in Baltimore in 1937 with American Life Insurance Co. of Baltimore, which later merged with Western and Southern. He retired in 1979.The Highlandtown native was educated in Baltimore public schools until he left to help support his family during the Depression.

IT IS NOTHING short of shock therapy when the city's new school chief places 103 teachers on probation, demotes 11 principals and effectively dismisses the system's chief academic officer just three weeks before the start of a new year.These moves send two unmistakable signals that are welcome: Robert Booker is in full control and, with the school board's backing, is serious about turning around Baltimore's troubled public education system.Psychologically, these messages are necessary. Dr. Booker is directing them as much to the school board as to the system's 10,300 employees.

Baltimore's interim schools chief, Robert E. Schiller, has frozen many budgets throughout the system to help patch a $7 million deficit that comes from overspending by the former school administration.As a result, school principals are scrambling to stop spending -- on everything from textbooks to copy paper to library books and bus trips -- to save as much as $20 per student before the end of the year."I am trying to cobble together savings," Schiller said yesterday. "This is the result of unfunded items in the budget" dating back as far as three years.

Baltimore school officials changed direction yesterday on the purchase of reading books, and are now considering programs that teach more explicit phonics in the early grades.Chief academic officer Searetha Smith, who was set last week to recommend one textbook series for all elementary school grades, expanded the options yesterday. She suggested three choices: using a Houghton Mifflin series for all elementary grades; giving schools three or four textbook selections; or adopting one book series for kindergarten through second grade and another for grades three through five.

With a deadline two months away, the Baltimore school board is just beginning to piece together a blueprint for rescuing the troubled city schools.Interim school chief Robert Schiller has presented a 70-page list of strategies for the board to consider, but school board member Bonnie Copeland said the board has not reviewed Schiller's ideas, and is not inclined to release the list to the public.Copeland said Schiller's proposals "are just thoughts at this point."Sources have said the board will have to pick and choose among some contradictory strategies.

Former Baltimore interim schools chief Robert E. Schiller is one of three finalists to become superintendent of public schools in New Orleans.If hired, Schiller -- who spent a year in Baltimore coordinating the state's takeover of city schools -- would be returning to familiar ground.A decade ago, Schiller, 52, spent two years as Louisiana's deputy education superintendent. In an interview yesterday from his home in Stuart, Fla., Schiller said he is interested in the challenge of once again supervising a city school district.

Baltimore public schools would need an additional $140 million a year for the next five years to make all of the improvements laid out in the school board's master plan, but they will have to settle for less than half of that in the first year.Robert E. Schiller, interim head of the schools, detailed his priorities for the first year of school reform in the city yesterday. It was a short list totaling more than $57 million -- about 40 percent of the amount in the master plan -- including $10 million for the continued reduction in class sizes in the early grades, $5.2 million for materials and teacher training to institute a phonics-based reading program and $4 million to begin to prepare high school students for new statewide graduation tests.

Baltimore City public school students would be greeted this September by a battery of tests, a longer school day and smaller classes, under a plan to be proposed next week by interim schools chief Robert E. Schiller.In an interview with The Sun this week, Schiller described the district as "academically bankrupt" and outlined initiatives that he says would represent a first step toward boosting student achievement.Schiller said he believes the greatest short-term benefits to the district will be realized by focusing on the elementary grades, particularly in reading.

Two Maryland church groups were to speak out today in defense of Northern High School Principal Alice Morgan Brown and her efforts to bring discipline to her troubled Baltimore school.The Rev. John L. Wright, president of the United Baptist Missionary Convention, said his churches would protest any move by the city school board to discipline her for her suspension Wednesday of 1,200 Northern students."The school is responsible for providing a learning environment. It should not take 90 percent of its time for discipline.

ROBERT E. SCHILLER would rather be known as a trouble-shooter than a hatchet man.The interim chief executive officer of the city school system has only three months (extendable to five) to complete a "transition" plan paving the way for a "permanent" CEO and chief academic officer.Schiller, 50, is on leave from a professorship at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but the vast majority of his career -- 27 years -- has been in public elementary-secondary education as a teacher and administrator.

Thunder Hill Elementary students will soon receive hands-on knowledge about the banking industry through a new partnership that will set up a miniature bank in the school. The Oakland Mills branch of Columbia Bank will teach students the importance of personal financial planning while helping them gain an appreciation for how math is used in daily life, said Mary Schiller, manager of the school system's Partnerships Office. "Now we hear more and more about financial literacy," Schiller said.

