Female delegates scuttle bill on school chief’s title

A title turns out to have a lot more meaning than Del. Keith Haynes expected. The Baltimore Democrat said Friday he is withdrawing his proposal to change the title of the city school’s chief — from “CEO” to “superintendent” — amid criticism from his colleagues that the shift appears sexist. The seemingly mundane title change produced a heated exchange at the weekly meeting of Baltimore’s House delegation. The title was changed from “superintendent” to “CEO” two decades ago amid a push for the beleaguered school system to conduct itself more like a business. But Haynes’ bill proposes to switch the title back to “superintendent” to place greater emphasis on academics. He was supported by the city teachers union. “Words matter,” Todd Reynolds, political coordinator for AFT-Maryland, said. The two men were rebuked by female lawmakers who viewed the shift as sexist. “I totally agree with you that words matter,” said Del. Brooke Lierman. “Having an awesome black woman be the CEO of our school system shows girls in our school system that they can aspire to be CEOs.” Del. Maggie McIntosh suggested that Haynes might not have proposed the bill if a man were currently CEOof Baltimore’s school system, instead of Sonja Santelises. McIntosh said that the CEO title better reflects Santelises’ responsibility for school system finances, and it would be unwise to minimize that role. “You ought to be ashamed, AFT,” she said to Reynolds. “We expect our schools to have responsibility for the budget.” Before testimony had even wrapped up on the bill, Del. Robbyn Lewis moved to vote it down. Haynes defended his proposal, but acknowledged the criticisms. “This is not about an issue of gender or race,” he said. “Having understood that the message is muddled and the tenor and the flavor of the delegation doesn’t seem to be a will to do this, I’m going to simply withdraw the bill. “I know how to read my jury,” he said.