School Districts

As the clock ticked toward midnight Monday, school boards in Howard and Baltimore County were scrambling to make job offers to their next superintendents. The timing was not a coincidence. The school boards in the adjoining districts knew they were in an intense and unusual fight for the same finalists — S. Dallas Dance, a middle schools chief from Houston, and Renee Foose, the deputy superintendent in Baltimore County — and that they might have the same first choice. School board leaders in both districts say they got their top candidate: Foose went to Howard and Dance went to Baltimore County, but the public may never know what happened behind closed doors.

Outraged education, community and political leaders have called for increased oversight of spending in the Baltimore City school system, amid revelations that about $500,000 was spent to upgrade offices at the district headquarters while city and state leaders fought for funding to fix dilapidated school buildings. Since January 2011, the school system has undertaken 11 renovation projects in eight departments, The Baltimore Sun reported this week. Half of the money went to renovation of a single department: The information technology office, which has spent $250,000 largely to transform an executive suite with new amenities such as interactive white boards.

Most school districts have received waivers from the state to reduce the number of days students have to make up because of snow in December and February. State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick has waived five days for 12 of the state's 24 school districts, including Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Kent, St. Mary's, Prince George's and Montgomery counties. Baltimore County recently requested that the state allow the county to reduce its calendar by one school day, which would make the last day of school June 18. Grasmick has not acted on the request.

An Anne Arundel County elementary school principal has asked for a transfer to another school after district officials began investigating concerns that she did not respond to complaints about a student before he ended up threatening a teacher. In a letter to the school community this week, Crofton Elementary School principal Shauna Kauffman said Superintendent Kevin Maxwell had approved her request for a transfer to another school. She will be moved at the end of the school year.

Bernard Sadusky, the interim state school superintendent, sent a note to local school superintendents on Tuesday afternoon after the state police told him that schools should be on the look out for suspicious letters. Several schools in the northeast have been sent letters containing white powder in the mail with a Texas post mark. The letters were a hoax, and none were sent to Maryland schools that have been discovered. "We've not as yet heard of any instances, but we can't be too careful," said Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education.

School closings and delays over the past two months of Arctic weather have played havoc with academic and home schedules, driving parents, students and teachers alike to the point of desperation. And every time classes are canceled or start late, some people complain that the weather's really not that bad where they live.In Harford County, Maryland's leader in the weather-shortened school calendar this season, the Harford PTA Council sees a possible solution in adjacent Baltimore County.Schools in Baltimore County's northern Hereford zone, which is hardest hit by winter conditions, may close or open late without affecting decisions for the rest of the county's schools.

Some of Maryland's smaller school systems are speeding down the information superhighway, leaving larger school districts eating their cyberdust.Despite comparatively smaller budgets, Kent, Queen Anne's and Worcester counties began investing in computers five or more years ago. Now, their students "surf" the Internet, moving via modem through an international network of databases."

As the school year finally gets under way, public school students across the state will be writing more often and learning to think differently in math class, as the state begins major education reforms that will change everything from the curriculum to the way teachers are evaluated. While some of the changes — which districts agreed to make in exchange for more federal funding — have faced resistance from teachers, others have already been embraced in classrooms. Baltimore City has tried a number of the most radical reforms as it attempted to turn around its perpetually poor-performing schools.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's budget chief is recommending a $37.9 million cut to many of the state's largest school districts in the middle of the academic year, The Baltimore Sun has learned. If cuts were applied evenly to the 13 affected districts, Baltimore would get $6.5 million less from the state this year, according to the proposal now being studied by O'Malley. Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard counties would sustain cuts of $1.5 million or more. The cut would help the state close a $415 million gap in its current budget, which has been battered by declining revenues linked to the national economic downturn.

The "APEX" program, Maryland's ambitious, five-year school aid initiative, is on a collision course with fiscal reality.Enacted with high hopes in 1987, the "Action Plan for Educational Excellence" was intended to boost the state's share of aid to local school districts.But as the program enters its fifth year, that share is projected to be exactly what it was at the start.The millions of extra dollars pumped into local education simply weren't enough to keep pace with spiraling costs, fiscal experts say.And the well has begun to run dry.State legislators, under pressure to chop the budget because of the state's serious economic problems, already are talking about cuts in the $87 million funding increase that state law mandates for the APEX program in fiscal 1992, which begins July 1.The APEX law will require an even bigger increase in state funding for fiscal 1993 -- an estimated $182 million.

