Anne Arundel County’s deputy health officer, Dr. David Rose, has resigned and will join the Baltimore County Health Department.

Health officials said Rose’s last day will be Tuesday. Rose has been the Anne Arundel County deputy health officer for public health since 2013. He served as deputy for the public health side of the department.

He was not made available for comment.

“He has served with passion and dedication to the Department of Health’s mission of preserving, promoting and protecting the health of all who live, work and visit our county,” said Elin Jones, health department spokeswoman. “We wish him well in his new position with the Baltimore County Department of Health.”

Owen McEvoy, a spokesman for County Executive Steve Schuh, said Rose was “a dedicated public servant and we thank him for his commitment to the county.”

Rose is the second high-level official to leave the health department this year. Fran Phillips, who was serving as the county’s acting health officer, returned to the Maryland Health Department to serve as deputy secretary.

The current acting health officer is Billie Penley. During debate on extending Penley’s tenure, some County Council members raised questions about her medical expertise. Penley was the budget director before her promotion. Health department officials said they are looking for a new, permanent health officer.

State law requires that someone with medical experience serve at least as director or deputy director of the department.

County beats state, national SAT averages

New SAT scores show the most recent class of Anne Arundel County high school graduates beat state and national public school averages and outperformed the Class of 2017.

Despite that progress, data also show the school system is still struggling to close achievement gaps between black and white students.

The Class of 2018 scored an average of 556 points on the evidence-based reading and writing portion of the test and 545 on the math section. The state averages were 538 for reading and writing and 528 for math.

Anne Arundel graduates scored an average of 20 points higher in reading and writing than SAT test-takers nationwide. Local students also surpassed the national math average by 14 points.

The announcement comes as Anne Arundel County prepares to administer the SAT at no cost to all 11th-grade students in the district. The students will test in March. For the past two years, the school district offered the ACT to students free, but officials discontinued that option because students tend to perform better on the SAT.

Hispanic students, whose scores rose by 40 points in math and reading, gained the most. Scores for African-American students rose from 481 to 493 from last year to this year in reading and from 461 to 474 in math. Still, composite scores for black students trailed their white peers’ by 187 points.

School board President Julie Hummer said she was “thrilled” about the county’s SAT results, but acknowledged there is still much to be done to close the achievement gap between white students and students of color.

“We’re not where we want to be, but we are moving in the right direction,” Hummer said.

—?Lauren Lumpkin