Maryland law says newly elected Howard County officials - including school board members - should begin their terms on the first Monday in December, but the Howard County Board of Education has a longstanding tradition of swearing members in a week or more after the legal deadline.

That was the plan this year, until school board member-elect Courtney Watson put her foot down.

"I wanted to be sworn in when the law said I should be," Watson said. "So I called [County Councilman] Guy Guzzone, and he arranged for it."

The school board had slated Watson for swearing in Dec. 12, before the board's first scheduled meeting next month and 10 days after the law says she should take office. But now, after speaking up, Watson will be sworn in with other county legislators Dec. 2 during a ceremony at Howard High School.

All of the other current board members (except for James P. O'Donnell, who was appointed to his position) were sworn in after the first Monday in December.

"Having a reception and board meeting [the first Monday] is just out of cycle," said school board Vice Chairwoman Sandra H. French, who was sworn in Thursday, Dec. 10, 1998. "It overworks staff. It's right after Thanksgiving. It just doesn't work into our schedule."

Typically, the board waits to swear in new members until its earliest meeting after the holiday break. Members do that, they said, for convenience and because there is no real need to do it earlier.

"If there's no meeting, there's not necessarily any reason to [swear members in on the first Monday]," said Jane B. Schuchardt, the departing board chairman, because no meetings means there is no board member participation.

But Watson says it is better to be safe than sorry.

"You don't know, things could come up between the first Monday and the first board meeting," she said. "It's just prudent to always follow the law."

In 1984, another board member-elect, Anne Dodd, chose to be sworn in at the courthouse earlier than her scheduled swearing in.

"They told me I had a choice: I could go down to courthouse by myself and be sworn in or I could have some kind of ceremony with the board, and I chose not to have a ceremony," Dodd said. "I don't honestly remember why I chose to do it that way. I just preferred to go down to the courthouse; I went with three friends."

The ceremony is usually a cookies-and-punch affair, a chance for the new member to chat and mingle with the public, said French, who would still like to hold a reception Dec. 12 for Watson, if possible, though no plans have been made.

Watson is not opposed to the reception. But she said the process should be changed "so the board member is sworn in when the law says they should be" and that if she has anything to do with it, it will.