By all accounts Lillian Lowery, the Delaware educator who was named Maryland's state superintendent of schools Friday, comes to the job with an impressive resume and a reputation as a consensus builder who can work with teachers, principals and local school districts to get things done. She'll need all those skills and more to implement the kinds of reforms Maryland needs, and she'll have to hit the ground running if she is to make progress on the array of thorny issues that require her immediate attention.

George Nellies writes in response to a letter to the editor I wrote regarding the Baltimore County school board proposal that failed in the General Assembly ("Baltimore County needs an elected school board," April 13) First, I would like to thank Mr. Nellies. I haven't gotten this much ink in the newspaper in probably 20 years. Mr. Nellies first comments are that my language "parrots" County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. I have had no communication with the county executive over this issue.

In his letter "Time to devise a better plan for county school board" (April 10) Mel Mintz makes two arguments that absolutely demand response. First, in words that almost parrot language Kevin Kamenetz used in dismissing the idea of an elected school board as an opportunity for the public to ask for golden doorknobs to classrooms, Mr. Mintz begins by fearing the introduction of "many unnecessary frills to the school budget. " He continues with a series of warnings of what "would" and "could" happen if district-elected representatives were on the board.

The Maryland General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would require school districts across the state to spend millions of dollars a year on private tutors for students in their lowest-performing schools - regardless of whether the tutoring actually helps kids achieve more in the classroom. That's neither wise public policy nor a good use of limited school funds. Educators should be free to choose among the best available services and programs for kids in their most troubled schools regardless of what form they take, not have their options limited to private tutoring firms whose methods may or may not be effective and whose main objective in any case is to turn a profit.

I am a parent of two children that have received the tutoring services provided by Baltimore City Public Schools. Both of my children have IEP learning plans from lead poisoning. These services have the helped my children and allowed my son to secure a position in the high school of his choice. I would hate for the funding to go to the school districts instead of the children of Baltimore City where the services are desperately needed ("Fund classrooms, not corporations," March 27). Please do not take away the supplemental educational services tutoring program.

Carroll County public schools should strengthen financial controls and network security, seek all valid Medicaid-related reimbursements, review some of their contractor arrangements and re-evaluate their food service operations, according to a report released by the state Office of Legislative Audits. Those measures could save the county as much as $4 million a year, said the report released last week. "These are recommendations," said Bruce A. Myers, legislative auditor. "We have no enforcement power, but we can advise.

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- It was the public comment portion of the school board meeting, and Superintendent Jim May endured about 90 minutes of verbal abuse until a speaker finally praised him as the best school chief in Florida.Smiling broadly, May rose from his chair at last week's regular meeting of the Escambia County, Fla., school board. He reached for his wallet, gave the man a bearhug and handed him a $5 bill.Though the money did change hands, May's gesture was mostly in jest.Mostly.May is one of a dying breed.

Parents will have a better chance this fall to rescue their children from underperforming schools across the Baltimore region, thanks to a new federal law. But moving to a better school still might prove more difficult than Congress intended. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed this year by President Bush, requires every school district to give parents of students in poorly performing schools a chance to transfer their children to higher-achieving schools - and it requires the school districts to pay for the buses to take them there.

As the clock ticked toward midnight Monday, school boards in Howard and Baltimore County were scrambling to make job offers to their next superintendents. The timing was not a coincidence. The school boards in the adjoining districts knew they were in an intense and unusual fight for the same finalists — S. Dallas Dance, a middle schools chief from Houston, and Renee Foose, the deputy superintendent in Baltimore County — and that they might have the same first choice. School board leaders in both districts say they got their top candidate: Foose went to Howard and Dance went to Baltimore County, but the public may never know what happened behind closed doors.

The Maryland Department of Education is about to make a very big mistake. Under the Education and Secondary Education Act (better known as No Child Left Behind), low-income families whose children attend low-performing schools are eligible to receive supplemental educational services outside of the regular school day. These services include after school tutorial services. The Supplemental Educational Services Program is federally funded through Title I. Tutorial services can be provided by private companies that are preferred providers approved by the MSDE.