School Board Members

I am impressed and somewhat alarmed at the media blitz financed by the MSEA and the HCEA promoting their candidates for the Howard County Board of Education. Given that it is the Board of Education who negotiates our teachers, salary, benefits and pensions (that will soon be correctly our obligation, not the state's, to fund), am I the only one who sees a fox guarding the henhouse issue here? Given the next board may be making some very tough choices requiring that school funding be reduced so as to fund the obligations to the pension fund, I would prefer members with no particular allegiance.

That schools CEO Andrés Alonso deplores the lavish renovation at headquarters only after the work has been done says a lot about why he should go. Mr. Alonso has abused having a driver, and he brings in outside auditors when standardized tests are given because he doesn't trust the people who work for him, He and the mayor were pictured with President Obama when he signed a wavier to do away with certain requirements of the No Child Left...

Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced Thursday that current Baltimore City school board president Neil Duke will serve a second term and will be joined by two new appointees who have experience in the Baltimore City school system. Duke has served as president on the Board of School Commissioners since February 2007. He is an attorney with the law firm of Ober Kaler P.C. of Baltimore and an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Shanaysha Furlow Sauls, co-founder of the Patterson Park Public Charter School in Baltimore, who also has seven years of teaching experience, will serve as a parent representative.

I am impressed and somewhat alarmed at the media blitz financed by the MSEA and the HCEA promoting their candidates for the Howard County Board of Education. Given that it is the Board of Education who negotiates our teachers, salary, benefits and pensions (that will soon be correctly our obligation, not the state's, to fund), am I the only one who sees a fox guarding the henhouse issue here? Given the next board may be making some very tough choices requiring that school funding be reduced so as to fund the obligations to the pension fund, I would prefer members with no particular allegiance.

Anne Arundel County school board members have had two days to consider acting Superintendent Carol S. Parham's $414.2 million budget proposal -- and already some are proposing changes."

DOVER, PA. -- In the end, voters in Dover said they were tired of being portrayed as a northern version of Dayton, Tenn., a Bible Belt hamlet where 80 years ago a biology teacher named John Scopes was tried for illegally teaching evolution. On Tuesday, the residents of Dover ousted all eight school board members running for re-election who had put their town in a global spotlight - and their school district on trial - for being the first in the nation to introduce intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in science class.

One can hardly blame Baltimore County lawmakers for believing the county's school system is unresponsive to public concerns. The superintendent's recent handling of the conflict-of-interest dispute involving AIM (Articulated Instruction Module, a grading system) and his refusal to even discuss the matter with them or the state attorney general's office can't be ignored. Nor was it the first time that Superintendent Joseph A. Hairston and his often-supportive board of education have crossed swords with the general public and the county's elected leaders.

Baltimore City schools chief Carmen V. Russo withdrew her name from the short list of finalists for a top schools job in Florida yesterday, leaving local school board members relieved that the system's promising reform effort would not be interrupted by her departure. Russo said she reconsidered her candidacy because she wanted to concentrate on the local initiatives that have been under way since she took Baltimore's top school post more than two years ago. Several delays in the interviewing process in Florida, she said, threatened to hinder those projects.

Telemarketing is the newest technique that schools have undertaken to raise money for the PTA and other programs, a special fund-raising committee told school board members yesterday.2 * Approved its meeting schedule for next year.

Baltimore city school board members haven't done the best job of explaining their decision to lower the minimum passing grade for key subjects such as math and reading from 70 to 60. But campaign politics is really turning the issue on its head. When Mayor Martin O'Malley, who had nothing to do with the decision, defended it, a spokesman for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said that the governor was "stunned and disappointed" that city leaders could lower expectations for students so easily.

An administrative law judge has denied Allen Dyer's request to block his removal from the Howard County school board, setting in motion proceedings that would have Dyer defending his seat next year as he runs for re-election. The Howard school board passed a resolution June 9 to request that the Maryland State Board of Education remove Dyer, citing his repeated filing of lawsuits against the board and accusing him of, among other things, violating confidentiality agreements and bullying board members.

