NEWS
By Nicole Fuller | August 24, 2009
As Maryland's public schools reopen for a new year during a time of economic turmoil, some systems are taking tough measures to stem the fiscal bleeding, such as furloughing employees, denying teacher pay raises and increasing class sizes. In Anne Arundel County, a generally well-regarded school system of 74,000 students, teachers and students returning for the first day of school today will be getting a sort of inadvertent lesson in economics. The recession has translated into teachers being furloughed for three days, larger class sizes in some middle and high schools and the savings of $50,000 by forgoing new textbooks in Anne Arundel's 120 schools.
NEWS
By Julie Scharper | May 1, 2009
Children poured out of the doors of Folger McKinsey Elementary School, eagerly presenting their mothers paintings and paper birds that they had made. But some of the children were showing off another item they had collected during the day - bottles of hand sanitizer. Dismissal time at the Severna Park elementary school, where one pupil was identified as likely having swine flu, was subdued Thursday afternoon because nearly half the students did not come to school. But parents who were picking up their children said that they were not very worried, even as the White House announced that an Anne Arundel County man who recently traveled to Mexico in advance of President Barack Obama also probably has swine flu, as do three members of his family.
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar | February 20, 2008
The Anne Arundel County school board is expected today to ask for $11 million less from the county government, thanks to a an unanticipated boost in state aid. But as the board prepares to vote on -- and is expected to approve largely unchanged -- Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell's $969 million operating budget request, board President Tricia Johnson left the door open to the possibility of reinstating programs "left on the cutting room floor." Some board members have pushed for continuing the expansion of the AVID program, which provides extra tutoring and counseling to students in the "academic middle."
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar and Phillip McGowan | October 10, 2007
Amid more than two dozen reports of a harmful bacterial skin infection among Anne Arundel County high school students and staff members, school and health officials urged better hygiene but said there is no reason to be alarmed about an outbreak. Four high schools - Severna Park, Glen Burnie, Old Mill and Chesapeake - have received reports of 28 staphylococcus infections over the past three weeks. Many of the cases were reported after an initial batch at Severna Park, which fanned concern among parents who complained about what they called dingy athletic facilities at high schools.
NEWS
October 4, 2007
Schools chief in Arundel gets a bonus of $6,000 The Anne Arundel County school board unanimously approved yesterday a $6,000 bonus for Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell, boosting his salary to $237,750. Maxwell, a veteran of the Prince George's and Montgomery school systems who took over Anne Arundel schools last year, was praised by board members for a staff restructuring at Annapolis High School and for his work promoting specialized "signature" programs and magnet schools. The performance bonus follows a 3 percent cost-of-living salary increase that became effective July 1. Maxwell is the fifth-highest paid superintendent in Maryland.
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar | March 23, 2007
Anne Arundel County school officials hope new recommendations to overhaul middle schools through smaller classes, mentoring programs and more counselors will help curb an alarming statistic the district has struggled with for years: More than a third of high school freshmen have D-averages or are failing. A 49-member task force of educators and community members that spent five months studying ways to improve middle schools has suggested lengthening the school day by an hour to 7 1/2 hours for the system's 16,000 middle school students.
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar | March 11, 2007
The way Anne Arundel schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell sees it, America is falling behind. In China, 200 million students are studying English, but 50,000 American students are learning Chinese. China's population is nearly five times that of the United States. As early as this fall, the schools chief hopes to begin a six-year Chinese sequence that would teach Mandarin to seventh-graders. In high schools, Maxwell hopes to offer Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes in the language that could help students land a job in diplomatic service, national security or in business.
NEWS
By ANICA BUTLER | August 3, 2006
The Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted yesterday against renewing a $1.4 million contract with a Crofton employment firm after some school board members balked at using the company to rehire retired administrators. Board members, some of whom said they were unaware of the 13-year-old arrangement with Human Recources Inc., criticized it - even without the inclusion of the administrators - as too expensive and possibly unnecessary. Eugene Peterson, board vice president, said he did not understand why permanent employees could not be hired through the traditional mode of advertising the jobs.
NEWS
June 21, 2006
These tables show the percentage of students who scored at advanced or proficient levels on reading and math tests a part of the Maryland School Assessment. The official scores are online at Maryland Report Card Web Site (www.mdreportcard.org). Scores reported here from past years may differ slightly from scores reported online because of interim corrections. Maryland Schools 71.9 70.3 71.1 67.2 67.0 66.4 65.6 60.1 60.1 55.3 55.0 51.7 Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel Schools 76.1 74.5 75.5 73.5 73.0 73.1 72.4 68.3 69.7 67.7 69.2 65.1 Annapolis 58.8 54.4 54.5 55.9 57.5 55.2 60.6 47.8 50.3 46.3 46.7 54.0 Arundel 82.0 82.2 78.5 80.5 76.9 78.8 82.1 75.3 69.8 69.1 69.0 69.9 Brooklyn Park 70.9 63.4 65.1 63.5 61.9 63.1 64.3 48.9 52.9 46.0 48.7 43.7 Central 85.8 88.0 87.8 80.8 81.9 80.3 82.1 81.3 87.5 80.8 83.6 77.8 Chesapeake Bay 78.4 76.7 76.8 74.7 75.2 77.0 73.5 73.5 75.3 69.5 69.5 65.7 Chesapeake Science 78.4 NA 92.0 NA NA NA 70.0 NA 72.0 NA NA NA Corkran School 63.3 69.7 71.0 73.7 66.0 66.3 62.3 64.7 65.6 62.7 65.6 51.6 Crofton 88.8 90.6 92.4 91.1 88.2 92.4 85.9 81.7 83.1 87.0 89.4 80.7 George Fox 80.4 69.3 70.8 68.1 67.3 67.7 70.8 68.0 62.4 59.8 64.3 67.7 J. Albert Adams 18.2 38.5 47.7 25.0 27.2 17.5 8.3 15.4 18.2 15.0 20.0 10.0 Lindale 66.6 66.0 66.1 63.9 60.9 63.3 62.5 57.2 59.5 57.8 61.0 51.4 MacArthur 71.4 68.2 69.4 67.3 71.4 72.0 63.3 59.5 56.2 58.2 53.0 55.1 Magothy River 92.8 90.2 90.0 85.5 88.4 89.7 89.6 90.2 89.3 82.7 88.1 88.1 Marley 58.2 60.8...
NEWS
By KAREN NITKIN | May 14, 2006
Will Hutchison, an eighth-grader at Crofton Middle School, brought 150 pounds of food to school over four weeks last fall. Though he's a growing 13-year-old, the food wasn't for him. His contribution helped the school tally 75,450 pounds for the Maryland Food Bank's annual Harvest for the Hungry Kids Helping Kids Drive. On Wednesday, Crofton Middle School was honored as the state's top donor to the effort. In fact, Anne Arundel schools took the top four slots and seven of the top 10 out of 365 schools that participated.