Residents Ask for Changes to School Board

Parents and community leaders Wednesday night urged a panel of current and former elected officials and school board members to make the county school board more accountable by creating a system in which at least some members are elected.

"It's hard to work with the school board and feel as a member of the public they will listen," said Mary Molinaro, a former teacher in Baltimore County and in the city who is also president of the Chartley Homeowners Association.

Molinaro was one of nearly two dozen residents who attended a public hearing Wednesday night at the public library in Reisterstown. The meeting was held by a commission tasked with examining how school board members are selected.

Molinaro, who spoke for herself and not her community association, and others expressed frustration over feeling ignored. Many said the school board had increasingly walled itself off from parents and community members over the last few years.

Some said the board has also failed to hold schools system Superintendent Joe A. Hairston accountable.

"The school board is a rubber stamp," Schneidhauser said. "I don't think the school board is challenging the administration."

Residents, like Schneidhauser, complained that board policies have essentially barred neighborhood groups from using school facilities. Board members, they said, cannot be directly contacted about issues.

Debbie Hanlon, a parent whose children attended Franklin Elementary, said parents have asked the school board for air conditioning in the building for the last 15 years.

"We're never told why something was done," Hanlon said of budget decisions.

Schneidhauser said many residents feel the board "has disenfranchised the community from the schools."

Abby Beytin, incoming president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said the board has limited its availability to the public. Residents can no longer contact board members directly. Public testimony is taken every other meeting but is typically limited to 10 people.

"How are they going to know what the public wants?" Beytin said.

The union has not taken a position on the issue of an elected school board over the last six years that the legislature has considered such changes.

"What we do know is that the school board is not working well," Beytin said.

The was created by state legislators earlier this year to examine how members of the county school board are selected. The group is expected to make recommendations by Oct. 1 after holding three public hearings this month.

Baltimore County is one of about a half-dozen state jurisdictions that do not have some form of an elected school board. All 12 members of the board are appointed by the governor—a process heavily influenced by the county executive.

Barbara Dezmon, a former deputy superintendent of the school system, testified on behalf of the NAACP. Dezmon said that while the organization had taken no position on the issue of an elected school board, it did want to maintain a diverse school board representation of the county's population.

"What the NAACP is interested in is with the growing population in the school system and the growing population in the county, that we don't have a population that feels disenfranchised," Dezmon said.

Ironically, Dezmon's tenure as deputy superintendent and her creation of the controversial Articulated Instruction Module was a key factor in driving many state legislators to consider the idea of a hybrid elected-appointed school board.

Others testified that creating some form of an elected board would make for a more democratic system.

"People in this county are so disenfranchised they don't even understand what they don't have—what rights they're giving up," said Laurie Mitchell, an Owings Mills resident.

Mitchell said elected school boards are common in her native New York.

Judy Miller, co-chair of the Baltimore County League of Women Voters' education committee, told the panel that her organization studied the issue of elected and appointed school boards.

Miller said that the league supports efforts to maintain diversity among board members but believes a change to some form of an elected board should be the goal.

"We believe in democracy and an elected school board is the more democratic approach," Miller said.

Some members of the panel have previously raised concerns that an elected school board would politicize school operations.

"What the perfect system is—there's no definitive answer," Miller said. "It's too political if it's elected. Well, it can be too political depending on the person appointing. So much depends on the human element."

Miller added: "We know there are risks but there are risks involved in everything."

The task force is scheduled to meet again Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Essex Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library.