School Board to Formally Approve Superintendent

The Board of Education this week set to publicly offer Renee Foose the job.

  Nearly a year after Superintendent Sydney Cousin announced he would retire from the Howard County Public School System in summer 2012, the Board of Education will take a formal vote on his successor. The school system announced March 27 that it had offered the job to Renee Foose, deputy superintendent of Baltimore County schools. On April 7, school board member Allen Dyer released a letter from Maryland's superintendent, Bernard Sadusky, approving the contract for Foose. Her term will last from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2016, according to Sadusky's letter. Dyer, who lost his chance at re-election as a result of the April 3 primary, said that as of Saturday he has not been privy to the details of the contract. "The whole board will review…

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WATCH: Primary Voters Trickle into Polling Places

Although participation didn't compare to a General Election, candidates were out in full electioneering mode.

The Howard County Board of Education race is perhaps the most important race on the primary ballot for local residents, and Patch spoke to several voters, electioneers and candidates at Atholton High and Swansfield Elementary Schools in Columbia. Did you vote today? Is voting in the primary election important? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Talk of New Superintendent Lights Up Internet

The congratulations were plentiful, but criticisms of the BOE's appointment of a new superintendent took center stage online.

The Howard County Board of Education (BOE) has chosen a new superintendent. According to a statement from the Howard County Public School System and BOE Chairperson Sandra French, Renee A. Foose will assume the superintendent position July 1. The announcement was sent at noon, about 12 hours after board members finished their deliberation, which included input from the community, according to board member Allen Dyer.  “I got home at about 12 a.m.,” he said. Howard County residents have taken to the Internet to discuss the appointment. Scores of "Congratulations" and "Look forward to working with you" tweets peppered Twitter, but elsewhere residents expressed concerns. One blogger questioned the announcement Monday of the other finalist, S…

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Ellicott City Math Man Wants a Focus on Technology in School Board

David Gertler is running for the Howard County Board of Education for the second time.

Graduation and summer break is still months away, but Howard County Board of Education candidate David Gertler hopes students won't be the only ones doing their homework over the next few weeks and months. This is Gertler's second time running for the board, but he explains his electoral philosophy in anecdotes. "Last election, I was standing outside a high school handing out my fliers to people. Some of them would take the flier, look at it for a few seconds and then hand it back. On the way out, some of them would point to me and say, 'I voted for you!'" While he appreciates the votes, Gertler says he wishes people didn't rely on gimmicks or name recognition to make voting decisions. Every so often, while he was standing outside that …

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Brook

5:33 pm on Sunday, March 25, 2012

I support David Gertler. 1) He has shown common sense severely lacking from BoE and County Council during past incidents (such as Turner's proposal for appointed members). 2) He encourages a broad focus on all subjects, not just those necessary to pass state standards. In addition, Gertler encourages teaching of application, not just information, educating children on how to use knowledge in the …   more ›

Video: Highlights from Howard BOE Candidate Forum

Video highlights from Monday night's Howard County Board of Education candidate forum.

Fourteen challengers made their case for the three open seats on the Howard County Board of Education at a candidate forum on Monday night. Patch's live-blog of the event is available here. In the video, Corey Andrews, a high school senior from Elkridge, expresses his displeasure with standardized tests. David Gertler, a math teacher from Ellicott City, discusses how technology will transform education. Incumbents Allen Dyer, Ellicott City, and Ellen Flynn Giles, Laurel, debate the current problems on the board. Olga Butler, of Elkridge, tells the audience the board needs to make decisions they can measure. At the end, Ann DeLacy, a former Howard County middle school teacher for 25 years from Columbia, expressed the need for a …

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BLOG RECAP: HCPSS School Board Election Forum

Candidates for the 2012 Howard County School Board election met in Ellicott City to discuss school issues and their bids for a spot on the board.

The League of Women Voters of Howard County is hosting a forum for candidates running for Board of Education from 6 to 8:30 p.m. March 5, at the Board room of the Howard County Public School System headquarters, 10910 Route 108 in Ellicott City.  The League of Women Voters is encouraging citizens to attend the forum and submit questions for the candidates, and Patch readers can post questions or comments through Twitter with the hastag #hocoforum or #hcpss. Three seats are open on the seven-member board. All three incumbents — Allen Dyer, Ellen Flynn Giles and Janet Siddiqui — have filed to retain their seats. Candidates participating in the forum included:

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Brian Hooks

11:42 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mr. Ditch, these are simply highlights of the forum--the whole thing is/was available on the HCPSS website and on the public access channel. For more Patch coverage, please read through the live blog--we were grabbing as many quotes as we could during the entirety of the nearly three-hour meeting.   more ›

Meet the BOE Candidate: Olga Butler

The Elkridge resident and Wilde Lake High School graduate said healthy relationships are key.

There’s a time and a place to talk about “adult issues,” and it’s not at the Board of Education, according to Olga Butler.  The Elkridge resident is one of 15 candidates running for a seat on the Howard County school board, and in her pitch to the Greater Elkridge Community Association (GECA) at its recent meeting, she led with this idea. “The school board currently … gets involved with a little more adult issues than kid issues,” said Butler at the Jan. 26 GECA meeting, alluding to what blogs, newspapers and the County Executive have termed "dysfunctional" behavior on the board. Butler said she would bring something different to the table. “I think what’s important is building healthy relationships … being visible [and] being accountable …

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Mom On The Run

Nothing Fails Like Success

Is The Best School System In The Galaxy Failing My Kids?

  I moved to Columbia from Michigan as a “gifted and talented” high school junior. The school I left had no Advanced Placement (or International Baccalaureate, if that was a thing then) classes. Academically speaking, over the following several months at Oakland Mills High School, I got my butt kicked on a daily basis. Go Scorps! And it was good. I graduated with enough AP credits to finish undergraduate school in three years and mitigate the cost of my ironically out-of-state education at Michigan State. Go Spartans! When my kids entered the Howard County public schools 10 years ago, I knew they would be getting a level of education far superior to what most kids get in this country. That was one of the reasons my husband and I stayed in …

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Thomas Diller

9:19 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Jack, I looked everywhere on the site for these imaginary posts that you're talking about and I don't see them anywhere. Since your memory appears to be better than mine in this instance, please post a link to what you're talking about.   more ›