Cool last name but she's making as much as MoCo Supe. who runs a system three times the size of HoCo.

Sorry, the superintendent does not deserve to make THAT much money... maybe 150 is acceptable. Now if they schools can just eliminate other overpaid administrators, and spread the money to the people that REALLY deserve the money... The TEACHERS!

A year ago Montgomery county paid her 162K so by flipping jobs which includes the 214k Baltimore residents were pissed over she just received an 88 thousand dollar pay raise plus 25 grand to move and a car. That is a huge undeserved pay raise for a novice with only 3 years teaching experience. So is it her fault for milking the system? The problem has to be our BOE is brain dead and every last one of them needs to be thrown out at the election. How many of you where able to hit the government pay day lottery for a 100 thousand dollar raise? Now we see why the public was not allowed to participate in this. Foose and the BOE need to resign befor one dime more is paid in this charade.

Jack Thompson

A million dollars for someone who will not teach a single child anything. Our school board is comprised of a bunch of wannabe democrat politicians. Really sad.

This is ridiculous in this economic climate! But she is not the only one!! There are appointed offices where Jim Irvin director of public works is making a $175,000 a year plus benefits and pensions. This is typical top heavy middle management. Ulman $160,000 what are we paying for! Howard County big hype!! For long term residents... It is difficult because they increase overhead and lower the quality of life. Money and power corrupts. We need to cut salaries and reduce overhead. We need an efficient mean and lean government. This is not about any political party. It's about the people who work in govt who think they are entitled to make 2 to 8 times other people including benefits a lot of us don't have. I would think you should make her use her own car and submit mileage like anyone else! Accountability in Howard County is lost!

For crying out loud. Seriously? Although I no longer have children in school, I do understand the importance of education . It is the biggest indicator of how well a county does. But, this kind of money in these days is absolutely reprehsible. $25K to move? Where is she moving from, Mars? I'm really appalled and I vote.

I agree with Polly and all the others on this thread. I no longer have children in school, but am outraged this woman is receiving such an outrageous salary, car reimbursement, and 25K for moving expenses. I believe that was her downpayment on her new home in Howard County - I have moved around the world and never spent 25K for any of the moves. My most espensive move was from Virginia to South Dakota 6K (included storage) - Who is monitoring our tax dollars - This is a crime, she is a thief and those who supported this outrageous salary should be ashamed, and sent to prison for robbing the public. We need to rally to remove these people from our public sector - they are a mini-GSA, and using our money to live high on the hog at our expense, when we do without, they live it up. SHAME - SHAME - SHAME on all of you.

https://www.ocps.net/sb/Documents/Supt%20Search/Renee%20Foose.pdf - Check this out folks - she was a Cop for 6 years. She applied to Orlando, Florida, and was not accepted - so Howard County gets what Orlando, Orange County, Florida did not want. She lives in New Market, MD - 25K to move from New Market to Howard County? Check out her resume - very interesting, and suspicious. Who vets these people? Short term in Baltimore to Howard County. I wonder if this was the resume given to the Board of Education? -

Laurie - I would remove her address if I could change the website, unfortunately I am not tec savy, I need assistance from my children daily. The place to make your complaint is with Orlando School District in Florida; they posted it. I was seeking information on the distance Ms. Foose needed to move, which cost all of us, the taxpayers 25K to move her. New Market to Howard County? Another interesting topic, the article stated she made 214K in Baltimore County, but her resume stated she made 105K 2009-2011 for Baltimore County; but she made 140K for Montgomery County. She either lied to Howard County, or lied to Orange County, Florida. She applied for the job in Florida in January of this year, so you make the judgement. Why would she take a pay cut of 35K to work in Baltimore? Why do we pay $700 per month for her car? She should have a County issued government vehicle (should be a lot cheaper than $700). My guess is it is a leased vehicle from local dealer. That's $8,400 per year (are we paying for her car insurance, as well)? Next thing we will be paying for the dating service she needs, since she is SINGLE. Am surprise she doesn't have a clothing allowance, food allowance, lawn care allowance, and cleaning service allowance. She is laughing all the way to the bank, thanks to the sacrifices of the taxpayers (especially to those of us whose children are out of the system). Plus, nothing has been written regarding her retirement benefits?

This is an article which is drawing attention http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301372.html

The search in Florida was open and members of Howard county's BOE used it to show Foose was willing to be publicly vetted albeit our search in Howard county was closed completey to the public. Foose also applied for the job in Baltimore amongst others. These candidates flip jobs the same way people once fipped houses and the tax payer is stuck with the bill. I beleive the BOE had no clue as to what they where doing and committed this blunder behind our backs in a charade they are now trying to legitimize. I do not beleive the search drew competent candidates and we were left with the scraps of an incompetent search. Our education system is broken and without oversight. We need all to be very loud and send a strong message. I wouldn't be surprised if Foose went to Disney Land after signing the contract. This is an embarrassment.