Howard County voters should have the final say on how Board of Education members are selected, not a commission appointed by the county executive. During his first term in office, the county executive had a chance to appoint a minority member to the board but instead chose the person with highest total votes among the candidates who were not elected. Yet now he claims to be concerned about diversity on the board. Bottom line, the voters of Howard County need to have the final say as to whether to keep the current system of electing school board members or to accept the recommendations of the commission.

One of the great ironies of education reform in Maryland is that for all the standardization and testing directed at the classroom, the one place where there's no clear-cut formula for success is how school boards should be selected. Some boards are elected by voters (with candidates running at-large or by district), some are appointed (or appointed and then affirmed by vote) while others are hybrids of the two. There are arguments for and against various approaches, and the fact that so many of Maryland's public schools and school systems are well-regarded nationally (regardless of their governance structure)

The Howard County commission established to address some citizens' concerns about racial and geographic diversity on its school board decided Monday night to place term limits on the two appointed seats that it is recommending be placed on the board. The county's School Board Study Commission was formed last month by county executive Ken Ulman, who had given the panel until Monday to craft a final recommendation. The commission voted last week to recommend the board be changed from a seven-member, at-large elected body to one comprising five members elected by districts and two appointed members.

A legislative task force considering ways to improve the selection of Baltimore County school board members abruptly decided Friday to rule out recommending the addition of any elected board members. State Sen. Bobby Zirkin, a Pikesville Democrat, said he would try to undo the vote, which came after a contentious debate. The board had been considering several options, including an all-elected or mixed board. "Nobody said there was going to be a vote of the task force, much less that it was going to be today.

In its last meeting before the September primary election, the Baltimore City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on state legislators to give the council input in the selection of school board members. Councilman Bill Henry, the resolution's lead sponsor, said Monday that the council has a say in executive appointments to most city commissions and boards, and it should be involved in the selection of school board members. City school board members are appointed jointly by the governor and mayor of Baltimore.

Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston is suing the Clayton County, Ga., Board of Education, his former boss, over lost wages, slander and defamation, according to a lawsuit filed on his behalf in federal court in Atlanta. In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Hairston alleges that the school board has denied him money he is owed from a consulting contract worth about $12,900 a month in salary and benefits. Clayton County stopped payments to Hairston at the end of July.

Members of the Annapolis city council joined with parents and a few school board members this week in voicing hope that the Board of Education - at last - will fund the rigorous International Baccalaureate Middle Years program for middle school pupils. Those in favor of the program, a precursor to the International Baccalaureate diploma program for high school students, have advocated for years, only to have their hopes dashed when the County Council cut the program from the budget for the three years in a row. When the school board formally adopts its fiscal 2007 budgets Wednesday, members will have the discretion to fund the Middle Years program at three county middle schools for the coming school year, though the County Council cut $146,000 from the school budget for the curriculum.

The Baltimore school board approved Tuesday a $1.3 billion budget for next year that gives principals less discretion over spending and allows city schools CEO Andrés Alonso to implement a central office reorganization. The fiscal year 2012 budget will increase by $82 million, most of which is designated for specific uses, school officials said. Expenses, notably salaries and fringe benefits, would rise. While the amount of money being allocated to schools will increase by $11 million, the amount of "flexible funds" — money allocated to principals to staff their schools and provide resources for their students — will decrease by 4 percent.

Baltimore County school board President Earnest A. Hines said Tuesday that he is contesting a decision by Gov. Martin O'Malley to remove him from the board June 30, a year before he believes his term is ending. O'Malley's staff informed two Baltimore County school board members, including Hines, that they will not be reappointed to the board in July. "That was what I was informed of [Monday]. It was the first I heard of it," Hines said. Hines had believed, however, that even if he wasn't given another five-year term that he would remain on the board for the next year, a crucial time because school Superintendent Joe A. Hairston's contract expires in a year.