The Board of Education will try to quell a two-year controversy when it votes today on policies that would give teachers and administrators more notice and the chance to apply for other positions when they are involuntarily transferred to other schools.
The new policies stem from Superintendent Michael E. Hickey's 1992 transfer of more than 60 teachers and administrators. The move angered parents in several school districts, particularly at Mount Hebron High School, where Dr. Hickey transferred the entire administrative staff -- a principal and two assistant principals.
In other business at today's meeting, the board is to hear reports on plans to scrap the school system's current vocational-technical program in favor of an academically oriented technology magnet program that would rely heavily on private business to train students.
The new involuntary-transfer policy for administrators would require school officials to tell an administrator of an impending transfer by March 15 of the previous school year and give the administrator the chance to move voluntarily to another school.
Parents and community members also would be notified of the transfer 30 days before the end of the previous school year.
Currently, they are notified by the first school board meeting in May of the previous year.
Under the teacher-transfer proposal, teachers would learn by Feb. 15 of the previous school year whether they would be moved, and they would be given the chance to apply for a voluntary transfer to another school.
Principals would be expected to be "sensitive to the possible emotional impact" of such a transfer and to tell teachers about the change in a private setting at the end of the school day.
Teachers also would be notified in writing of the reasons for the transfer.
Teachers union President James Swab worried yesterday that teachers who have been at a school for a long time would be moved simply for a change of scenery.
"They shouldn't be uprooted from a school solely because they've been at the school . . . for a number of years," he said. "It's our hope, if this policy is approved, that it be carried out in a fair, just and professional way."
Parents and teachers who testified at a public hearing earlier this month generally favored the proposals but had reservations.
One emphasized the importance of giving teachers a reason for the transfer. Another opposed the transfer of an entire administrative staff, saying no situation could be so critical as to warrant the transfer of all administrators.
The technology magnet program, also to be discussed, would replace the current vocational-technical program in the 1996-1997 school year.
The new program, which would rely heavily on businesses to give students on-the-job training, would require students to pass prerequisite classes such as algebra and geometry before enrolling.
It also would replace the School of Technology, which is due to close after the 1995-1996 school year and be turned into a lab where students can see demonstrations of the skills they will need in their future technical careers.
Students who otherwise would have attended that school instead would enroll in the magnet program at River Hill High School or at the new high school being built in Long Reach.
The board can still make changes to the plan.
Other items on the agenda today include:
* A revised pupil-assignment policy that would set an Aug. 1 deadline for parents to apply for their students to go to an out-of-district school. Currently, there is no deadline. The revised policy would also keep an elementary school open for out-of-district enrollment until it reaches 95 percent capacity. The current policy sets a 90 percent cap.
* New building specifications for elementary and middle schools. Under one proposal, future elementary schools would have smaller classroom and administrative areas to make space for early childhood, guidance, health, psychological services and physical/occupational therapy programs.
* A report on why some students succeed and others fail, drawn from a questionnaire given to virtually all elementary and middle school students last year.
* A parent-community involvement policy proposal, which formally recognizes the importance of the school-home ties. The proposal encourages parents and community members to volunteer in the classroom and assures parents and families access to schools and to their child's classroom.