Annapolis High School

Morris Wolfe Rannels, the former Cecil County superintendent of schools who was later a state safety and school bus official, died in his sleep Sept. 25 at his home in Clearwater, Fla. The former Columbia resident was 92. Born in Rowenna, Pa., he earned a teaching degree from Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pa., and had a master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. He taught math at Annapolis High School before serving in the Navy as a lieutenant during World War II aboard the minesweeper USS Constant in the South Pacific.

Student wins $10,000 scholarship An Annapolis High School student is among 250 seniors across the nation to earn a $10,000 scholarship from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. Maroulla Plangetis is now in the running for the top prize: a $20,000 college scholarship. Maroulla, 17, was selected as a finalist from a field of more than 2,100 semifinalists based on her grades, school leadership and community activities. She will join other finalists in Atlanta next month for the chance to earn one of 50 four-year college scholarships.

The fight to save Annapolis High School was hatched in a chat room. Over two weeks, the after-school movement grew in the din of Annapolis coffee shops and pizza parlors. What started with three students swelled to 20, then 50. In their first public act, more than 40 students launched a campaign yesterday to stop Superintendent Kevin Maxwell from forcing all 193 staff members to reapply for their jobs. Wearing neon green armbands and waving signs, they told the Anne Arundel County school board that Maxwell's Jan. 24 proposal would crush a demoralized school.

Five students and a teacher at Annapolis High School received hospital treatment, and another student was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, as complaints of fumes in the ventilation system prompted a temporary evacuation.Anne Arundel County EMS/ Fire/Rescue arrived at the school on Riva Road about 8 a.m. after school officials reported the odor of exhaust fumes in the building.Chief John M. Scholz, a fire department spokesman, said school officials believe the fumes had entered the air system from two charter buses parked nearby with engines idling.

Criticism unfair on school health alertThere is no question that meningitis is every parent's worst nightmare. Bacterial meningitis is a disease that seems to strike children randomly with symptoms at first very similar to common colds and flu, but which can rapidly progress to critical illness or even death.Parents, teachers and students at Annapolis High School are particularly aware of this very grave illness, since we lost a student, Cara Petrini, to bacterial meningitis this month. This was a very tragic event for her family, friends and our school.

THE WOMEN'S CLUB of Annapolis recently became an octogenarian.Club members celebrated the organization's birthday with a party at Paul's on the South River. The club holds fund-raisers and donates the money to local charities.The new club officers, who will serve in the group's 81st year, are president, Phyllis Sym; first vice president, Rita Bain; second vice president, Leah Connors; corresponding secretary, Catherine Quade; recording secretary, AnnaMae Riegel; treasurer, Christie Donaldson; and assistant treasurer, Dorothy McGinniss.

75 years agoThe U. S. Geological Survey has announced that the location of the geographical center of Maryland is three miles east of Collington, across the Patuxent in Anne Arundel County's second district. -- The Sun, Sept. 8, 1922.Anne Arundel County superintendent of education George Fox forecasts a banner year when schools open on the 13th. Annapolis High School is expecting an enrollment of 400. -- The Sun, Sept. 11, 1922.A second Ku Klux Klan initiation in Anne Arundel County was held last night at Mayo with 15 new members inducted.

50 years agoDr. Howard A. Kinhart, principal of Annapolis High School, said today the housing shortage was handicapping the school in obtaining teachers in spite of higher salaries. -- The Sun, Aug. 9, 1947.With thousands of dwelling units under construction, Glen Burnie's population is expected to reach 13,000, or four times its present number. Leading the increase is the town of Harundale and the Glen Gardens project. -- The Sun, Aug. 13, 1947.Marriages in Anne Arundel County have been dissolved at the rate of one to every five new ones, County Clerk John H. Hopkins 3d disclosed today.

GROWTH AND CHANGE will take a lot of people by surprise next week as school reopens. Three months for a child can be like 40 years to me, and the first few days can bring surprises.June's best friend might be September's nemesis, and Miss A's appreciation of personal expression might not hold true in Mrs. B's classroom. It's a great challenge to try to help our children understand that the only constant is change, and their future lies in their ability to adapt to it and to participate in managing their own.Parental guidanceIf you've been thinking of changing your involvement in your child's life by getting more connected to school activities, DTC Annapolis High School (and all other area schools)

From a principal's point of view, the first day of school isn't the ideal time to enroll your child. But that's what many parents did yesterday in Anne Arundel County's public elementary schools.Jane Doyle, school spokeswoman, said a "rash of last-minute enrollments" was one of the few problems in an otherwise routine day."Really this was one of the quietest first days we've had in the eight or nine years I've been here," she said. "There was a problem with water at one school, but aside from that we've had very few problem calls."

