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Montgomery County's longest-serving school board member, Blair G. Ewing, is legendary for the prickly memos he's written during his 21-year career. Last week, he got as good as he gave when he chastised the board's newest member for speaking out of turn. An indignant Mona M. Signer (2nd District) returned fire with her own memo to board members saying the \"nasty\" Ewing threatened to \"destroy any semblance of collegiality among board members\" by saying she was the board's worst member. Ewing then chided Signer for deciding to become the \"Miss Manners of the Board of Education.\" His no-compromise stance increasingly has put him at odds with newer school board members such as Signer, 48, who was elected in November on a pledge she would cooperate with county leaders to determine how much money to spend on schools. And, Signer said, Ewing's approach has left him out of step with the voters.

Ewing, who spent much of his professional career as a senior executive with federal agencies and was serving on the Maryland State Board of Education at the time of his death, was a hard-nosed elected official who reveled in political combat. A year later, in an unprecedented action, the state school board overturned the county's decision as \"arbitrary and unreasonable\" and ordered the school to remain open.

Blair G. Ewing, a 22-year member of the Montgomery County Board of Education, announced yesterday that he will run for an at-large seat on the County Council. He will run in the Democratic primary Sept. 15.

Blair G. Ewing was elected in 1998 to his first term as an at- large member of the Montgomery County Council. He was named council president on Tuesday, replacing Michael L. Subin, whose one-year term ended. Before his election to the council, Ewing served for 22 years as a member of the Board of Education. Yes, subsidized housing, and in partnership with the private sector wherever we can manage that. Another element, which is related to growing poverty, is the issue of mental illness, which I think has reached crisis stage in Montgomery County. We've got CPC Health, which is the major provider of mental health services in the county and serves some 4,000 people, filing for bankruptcy, indicating that a major reason, not the only reason, is that the state pays it so little and pays so late that it's caused them, or at least contributed to causing, serious financial problems there. No, but they're the biggest by far. And the other two that are fairly large are St. Luke's House and Threshold Services, and both are having trouble for the same reason. They aren't in bankruptcy, nor are they about to be in bankruptcy, but they are having financial problems. And some of the clinics that they operate are turning away patients, and some of those patients are turning up at the two public clinics that remain. And we're certainly not intended to be a safety net for all those who would not be taken by the private clinics.

[...] the board makeup soon changed; Mr. Ewing became a lone wolf opposing efforts to undo an integration plan to bus white students from mostly affluent households in Chevy Chase to heavily black Rosemary Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring.

The Montgomery County Council yesterday unanimously selected Blair G. Ewing as its president, opening up the prospect of a political fight over school funding and transportation with County Executive Douglas M. Duncan at a time when he is eyeing a run for governor. Duncan also faces a potential fight over his support for the intercounty connector, a highway that would link Gaithersburg and Laurel. Duncan called yesterday in his state of the county speech for reviving segments of the roadway, which Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D) killed and which has little support on the County Council. \"I think Ewing represents a more liberal, more-limited- development side of the council,\" [Allan Lichtman] said. \"Therefore, he will have to work to pull the council together. . . . But it's not Jesse Helms versus Jesse Jackson. There isn't a grand clash of ideology here. Most of the council members are operating within a general Democratic consensus.\"

The idea was to bring together the school system's sometimes feuding constituencies and get their input for the education budget. In that way, the Montgomery County school board hoped to build consensus and marshal support for a spending plan beset by fiscal hard times. But the campaign didn't work quite as advertised. Instead, the budget review groups established by the Board of Education last fall garnered more attention for their recommendations on how to cut the budget, make programs pay for themselves and change school system priorities. Montgomery County Council member Michael L. Subin (D-At Large), chairman of the education subcommittee, declared the suggestions \"very helpful\" to the council as it sought to trim $8.7 million from the school system's $923 million budget request for the coming fiscal year. Council members tentatively adopted review group proposals to charge students $165 for bus transportation to magnet and special academic programs, make more high school students walk to school, reduce the number of middle school reading teachers, cut spending on contract services and furniture and curb school board office expenses.

Last spring, when Mary Yee and Warren Maruyama filed applications for their daughters to attend a unique Montgomery County schools program in which only French is spoken, they thought the biggest obstacle would be limited space. But that isn't what kept the two families' daughters out of the French immersion program at Maryvale Elementary in Rockville. Instead, it was the fact that Yee's daughter, Eleanor Glewwe, and Maruyama's daughter, Hana, are part Asian. Yee is of Chinese descent, Maruyama is of Japanese descent. Both are married to whites. Students of Asian heritage are not permitted by the school system to transfer out of Takoma Park Elementary School because its Asian head count is so small. Last year, only 11 of 519 students were classified as Asian, and if any transferred out, school officials said, the ethnic isolation of the remaining Asian children would increase. School officials said they were unmoved by the argument that the move would increase the tiny Asian population at Maryvale, where 4 percent of the students are of Asian descent.

Davis reviews Chainsaw Teddybear by Blair Ewing.

[Blair G. Ewing] said the confrontation last Thursday grew out of a disagreement over use of the county's recordation tax in the $2.9 billion budget. [Michael L. Subin] became irritated and began shouting. Subin said in his statement: \"The discussion that I had with Councilman Ewing last week over the use of the recordation tax revenue was indeed heated. While I regret my use of inappropriate language, I assure you it was used figuratively and was in no way meant to be a literal threat. I believe Mr. Ewing knows that to be true.\" Subin, a four-term incumbent seeking reelection, has shown a temper in the past, colleagues said. In this instance, Ewing and Subin disagreed over how to use money from an increase in the tax paid on deeds for home purchases.