Post @ Who will replace Morris????

Echoing in agreement shared with you this is a very-very- unusual for the process???? In following up we would like to have you Liz Bowie post the entire related MSDE COMAR law with regard to the local district board of school commissioner’s replacement process guidelines to review for our self. “According to Bill Reinhard, a spokesman at the Maryland State Department of Education, the state decided not to advertise for the position this time around because it received enough volunteers who want to serve on the board.”

Also, is it also public information act cloaked for not revealing to the public who are the ready and willing volunteers’ lining up who want to serve on the school board? Or will the phantom candidates and names remain undisclosed to the public? Also, will the finalist candidates be vetted before an open public forum before the citizens and district school community public for there input and selection of the finalist candidates up for board member selection? Answer whose school board candidate appointment turn is it for this replacement board member seat the Mayors/Governor this time?

Post @ Who will replace Morris????

In following up to seek the MSDE ED COMAR law for the local district school system board member selection process guidelines. I contacted Bill Reinhard by phone and I spoke to “Bill Reinhard, a spokesman at the Maryland State Department of Education” I asked for guidance to point out to me so that I can locate and find for myself the uploaded document MSDE ED-COMAR law on-line on the MSDE web page. And much to my surprise he did not know where to guide me on the MSDE web page to the uploaded document links neither did he even know where to find the uploaded document period neither did he even know where to find the uploaded document link on the MSDE web page himself!!!!

From Liz Bowie’s article quote:” According to Bill Reinhard, a spokesman at the Maryland State Department of Education, the state decided not to advertise for the position this time around because it received enough volunteers who want to serve on the board. This is unusual for the process, in my memory at least, but Reinhard said that there is no requirement to advertise in the law.” This whole process initially in my opinion is now starting to smell like a two week old dead RED HERRING floating in the inner harbor waters and smelling rotten and looking bloated. How can the spokesman at the Maryland State Department of Education be entrusted to be the spokesman and not know anything about the MSDE ED-COMAR law subject and where-about of how to retrieve the uploaded legal document that he is being entrusted to speak to a Sun education beat news reporter who then publishes the article from an uninformed state information source. Then next, as he Bill Reinhard, a spokesman at the Maryland State Department of Education” confessed to me and defended his paucity of subject ED-COMAR knowledge with these explanations “I am not an ED COMAR law expert, and that I consulted with the education attorney generals office for the information that he gave to the Sun education beat news reporter Liz Bowie. He was on the defense during the rest of our conversation and was not a happy man at the end of our conversation and all I asked for was his guidance to help me find the MSDE ED-COMAR school board candidate selection process document on-line. I find this totally remarkable folks do you!!!

I wanted to provide a little more information on what the statute does in fact say. I called the state back and Bill Reinhard did supply the information to Interested & Engaged Parent. Here is what it says:
3–108.1.
(a) In this section, “board” means the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners of the Baltimore City Public School System.
(b) There is a Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners of the Baltimore City Public School System.
(c) The board consists of:
(1) Nine voting members jointly appointed by the Mayor of Baltimore City and the Governor from a list of qualified individuals submitted to the Mayor and the Governor by the State Board; and
(2) One voting student member appointed as provided in subsection (o) of this section.
(d) Each member of the board shall be a resident of Baltimore City.
(e) To the extent practicable, the membership of the board shall reflect the demographic composition of Baltimore City.
(f) At least four of the voting members shall possess a high level of knowledge and expertise concerning the successful administration of a large business, nonprofit, or governmental entity and shall have served in a high level management position within such an entity.
(g) At least three of the voting members shall possess a high level of knowledge and expertise concerning education.
(h) At least one voting member shall be a parent of a student enrolled in the Baltimore City Public School System as of the date of appointment of the member.
(i) (1) Among the nine voting members, at least one member shall also possess knowledge or experience in the education of children with disabilities.
(2) The knowledge or experience may be derived from being the parent of a child with a disability.
(j) (1) The term of a voting member is 3 years.
(2) The terms of the voting members are staggered as required by the terms provided for members of the board on June 1, 1997.
(3) At the end of a term, a voting member continues to serve until a successor is appointed and qualifies.
(4) A voting member who is appointed after a term has begun serves only for the remainder of the term and until a successor is appointed and qualifies.
(5) A voting member may not serve more than two consecutive full terms.
(6) To the extent practicable, the Governor and the Mayor shall fill any vacancy on the board within 60 days of the date of the vacancy from a list of qualified individuals submitted to the Mayor and the Governor by the State Board.
(k) On the joint approval of the Mayor of Baltimore City and the Governor, a member may be removed only for cause in accordance with § 3–108 of this subtitle.
(l) Each member of the board serves without compensation.
(m) On appointment of the board, the Governor and the Mayor shall jointly select one of the voting members to serve as the chairman of the board who shall serve through June 30, 1999.
(n) Beginning on July 1, 1999 and every 2 years thereafter, from among its voting members the board shall elect a chairman.
(o) (1) One student member shall be a student enrolled in the Baltimore City Public School System who shall be selected by the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City.
(2) The term of a student member is 1 year.
(3) A student member may not serve more than two consecutive full terms.
(4) The student member may vote on all matters before the board except those relating to:
(i) Personnel;
(ii) Capital and operating budgets;
(iii) School closings, reopenings, and boundaries;
(iv) Collective bargaining decisions;
(v) Student disciplinary matters; and
(vi) Appeals to the board as provided under §§ 4–205 and 6–202 of this article.
(5) The student member may not attend or participate in an executive or special session of the board.
(p) Any action by the board shall require:
(1) A quorum of a majority of the voting members then serving; and
(2) The affirmative vote of a majority of the voting members then serving.

