Howard County Searches Near and Far for Superintendent

The Howard County Board of Education has announced its two finalists for superintendent of schools, S. Dallas Dance and Renee A. Foose.

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Dance is the chief middle schools officer in the Houston Independent School District (HISD), which serves about 203,000 students total; about 33,800 of those are middle school students, according to the HISD website. He has been in that position since March 2010.

Dance helped lead a reorganization called “Apollo 20” to help improve troubled schools, according to his biography. The program included longer school days, a longer school year and paying students to attend weekend tutoring, according to KHOU-TV.

The reorganization also led to moving teachers from underperforming schools, according to reports.

See him talk about Apollo 20 on KHOU-TV.

Dance earned a master’s degree in educational administration and supervision and a Ph.D in educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, according to his biography.

Superintendent Terry Grier told Chron.com that Howard County would be fortunate to bring Dance on board.  “He is unusually talented at working with people from different backgrounds,” Grier said, “has great communication skills and clearly understands that all children need a quality education.”

One commenter on Chron.com expressed mixed feelings about Grier potentially losing a staff member: “So…this is a good thing? To have so many other districts wanting Terry Grier-mentored administrators that outsiders use HISD as a career springboard instead of having a vested interest in the Houston students?”

Earlier this year, Foose was a candidate for superintendent positions in Michigan and Florida. She joined the Baltimore County School Department in the Spring of 2011 as deputy superintendent after serving as an associate superintendent in Montgomery County Public Schools.

A Maryland state trooper for six years, Foose earned a Ph.D in education from the University of Delaware as well as an MBA from Loyola University, according to a statement released by the Howard County Public School System.

Foose has been a teacher, principal and education administrator in Maryland for 20 years.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Foose is the second-highest paid deputy superintendent in the state with an annual salary of $214,000.

Monday evening from 6 - 8 p.m. at the Department of Education building, or watch a Q&A session live online on HCPSS TV, cable channels 42 (Verizon) and 95 (Comcast).