Stuart Berger

From the beginning, Stuart Berger understood that he probably wouldn't last beyond one term as superintendent of Baltimore County public schools. He knew that the chief of a large school system, especially one in or near a big city, typically stayed in the job no more than a few years. He knew that his assignment -- implementing overdue and potentially controversial reforms in a conservative county -- would gain him enemies. And he knew that his determination, bordering on contempt for the niceties of public relations, would likely earn him a one-way ticket out of Towson someday.

It has been nearly 10 years since Stuart Berger was fired as Baltimore County's school superintendent, ending a three-year reign so tumultuous that he once had to leave a building by a window with a police escort to avoid a clutch of angry parents. Since then, Berger, who has remained in Baltimore, has kept a low profile locally. But he has still been generating plenty of controversy in education circles - in districts all around the country. Over the past six years, Berger has parlayed his expertise and professional contacts into a successful for-profit enterprise running publicly funded alternative schools for troubled students.

Where has Stuart Berger taken the Baltimore County school system? Many people have asked, and tried to answer, that question since Dr. Berger became school superintendent three years ago.But soon the question on the local education scene will focus as much on Stuart Berger's future as on his past. When his four-year contract expires in 15 months, after a term marked by much transformation and controversy, will he be rehired by a county school board that also has undergone many changes?Named in early 1992 to succeed Robert Dubel, Stuart Berger came from the Wichita, Kan., superintendency with a reputation as a forceful agent of change.

Baltimore County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger threw his support yesterday behind Joseph A. Hairston to head the Baltimore County school system -- two weeks after asking the school board to delay the Georgia educator's appointment. "I feel very good about his ability to lead the school system and his management style and his fairness," said Ruppersberger, adding that his problem wasn't with Hairston but with the secret process by which the school board made its selection late last month.

Now it can be told: Stuart Berger's biggest shortcoming is that he's not Robert Dubel.Dr. Berger, the Baltimore County school superintendent, faces a firestorm of opposition from county parents who apparently can't forgive him for the sin of being less skilled in public relations than was his predecessor, Dr. Dubel, who stepped down last summer after 16 years in the job.A small, vocal group of parents from the northeast side of the county, Parents' Rights...

Stuart D. Berger said he was stunned that one of the first major initiatives he announced as new superintendent for Baltimore County -- full-day kindergarten in 32 county schools -- received criticism. It was the kind of program that sailed through unscathed in Dr. Berger's previous school district, in Wichita, Kans.Actually, criticism of the plan, which will affect 2,000 of the county's 7,000 kindergartners, hasn't been widespread. At a recent school board meeting, one parent complained that her child's kindergarten wasn't being expanded to a full school day. No children should receive the benefit if all children don't, she contended.

Baltimore County School Superintendent Stuart Berger cam to Towson last year with a reputation as an agent of change. And so far, he has wasted little time planning or instituting a batch of major changes -- such as magnet schools, a new grading method for elementary students, school-based management and a revamped central office.For some educators and parents of students, the alterations have come too quickly. Worse, these critics say, they have been wrought by the superintendent and the Board of Education in a secretive and haughty manner -- another element of the Berger style which was much reported and discussed before his arrival.

Baltimore County School Superintendent Stuart Berge discovered a horrifying fact of local life two weeks ago: It snows here.Sure, it snows in areas where Dr. Berger used to work -- Western Maryland, Kansas, Ohio. But when snow falls in those places, the locals don't go out of their minds in a bread- and toilet-paper-buying panic, as the brave souls around here tend to do.No doubt that snow anxiety partly accounted for the flurry of anti-Berger calls to radio talk shows from parents of Baltimore County school children.

The auditorium of Loch Raven High School has been the scene of some rowdy public meetings over the years. But tonight, as Baltimore County school system officials, teachers and parents gather at Loch Raven to air their differences, they could make those previous meetings look like kindergarten tea parties by comparison.This evening's confab was organized by County Executive Roger Hayden, in response to the mounting criticism of School Superintendent Stuart Berger by parents, school employees and others who believe he's changing the system too rapidly and with a my-way-or-the-highway arrogance that adds galling insult to injury.

When sexual harassment charges get brought against President Clinton, some folks are more inclined to believe them because the president's image on that score is poor. Similarly, when Baltimore County Superintendent Stuart Berger stumbles in the ways of public relations, the muff gets magnified because of his contentious history.A superintendent trying to effect the change that Dr. Berger is undertaking in Baltimore County schools can't afford carelessness in community communications. Dr. Berger contends a recent flap over whether to place a "magnet" program in Parkville Middle School was overblown -- just more convenient ammunition for his opponents.

About 20 candidates interested in succeeding Baltimore County School Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione have contacted the consulting firm hired by the county's Board of Education to help find a replacement. "That's the number of people who have applied or who have said that they wish to apply," said school board President Donald L. Arnold. "We hope to have a list of semifinalists by the first part of March." Marchione, who has been head of the nation's 25th-largest school system since 1996, is retiring in June.

Baltimore County has agreed to pay $165,000 to Daniel J. LaVista -- fired as chancellor of Maryland's largest community college system -- after he said he would release all claims under the remaining two years of his contract.In announcing the settlement -- which brings LaVista considerably less than his $200,000 annual salary -- system Chairman Francis X. Kelly said yesterday that he hoped the agreement would "mark the end of the recent disruption at the colleges and allow the system to move forward with the engagement of a new chancellor."

He's in the business world now, bouncing among airports five days a week, brokering private services to school districts across the nation. Here, where productivity counts more than making nice, Stuart Berger can get away with being -- well, Stuart Berger."

FOR A DOZEN YEARS, Anthony G. Marchione toiled in obscurity in the second rank of the Baltimore County school bureaucracy. But a year ago he was tapped as acting superintendent, replacing the mercurial Stuart Berger, and he became "permanent" superintendent early last spring.His first year at the top has not been easy for Marchione, 64. He had to deal with a crisis over school facilities and a related air-quality emergency at Deer Park Elementary School. He was criticized for opening schools on Memorial Day to make up for hours lost to last winter's blizzard.

WHEN BALTIMORE COUNTY school administrators gave up some benefits to help offset a shortfall in the county system's budget, they did so apparently without prodding by the acting superintendent, Anthony Marchione. Yet their gesture fits the spirit of cooperation Dr. Marchione, a human relations specialist, aims to bring to a system that has weathered much controversy the past three years.The amount in forfeited annuity payments, about $375,000, is a pittance compared to the estimated budget shortage of $10 million.

ONE EDUCATOR'S analysis of the difference in style between acting Baltimore County school Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione and his predecessor, Stuart Berger."

If Stuart Berger says he feels "bad" about the excessively generous $300,000 buyout he accepted to resign the Baltimore County school superintendency, imagine how county taxpayers must feel."

It's impossible to feel sorry for anyone dumped from his job who gets $300,000 for his troubles.Even Stuart Berger can understand that. "I'm rich. I'm loaded. If I come across bitter, I'm not," Dr. Berger said from the family room of his Towson home the morning after the abrupt end of his tortured superintendancy of the Baltimore County school system.He got an overly generous buyout from school board members, whose rush to act gave them a weak bargaining position they have yet to adequately explain.