Baltimore City school board member Kalman “Buzzy” Hettleman, a strong supporter of Chief Executive Officer Andres Alonso, has withdrawn his name from consideration for reappointment.

Hettleman, who served on the board in the 1970s and was an aide to two Baltimore mayors on city education, said that while working on the school board has been a “wonderful privilege,” it takes time away from his own research on education policy.

His published research has backed urban school systems that abolish school boards in favor of mayoral takeover. However, he said, now is not the time for Mayor Sheila Dixon to take over Baltimore’s system.

“All school boards should ideally be abolished, as they were in Washington and New York,” Hettleman said. “But there are big differences. Those school systems were in the ditch at the time and a mess, and not moving forward. Our school system is moving forward.”

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The Examiner first reported on July 4 that Dixon was considering taking over the city school system in about a year. She would join New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gained control of the country’s largest school system in 2002, and D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who took over his city’s system last year.

Alonso, who before becoming Baltimore’s schools chief served as the deputy chancellor in New York, has rolled out an array of reforms in his first year. Under his helm, students made their largest gains on the Maryland School Assessment.

Dixon also has formed a seven-member panel to vet school board candidates. Dixon and Gov. Martin O’Malley will jointly appoint new city board members, but the governor often gives way to the mayor’s choice.

Alonso has come under criticism from some panel members, including Marietta English, president of the teachers union; Jimmy Gittings, president of the administrators union; and Eric White, president of the Baltimore City Council of Parent-Teacher Associations. The members’ recommendations are nonbinding.

Hettleman said that Dixon’s panel is similar to those O’Malley formed when he was mayor because it includes leaders of local groups that play a role in education in the city.

“I don’t read absolutely anything into it in terms of Mayor Dixon trying to stack the panel in any way, shape or form,” he said.

Terms are also ending for board members and Alonso supporters Robert Heck and Anirban Basu. They are two of several who are being considered for the seats, panel members said.

msilvestri@baltimoreexaminer.com