Another city schools administrator departs
It's been a little while since I've updated my list of city schools administrators who have left since the arrival of Andres Alonso, but there's a new one this week: Howard Steptoe, the system's information technology officer. The school system isn't saying much, only that he's no longer employed there. Did Steptoe resign or was he fired? Officials won't say.
My entries on prior departures are here and here. (For the record, not all those listed were forced out, but some -- namely, Linda Chinnia and Gary Thrift -- were.)
Steptoe has been employed in the city schools since 1984. During his tenure as head of the IT department in recent years, the system had its funding from the federal school technology program E-rate frozen because it has not resolved problems from a 2002 audit of the money it received. That funding freeze was lifted in August.
UPDATE, 12/21: Thanks to everyone who e-mailed to tell me about the departure of Deborah Wortham, one of the area academic officers overseeing high schools. Dr. Alonso just confirmed that she retired. For a copy of the letter she submitted to him, keep reading at the end of the entry.
UPDATE, 12/24: System officials also confirm the retirement of James Smith, an AAO who oversaw a group of elementary schools. And they confirm the departure of Michael Johnson, who worked under Steptoe as director of the IT department for the last couple years. They won't say whether he resigned or was terminated.
December 13, 2007
Dr. Andrés Alonso
Chief Executive Officer
Baltimore City Public School System
200 E. North Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
Dear Dr. Alonso:
The Baltimore City Public School System is rich in its capacity to identify and maintain the finest instructional leaders and teachers in the country. The passion and dedication to the students, staff and community is commendable.
For the past two years, Area 6 Administrators have been successful in many ways. They have collaborated and established a bond that has resulted in increased student achievement, teacher leadership and community involvement.
After 36 years with the Baltimore City Public School System, I have decided to cast a wider net and pursue other ways to make a difference for children. My retirement is effective January 1, 2008. It has been an honor to serve the district. During my career, it was my intent to leave a legacy that, "Failure is Not an Option!"
Regards,
Dr. Deborah Wortham
Area Academic Officer Area 6
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
it in policy the city was designed around minimizing damage to the computers by not letting the students use them. for example, restrictive policies kept teachers from installing the drivers on cpus to support printers they bought b/c bcpss wouldn't replace broken printers. the poor distribution of cpus meant they were impractical to integrate into a lesson (what do you do with one cpu in a classroom w/ 30 kids?). internet restrictions blocked children's websites but somehow allowed a coworker to look at porn in the evenings after i left. that completely screwed up the cpu w/ viruses that bcpss was never willing to fix. as a result, the classroom cpu could just sit their unused unless a teacher was really determined to use it. even if a teacher was determined to use it (i was), the use was substantially limited.
a less frustrating problem out of IT was the failure to advertise purchased programs (e.g. digital books and online videos) sufficiently. many teachers i met did not know they had access to these resources through a bcpss website.
did you ever say how the boston trip was? did you meet any neat people?
Posted by: jim | December 21, 2007 12:55 PM
Thanks, Jim. I updated my initial post about the trip talking about the mock school board, but I didn't post about the seminar in general. The group of prospective superintendets was quite impressive overall. One of them may be coming to Baltimore to intern with Dr. Alonso in 2008... I'll write more about him if that materializes. I also got to meet the superintendents who currently have interns, including John Deasy in Prince George's County and Rudy Crew, the former NYC schools chancellor who's now superintendent in Miami.
The link to my initial post is here: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2007/12/what_would_you_ask_a_prospecti.html
Posted by: Sara Neufeld | December 21, 2007 3:20 PM
James Smith, the Area Academic Officer for Area 2, has also retired. That makes how may AAOs who have left the position without a replacement on the horizon? Four?
I've heard it from a couple of places that there are rumors of huge organizational changes coming in the very near future.
Posted by: Claude | December 22, 2007 12:04 PM