Schools

Panel to Study Diversity on Howard County School Board to Meet

The panel will determine if there is a better way to ensure different types of diversity on the board.

A Howard County panel charged with studying the structure of the Howard County school board in response to complaints the board isn't diverse enough will have its first meeting Wednesday evening.

The meeting of the panel, called the Howard County Board of Education Study Commission, is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the C. Vernon Gray Room of the George Howard Building, 3430 Courthouse Drive.

On Wednesday, Aug. 3, County Executive Ken Ulman announced that , former state superintendent of schools, will head the commission.

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 came one week after a handful of residents at a  decried the lack of cultural, ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic diversity on the school board.

“For too long, there’s been little-to-no representation in Columbia, where I live, nor has there been adequate racial or cultural representation,” Jacqueline Scott told Ulman at the forum.

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The group will evaluate the current structure of the county school board and how it is selected, review other school boards in Maryland and determine if geographic, ethnic and other elements of diversity “could be strengthened through structural changes to the school board process,” according to a county press release. 


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