Alternative School

It would be a school like no other in Howard County, an alternative learning center to serve dozens of the county's most emotionally troubled students, all under one roof.But some Howard County school board members voiced concerns last night that plans for the alternative school might be too large and costly.The board delayed voting on the building's specifications, and the issue will be taken up at a future work session."It's something that sounds wonderful and ideal," said board member Jane B. Schuchardt.

Students at Baltimore County's six alternative middle and high schools have serious reading problems but only one specialist to help them improve -- an alarming situation that has forced the Board of Education to consider hiring reading specialists at each school next year."

They want their elementary school children to have books in their libraries and middle schoolers not to be afraid as they walk to and from school. They believe that high schoolers shouldn't have to learn with 50 students in a classroom.It seems so little, but for years parents and teachers in Baltimore haven't asked for much and have expected even less.Yesterday, 90 parents, teachers and neighbors from Southeast Baltimore who met at a local church were like many others dissatisfied with the state of the city's schools, except for one crucial distinction: They say they're going to do something about it.With few grass-roots community and parent groups pushing for better schools, the efforts of the Southeast Education Task Force are unusual.

Howard County Schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey has proposed a $35.48 million capital budget for next year that includes construction of an alternative school for troubled students and the planning of a new high school in Fulton to open by fall of 2002.The building plan, released yesterday and presented to the school board, also proposes constructing an Ellicott City middle school by 2004 and many additions, replacements or renovations to county schools over the next decade.Officials predict that the school system will have 6,732 new students in the next 10 years, a 17 percent increase.

IF IT'S MARCH, it must be time for daffodils, shamrocks and the annual school budget ritual. Much like a Japanese Noh play -- the highly stylized classical drama where the audience is well-acquainted with the story line and characters -- all the players are assuming their customary roles.Act 1 opens with Anne Arundel County school Superintendent Carol S. Parham, who proposes a budget larger than the year before.In Act 2, the county Board of Education piles on more money requests before passing it to County Executive John G. Gary.

The Howard County school board approved last night a capital budget request that seeks more money for a major middle school renovation and elementary school additions, bringing the total to just over $37 million.In a brisk work session, the board left intact much of Superintendent Michael E. Hickey's proposed $35.48 million budget for fiscal year 2000, which begins July 1.However, the board was told that renovations to 60-year-old Ellicott Mills Middle School may cost between $1.9 and $3 million more than estimated if the school system decides to preserve the original building.

With today marking the start of a second semester in Anne Arundel County schools, here's a look back at an eventful first semester.State test resultsResults from the 1996-1997 Maryland State Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) and SATs came out during the semester. While overall results of tests were lackluster, school officials adroitly found the good news in the disappointing figures.They pointed to:An increasing number of county schools rating satisfactory or excellent on the MSPAPs since 1993.

The alternative high school that Anne Arundel County educators want to open next year for disruptive teen-agers probably will be housed in a county-owned building at the state complex in Crownsville.County officials, who support the creation of the alternative school, are offering the school system free use of one of the three buildings at the campus off Generals Highway.Ironically, for 15 years the Crownsville complex housed another county program for problem youths -- the Careers Center vocational program for troubled teen-agers, which fell victim to the budget ax in 1993.

Loch Raven Academy Principal Jack Wilson wants troubled kids at his school.Without any county funding, he has started a program to keep students who have been suspended or expelled at the Towson magnet middle school, instead of sending them to an alternative school on the other side of the county.But the new class -- which started at the 970-student school two weeks ago, with a teacher, teacher's aide and six students -- already is in jeopardy.No county school money is available to support it. And a $5,000 donation by Alan and Lois Elkin, owners of the Advance Information Systems office technology company, who helped launch the program, will run out in January.

"I don't need no caning," said Tyrone.Tyrone is a young man of indeterminate age. He says he's 13. His teacher says he's 15. He looks 16, but at that legal age for rTC dropping out of school, he probably wouldn't be in this high-ceilinged double classroom on the fourth floor of Sojourner-Douglass College in East Baltimore. He'd be on the street.With 21 other young men and a couple of young ladies, Tyrone is enrolled in the Tri-School Alternative Project, an effort by three city public middle schools -- Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Dunbar and Lombard -- to remove their worst behavior cases from home schools and subject them to a month of training and counseling about civilized behavior, combined with a dose of rudimentary academics.