Gorfine, Schiller & Gardyn PA, an Owings Mills certified public accounting firm, merged yesterday with the accounting division of Smart and Associates in Towson, the firm formerly known as Grabush, Newman & Co. PA. Gorfine, Schiller & Gardyn gained about 20 people in the transaction, expanding it to more than 75 employees. It will retain its name and location at the corporate campus in Owings Mills. No employees will be laid off, said W. James Schiller, a founding partner. "We just hired about four new accountants, and we're still hiring," Schiller said.

Dr. Douglas Lowy of Bethesda and John Schiller of Kensington invented a vaccine to thwart HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease in America and the leading cause of cervical cancer. Their work is saving thousands of women's lives annually, but their role in discovering the vaccine is not and might never be well-known. Lowy and Schiller are federal employees, inventors on government-owned patents that have been licensed to drug companies for the testing and sale of the vaccine.

On January 7, 2006, M. LEONA (nee Otto). Devoted mother of the late Nancy Schiller Hagert; dear sister of Adaline Otto Blucher, the late Roland and John Otto and Edna Otto Walton. Funeral Services will be private. Inquiries may be directed to Lassahn Funeral Home, 410-665-2000.

The three finalists for Anne Arundel County schools superintendent, announced yesterday, include a former interim CEO of Baltimore schools whose last two leadership posts ended in controversy; the chief of a 5,500-student school district in Pennsylvania; and a midlevel Montgomery County administrator. From a field of 20 applicants, the school board selected Robert E. Schiller, retired state schools superintendent of Illinois; Dana Bedden, superintendent of William Penn District, Pa.; and Kevin Maxwell, community superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools.

On Sunday March 12, 2006 DR. CHARLES BRUCE MORLEY, DVM. Beloved husband of Georgianna (Barkman) Morley; father of Lynn Schiller (Scott), Leah Andrews, Karen Jacobs (Steven), Kevin Morley (Melissa) and the late Dale Morley; brother of Scott Morley (Ruth) and Donald Morley. Also survived by 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Friends may call on Thursday, 2 to 4 and 7 to 9pm at Donaldson Funeral Home, P.A., 313 Tolbert Avenue., Laurel, MD where memorial Services will begin at 7pm. Interment St. Mary's Cemetery at a later date.

On Saturday, February 19, 2005, IRVIN H. SCHILLER; beloved husband the late Edna Schiller (nee Kennard); loving father of Muriel Kugel, Harriet Dorman and Jacqueline Cohan; cherished grandfather of twelve; loving great-grandfather of nine. Services at SOL LEVINSON & BROS., INC., 8900 Resiterstown Road at Mt. Wilson lane, private at the convenience of the family. Please omit flowers. Contributions in his memory may be directed to Susan Cohan Kasdas Colon Cancer Foundation, 201 N. Charles Street, Suite 2404, Baltimore, MD (21201)

On Saturday, February 19, 2005, IRVIN H. SCHILLER; beloved husband the late Edna Schiller (nee Kennard); loving father of Muriel Kugel, Harriet Dorman and Jacqueline Cohan; cherished grandfather of twelve; loving great-grandfather of nine. Services at SOL LEVINSON & BROS., INC., 8900 Resiterstown Road at Mt. Wilson lane, private at the convenience of the family. Please omit flowers. Contributions in his memory may be directed to Susan Cohan Kasdas Colon Cancer Foundation, 201 N. Charles Street, Suite 2404, Baltimore, MD (21201)

On February 14, 2005 SHIRLEY HOLINSKY (nee Schroeder); beloved wife of the late Hyman Holinsky; loving mother of Susan Schiller, Terry Holinsky, Lynn Creel and Ralph Greenblatt; dear mother-in-law of Jim Schiller, Cindy Holinsky and Constance Mc Quire and the late Virgil Creel; adored sister of the late Leona Goldberg and Cecelia Platt; loving grandmother of Rona Sindler, Sharon Harris, Ron and Sue Holinsky, Andrew, Rachel and Jennifer Holinsky, Molly...

On July 20, 2004, BERTRAM HARTIG; beloved husband of Anne F. Schiller; devoted father of Lee H. Schiller, of Chicago, Carol L. Hafford and Brian W. Schiller. Also survived by six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. Services at Evans Chapel of Memories-Parkville, on Friday at 12 noon. Interment Parkwood Cemetery. Visiting Thursday 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M.