The Montgomery County (Md.) Board of Education has selected a 26-year veteran of the system, Harry Pitt, to be its next superintendent.
Mr. Pitt, currently deputy superintendent, was chosen to lead the 92,000-student district because of the respect he commands within the schools and the local political community, school officials said.
The appointment was made nearly two months ahead of the original deadline, the officials said, because board members believe Mr. Pitt can “have a positive influence’’ in the current debate with the county council over the board’s proposed budget. He will take office officially on July 1.
Fifteen people--including two sportscasters, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and the general manager of the Cincinnati Bengals professonal football team--have been selected for induction into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame.
To be inducted into the hall of fame are Pat Summerall and Merlin Olsen, both sportscasters; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White; Paul Brown of the Bengals; Chandra Cheeseborough, three-time Olympic track and field athlete; John Havlicek, former Boston Celtics basketball player; Janet Karvonen, the leading scorer in Minnesota high-school basketball history; Don Kessinger, four-sport high-school athlete and former professional baseball player.
Also honored are Al Oerter, four-time Olympic gold-medal winner in the discus; Charles Farina, a high-school wrestling coach in Franklin Park, Ill.; Bill Martin, a high-school wrestling coach in Virginia Beach, Va.; the late Vince Meyer, a baseball coach in Bancroft, Iowa; Greever Crouse, a basketball and football official from Virginia; Marvin Fay Reid, a sports official in Mississippi; and Cliff Harper, a former official of the Southeastern Conference.
The controversial practice of dispensing contraceptives at school-based clinics has no ally in Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the therapist whose explicit advice on sexual matters has made her a national media celebrity.
“I am not for contraceptive clinics in high schools or junior high schools,’' Ms. Westheimer told an audience at a conference of the American Orthopsychiatric Association in Washington late last month.
“A 10th-grade girl walks in there and everyone knows why she’s there,’' she said. “Let there be, instead, comprehensive health clinics with psychologists and other professionals on staff.’'
Ms. Westheimer serves as host of the nationally syndicated radio program, “Sexually Speaking.’' She spoke during a March 27 seminar on media portrayals of adolescents.
