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Health & Fitness

Hooray! Maybe there is hope for an independent Baltimore County School Board!

School Board-School Board-What Will We Do about the School Board?

Since the School Board could not get any more political than it is, I applaud Senator Zirkin's promise to Board of Education for Baltimore County. 

I would have preferred removing the politics a little more by having members elected to represent the 5 physical school district areas (SW,NW,Central,NE,SE) so that them School Board members would not be "beholding" to a particular council member, but if that cannot be agreed to then Senator Zirkins proposal of seven elected and two appointed will have to do.

I would hope for the sake of the students in Baltimore County that the two appointed members represent the majority minority of the students (they do not need to be black, hispanic, asian, etc.), but they should be people who understand education and have the passion to represent those students whose parents/guardians/families do not have the luxury of attending Board meetings in Towson because they are working to house and feed their students.

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Appointment by the County Executive will not be any better than appointment by the Governor.

County Executive Kamenetz appointed Michael Collins because he enthusiastically supported his election bid.  The female appointment, Ms. Gordon, is an attorney who has served on Commissions/Boards at the State level, lives in Towson and is unknown to the minority community in NW Baltimore.  I heard she had to be talked into taking the position. 

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The current Board leadership team?  White and political. The President and VP are two former Baltimore County government employees appointed in the same year by former County Executive Jim Smith.  One is married to a lobbyist, did not send children to Baltimore County Public Schools, and never had time to attend Board functions other than the scheduled Board Meetings. 

Where in this entire process have you heard about transparency on student achievement?  Who has even mentioned students or student achievement?  It is pathetic that there has been steady student achievement growth for 11 years and nothing is ever mentioned about the students. 

Do you know that BCPS and its students have received national and international recognition and accolades?

Do you know that more students, regardless of zipcode, culture, socioeconomic status, are achieving at high levels than ever before in a large majority minority student population system (104,000 students  served by 8500 teachers--17,000 employees altogether). 

What is really at stake is whether the School Board is populated with political puppets and a few token minorities who are kept from positions of leadership.  It is about money, power and politics.  It is about keeping Baltimore County in the past and not recognizing that Baltimore County is not rural and white anymore.

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