School Board Elects Pruski as Next President
The at-large school board member received the unanimous support of the board. Teresa Birge was elected as vice president.
Andrew Pruski is the new president of the Anne Arundel County Board of Education
submitted
Photos (1)
Photos
The Anne Arundel County Board of Education has unanimously elected Andrew Pruski as its next president.
The board voted 8-0 in support of Pruski, who joined the board in 2009. He will replace Patricia Nalley.
Pruski is a Gambrills resident and works as an assessment supervisor with Baltimore County Schools.
The board also unanimously elected at-large member Teresa Birge to serve as vice president for 2012-2013.
Ronald
4:23 pm on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Good for Andrew. After losing to Benoit I thought he would pack up and call it quits. God Bless and thank you for finally electing someone with common sense.
hawkeye
12:55 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Ronald are you insinuating that Patty Nalley, Eugene Peterson, Ned Carey or any of the other past presidents of the school board had no common sense? That's weird.
Ronald
2:30 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Not at all. Sorry if it came across that way. I just believe that Andrew is an excellent fit for this positon and I hope his leadership will prove to be what we need in order to stand up to developers, unions, and - in some cases - parents.
As far as being elected - not going to happen. The Board is an arm of the county and as such the county will continue to appoint them. If we don't like the appointments then we need to 'elect' a new County Exec. and Governor. That is how we elect the School Board. Electing a school board gives too much power to local favorates that focusing on campaigning rather than leading. Citizen Advisors are good in theory but do very little in reality. Most Citizen Advisors have, by definition, their own agendas. I still vote for Home Schooling and using the school buildings as homeless shelter or community centers or work training centers - let's lower our taxes.
Laura Gayvert
7:02 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
I don't know Mr Pruski--and I wish him well.
However, I will be happier when AA School Board is ELECTED by the residents of the county, like over 90% of the country, not filled through political appointment. And, now, even the Citizens Advisory Board, who's job it is to advise the Board and give voice to the concerns of the parents and community, isn't independant anymore, but rather appointed by the school board itself. Do you think a Governor is going to appoint Board members who will fight him on important issues? Do you think the Board, in turn, will appoint Citizen Advisors who aren't going to follow suit? This is the epitome of a self-licking lollipop.
Dan
7:43 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Laura, I agree with you whole heartedly. The BOE needs to be ELECTED by those whom they are elected to serve - the citizens!
Peggy O
9:28 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Laura, couldn't agree with you more. In this day and age, to have an appointed school board, whoever heard of such nonsense? What possible logical rationale is there to justify it, other than because it's the way it's always been.
Amy Leahy
10:45 am on Thursday, July 12, 2012
Michael Busch, the Speaker of the House, refuses to consider an elected school board for Anne Arundel County. A change such as this requires a change to the Annotated Code of Maryland, which in turn means the only way to achieve this would be another petition drive to get it on the ballot for the voters. The last time it was on the ballot, the politicians really put the screws to the citizens by portraying the Nominating Commission as a non-partisan group of appointed people who would be objective in their vetting of candidates. But the beauty of this proposed system was that it would REQUIRE the governor to appoint one of the candidates.
Just as this county has a true representation on the county council - and we elect both Democrat and Republican county executives, we should have a true representation on our school board. Having only one or two conservatives on this very important board, making policy decisions and budgetary decisions, means that at least half of the population has no say in their children's education.
Individually each of the school board members is dedicated to the job they do, realize the importance of the decisions they make and are passionate about their duties. I know the number of hours they put in since my husband was one of them for 5 years. I simply believe we need to have board members who are answerable to the parents and the only way to make that happen is to have an elected board.
Ronald
2:35 pm on Thursday, July 12, 2012
The school board should be answerable to ALL the citizens that are paying taxes and not just to the parents. Parents, by nature, want what's best for their kids and not the community as a whole. I don't think that a school board should favor any one school at the expense of any other and I certainly do not believe that School Board members should even be voting on issues that affect the schools that their children are going to (isn't that what is called 'conflict of interest')?
Amy Leahy
11:03 am on Friday, July 13, 2012
Ronald - just a question: What do you think the schools are supposed to do?
My answer: Educate our children.
Ronald: Who do you think should have the most say in their kids education?
My answer: Their parents.
Roanld - because we do not have an elected school board they are not answerable (as you seem to believe) to ANYONE.
Your ignorance is showing if you think the county appoints school board members. The county citizens and the county executive and the county council have no influence on school board member appointments.