In a rare display of public candor, several Baltimore County school board members recently lamented having to deal with behind-the-scenes political pressures as they decide what is best for the county's students.
The panel's members generally have tried to cooperate with County Executive James T. Smith Jr. in keeping a lid on spending. But this month they balked, and tabled a much-anticipated vote on a Towson school construction project favored by Smith but disliked by many parents.
The discussion that preceded the board's decision shed light on its relationship with county leaders - and especially with Smith, who helps set the system's budget and makes recommendations to the governor on who is appointed to the school board.
Some critics of Smith's relationship with the county school system, including the teachers union and some parent advocates, have said it was refreshing to see the board take such a public stand.
"It was a bright moment," said Cathi Forbes, chairwoman of Towson Families United and a parent of a Rodgers Forge kindergartner. "It was a really brave decision and showed they really do have the best interests of children in mind."
The action to postpone voting on the plan to relieve crowding by expanding Ridge Ruxton School - rather than building a new school - came two weeks after board members, at the county's urging, adopted a budget without across-the-board pay raises for employees. That prompted the teachers union to threaten job actions, such as refusing to take on assignments beyond their contractual obligation.
At the board's March 11 meeting, Frances A.S. Harris said she and fellow board members met with the county executive in what she described as "pre-budget negotiations" - which included discussion of whether to build a school or add to Ridge Ruxton School, a special-education facility. She said members were told, "basically, if we didn't like what he proposed, we weren't getting anything."
Board member Meg O'Hare echoed Harris' statement, adding "political pressure was brought to bear."
Forbes and other observers have complained that Smith has pushed the school board too many times by telegraphing what is likely, and unlikely, to be supported financially. "It's so disheartening," Forbes said in a recent interview. "Jim Smith keeps overstepping his bounds."
County Communications Director Donald I. Mohler, speaking for Smith, said in a recent interview that any suggestion that the county executive has pressured board members to take specific actions is "patently untrue."
Smith has "an excellent relationship" with the school board and school officials, including schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston, Mohler said. Hairston declined to comment for this article.
"Jim Smith, in everything he does, the entire time he has been elected, he does in a collaborative manner," Mohler said. "The suggestion that the county executive has threatened or put any pressure on any board member is simply not true."
State Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat who represents the Towson area, said "more than one member" of the school board has complained to him. He declined to name the members.
"They have told me they were threatened with non-reappointment if they didn't vote for the Ridge Ruxton proposal," said Brochin, who has been involved in discussions about options to resolve the crowding situation.
The proposal calls for building a 400-seat addition at Ridge Ruxton School on Charles Street in Towson. Some parents complained this was an inadequate response to the crowding situation and could compromise the education of Ridge Ruxton's "medically fragile" children.
County leaders have said the proposal, in conjunction with another plan to make smaller additions at schools along the York Road corridor, would add as many as 900 seats in the Towson area.
Mohler said Smith's staff works closely with the school system to determine "what makes sense" and works for the county overall, but does not dictate how the school board does its job.
"The school board is absolutely an independent entity," Mohler said.
Board President JoAnn C. Murphy said recently that while she has avoided allowing herself to feel pressured to take particular stances, the budget has been a point of frustration because the board relies on the county for the bulk of its funding.
"It's very difficult to be in the position of setting policy and making capital and operating budget decisions, when you know you do not have the final say," Murphy said. "Even when you know this is absolutely the right thing to do, you have to be prepared to take something less than that. ... We don't hold any cards at the fiscal table."
Board member Rodger C. Janssen said he has tried to align his actions with children's, and the school system's, best interests.
"Politics is in everything," Janssen said in a recent interview. "You either do what you're supposed to do, or you cave. ... I've voted against a lot of things because I try to gauge my votes on what is best for kids."
Cheryl Bost, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said she believes the board has avoided taking strong stances "for fear that the county executive will take retribution in another form."
Bost said she was disappointed when board members decided against including a cost-of-living increase in the budget request for the coming school year because Smith advised them not to do so.
"If you still feel strongly that our employees need a pay raise, then take a stand," she said.
Murphy said political pressure had nothing to do with her decision not to seek a raise for teachers.
"I was looking at what is reality, which is [that] there isn't any money," Murphy said. "I was taking what I thought was a road to maintaining what we have in our budget, and not having to cut [teacher] positions or programs."
Mohler said the school budget includes 361 teachers above the system's staffing ratios, at a cost of about $17 million. He said that despite declining enrollment in recent years, the county has not cut teacher positions because it doesn't want to increase class sizes.
Bost has frequently criticized the county's funding of schools, saying that the county has contributed less to the school system since the infusion of money from the Thornton legislation that has pumped millions of dollars of state funding into local coffers for education.
A state report last year found that Baltimore County has increased its local budget for schools by only about $750 per pupil in the past five years, which was the second-smallest increase of any school system in the state except Queen Anne's County.
Mohler said the state's report "doesn't paint an accurate account of the budget picture."
"The bottom line is the budget has gone up every year," he said.
Murphy said she realizes that the county executive's role is to weigh the needs of the county overall, and that sometimes that means the school system has to be willing to take less.
Still, she said, she is undaunted by the prospect of not being reappointed.
"If someone refuses to appoint me because of a position I've taken, so be it," she said.
gina.davis@baltsun.com
Baltimore County school board
The governor appoints the members of the Baltimore County Board of Education. They are limited to two five-year terms. Seven are appointed from council districts and four are appointed as at-large members.
JoAnn C. Murphy President Member-at-large Appointed August 2005 Term expires June 2010
H. Edward Parker Vice president 7th Council District Appointed July 2006 Term expires June 2009
Donna Flynn Member-at-large Appointed July 2007 Term expires June 2012
Frances A. S. Harris 3rd Council District Appointed August 2004 Term expires June 2009
John A. Hayden III 5th Council District Appointed July 1998 Term expires June 2008
Earnest E. Hines 4th Council District Appointed July 2007 Term expires June 2012
Rodger C. Janssen 6th Council District Appointed August 2004 Term expires June 2009
Ramona N. Johnson 2nd Council District Appointed August 2004 Term expires June 2009
Mary-Margaret (Meg) O'Hare Member-at-large Appointed July 2006 Term expires June 2011
Joseph J. Pallozzi 1st Council District Appointed August 2005 Term expires June 2010
Joy Shillman Member-at-large Appointed August 2003 Term expires June 2008
[Source: Baltimore County public schools Web site]