At each Baltimore County Board of Education meeting, CASE has three minutes to present information to the board in the interest of our organization. The following is a transcript from one of those meetings.

Good evening Chairman Gilliss, Superintendent White, and members of the Board.

I want to share with you tonight some positive thoughts. You may recall that in my prior messages to the Board, I have emphasized the need for consistency through all facets of the organization, and the need for ongoing professional development and support for the school based leadership.

Tomorrow, all BCPS principals will convene for a monthly Principal Leadership meeting, where valuable information and professional development will occur. In years past, principals would have been expected to carry that information and learning back to their schools and share it appropriately with their assistant principals. This lends itself to many different messages and with varying levels of success.

On Thursday and Friday of this week, however, all assistant principals will be attending one of 4 sessions with the same truncated content shared with principals on Wednesday. This same process will be repeated throughout the year.

This model of support and professional development provides consistency of message to the front-line leadership in the schoolhouse. Kudos to Superintendent White for this visionary paradigm shift and to Billy Burke, and Heather Lageman and her team, for the implementation of this vision.

Finally, I would like to congratulate CASE member Fran Glick, coordinator for library media programs and digital resources for being named one of 6 national finalists for the School Superintendent Association’s Women in Leadership Awards, and to CASE member Sandra Reid, Principal of Pikesville High School for being named Maryland’s Secondary Principal of the Year.

Thank you.

— Tom DeHart, Executive Director