They done ran the bro away after puttin in that good work... My daughter is leaving the system. So, it kinda matters not to me but I do believe the brother put in that good work during his time. Young fella too!

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/k-12/bs-md-co-dallas-dance-20170418-story.html

Dallas Dance resigns as Baltimore County Schools superintendent

By Liz Bowie and Alison Knezevich Contact Reporters
The Baltimore Sun

April 18, 2017, 1:39 PM

Baltimore County School Superintendent Dallas Dance announced his resignation abruptly Tuesday morning, surprising teachers, parents and county leaders. His last day will be June 30.

He gave no reason for the resignation, and a spokesman said he is not leaving for a specific job.

"I have received several offers, but I have not firmly decided. I look forward to sharing in the upcoming weeks what I will be doing," Dance said Tuesday afternoon.

In a morning statement announcing his resignation, Dance said he believes the school system "is in a better place today then when I first arrived."

"To that end, I now transition to another chapter of my career where I will specifically use my passion for equity and access to a quality education to ensure it is provided to all students through school, district, and community leadership," Dance said.

Dance, who turns 36 this week, was in the first year of his second contract with the school system — a four-year pact paying him $287,000 annually — that the school board approved last year. He headed the 25th largest school system in the nation, and the third largest in Maryland.

School board president Edward Gilliss said it is too late in the year to do a search for a permanent replacement who would have to take the job on July 1. By state law, all school superintendents in Maryland have four year contracts that must begin on July 1.

"I think we are going to have to look toward an interim ," Gilliss said. Because most of the appointed board will be replaced in a 2018 election, Gilliss said, "We should think about how to plan in light of those realities."

County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said Dance told him early this morning he would resign. But Kamenetz said that through conversations he had with Dance over the past few months, he got the sense he might leave.

"He had some family issues that he felt he wanted to better devote himself to," Kamenetz said. "The job of superintendent can be very taxing and there are a lot of different constituency groups you respond to. I think he just decided he wants to take a little break and recharge his batteries."

Kamenentz, a Democrat, credited Dance with increasing the county's graduation rate and helping to close the achievement gap between black and white students.

And he said he was "amazed" at the superintendent's relationship with students, saying that when Dance attended school events, students would gravitate toward him and ask to take selfies.

Gilliss said he believes the county "has been fortunate to have Dr. Dance at the helm...for the last five years. I am sad to see his tenure end."

Gilliss said he did not give the board a reason for the resignation. "But I know the board will have the challenge of deciding how to replace Dr. Dance and to make certain BCPS moves forward," Gilliss said.

While Dance had a string of accomplishments — including beginning a program to put laptops in the hand of every student — he was proudest of the close rapport he had with students, said Mychael Dickerson, a spokesman.

When he went to one elementary school recently, a young boy treated him like a star, saying he would never wash the hand that had shook Dance's.

This morning Dance tweeted "Students - my biggest joy & accomplishment will always be that you KNOW your superintendent! I LOVE EACH OF YOU!"

He had made equity in the school system a priority, and was in the process of providing training to every adult in the school system to ensure that the expectations for all children were the same. He led an effort to make schools in the southwestern part of the county more diverse through a redistricting process. The attempt failed.

The overall graduation rate rose during every year of his tenure, and last year for the first time, the graduation rate for black and white students was the same — 89 percent.

Dance continued to have the support of the majority of the board on most of his proposals.

However, two newer board members had been fierce critics and spoke sharply against his management at board meetings. Board member Ann Miller filed numerous, sprawling requests for information from the school system staff. She said she needed the information to make decisions, but top administrators saw the requests as obstructionist and time-consuming to fulfill.

Miller and Kathleen Causey, both from the Hereford area of the county, voted against giving him a second four-year contract.


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...and wanted to be far away before he got rolled-over.

$287k at age 36 gotta be hard to walk away from.

>...and wanted to be far away before he got rolled-over."

The older white ladies, from the Hereford Zone, gave him hell last summer. They probably still are behind the scenes. The bro did a phenomenal job even though he didn't have the same challenges facing him that city schools present. The County brought its own challenges to the table and he did a great job handling them. I was always impressed to see him speak and to see the results of his work as outlined by local news or in action at my daughter's high school.

>
>$287k at age 36 gotta be hard to walk away from.

Well, since he's been collecting that for the last five or six years, I'm assuming he should be better than ok to step away from it at this point.

Of course Baltimore Sun provides editorial space for thier bullshit:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-dance-retweet-20161115-story.html


am a member of the Board of Education of Baltimore County who voted against Dallas Dance's employment contract renewal earlier this year because I think his job performance warranted it. As a fair person, I was on the fence about whether Mr. Dance's recent controversial retweet and his explanation of it should be cause for his dismissal.