Liz Bowie

2-d: Are all of our board members really city residents?
Student Mem/ber? so exactly what can the student have a say/vote in exactly?

Yes, all board members are city residents and four currently have their children enrolled in city schools.
Also, three board members have taught or have been administrators in the system.

I wonder how the people who "volunteered" knew to do so if the posting for the two openings was not made public? Is this an attempt to stack the Board? To overcome dissenting voices? This is un-democratic and the Gov and the Mayor should not accept any of the nominees.

Liz dig harder.... somebody has names....

..a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit...

@OTT-
For good or bad, Baltimore doesn't have an elected school board, they are appointed. There's no rule that the gov/mayor needs to put dissenting voices on the board unless they want to. The rules are pretty clear (though long) in the statue that Liz quoted. You're not going to get a "democratic" board without elections and given the general lack of interest/hostility of the general public towards City Schools (remember Canton last year?) I'm not sure that sounds like a good idea.

Post @ CITY school board member!!

Q&A: A major concern. Why is it that the city district board of school commissioners continues to enjoy complete remote communication contact and access separation apart from the district citizens, school community parents and education stakeholders? Why do all board members do not respond to or answers messages forwarded to your school system network assigned @bcps.k12.md.us email?

@AP-

By undemocratic, I meant open to all. And the blame falls on MSDE because as Liz and I&EP stated, in prior years MSDE openly advertised for volunteer. Is there a reason for this change of heart? On the surface it would seem that these are not volunteers but inductees picked from some short list established by MSDE.

The blog also stated how Mr. Morris has been one of the CEO's strongest backers. So my contention is the opposite of what you infered. Is this process being kept closed so that they can pick another Alsono-ite to keep the majority of the the School Board votes in his favor? We already know that MSDE, the Mayor and the Gov are biased supporters.

I am still not quite sure what the School Board actually does but they do seem to approve everything the CEO puts before from. This system needs better checks and balances and having a MSDE handpicked Board does not help.

Tonight is the last meeting that the board will have for a month. I wonder if any action will be taken in this regard tonight.

Word on the street is that there'll be a bunch of discussion tonight about PSASA's plans to sue the city over job cuts for administrators.

All the Inside Ed bloggers post are now being censored.

@OTT -
Sorry if I was being obscure. Let me try to restate - the board is appointed and not elected, therefore the only democracy involved is that the mayor and governor are elected. At the moment I would say both are strongly in support of AAA, so they have no reason/motivation to appoint anyone they don't think is also in support of AAA. Similarly, unless your idea that the position "should be open to all" was a campaign promise, your idea of "democratic" probably isn't a consideration. I'm not saying this is good or bad, it just seems like the way it is.

A democratically selected school board would require elections. In Baltimore I think this would be a bad idea as there are a vocal group of people who do not have kids in City Schools who have no interest in making City Schools better - they just want lower taxes and no kids in their neighborhood (that was my reference to Canton Middle School). I have no idea if these people would elect pro or anti AAA board members, but I'm sure they would not be good for City School employees, students or administrators.

What do you mean censored? Exactly.Is this blog still confidential?

MORRIS RESIGNED TONIGHT???!!!

Now that Mr. Morris resigned from the made up job that Dr. Alonso created for him...can we please make the board justify the need for that position? Or does the board roll over and play dead for all of his majesty's decisions?