Howard County Public Schools’ ousted superintendent has a new gig with the state board of education.
Renee Foose was approved yesterday for to be the new assistant superintendent for assessment, accountability and information technology for the Maryland State Department of Education. According to a state board agenda, she’s now “responsible for the direction and oversight of the State’s student assessment and school accountability programs.”
Foose served as superintendent of Howard County Public Schools for five years, a period that saw statistical improvements in performance for students, but also intense bickering between Foose and school board members and parents. Foose eventually sued the school board, accusing them of undermining her authority. They then submitted their own filing in court asserting a right to make decisions without consulting her.
Foose’s critics publicly took her to task for what they saw as a subpar response to mold problems in schools, and a lack of transparency in making top-down decisions. During the winter, Howard County community members circulated a petition calling for her to be fired.
It all ended in early May with a hefty buyout that awarded Foose with $1.65 million in salary and benefits as a trade for her early retirement, as was reported by The Baltimore Sun. The state brought in former West Virginia Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano as her replacement.
Now she’s in a new post that pays well, too – between $92,333 and $123,236, according to the board agenda from yesterday’s meeting. That will be on top of the money already being paid out in exchange for her resignation.
Some in Howard County are unsurprisingly displeased about the state education board’s new hire choice. County Councilman Calvin Ball, who holds a doctorate in education from Morgan State University, told the BBJ he’s “deeply disappointed” by the news.
Howard County Education Association president Colleen Morris hasn’t returned a message requesting comment Wednesday morning, but she told The Baltimore Sun, “I don’t understand how the state can hire her as their accountability superintendent when she had these accountability issues in Howard County.”
Before leading Howard County schools for five years, Foose served as deputy superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools for two years, associate superintendent in Montgomery County Public Schools for three years and an administrator at three schools around Maryland from 2000 to 2008.
