Baltimore schools CEO to be replaced by former academics chief

...The decision ends Thornton's divisive tenure less than two years into a four-year contract. State lawmakers, religious leaders and education advocates have said he lacks vision, direction and follow-through, and a growing number of lawmakers and community activists in recent months have called for his ouster.

Thornton, who came to Baltimore from Milwaukee in 2014, grappled with a litany of financial and operational mishaps as head of Maryland's fourth-largest school system. He leaves the district embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with more than a dozen charter schools...


...The board did not announce publicly that a search was underway. The board made its offer to Santelises on the last day of the Maryland General Assembly session in April, when lawmakers approved legislation that established a partially elected school board and required one lawmaker from the House of Delegates and the state Senate to take part in selecting the next CEO.
That bill has not been signed by Gov. Larry Hogan and has not become law.
Historically, superintendent searches in the city have been announced publicly but were kept confidential. The board that hired Thornton held public forums during the search process.
Cooper said the board did not announce the search, conducted by the local firm EntreQuest, because board members did not want it to become a distraction for teachers, students and administrators. Job candidates signed a nondisclosure agreement...

 Since Santelises left the district in August 2013, she has served as vice president of K-12 policy and practice at The Education Trust, a Washington-based think tank...

...The board is scheduled to vote next Tuesday on a four-year contract that would pay Santelises $298,000 a year.
Thornton's deal was worth $290,000 a year. He will receive his third-year salary under a separation agreement negotiated by the board, Cooper said.
On Tuesday, the school board also approved an annual budget that cuts central office staff, including school police officers, and funds literacy and math initiatives...

 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-thornton-out-20160503-story.html

Would Thornton Put a Cell Tower on a Bethesda High School Roof?

Cell tower on roof of Baltimore City school.

Baltimore City Superintendent Gregory Thornton used to work for MCPS and back in 2011 his was one of the names being circulated to replace Superintendent Jerry Weast.

  

Thornton is currently the superintendent of the Baltimore City Public Schools and busy putting cell towers on the roofs of public school buildings.

  

If Thornton had become the MCPS superintendent in 2011, or becomes the superintendent in the future, will he be putting a cell tower on Whitman High School's roof?  

OPEN LETTER TO Superintendent Gregory Thornton and the Baltimore City Board of Education regarding his plan to put a cell tower on the roof of another public high school in Maryland:

Honorable Members of the Baltimore City Public Schools Board and CEO Gregory Thornton,

Please DENY the request before you today, which asks your approval for Wireless Communication Lease Agreement with Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless for the City School site known as Digital Harbor High School #416 (1100 Covington Street, 21230). The action requested would not be consistent with your trust obligations under Section 4-114 of the Maryland Education Article, and would therefore be illegal.

If you doubt our warnings, then please table the matter to seek the Maryland Attorney General’s opinion. Consistent with several previously issued Maryland Attorney General’s opinions and advisories, we are confident that you will receive guidance that your entering into the Cellco/Verizon lease agreement would be illegal.

Maryland Coalition to Halt Cell Towers at Schools 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


For background on Digital Harbor High School, take a look at the Maryland Report Card information.  Digital Harbor High School is a Strand 4 school in Maryland (Strand 1 is the top of the strand rating scale, Strand 4 is not good news).  Scroll down for more information on Digital Harbor High School.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Baltimore City Public Schools Board Agenda for Tuesday, September 8, 2015:

Meeting

Sep 08, 2015 - Public Board Meeting

Category

PROCUREMENT - CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Subject

Cellco Partnership - Verizon Wireless Telecommunication Lease Agreement - The Chief Operating Officer requests the Board’s approval of a Wireless Communication Lease Agreement with Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless for the City School site known as Digital Harbor High School #416, located at 1100 Covington Street, 21230.

Type

Action

Cellco Partnership - Verizon Wireless

Telecommunication Lease Agreement

Request of the Board

The Chief Operating Officer requests the Board’s approval of a Wireless Communication Lease Agreement with Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless for the City School site known as Digital Harbor High School #416, located at 1100 Covington Street, 21230.

This Lease provides for Verizon Wireless to operate 12 wireless communication antenna panels and associated equipment on the rooftop of Digital Harbor High School, to accommodate increased wireless voice and data demand for those residents living in the Harbor East, Federal Hill and Key Highway sections of Baltimore City. 

Annual rent for the first year will be $35,138.40, with annual increases of 4% thereafter throughout the original and renewal terms.

Community notifications in support of this proposed lease were submitted to the following neighborhood groups: Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, Key Highway Community Association, Riverside Neighborhood Association, the Federal Hill South Neighborhood Association and Friends of Federal Hill Park, without any negative feedback received from any community group.

The Baltimore City Board of Municipal & Zoning Appeals, after providing public notice, reviewing the zoning records and holding a public hearing on February 11, 2014, by unanimous consent of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, approved Verizon’s request to install a new telecommunications facility consisting of 12 antennas and equipment on the rooftop of Digital Harbor High School.  The Resolution of approval was granted on February 24^th, 2014.

