Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110214
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
2 FINALISTS NAMED FOR TOP SCHOOLS JOB
A former New Jersey superintendent and a former Maryland school chief are finalists in Montgomery County's search for a replacement for Superintendent Harold Dodge, who leaves his post June 30.The finalists are Richard B. Holzman, who left a superintendent's job in Middletown Township, N.J., in October, and Robert C. Rice, a former superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Annapolis, Md.
Neither Holzman nor Rice could be reached Wednesday for comment.
Montgomery County citizens will get a chance to meet Holzman at a public meeting at Christiansburg High School at 7:30 p.m. Monday. Rice will attend a similar meeting for the public on Wednesday night, Feb. 17.
The Montgomery County School Board must pick a successor to Dodge by March 1.
Holzman took over the financially strapped Middletown Township school district of 10,000 students in 1990.
At the time, Middletown, an affluent New York City bedroom community, was faced with a $2.5 million deficit in its proposed $59 million budget for the operation of its two high and three middle and 12 elementary schools.
Phone lines were out in the Middletown area because of a mudslide Wednesday, making it impossible to reach anyone to discuss Holzman's experience there.
Holzman came to New Jersey from Schenectady, N.Y., where he had been hired in 1987 to reorganize that city's schools. Holzman's salary in Schenectady when he left was $85,000 a year.
A little over a year into his stay in Schenectady, where he still lives, School Board members gave Holzman high marks for his management skills and for improving the image of the school district, according to news reports.
But teachers accused him of damaging morale. Upon leaving for New Jersey, he urged the School Board to avoid responding to employee unions which he said seemed to have too much influence, the paper reported.
According to a story in the Schenectady Daily Gazette, Holzman fell out of favor with residents there when he recommended that the city have one high school and that some elementary schools be closed.
Candidates who opposed his plan were elected to the School Board in place of his supporters. Residents used public hearings to call for Holzman to leave the Schenectady district.
Holzman, 53, a Long Island native, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Hofstra University, has done graduate work at Columbia and Harvard and holds a doctorate of education from the University of Massachusetts.
Besides Middletown and Schenectady, he has been a superintendent in four other school divisions, including Teaneck, N.J.
Holzman's honors and awards include his selection as one of 20 U.S. superintendents to attend an international seminar by the state of Israel in 1991 on "A Technology Based Learning Environment." In 1986, Executive Educator magazine named him one of the 100 outstanding school executives in North America.
Rice, 54, had been superintendent in St. Charles Parish, La., and Estherville, Iowa, before going to Maryland in 1984.
He withdrew his name from consideration for a second term as superintendent of the Anne Arundel County system in February 1988 after the School Board tied 4-4 on a straw vote to renew his four-year contract, according to a report in Annapolis' daily newspaper, The Capitol. He later reapplied for the job.
The previous December, the American Association of School Administrators had named Rice as Maryland's Superintendent of the Year.
The Maryland paper reported that state legislators had unsuccessfully lobbied the School Board to keep Rice.
Later, people crowded a School Board meeting to speak in support of Rice. He was also praised by Anne Arundel County's Human Relations Council for his human relations skills and by the School Board's citizens' advisory committee for his overall work in the schools.
Detractors said morale at the school administration office had suffered under Rice, the paper reported. Others said Rice's downfall was due to clashes with School Board members over a multimillion-dollar school construction program.
Among Rice's accomplishments in Anne Arundel, according to the paper, were: student education about sexually transmitted diseases, imposition of a minimum 1.6 grade-point average requirement for taking part in extra-curricular activities, and a study of school redistricting.
After losing the Anne Arundel job, Rice joined the First National Bank of Maryland, where he served or a time as vice president of human resource development. The bank said he left that job more than a year ago.
In Anne Arundel County, Rice oversaw a school system of 65,000 students and 6,800 employees with a $283 million operating budget. He was paid $93,000 a year.
Montgomery County has 8,000 students, 1,200 employees, a $42 million school budget and pays Dodge roughly $80,000 yearly.