The Baltimore County Board of Education appointed Christine M. Johns, a California educator who started her teaching career in Maryland 12 years ago, deputy superintendent at a meeting yesterday.
At the same meeting, the board re-elected Donald L. Arnold and Phyllis E. Ettinger as president and vice president, respectively. Board members who nominated the pair said they "wanted to keep the team together."
Johns assumes her new position as deputy superintendent today. She replaces former Deputy Superintendent Elfreda W. Massie, who left the school system earlier this year for a job with a publishing company in Chicago.
Johns will work closely with new Superintendent Joe A. Hairston, whom she got to know while employed as a teacher and administrator in Prince George's County. Hairston worked in that school system for more than two decades.
"I'm most excited about the opportunity to make Baltimore County one of the best school systems in the nation," said Johns, 34, who worked most recently for the Pasadena, Calif., Unified School District.
In 1998, Johns worked as a consultant in the Boston public school system as part of a superintendents program at Harvard University. Johns expects to receive her doctorate in education administration, planning and social policy from Harvard next year.
The salary range for a deputy superintendent is $115,000 to $125,000. Johns said her salary has yet to be negotiated.