School System

Baltimore schools CEO Andrés Alonso defended the system's financial management Thursday as a complex work in progress, in response to a state audit released Thursday outlining 26 recommendations that address inadequate oversight. In a mass email statement, the schools chief said the system took the recommendations "extremely seriously" but went on to emphasize that the audit — the first conducted under his administration — of fiscal 2010 had fewer findings than the system's last audit in 2004.

The Baltimore school system has hired a leading data forensics company to review thousands of state assessment results dating to 2009 — a third-party analysis that school officials say is needed to inject fairness into investigations of alleged cheating. But the move has come under fire from the president of the principals union, who says the $275,000 contract with Caveon Test Security is a waste of money for the financially strapped school district and a misguided effort by schools CEO Andrés Alonso to confirm his long-held suspicions about cheating at some schools.

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.

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.

Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent  S. Dallas Dance  last week set his expectations for "Team BCPS" - calling on educators to working together with parents, students and the community to make the county school system the best in the nation. On Aug. 17, Dance's back-to-school address at Loch Raven High School marked the traditional start of the new school year for nearly 700 principals, assistant principals, office heads and administrators. "In the next two to five years, the improvements to this school system will be because of the people in this room right now," said Dance, who took over the school system in June from retiring Superintendent Joe Hairston.

The Baltimore city school system announced Tuesday the closure of 26 school buildings in the next decade, as part of a large-scale plan to overhaul its dilapidated infrastructure. The highly anticipated "10-year plan" would also see 136 school buildings replaced or renovated. It also calls for reducing the number of school buildings in the district from 163 to 137 to right-size the district's facilities to its population and increase its utilization rate. Four schools are recommended for closure at the end of the current school year: Baltimore Rising Star Academy; Garrison Middle; Patapsco Elementary/Middle School; and William C. March Middle School.

While many public school systems are gravitating toward the Web to reach audiences about programs, the Anne Arundel school system has turned to an older method to inform the public about its efforts to address purported educational disparities — prime-time television. The AACPS Educational Television channel is now airing two shows about the system's mediated agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to address disparities for African-American students as well as eliminating the achievement gap. The agreement requires the school system to inform the public twice a year about its progress on academic achievement, safe school environments and community engagement.

The Baltimore school system failed to follow its policies when hiring a temporary employee who allegedly misrepresented himself as a child therapist and is now charged with raping a teen. City school officials said Shawn Nowlin, a 27-year-old arrested Nov. 26 on charges that he impregnated a 15-year-old in Harford County, was hired in September 2011 to oversee "partnership coordination" and act as a community liaison at Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School under the title "Temporary Professional II. " Nowlin was employed for a year under that title, but the rules say temporary workers' employment cannot exceed 90 days.

The Baltimore school system is evaluating whether to retain hundreds of temporary employees and plans to let many of them go by the end of the week - before schools close for the holiday break. Tisha Edwards, chief of staff for the school system, said the effort to cut down on temporary employees was spurred several months ago by the city's teachers union, which expressed concerns about temporary employees filling union jobs. At the same time, school officials vowed to do a better job of checking the credentials of temporary professionals after a worker hired on a temporary basis at Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School was charged last month with sex abuse.

After a period of transition that saw its longtime school superintendent retire and infighting among school directors, members of the Howard County school community are hopeful that the new board members will work well together as they shape the county's education policy. With incumbents Janet Siddiqui and Ellen Flynn Giles gaining re-election on Tuesday, the school board now has six members with at least two years' experience. And its lone newcomer, former teachers union president Ann De Lacy, has more than 30 years' experience in the school system.