Is there any way of finding out who the specific individuals were on the BOE who approved this? They need to be held accountable for this, and the citizens of Howard County need to take on the responsibility of forcing each of these individuals out of office.

The majority, Not Dyer, decided to do this behind our backs, hire a search firm and advertise a price with the grand vision people of quality do not want to be publicly vetted. There you go, we got scraps who is now making 100 thousand more then she was a year ago, as for quality, we got inexperience.

The best idea would be term limits and public inclusion. Until they understand this we should kick them all out at every election.

Try to hire a CEO of an organization with as much responsibility as a superintendent, as much schooling, and that is on call 24/7 for 250k. You wouldn't have a snowball's chance in Hades. Education is a business.

My point is that education is a business. Obviously, Dr. Cousins was not meeting expectations and the decision was made to replace him. This happens in business all of the time. My other point is that if you would compare the responsibilities of a superintendent to those of a CEO in the business world, you would find that the salary of the CEO is far higher. Why do people always think that education should be cheap? I'm sure a candidate could have been found that would have accepted $150,000, but you get what you pay for. I think it would be interesting if a Patch reporter did a series of reports on the daily responsibilities of a superintendent. I think many would be shocked at the enormity of the job.

Im not from your state but im not surprised at what your school board did. We have the same problem in Michigan. School boards really arent educated enough to make hireing decisions like that. Their needs to be state legiation guide lines on hireing school superintendents especially on their severance packages, they are over paid ceos!

All this fuss about someone who has not even started her job yet? Sorry if it's news to you but $250K is normal for the superintendent of this kind of school district. It's not an 8-5 office job that you forget about when you go home. These comments do serve to show what kind of scrutiny and expectations a school superintendent does receive in a top-tier school district. Thus the high salary. By the way $25K is top limit for her moving expenses, and is not an atypical recruiting incentive.

I would be more worried if they weren't paying her enough to that job. You get what you pay for...

My point exactly, Frank. The children deserve the $250, 000 model, not the bargain basement model.

$250, 000 model ? Try lipstick on a pig is bit closer to reality.

What is hurting our children is the gross incompetence in the hcpss, overpaid inexperienced novices like Foose who made a carreer flipping jobs, educators who sat silently while the entire American education system deteriorated and taught our children to tests instead of educating them to produce misleading scores and a BOE who failed the public in every way choosing to defer judgement to a system with absolutely no oversight.

The BOE conducted interviews behind the public's backs in a motel and hired a novice. Not a single parent had any input into this. This is what is hurting "our children".

"job flipping" is most accurate as is the educational bubble of college debt.

"The accomplishments of the children in that system" I would absolutely call folks in the hcpss incompetent, self serving, over paid as well as lacking the morals to stand up and teach instead of sending these children out in the world with no skills where about half need remedial ed before college and the college graduation rate is as low as 10% at HCC. Of the 1,000 hcpss grads which enter HCC each year only about 100 graduate in 4 years. Now I do not call these acomplishments nor do I fault our children. These numbers represent the poor quality education the children in Howard county recieve which is covered up by the teach to the test assessment scores which you may refer to as an accomplishment. You can only blame the "educators" for such poor outcomes of which grossly overpaid people like Foose with almost no experience are at the core of the problem.

Positive intervention requires honesty not a continuation of rewarding failure.

Let us look at the nuts and bolts to this mistake.

The public was not allowed to participate nor was the student member of the BOE. There was no transparency and interviews were held in a motel by our 7 BOE members. We elected these people and allowed them to hire in secrecy so we deserve what ever they dredge up. 4 members of the BOE are attempting to impeach Mr. Dyer (who fought to open the system) because he types in lower case. Former member Gordon even refused to communicate with Dyer because he types in lower case. Now do you really believe these 4 buffoons who would impeach a fellow member not over substance but because he types in lower case have the capacity to make a decision behind our backs in a motel as significant as the next superintendent? I beleive we have incompetence demonstrated very clearly at the top so beyond the perceived stupidity of the public where are these indicators of excellence of the hcpss or the transparent inclusion which would allow the next superintendent to be vetted?

Just shaking my head side to side. Say it ain't so!

This does seem extreme for Howard county. It's not like we're miami-dade or LA. We're a sleepy little county outside of DC. It's as silly as Ulman needing a full time bodyguard.