Berger: ‘I did the best I could’
Ask former Baltimore County Public School Superintendent Stuart Berger a question and you’ll get a straight answer.
Berger spent just over three years, from 1992 to 1995, running the county school system. His tenure is remembered more for the controversy that accompanied the changes he made, and a lack of any kind of tact, than the actual changes.
“If I think you’re an idiot for some reason, I feel the need to share that with you,” said Berger during a phone interview Monday. He added that the character trait was “probably something I should have learned to change.”
Berger was back in the county last week to receive a citation with current superintendent Joe Hairston and former superintendents Robert Dubel and Anthony Marchione as part of County Executive Jim Smith’s celebration of the county’s 350th anniversary.
Last Thursday, Berger was scheduled on a flight from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Baltimore that would’ve enabled him to make the 10 a.m. ceremony at Chesapeake High School. But a storm that came up the coast that day delayed flights and caused Berger to miss the presentation.
However, when he heard he was getting a citation, Berger said he had a brief moment when his reaction was, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He believes most people barely remember his time in the county.
“You know what I think the majority of people think who hear the name Stuart Berger will say?” Berger asked and then answered his own question. “Who?”
Berger, 66, operates Alternatives Unlimited, an education company that runs schools across the country for students who face a variety of challenges — something he said he would not have been able to do had he not been fired from his position with the county.
He said he enjoys “being an entrepreneur.”
“I think I’ve done some good things,” said Berger, of his company that is based in Towson, even though he lives in Houston. “I’ve taken some risks.”
The best part?
“I don’t have to deal with you guys,” Berger said with a laugh, referring to the media. “I don’t have to listen to teacher’s unions and if I want to fire someone, I can fire them and not have to see it in the paper.”
Berger introduced several initiatives here that are still in use today — mainstreaming of special education students that returned them to their neighborhood schools; daylong kindergarten; magnet school programs; the school breakfast program.
But it was his brash, unapologetic style that some remember most.
Berger said he became “fodder for right-wing radio talk shows” and had elected officials “yelling at me.”
Berger points out that he was fired from his position. The previous six superintendents had much smoother transitions out of the district, he added.
“Baltimore County was my shortest stay,” said Berger, who also ran school systems in Wichita, Kan., and Frederick, Md. “I had some moments I can’t say were my best.”
Not that Berger seems to care.
“I’m abrupt, I admit it,” Berger said.
“To this day, I think most of what I did was right but a long way from all of it (being right),” Berger said.”There was a lot of resistance to change.”
He didn’t help ease the tension.
“I understood where we where going,” Berger said. “The school board understood where we were going. I did a horrendous job explaining where we were going and why.”
So is this the beginning of a rehabilitation of Berger’s image. Don Mohler, a county spokesman who worked for Berger in the county school system, is fond of his former boss but said he would “leave that for others to say.”
Berger acknowledges that for some, the controversy overshadows what he’s sees as his accomplishments. He contends the people who were really involved back then “know my accomplishments.”
But Berger said he’s not sure his image needs fixing.
“I don’t feel that my image is tarnished,” Berger said.”I’d like to be remembered as someone who made a positive impact on kids in the county. Maybe I’m arrogant but if people said, ‘Is that what you think you did?’ I’d say, ‘Yeah, I think I did.’
“The people who respect me respect me,” Berger said. “I don’t care what a whole lot of other people think. I did the best I could.”