FCC compliance testing for RF Frequency Exposure has also taken place and the Pre-Installation Assessment shows that the equipment is compliant with FCC and OSHA standards and regulations.

Feedback from the school Principal was also requested, with no negative feedback coming from the Principal of Digital Harbor High School.  

Selection Methodology

Contract Types:          Wireless Communication Lease Agreement

Contract Term:            5 years, commencing upon School Board approval                         

Renewal Term:            3 renewal periods of five (5) years each       

Vendor & Amount:       Cellco Partnership (d/b/a Verizon Wireless)

Funding Source:         N/A

Solicitation Process:   N/A

MBE/ WBE Results:   N/A

Evidence of Effectiveness

Approval of this Lease Agreement will provide for increased wireless coverage to accommodate increased digital demand for those residents [Editor note: NOT FOR BENEFIT OF STUDENTS!] living in the areas of Harbor East, Federal Hill and Key Highway.  Baltimore City Schools benefits from the additional lease revenue that it receives from Verizon Wireless throughout the term of the lease

 Author: Paul Turner

   416 DigitalHarbor Profile by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Habemus Papam!

Well, not quite.  However based on our research, we have found three people that could be new superintendent candidates: Heath Morrison, Frank Stetson, and Gregory Thornton.

The secret 'Community Committee' has it appears almost or has completed their interviews.

Paula Bienenfeld
Education Committee Chair, Montgomery County Civic Federation

MCPS "Checkered pasts" uncovered by Milwaukee reporter

MPS finalists have checkered pasts
By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 21, 2010

...Property records obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that Thornton, who is the superintendent of the 7,800-student Chester Upland School District in Chester, Pa., filed for individual bankruptcy in 1997 when he was living at a Silver Spring, Md., address....

...According to Maryland Circuit Court records, two federal tax liens were filed against Scott in July and October 2008, for $50,444 and $13,591, respectively...

...Scott is an associate superintendent for Montgomery County Public Schools and heads the district's Office of Shared Accountability...

...Maryland was criticized by the U.S. Department of Education for having one of the "worst overall records" in terms of compliance with federal special education mandates, according to a report that came out of Scott's office in 2009... 

Scott said his office is working to improve the situation.

1/22/2010 UPDATE: Checkered histories of superintendent finalists draw attention

Picking a new superintendent

It's time for Montgomery County citizens to start learning about the process for picking a new public schools superintendent. Our current superintendent, Jerry Weast, has said he will not stay on when his current contract is up on June 30, 2011.

Milwaukee Public Schools is currently selecting their next Superintendent and two of the finalists have MCPS connections, one current and one past.

We can start educating ourselves about selecting a new Superintendent by following the Milwaukee Public Schools' process.

In two December 31st articles from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel we learn that; the Milwaukee press is interested in pursuing candidate selection information that should be public under the open records law, and that disability groups are not represented on the stakeholder panel that will interview the candidates for superintendent. 

Journal Sentinel sues MPS for release of candidates' names

...The Journal Sentinel is suing Milwaukee Public Schools under the state's open records law, seeking to force the district to reveal the names of the six final candidates in the search for the next MPS superintendent...

Who's in, who's out of MPS superintendent stakeholder group

...Then there's the issue of people who wanted to be included on the list, but weren't. Several disability rights advocates expressed concern that while the stakeholders Bonds recommended were racially diverse, nobody on the list represented people with disabilities.

Karen Avery, associate director of IndpendenceFirst, said that surprised her, given the high percentage of students in MPS that receive special education services.

"We want to know what (the potential superintendents') experience and expertise is in dealing with special education issues, and what sorts of skills they have to deal with the current situation," Avery said, referring to an ongoing and complex lawsuit MPS is embroiled in, regarding its ability to adequately provide special education services to students...

2/3 of candidates for Milwaukee Sup job have MCPS connection

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports on a current MCPS associate superintendent and a former MCPS deputy superintendent vying for the job of Milwaukee Public School superintendent.

The Milwaukee School Board has narrowed its list of candidates for Milwaukee Public Schools' next superintendent to three, the school district announced in a news release Thursday night.

The three finalists are:

• Robert Alfaro, area superintendent of the Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nev.

• Stacy Scott, associate superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Md.

• Gregory Thornton, superintendent, Chester Upland Public Schools, Chester, Pa.

And here is a Seattle Times article from 2007 when Gregory Thornton was also applying to be the Superintendent of the Seattle school system.   

The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that Thornton was one of two district officials who signed off on a $926,000 no-bid contract with Plato Learning five months after the education-software company subsidized their trip to South Africa. According to the paper, the district acknowledged the ethics violation last year and promised disciplinary action against Thornton and the other official.


In an interview today, Philidelphia School District Chief Executive Paul Vallas said the district formally investigated the matter and found Thornton had already planned the Africa trip before taking the job with the Philidelphia district.

Read this article closely. It says that a trip to Africa that was partially paid for by an education vendor was planned before Mr. Thornton started at the Philadephia position.

In June of 2004, the month of the Africa trip that was partially paid for by an education vendor according to The Philadephia Inquirer, Mr. Thornton was still employed by MCPS (see bottom of page 23).