Interim Superintendent Named For Baltimore County Schools
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A familiar face is set to take the helm of Baltimore County Schools.
An interim superintendent was approved Tuesday night by the Baltimore County School Board.
Pat Warren reports, the board decided to choose from within.
Because Dallas Dance is leaving suddenly, there's no time to conduct a search for a permanent replacement. The interim superintendent is not only a Baltimore County high school grad, she has two children in the system.
Verletta White is currently the Baltimore county Schools chief academic officer, and she'll step into a challenging parent-teacher relationship built around Dance, who appointed her in 2013.
"It's important for us to hear from our community members and to work together so that we can really tackle those key issues they're concerned about," she says.
Recent issues have included a new grading policy that drew criticism from parents who started an online petition - it was later clarified. There was also backlash from a retweet encouraging educators to show love to non-white students in the wake of campaign rhetoric in the presidential election.
On the plus side, there's been praise for the blueprint 2.0 plan boosting academics, safety and education.
"There were some things that [Dance] has done really, really well and other things that could have used a little more help or a little more thought," says Abby Beytin, teachers union president.
Beytin is praising the choice of White as a steadying influence for the school system.
"We have to make sure that we continue the momentum that we've already started with making sure that we have a personalized learning environment for every single one of our students and that we're steeping our work in literacy as well," says White.
The interim appointment is for one year.
Dance is leaving at the end of June. The school board has the rest of the year to decide if its going to conduct a national search for a permanent replacement.
White's appointment must be approved by the state superintendent of schools.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook