Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania has nominated Eugene W. Hickok Jr. to be the state’s next secretary of education. Mr. Hickok is an assistant professor of political science at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., where he directs the Clarke Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Contemporary Issues. ... Clifford Janey, the chief academic officer for the Boston public schools, has been named the superintendent of the 35,000-student Rochester, N.Y., district. Mr. Janey is expected to remain with the Boston system until the end of the school year.
The Reader’s Digest Association Inc. has awarded its 1995 American Heroes in Education Awards, which honor outstanding educators who are helping solve critical problems facing the schools. Ten teachers from schools across the United States were chosen from more than 650 nominations. They are:
Lawrence J. Baran of Homewood-Flossmoor High School, Flossmoor, Ill.; Jerome T. Caffey, Valley (Neb.) Middle/High School; Karen D. Call, Dorothy Stinson Primary School, Safford, Ariz.; Frances S. Carter, Omni Middle School, Boca Raton, Fla.; Bruce C. Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson School, Rosemead, Calif.; Patricia J. Henley, Cler-Mont Community School, Independence, Mo.; Marilyn B. Jackson, Banneker Kindergarten and Early Childhood Development Center, Okmulgee, Okla.; Howard M. Lappin, Foshay Learning Center, Los Angeles; James Henry Snider, East Middle School, Nashville; and Douglas Wildasin, Strawberry Mansion High School, Philadelphia. The winners will each receive $5,000 in cash awards, and Reader’s Digest will also award each school $10,000.
Tina Gordon, who resigned from her teaching job when the Dover, N.J., public schools refused to give her time off to run in the Boston Marathon, has found a new job. She has been hired as a special-education teacher in the Hopatcong, N.J., district. (See Education Week, March 15, 1995.)
Ms. Gordon said last week she will continue to teach in Dover until April 10, then will begin her new job the next day. She is also training for the April 17 race. She said officials in her new district have given her their support--and the day off.
