...A power struggle between Foose and the school board erupted last spring after three new board members were elected on a platform opposing her. She was left her with a minority of the board’s support. Foose eventually sued the school board claiming, among other things, that they were trying to usurp her authority. Under a settlement reached with Howard County and signed May 2, Foose agreed to drop her lawsuit and both sides agreed to cease making disparaging comments about each other. The terms of the settlement were criticized by legislators and parents at the time as being excessive and a waste of taxpayer money. Her opponents had said she was dictatorial and ignored issues that were important to parents.
The hiring of Foose by the state education department angered state Del. Warren Miller, a Howard County Republican.
“She received well over a million dollars. Now we are rewarding her with a state job?” he said. “I think the biggest issue is that this is someone who sued the taxpayers of Howard County. We never found out in court what would have happened. ….I think this is a tremendous liability for the state taxpayers.”...
The "Peter Principle" is alive and well!
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon,
ReplyDeleteI am writing in vehement opposition to the appointment of Dr. Renee Foose to the position of Assistant Superintendent in charge of Assessment at the Maryland State Board of Education. Dr. Foose, after the devastation she wrought on the Howard County Public School System, is an extremely ill conceived choice for administration of public schools at the state level.
Shortly after Dr. Foose arrived in HCPSS, she shut and bolted the doors to community input into the school system. Teachers and staff feared retribution or loss of their jobs if they spoke out against policies and conditions in HCPSS that were detrimental to student learning. Citizens seeking public information from HCPSS were forced to file MPIA requests that were often ignored or delayed indefinitely. This got so bad, the state legislature was forced to intervene in the form of a law placing stringent requirements on HCPSS to comply with Maryland Public Information Act requests.
Health concerns related to mold outbreaks were summarily dismissed by Dr. Foose's administration and only brought to light by a concerned citizen and her advocacy efforts. Dozens of students and staff were sickened by mold contaminated classrooms and portables and Dr. Foose dismissed it as a maintenance issue.
The Special Education community saw our concerns brushed aside or ignored completely by Dr. Foose's administration, as our children's class sizes grew and teachers and related service providers saw their caseloads grow to the point where they could not effectively serve each individual's needs. Both special education and general education students suffered as their individual needs could not be met by a shrinking number of support staff in the classroom.
When a new Board of Education was elected that began to ask questions to Foose's staff about some of these issues, Dr. Foose shut them down. She wound up suing the Howard County Board of Education, essentially for questioning her actions (as they should as her employer) rather than rubber stamping them. Her refusal to work collaboratively with the Board of Education brought our school system to a standstill.
I implore you to reject her appointment to this position. The state of Maryland needs all of its state level superintendents to be collaborative and work with and not against our public school system around the state. Dr. Foose is the wrong person for this position.
Thank you,
Leslie Kornreich
Parent, Howard County Public Schools
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=736687396539852&id=702589336616325&comment_id=736722916536300¬if_t=comment_mention¬if_id=1505843231447786
Update: Renee Foose backed away from taking the job she had been hired to do at MSDE.
ReplyDeleteLarry Hogan and some members of the Howard County State Delegation had written to the Maryland State Superintendent Karen Salmon on Wednesday. By Wednesday evening, Foose announced she would not take the job.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-foose-hogan-20170920-story.html
The governor and his cabinet really need to take a close look at this state board of education, all of whom were appointed by Hogan. This is not what the voters want. We are tired of cronyism. Creating a new job for a failed superintendent is not what we want.
ReplyDeletePolitics as usual "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours."
Delete