School Superintendent

It was a case of good news, bad news last week as Harford educators waited to see what the State House would do to their budgets.First, the good news. Legislative leaders abandoned a proposal to take back $2.1 million from the Harford school system as part of the statewide cuts to save trooper jobs and several social service programs.That means county schools will probably be able to adjust to an earlier $105,000 cut without layoffs or major program changes, said Bill Rufenacht, the county Board of Education's finance director.

The toughest budget question facing local governments this year is education spending. Unlike some other services, public schools are non-negotiable necessities of the first order -- in good times or bad. Yet virtually every jurisdiction is grappling with a budget shortfall.Most local school czars have responded to this dilemma with impossibly large budget requests. In Montgomery County, School Superintendent Harry Pitt has submitted a $782.2 million proposal that would accommodate the biggest enrollment spurt since the late 1960s and raise teachers' salaries 6.5 percent.

The mayor of Baltimore City has awesome powers and more authority than in many other cities.This was not always so but is the result of a gradual evolution. When the city first acquired self-government through a charter 197 years ago, the mayor clearly played the second fiddle to a bicameral City Council.A panel that has been studying the city's charter since 1990 is now recommending that the mayor be granted even more powers.Specifically, it proposes that the mayor be given the authority to hire and fire the school superintendent as well as the fire chief.

Anne Arundel School Superintendent C. Berry Carter II has to go.Whether he resigns or the school board fires him is immaterial. No educator who knowingly abandons children to a suspected sexual abuser, then lies about it, can or should lead a school system.Mr. Carter has fallen hard and far. Appointed amid enthusiastic support from parents and most school staff last summer, he now stands exposed as the single most culpable administrator in the most damaging school scandal of recent memory.

A handful of protesters yesterday asked state officials to reject a plan allowing a private Maine boarding school to operate Patterson High, but they feared that the privatization move was a "done deal.""Parents, teachers and community members have a more vested interest in the school than does a company from out of town," said Letty Herold, of Citizens Against Privatization.The group is battling the proposal by the Hyde School of Bath, which stresses character-building and parental involvement.

Harford's NAACP chapter, which had condemned what it called a pattern of discrimination in the county's school system, withdrew that charge last week.After a brief discussion, the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voted unanimously Thursday night to send a letter to Superintendent Ray R. Keech absolving the school system.In May, the county NAACP chapter charged that Harford's school system discriminated against minorities in hiring and promotions and asked the state school superintendent to investigate.

Former county Board of Education member Patsy B. Blackshear has beennamed one of five finalists for the job of Baltimore school superintendent.The city school board search committee deliberated for three hours Monday in a closed-door meeting before deciding on Blackshear and four other candidates for the final list.The committee is charged with finding a replacement for outgoing Superintendent Richard C. Hunter. Hunter's three-year contract expires July 31 and was not renewed by the board at the urging of BaltimoreMayor Kurt L. Schmoke.

The search committee looking for a new Baltimore school superintendent could have a list of finalists within two weeks, according to the committee's chairman."

Talk about a hot seat. These days few seats of power are hotter than that of the Baltimore County school board president. The person who now finds himself occupying that chair is Alan Leberknight, the president and chief executive officer of the Bank of Baltimore.Recent reports suggest the bank is steadying after some shaky times. Mr. Leberknight hopes to see the same thing happen with the school system, which has been rocked by controversy since School Superintendent Stuart Berger began implementing some needed educational reforms last year.

Despite warnings from the State Board of Education, the city is going ahead with plans to close Baltimore public schools for a week in February to make up a budget shortfall, school Superintendent Walter G. Amprey said yesterday.The school system plans to send a memo to principals today asking them to prepare for "Independent Study Week" the week of Feb. 17, school officials said.Principals are being asked to develop materials to send home with children, including sample activities that parents can do with their child, Dr. Amprey said.