Baltimore's school board voted 5-2 Tuesday night to adopt a policy that allows students to be permanently expelled for setting fires or other violent acts that threaten the safety of staff and students. The vote came after months of public comment and haggling over the details of the policy. In the end, the board and schools CEO Andr?s Alonso compromised. Alonso retained his authority to permanently expel students, but under more narrow circumstances and with a greater weight given to the student's home life and experiences, and right to due process.

Everard Grant knows his 16-year-old stepson made a huge mistake when he lit a poster on fire at his Baltimore high school. But he doesn't think he deserves to be shut out of the city's public schools forever. The boy, Tyrone Jamison, is one of 34 students who have been permanently expelled from Baltimore schools this academic year. That number has increased drastically over previous years because of a decision by schools chief Andr?s Alonso to impose the most severe punishment for those caught committing arson or detonating explosives.

Staff and parents at failing schools slated for closure said at a hearing Saturday that they wished their schools had been given the resources to succeed before being shut down. About 50 people, a few dozen of them school system administrators required to attend, turned out for the second and final hearing on a major school reorganization plan that is subject to an April 28 vote by the board of education. Some speakers complained that the hearings were held at inconvenient locations for residents of the west side, where many of the changes would occur.

Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso unveiled last night a huge reorganization plan to close failing schools and expand successful ones, at the same time as he proposed 179 central office job cuts to close a budget shortfall. The plan, which would affect about three dozen schools and thousands of students, puts aside the reform strategy of downsizing schools that Baltimore and many other cities have embraced in recent years. Instead, it emphasizes student and parent choice: Low-performing schools that no one wants to attend would shut or merge with higher-performing, more popular ones.

Some students can be so violent or disruptive that school personnel feel they no longer can manage them in class. When that happens, suspension or expulsion may be the only resort. But kicking troubled kids out of school doesn't solve the problem. When the kids eventually come back, so do their troubles. That's why Baltimore schools chief Andres Alonso's plan to set up an alternative school for kids with behavioral problems inside the system's North Avenue headquarters makes a lot of sense.

One hundred students on long-term suspension or expulsion will attend a new alternative school located within the city school system's North Avenue headquarters when classes resume Aug. 25, under a move approved last night. The school board's vote to allow the school to operate within the administration building was practical and symbolic. On the practical side, the system is eliminating 310 central office jobs this summer, leaving space in the building. But there is also no shortage of symbolism in placing some of the city's most vulnerable students alongside the administrators acting on their behalf.

SAN ANTONIO-- --There hardly is a prominent athlete at any level who has not said, usually as a self-motivational tool, "Nobody ever thought I would be here." But there may not be an athlete today for whom it is more true than Joey Dorsey. He knows it, and before his Memphis team faces UCLA in tonight's national semifinal game at the Alamodome, he will - as he does before every game - cast his mind back to where he was eight years ago. "I always think about the kid who grew up in Baltimore, who was just playing around out in the streets, who didn't start playing organized basketball until he was 15," Dorsey, the senior center and product of West Baltimore, said yesterday before his team practiced at the Dome.

The principal of a Baltimore alternative school, speaking yesterday at the funeral of a student who drowned on a school camping trip, remembered him as a "smiling, wonderful, beautiful child." Kenneth Jones, 17, a student at Independence School Local 1, died March 27 after he jumped into a pool of frigid water in West Virginia. Helen Atkinson, the school's principal, told mourners that the school's staffers and students planned to honor Kenneth with a memorial. "We will have a garden outside in front of our school that will be Kenny's garden, with benches to sit, with his name on it, with trees and beautiful flowers," Atkinson said.

The Baltimore school system is preparing to turn control of an alternative school over to a private provider, amid an uproar from community members who say school officials are making decisions secretly and without considering their opinions. Staff members and parents at the Elementary Alternative School, in the building of the former Dr. Lillie M. Jackson Elementary, have received conflicting messages from officials for months about the future of the program. As recently as this week, they believed the school would be sharing space with another run by a private provider.

Conventional wisdom has it that we're all too busy to volunteer for anything these days. But some of us aren't. A number of Baltimore residents with an instinct for helping others were recognized last week for their generous spirit and awarded $48,750 grants to work full-time for 18 months implementing plans to help disadvantaged Baltimore residents. These Baltimore Community Fellowships came from the Open Society Institute in Baltimore, a private foundation established by billionaire financier George Soros.