Run DANCE

It was not the best way to celebrate a birthday for former Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance last Friday, but instead of blowing out candles that morning, he was blowing out the light on his jail-free future.

Going to the Ironbar Hilton at 37 was never in the cards for the overachieving Dance, whose meteoric rise to the top of the education business came to a sudden halt last summer when, amid questions and rumors, he suddenly packed up his backpack and left his job suddenly, one year into his contract, three years before the dismissal bell was to ring.

And all without a note from his mother, although there was plenty of correspondence from lawyers and prosecutors.

Dance's crime, and that is what it is, was lying about money he pocketed, but did not report to the school system which employed him, or the taxpayers, who paid him plenty to run the school system, when all along the only running he was doing was running here and there taking side jobs and arranging for his side-job friends to be taken care of back here with no-bid contracts and such.

He pleaded guilty to the charges last month. State prosecutors asked for him to get five years, with all but 18 months suspended. The judge handed Dance a fiver, all right, but with all but six months suspended, two years of probation and 700 community service hours to begin next Friday.

He was allowed to leave the courthouse on his own and will report to the luxurious county lockup this Friday.

You have to like the chutzpah of a man who admits he was guilty, but still asked for a break, telling Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Cox, "I'm embarrassed, I'm sorry. I'm seriously remorseful for my actions."

But that remorse was mixed with having known what he was up to all along. And that's what troubles me the most. Dance was given the chance and then another chance while in the job to make proper disclosures of what he was raking in and get on the right track. After all, he showed up at schools on the rare occasions that he actually woke up in the county that paid him $287,000 per year. and told little kids that with a little perspicacity, they could be like him and be someone important.

But the numbers that matter for Dance now are 4 (the number of felony perjury counts he is guilty of) and what prison number he is assigned on Friday.

He is only 37. He will be out of the sin-bin by autumn, a free man again with his destiny of his own making.

Let's see if Dr Dallas Dance does something to redeem himself in the eyes of society and himself. No sane school system will hire him, but someone might want to hire a man who once seemed to have good ideas about teaching children to be ready for the world.

A good teacher learns from his students as well. Give Dallas another chance.