Annapolis High Staff Must Reapply for Jobs

"The teachers are doing their best with the kids not passing the tests," senior Roxanne Earley said. "The students themselves have tried mentoring programs and tutoring, but if a student doesn't want to be at school, doesn't show up, isn't motivated, whose fault is that? Something needs to be done outside the school, too, in the community."

More than 200 employees will be affected, union officials said, including more than 150 teachers and the principal.

"I am the leader of the school. If we're not successful, the first thing I look at is what I could have done," Principal Donald Lilley said in a phone interview from his home. Speaking slowly, and at times emotionally, Lilley said he had spent the day replaying the past 2 1/2 years, looking for different decisions he could have or should have made.

He said he was grateful to the staff members, who left him alone during the day. After spending his whole career -- more than 30 years -- in Anne Arundel schools, he said, he had put his heart and soul into the county's kids, but he didn't know whether he would apply to keep his job.

Meanwhile, his teachers had meetings to vent their anger and prepare for an uncertain future. They said they thought the administration would try other options first.

Under Maxwell's plan, the school board will first choose a principal, who will decide with other administrators whom to hire for the next academic year. Current employees will be able to apply before outside applicants, officials said. And union employees are guaranteed work elsewhere in the school system if they aren't rehired.

"Some people are still working through their anger phase," English teacher Diana Peckham said. "When the rumors started going around last week, some students were already saying, 'If we don't do well, we're going to get you fired.' "

The announcement will take a large toll on morale, she and others said, as Annapolis High prepares for another round of state-mandated tests this spring.

"At this point, we have to just focus on the kids being successful," Lilley said. "That's what I'm going to do, and that's what I'm going to challenge the faculty to do."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.