Ekey: Elected School Board Needed To Take Away Superintendant Haas’ “Rubber-Stamp”

March 2, 2008

The Honorable Sheila Hixson
and Members of the House Ways and Means Committee

The State House
Annapolis, Maryland

Dear Delegate Hixson and Members of the Ways and Means Committee:

I am writing in support of HB 779 which would provide for an elected Board of Education in Harford County. I retired from the Harford County Public School system in December 2006 after more than 33 years as a teacher and administrator. I have served as the principal of Bel Air High School, the principal of C. Milton Wright High School, and as the Director of Secondary Education. I am the immediate past president of the Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals. I continue to pay close attention to the operation of the public schools in Harford County and to public education in Maryland.

For the past two decades I have observed and worked with the various people who have been appointed to the Board of Education of Harford County. They have been almost unfailingly dedicated, sincere, hard-working individuals. They have given much time and energy to their responsibilities as Board members.
Continue reading Ekey: Elected School Board Needed To Take Away Superintendant Haas’ “Rubber-Stamp”

Support of an Elected School Board: A Letter to Mary-Dulany James

Dear Delegate James,

I am writing to express my disappointment in your sponsorship of HB 806. HB 806 would create an oligarchy to control Harford County’s voice in the appointment of our school board members. I believe that this bill is directly in opposition to what is best for good government, positive education decision-making, and the people of Harford County.

The greatest accomplishment this bill could achieve is the creation of additional bureaucracy. Your bill would give the power to special interest groups, chosen by a means unknown to the public, to choose dues-paying members of their clubs to sit on a government-created “commission.” The commission would then make, using the criteria it creates, a list of the individuals the collection of special-interest representatives believes should serve on the school board.

Continue reading Support of an Elected School Board: A Letter to Mary-Dulany James

The Elected School Board Stunt of the Week

Take a wild guess – throw a dart with a blindfold on – and you might divine that I’m not a big fan of establishment politics. Nor am I big on PR stunts. The problem with PR stunts is they are inherently deceptive. The stuntmen and stunt women want us to believe what we’re seeing is real. The problem with establishment politics is that society’s pressing need – “the children,” for instance – always ends up playing second fiddle to flaccid businessmen and guileful dealmakers.

PR stunts and establishment politics go hand in hand. One such stunt, designed to protect the status quo against what has become a groundswell of support for an elected school board in Harford County, played out in Annapolis Wednesday.

Del. Mary-Dulany James (D-District 34) considers herself a stalwart of the community’s educational institutions. She has every right to. Not just because her father helped found Harford Community College, but because she’s been a voice of reason during heated education debates past – and because she’s been a defender of the liberal bastion of education in the conservative bastion of Harford’s suburban farm country.

Continue reading The Elected School Board Stunt of the Week