Gov. Martin O'Malley appointed a former public relations director for a local hospital and a retired Baltimore Sun reporter and editor to the Baltimore County school board Tuesday. They replace board members whose terms had expired.
George J. Moniodis, a Coldwell Banker commercial sales associate, spent 35 years as public relations director and director of government affairs for St. Agnes Healthcare, one of the area's largest hospitals. He also worked in public relations for the Army and Bethlehem Steel.
Mike Bowler taught English and social studies in Oceanside, N.Y., before graduating from the Columbia University School of Journalism. He worked for small papers before joining The Sun in 1970. He left the paper in 2004, after taking on a variety of roles from reporter to editorial writer, columnist and education editor. Many of his years at the paper were spent writing about education in Maryland. From 2004 to 2007, he was director of communications for the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education.
Rohan Goswami, a senior at Loch Raven High School who is class president, was named a student member.
Three appointments were also made to the Anne Arundel County school board. One was Solon Webb, the founding member of the Parent Involvement Advisory Council for Anne Arundel and member of the Annapolis High School improvement team. The management consultant for Spearhead Electronics Devices has two sons who graduated from Annapolis High School.
Deborah Ritchie, who has had a lengthy involvement with school and countywide PTAs and was the parent involvement chair for the Maryland PTA, was also appointed. She has served on a number of state education panels and helped develop a dropout prevention summit in 2008. She is a registered nurse and works for the Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center.
Katharine Scrugg, a senior at South River High School, will be the student member on the Anne Arundel board.
The governor also reappointed Donna Hill Staton and Charlene Dukes to the state school board. Student Gayon Sampson from Tuscarora High School in Frederick County will be the student member.
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