On Nov. 8, Mr. Dance retweeted a post from former Montgomery County School superintendent Joshua Starr. It read: "Educators: tomorrow pls show your muslim, black, latino, jewish, disabled, or just non-white St's, that you love them and will protect them!"


Mr. Dance later explained in a statement that he always leads "from an equity lens with an intense focus on all student populations and ensuring they feel welcome and supported. Education is not void of politics and during the last two years, our country has had one of the most divisive campaigns in modern history. Comments were made that disenfranchised several groups of students we serve in Baltimore County Public Schools. As our nation moves forward, it is our collective responsibility to make sure all students feel safe and know we are their advocates."

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Everyone is hyper-sensitive on issues of race, and the week after one of the most contentious election campaigns this nation has ever witnessed is not the time for a social media post laden with both racial and political undertones. It was very poor judgment.

County superintendent S. Dallas Dance resigns
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County superintendent S. Dallas Dance resigns
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Dallas Dance resigns as Baltimore County Schools superintendent
In a letter to Mr. Dance, I outlined my initial issues with the post, chief among them his singling out and exclusion of white students and the interjection of his personal political views.

I was astonished to find that several days later, Mr. Dance had still not taken down the post. In fact, he had doubled-down his efforts to justify it. So I sent him an email to ask him to remove it.

Dr. Dance:

It has been four days that your controversial retweet has been up which many find to be offensive and inappropriate. It has caused division and incited fear. Please remove it and make a public apology to our students, staff, and parents which should include assurance that our system will not be used as a conduit for schoolhouse activism and will be inclusive of all our students and staff regardless of their demographics.

Ann Miller

His reply was what convinced me he should resign or be terminated.

Mrs. Miller,

Please know that as with several of your emails to me, I find this email disrespectful and offensive. But, this has been your demeanor toward me since even before you had a chance to meet me so I don't know why I would expect anything different.

At any rate, under no circumstance will will I remove the tweet.

As you are going to post this email, please know you have my permission to do so.

Enjoy your weekend, and I will not be responding to any additional emails on this topic.

Ddance

Had Mr. Dance of his own accord recognized his poor judgment from the start and the divisiveness it was causing, taken the post down and apologized, I would not be calling for his resignation.

Had this incident occurred in a vacuum, by a superintendent with whom I otherwise had no issues, I would not be calling for his resignation. However, Mr. Dance can't keep himself out of controversy. He required a waiver in order to be hired by BCPS, he now has two ethics violations under his belt, the only evidence of success of his expensive STAT program is falling PARCC scores, his prioritization of our crumbling facilities is so neglectful that the Board of Public Works felt obligated to require immediate air conditioning relief in our schools, and now this retweet.

We like to say that we hold our leaders to a higher standard of conduct. But the reality is that it is a big deal to fire someone in a position of authority. We don't do it unless we have more than enough reason. The cumulative effect of his many controversies and poor performance has given us more than enough reason.

Even if Mr. Dance feels his post was justified, he should recognize the division this is causing in our school system, county and beyond. He should have taken it down, even if he chose not to apologize. A petition calling for Mr. Dance's termination has garnered over 2,400 signatures in a matter of a few days.

I have had BCPS parents tell me their student was bullied because they supported Donald Trump, and I have had numerous BCPS teachers tell me they were offended by the retweet. A simple Google search will bring up disturbing videos of students being viciously and violently attacked in school due to their support for Mr. Trump. There are white Clinton supporters and black Trump supporters. So the whole truth is that justifications made on the basis of demographics are biased by one's political views. The very existence of this countywide argument is evident of the divisive nature of the retweet. It is causing division and racial tensions, when we need healing and unity. To date, Mr. Dance has still not removed the post, made on his "official Twitter account for Superintendent of BCPS." His hubris is getting in the way of his judgment.

I held back on calling for his resignation in part because I didn't want to join the chorus of people who treat racial issues as though we are a nation of thought policers. Racism itself is not illegal, just immoral, unless one is using it to violate the rights of others, such as life, liberty or their livelihood. But no one is calling for Mr. Dance's arrest, and we are faced with deciding whether his action warrants his dismissal or some lesser sanction.

We have board policy that defines a code of conduct and acceptable use of social media. Mr. Dance has used these policies to terminate teachers' employment. As a BCPS employee, Mr. Dance is also subject to board policy. If we fail to enforce board policy with regard to our superintendent, are those policies moot? Does it give teachers who have been terminated under them a case against BCPS?

The Board of Education of Baltimore County has had no direction yet from its leadership. The board should ask the state superintendent of schools, who has the authority to remove a county superintendent, to ask for his voluntary resignation or terminate him. If the local board does not act, the public should ask the state superintendent to act.

Ann Miller is an at large member of the Board of Education of Baltimore County; her email is amiller.bcps@gmail.com.

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One Hundred.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ann-miller-backlash-20151203-story.html