..."They are all about transparency," Markovitz said of the challengers. "They're all about responsiveness. They're all about putting money in the classroom."
The concerns expressed by critics have drawn the attention of other elected officials.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers got a bill passed requiring the state's public information ombudsman to investigate the Howard school system's handling of information requests. The report is due by the end of the year.
County Executive Allan H. Kittleman, a Republican, and the County Council declined to fund the school system's full budget request, and the council is conducting its own financial audit of the school system. Council members are considering asking the Maryland State Department of Education to conduct a performance audit of county schools.
"There have just been numerous concerns, and it is our duty to continue to advocate and fight for our children and our families," said Council Chairman Calvin Ball, a Columbia Democrat.
A state audit released in October found Howard school officials awarded salaries for administrators without school board approval, awarded no-bid contracts without proper justification and made mileage payments to employees without documentation of the travel. The school system's internal auditor defended the practices and criticized the expertise of the state auditors...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ho-school-board-election-20161102-story.html
sounds familiar
ReplyDeleteCritics of the system cite a number of complaints. They say officials were slow to acknowledge and fix a mold problem at Glenwood Middle School and that public information requests go unfulfilled. They also note that there was no public discussion before the board voted in February to give Superintendent Renee A. Foose a new four-year, $273,000-a-year contract and that positions for classroom assistants were cut and class sizes increased.