Just three weeks after approving what quickly proved to be an unworkable policy regarding when to close because of heat the 37 Baltimore County schools that lack air conditioning, the school board came to its senses. By an 8-3 vote, the Board of Education decided that effective immediately the superintendent will be required to close those schools only when the heat index is predicted to reach 90 degrees or more by 11 a.m.
The timing was fortuitous, as those schools would have been closed for the third day in just their second week of the year had the board not intervened, a loss of instructional time that had a growing number of parents tearing their hair out. The board even added a loophole to those who can't stand the heat (albeit one of dubious legal standing) — an excused absence to any child withheld from school because a parent or guardian believed it a medical necessity on a day when the heat index is forecast to reach 90 degrees by 3 p.m.
Case closed, right? Well, maybe not. For those who witnessed the 3-1/2 hour proceedings, the board made something else crystal clear as well: Collectively, they take a back seat to none in sheer governmental dysfunction. And not just because they were foolish enough to tie the hands of Superintendent Dallas Dance when it came to when schools should be closed because of harsh weather in the first place.
For those who have never watched the county school board in action, here's a tip: Catch the show on the BCPS website — if you have the stomach for low-brow entertainment. Tuesday night's meeting may only have attracted 30 or so parents in person (a fraction of the number who came to protest the lack of Muslim holidays in the school calendar just one week earlier), but it was a hit on the Internet. Instead of the few dozen who caught the live stream of board meetings in years past, an estimated 4,800 watched Tuesday and were likely aghast as two board members treated Mr. Dance and his staff with all the respect and courtesy the Spanish Inquisition gave reluctant converts. "We're told people watch for entertainment," one staffer admits.
From the acrimony with which board members Ann Miller and Kathleen Causey questioned the superintendent (whether about capital spending, heat closures or most any other subject), it appeared that surely he had been arrested for a serious crime and they had been assigned his prosecutors. Skepticism is one thing, but rarely will one find a chief administrator treated more rudely or questions posed so torturously, repetitively and pointlessly, particularly toward a superintendent whose latest contract, a four-year renewal, began just two months ago.
Ms. Miller, a right-wing blogger who has written forcefully against gay marriage and transgender protections, and Ms. Causey, a Monkton businesswoman who was active in Hereford High School's battle against the county's standardized eight-period day, have clearly embraced their roles as gadflies in their first year on the board rather than involving themselves in governance. In Tuesday night's vote, for example, they proved themselves easily irritated (dominating discussions about everything) but ultimately irrelevant, with only the student board member joining them in opposition to the softening of the heat closure policy.
No doubt there are reasons for such theatrics. A majority of the board will be elected by voters beginning in 2018, and perhaps they want to make a splash with a sometimes emotion-laden issue. But it also appears they've been infected by politics — specifically, the influence of Gov. Larry Hogan who appointed them, and his ally, Comptroller Peter Franchot. The two men have taken up the issue of sweaty classrooms like a cudgel against County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, and their political rivalry seems to hover around board meetings like Banquo's ghost.
Such interference with the education of Baltimore County's school children only shows signs of spreading. On Wednesday in Ocean City, Governor Hogan signed an executive order to force all public schools to begin the instructional year after Labor Day and end it by June 15 unless officials secure a waiver. Once again, the issue of un-air conditioned classrooms in the Baltimore area was raised (although not the failing pipes, leaking roofs, lack of working drinking fountains or other needs that compete for limited school renovation dollars). The only question left is whether state lawmakers, who have rejected such a sweeping mandate in the past, will overturn the decision or whether a lawsuit by the teachers union will do the same by exposing its shaky legal ground. Either way, the whole exercise looks about as pointless as a typical Baltimore County Board of Education debate.