The mood was about as giddy as a group of elementary school students at recess. Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell, who had initiated a widely unpopular overhaul of Annapolis High School, stood smiling and giggling, his cheeks rosy, in the school's cafeteria after finishing a news briefing announcing that the school had for the first time in six years met federal testing benchmarks. "I'm excited," Maxwell said. "This is great news." After a pause he continued, "Did you get the part about me being excited?"

Maryland education officials are pushing failing schools to replace their principals and teaching staffs, according to a report released today by a Washington-based nonprofit research group. Such drastic steps are not as widely applied elsewhere in the country for schools that have not met the federal standards under the No Child Left Behind Act, according to the Center on Education Policy. "I think in Maryland it has grown out of a frustration at the pace of change," said Jack Jennings, the center's president.

Camp offers Spanish immersion About 70 elementary school students will learn the basics of Spanish this week at the Anne Arundel County public schools' Spanish immersion camp at the Arlington Echo Outdoor Education Center in Millersville. Native and non-native Spanish-speaking county teachers will provide a Spanish-only environment in which students can gain an appreciation of the language and culture, according to a school system announcement. The campers - students who will be in the first through fifth grades when school opens this month - will play word games and participate in skits, music and art. Other activities include seining, crabbing, sail decorating, swimming and canoeing.

David Black raked in a $150,000 full-ride scholarship to his first-choice school, Virginia Military Institute. The Annapolis High School graduate, who just returned from training at the school, said he couldn't wait to head back for the start of classes in three weeks. Black, 17, and several hundred other members of the Annapolis High Class of 2008 were offered scholarships totaling $6.2 million, double last year's figure and ranking it third among Anne Arundel County's 12 public high schools.

The Annapolis High School senior was at risk of not graduating. She had been doing well in her classes but suddenly, during final exams, stopped going to school. There was a time when she might not have been noticed in a school with 1,700 students. But this year, the school employed community ambassadors to make sure no student was lost. One of the ambassadors tracked the student down and coaxed her back to school in time for the English exam that she needed to pass to earn a diploma.

A sweeping, sometimes controversial set of reforms to turn around embattled Annapolis High School won the approval of the Maryland State Board of Education yesterday, staving off threats of state intervention. The board backed the three-year restructuring plan by Anne Arundel County school officials, and a report prepared for the board gave high marks to Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell's initiative last year forcing all 193 staff members - from custodians to the principal - to reapply for their jobs.

Morris Wolfe Rannels, the former Cecil County superintendent of schools who was later a state safety and school bus official, died in his sleep Sept. 25 at his home in Clearwater, Fla. The former Columbia resident was 92. Born in Rowenna, Pa., he earned a teaching degree from Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pa., and had a master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. He taught math at Annapolis High School before serving in the Navy as a lieutenant during World War II aboard the minesweeper USS Constant in the South Pacific.

This summer, 16-year-old Taurean Johnson has been learning to like school, trust the teachers he once "sassed" and think about college instead of trucking school. School won't start until Aug. 27, but he and 80 other rising freshmen at Annapolis High School have sacrificed sleeping late in favor of three weeks of Internet research, poetry writing and lessons in fractions and probabilities. The students were also linked with school teachers and staff members who will serve as mentors - there to help with everything from finding lockers to grappling with peer pressure.

THE ISSUE: -- Less than five months after Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell called for all 193 staff members at Annapolis High School to reapply for their jobs, the numbers are in: At least 45 of the 111 classroom teachers will not return. Maxwell announced the radical effort to "zero-base" the staff to help improve student performance and graduation rates, particularly among minorities, and head off a state takeover. The school had failed to meet state and federal benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act four years in a row. A handful of teachers who reapplied to stay at the school were turned away, and many more decided to move on. The result is that some departments will look drastically different when classes begin July 1 at the year-round school.

For years, the trophy case outside the Annapolis High School gymnasium sat empty, unnoticed by the students who gathered there, sitting on the banister to wait for practice. That changes tonight, when a group of alumni and school officials is set to unveil a new case full of dusted-off trophies that attest to the achievements of athletes past. "This is a chance to start over and to make sure that the athletes know that when they wear that `A,' it is not only pride that goes along with it, but it's an expectation from the athletes that came before them," said Janice Hayes-Williams, a local historian who organized the effort.