School System

The former principal of George Washington Elementary School denied Sunday any involvement in test tampering at the school during her tenure, even though she is being held responsible for thousands of answers being changed on student tests two years ago. Susan Burgess, whose professional license was revoked after an 18-month investigation by Baltimore City and state school officials uncovered evidence of cheating at the school, said she was "shocked"...

State officials approved more than $161 million in school construction funding Wednesday that will allow school systems in the Baltimore area to undertake renovation projects, tackling problems that include sweltering and overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings and amenities. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the last round of construction dollars being doled out to schools for fiscal year 2013. The state approved $187.5 million in funding in January, bringing the total amount for school construction projects to nearly $350 million, a more than $85 million increase from fiscal year 2012.

For the first time in about a decade, the Baltimore County school system is poised to purchase a new reading series - perhaps two series - to ensure a more consistent reading program for all elementary school pupils. "We're looking for as much consistency as we can, for both teachers and students," said Jane Lichter, supervisor of language arts in the department of elementary curriculum and instruction. "But we realize that there are diverse needs. It looks like we'll pick two series because of the diverse needs of our student population."

Baltimore city students will have a plethora of options for education and recreation this summer, under a new partnership between city agencies and school system that will expand the scope and length of programming for city youth. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakeand City schools CEO Andres Alonso announced Wednesday that with the help of non-profit and philanthropic communities, the city's recreation efforts will converge with the system's summer learning initiatives to create a unique structure of a full-day of summer programming.

Transparency should be the rule, especially with organizations supported by public funds. It seems as if the officials and governing body of the Baltimore City Public Schools raised the draw bridge without granting public access regarding the obvious and odorous actions of a principal who was pressuring Filipino teachers to purchase Mary Kay cosmetics ("School system defends response," March 16). Who will watch the watchers? McNair Taylor, Baltimore

Given the epic changes in Baltimore County government this year — a new county executive and five new faces on the seven-member County Council — it comes as no surprise that changes are also happening to the county's Board of Education. Last week, Gov. Martin O'Malley's office announced that two school board members, board president Earnest Hines and Meg O'Hare, would not be reappointed. The governor has the authority to appoint all of the county's school board members, but it is likely County Executive Kevin Kamenetz was consulted in the removal of Hines and O'Hare.

Principal Rhonda Richetta can vividly recall days when students have come to her office door at City Springs School gasping for air. The school has a large population of asthmatic elementary- and middle-school-age students who receive critical services — including daily breathing treatments — from a nurse practitioner in its health center. Richetta fears that could change next year if the school is one of six that are slated to reduce their health care services because of proposed funding cuts from the city.

A former Anne Arundel County teacher has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the school system, contending that she was systematically bypassed for promotion in favor of younger applicants and faced retribution when she complained. Christine Davenport, 62, claims in a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this week that the county school system retaliated against her when she lodged complaints two years ago alleging that her seniority prevented her from getting a job as assistant principal.

A Howard County school system computer technician was indicted Wednesday on two counts of theft involving more than $300,000 in computer parts, the Howard state's attorney's office said. A Howard grand jury indicted Tina Marie Eiser, 49, of Glen Burnie on one count of theft of more than $500, accusing her of having stolen computer parts belonging to the Howard County public school system between Sept. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31 of last year. The second count accuses Eiser of having stolen school system computer parts with a value between $10,000 and $100,000 on or about Dec. 15 of last year.

A former Baltimore school system employee has filed a $1.3 million racial discrimination lawsuit against school officials, claiming that he was unlawfully terminated after three black high-ranking managers in the operations office sought to discredit his employment record because he was white. Robert Shank, a former education building supervisor for the school system, filed the federal lawsuit against several members of the school system's operations office. It claims that Shank had a flawless three-year record overseeing facilities at 11 schools in the southern district until "racial jealousy" made him a target of department supervisors.

Baltimore city CEO Andres Alonso told city council leaders Tuesday that the school system is not in the financial position to inherit recreation centers that are slated for closure in the city budget, after being peppered by council members about the system's ability to bail out endangered youth programs. Following a presentation on the school system's $1.31 billion budget-- presented last week and due to be approved by the school board on May 22-- Alonso was asked by City Council President Bernard"Jack" Young to clarify the system's stance on taking over rec centers, saying that he was dubious about the option given that the system doesn't even have enough money to maintain its own school facilities.

Baltimore County's decision to cut nearly 200 teaching positions last year has had far-reaching consequences in high schools, where hundreds of classes have been dropped from the rolls, leaving many more students packed into classrooms. At Dulaney High School, for example, a chemistry teacher with a class of 34 said his students must take turns doing lab experiments because the stations are too small to accommodate more than three or four at a time. A journalism teacher doesn't have enough computers for each of her budding writers, so she sends part of the class to the library to do the work.

Dallas Dance, Baltimore County's soon-to-be superintendent of schools, won't officially take the job until July 1, but the school board approved a contract Tuesday night that will allow him to begin working as a consultant for the month of June. The school board will pay Dance a salary of $21,250 for the month, or one-twelfth of his annual salary, as well as some relocation costs and health insurance. School board chair Lawrence Schmidt said the board wanted Dance to have a month to get to know the people in the county, visit some schools and work for a week with Superintendent Joe Hairston, whose contract expires at the end of June.

Baltimore school employees would be forced to take furlough days if the district has to absorb millions of dollars in education cuts outlined in the state's "doomsday" budget, city schools CEO Andrés Alonso said Tuesday as he prepared to present the fiscal year 2013 budget. In preparation for a massive cut to public education should lawmakers fail to approve higher taxes in a special session starting Monday, the school system has developed a plan to negotiate with labor unions to have employees take four unpaid days off. Alonso said the system found that the four furlough days, which would not include instructional days, would yield enough savings to hold school budgets untouched, a guiding principle of the system's budget.

A former Anne Arundel County teacher has filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the school system, contending that she was systematically bypassed for promotion in favor of younger applicants and faced retribution when she complained. Christine Davenport, 62, claims in a multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore this week that the county school system retaliated against her when she lodged complaints two years ago alleging that her seniority prevented her from getting a job as assistant principal.

A pre-kindergarten student at Northwood Elementary School in Baltimore brought a small gun to school Friday morning, according to school officials. A teacher discovered the weapon and notified administrators who called the school police. School police arrested the mother of the 5-year-old boy, Vernetta Holson-Anderson, 37, of the 6900 block of Blanch Road, at Northwood Elementary, according to a police document. Holson-Anderson was charged with giving a minor access to a firearm, reckless endangerment and having a handgun on her and in a vehicle, the documents said.

Elkridge will get a new elementary school for the 2013-2014 academic year now that the sellers of a 10.1-acre site on Ducketts Lane have settled a dispute in court. The Howard County school system was supposed to close the deal with Ducketts Ridge LLC in October, but a shareholder refused to release a lien to the sellers. The $2.64 million deal was put on hold, leaving the school system without property needed to alleviate overcrowding in the northeast and causing the system to file a lawsuit in December.

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.

New furniture, a flat-screen television, decorative light fixtures, interactive white boards — these are among amenities the city school system bought during $500,000 in renovations to the central office, even as administrators decried the state of crumbling school buildings and sought funding to fix them. The biggest project was a $250,000 face lift of an executive suite for the district's chief of information technology, who said the remodeling work was done in part to impress job candidates and repair unsafe conditions.