As mayor, the best thing Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake can do for the school system is maintain a strong relationship with Superintendent Andres Alonso, said former school board member Kalman "Buzzy" Hettleman.

"He is an extremely strong figure, and he's shaking things up," he said. "Now is the time to leave well enough alone as long as he continues to do the right things."

With one open seat on the school board and two other members up for term renewal, Rawlings-Blake will have an early chance to make joint appointments with the governor - her most direct power over the school system. "She should appoint members of the school board who will be supportive of Alonso and not micro-manage," Hettleman said. "That's the most important thing she can do."

Beyond that, he said, Rawlings-Blake should fight for school funding in Annapolis and tout the improvements in Baltimore schools. She showed early signs of doing so in her remarks Thursday, praising the system's improved test scores and listing high-performing schools as a way to keep and attract residents.

"She can continue to attract people back to the schools just by talking about these things," Hettleman said.

HER RECORD

City Council members play little role in shaping policy for Baltimore's public schools, so Rawlings-Blake comes to the mayor's office without a track record on education.

But her father, Del. Howard "Pete" Rawlings, was a major advocate for education funding and helped shape the 1997 policy shift that gave the mayor and governor joint power to appoint the city school board.

"She has good genes," Hettleman said. "You never know for sure what it means, but she comes from a family that's very dedicated to the well-being of children."

Hettleman remembered that when the school board faced questions about hiring Alonso because he was an outsider and not African-American, Rawlings-Blake supported Alonso. "That's a good sign," Hettleman said.