Baltimore County Public Schools' new superintendent focused on 4 key areas for upcoming school year
With the first day of school fast approaching, Baltimore County Public Schools' new superintendent Dr. William Heiser has only been on the job for a little more than a month.
"One thing I'd like to say to the public is how grateful I am for the opportunity to serve," Heiser told reporters Wednesday at the school system's headquarters in Towson.
In his new position, the former chief operating officer of Anne Arundel County Public Schools promises to make decisions that best serve the district's 108,000 students and to tackle challenges transparently and collaboratively.
"We've identified four key areas that we're focused on looking at," Heiser said. "Academic achievement, how do we accelerate growth for students? Operational and financial efficiency and sustainability is a big one, making sure we're building for the future. The other one is identifying talent and, so, talent retention. And the other is a really big one -- community engagement."
Addressing financial challenges
Heiser wants BCPS to be a first-choice school district for educators and says the system has conducted summer recruitment events to try and fill the district's more than 70 teacher vacancies.
Other obstacles?
"There are financial challenges. It's been a challenging budget for the last several years. We have had to scale back. There were some decisions that just had to be made in terms of personnel, staffing cuts, that had to be made to meet the needs of the budget," said Heiser.
"Morale is certainly a big issue, whether it be workload issues, things around class sizes, the needs of our students," he continued. "How do we meet those needs over the course of the next several years?"
Improving academic performance
The new superintendent acknowledges other needs, like boosting student performance in math and literacy.
"We are trailing the state in terms of our average scores, and we want to make sure that we are surpassing that state average. Looking at Grade 3 reading is certainly an area that we certainly want to look at, and all the levels are important. But looking at the end of their middle school experience, where they are in eighth grade. The same is true for mathematics," said Heiser.
CBS News Baltimore's Kellye Lynn asked the former principal and school counselor how he'll improve support for special education students and multi-lingual learners.
"Making sure it's a greater inclusive environment for our students, making sure that we have people trained that are doing the work and working closely with families," he explained. "In terms of our multi-language learners, our fastest growing population here in Baltimore County, we need to make sure we lean in with those students, with those families."
Heiser encourages the school community to attend BCPSfest 2026 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 22 at New Town High School in Owings Mills.
Click here to access other important dates and information about the new school year in Baltimore County.
