The Harford County Board of Education named a principal for the new Red Pump Elementary School and approved several personnel moves at a board business meeting on May 24, 2010 in Bel Air. E. Blaine Hawley, currently the principal of Meadowvale Elementary School, will become the principal of Red Pump Elementary effective January 3, 2011. […]
HCPS Employees Protest Changes to Health Care Plan
Changes made to the Harford County Public Schools health care plan under next year’s budget would result in higher health care costs to employees and caused two bargaining units to file grievances and hundreds to protest the move at a school board meeting on Monday. Responding to the outcry, School Board President Mark Wolkow said […]
Fairness in Negotiations Act Brings Changes to Public School Labor Negotiations
The passage of the Fairness in Negotiations Act by the 2010 Maryland General Assembly will bring significant changes to public school labor negotiations in Maryland. Is the new law a “big win” or “openly hostile to education”? That depends on whom you ask. In brief, the 24-page Fairness in Negotiations Act creates a state-wide Public […]
“HCPS Doesn’t Have the Right to Teach My Children Discrimination”
A petition with nearly 700 signatures; hecklers who had to be called to order; religious leaders with conflicting views; elected officials invoking parental rights; an ACLU lawyer invoking the law; and school board members whose comments included terrorists, psychotics and recreational sex; all made for a dramatic public comment period at the school board meeting […]
School Board Scratchpad: Budget Woes, Management Shuffle Ahead for Harford County Public Schools
A Harford County Council budget work session scheduled late on a Friday afternoon might sound like a real yawner. But a surprising amount of news came out of Harford County Public Schools’ presentation to the members of the County Council on April 23; and not all the news was about the budget. HCPS has been […]
Harford County Education Association President Won’t Sign Memorandum of Understanding
Harford County’s largest public school employee association will not sign onto a memorandum of understanding that is crucial to the Maryland Department of Education’s application to win a $150 – $250 million share of new federal education funding known as Race to the Top. Harford County Education Association President Randy Cerveny told The Dagger on […]
School Board Scratchpad: Worth Racing To The Top In Harford?
The first in an occasional series of informal reports and ruminations on meetings of the Harford County Board of Education. The latest school board meeting was about a race, and well, race. It generated interesting discussions, especially from board vice-president, Leonard Wheeler. Dr. Wheeler has been somewhat of a maverick, albeit an unfailingly courteous one. […]
Elementary Redistricting In Harford County Public Schools Has Magnetic Potential
Somewhere among Harford County’s thirty-two public elementary schools, there is a seat for every child. In fact, there are more than enough seats, with elementary enrollment at 93 percent of total capacity, and new capacity on the way, with Red Pump Elementary opening in 2011. The trouble is, the kids aren’t always where the seats […]
