Howard needs a timeout
Our view: Conflicts between Superintendent Foose and Howard County’s school board are escalating dangerously and threaten an excellent school system
By most any standard, from high test scores to low dropout rates, the Howard County Public School System is among the best, if not the absolute finest, school system in Maryland. Even Montgomery County with all its per capita terminal degrees and spare-no-expense attitude toward public education takes a back seat to its northern neighbor more often that not.
Take SAT scores, for example. While statewide, Maryland high school students averaged 1428 in the Scholastic Aptitude Test, according to the most recent statewide report, Montgomery County students achieved an average 1629. But their counterparts in Howard County could brag of a 1641, the best of any school system in the state. The same pattern holds true for most every other measure of school performance.
Given that happy circumstance, the latest news to come out of Ellicott City — that Superintendent Renee Foose has brought a lawsuit against the Howard County Board of Education for “illegally interfering with the statutory responsibilities of the Superintendent” — seems extraordinary and alarming. Whatever disagreements have arisen between Ms. Foose and members of the school board, several of whom were elected just two months ago, ought not require a team of lawyers and the judicial system’s involvement.
Here’s an idea. How about a timeout? Or perhaps a conflict resolution session with trained therapists? Or maybe just, as Gov. Larry Hogan suggested after Donald Trump was elected president against the wishes of1.5 million Marylanders, “everyone take a deep breath”? Whatever ill will currently exists between the board and Ms. Foose, it shouldn’t be allowed to overwhelm such a successful school system.
It’s clear, of course, that this conflict didn’t happen overnight, nor did it even start with the election. There have been a number of controversies that have dogged Ms. Foose’s time in office, from her handling of mold in schools to her decision to take a harder line on outside placement of special needs students. Most recently, her administration was criticized in December by the state’s new Public Access Ombudsman for failing to adequately respond to multiple Maryland Public Information Act requests.
And much of that criticism seems deserved, a point with which even Ms. Foose does not wholly disagree. On the mold cleanup, for example, she allows that her administration could have done a better job of public outreach. She’ll also admit to staff errors in handling PIA requests (while also pointing to improvements in how those inquiries from the media and others are now treated).
But just how serious are these transgressions compared to the core mission of a superintendent, which is, after all, the education of school children? If ignoring or mishandling a PIA request was a firing offense (every newspaper reporter’s fantasy, incidentally), we suspect a lot of local, state and federal agencies would be quickly Howard County Superintendent Renee Foose filed a lawsuit against the school board last week. emptied. Even the ombudsman’s report calls for nothing more dramatic than more open communications.
All of which brings us back to Ms. Foose’s core complaint. It appears, according to her court filing, that the board has been attempting to hire an attorney in secret on a sole-source contract with carte blanche authority to look at every file, attend every meeting and generally snoop in any office. Ms. Foose says even she doesn’t have that kind of power, and she questions whether the board can take such action. And there’s irony in the board’s secretiveness, given the call during the political campaign for greater transparency in the system.
Enough is enough. Perhaps it’s time all involved in the management of Maryland’s best school system lowered their weapons. Ms. Foose, who was first hired as superintendent in 2012 and reappointed to a four-year contract just last year, deserves more respect. That doesn’t mean the board should acquiesce to her every demand, but they are there to supervise her and hold her accountable, not to sabotage or undermine her.
What a school system charged with the education of about 54,000 students really needs right now is some grown-ups. Let the board judge Ms. Foose most fiercely onthe metrics that really count — performance in the classroom (and not just in the schools serving the most affluent areas but particularly those that have underperformed in the past). If this is a matter of the local teachers union flexing its political muscles, we’d respectfully request they back down for the sake of the students. If this is a matter of personality conflicts, we’d give them the same suggestion principals so often give to parents whenthey complain their children don’t “get along” with the teacher they’ve been assigned — better for them to learn how to adapt because life isn’t always a bowl of cherries.