Arundel School

The Anne Arundel County school board on Wednesday took its first step in considering plans proposed by Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to address the district's capital improvement and maintenance concerns. Maxwell presented his $240 million capital budget for fiscal year 2014, a $1.6 billion capital budget six-year plan and a $1.4 billion state-funded capital improvement plan at Wednesday's regplar meeting. School officials say that the capital improvement plan must be submitted to the state's Interagency Committee for School Construction by Oct. 5. School officials said that the school board will conduct a workshop on the capital budget and capital improvement plan on Sept.

Anne Arundel County police are investigating sexual abuse allegations by a former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School in Glen Burnie, officials of the Archdiocese of Baltimore said Wednesday. In a letter posted on the archdiocese website and sent to parents via email Wednesday, Barbara McGraw Edmondson, the superintendent of schools within the archdiocese, said county police searched the school Tuesday afternoon and that those being investigated have been suspended until "a determination is made concerning the veracity of the allegations.

William Norman, the retired first principal of Chesapeake High School in Pasadena, was found slain in a canal in Davie, Fla., and police said they have charged two teenagers with premeditated murder in his death. Norman, 76, of Tampa, worked for 28 years in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system, serving as Chesapeake's principal from 1976 to 1983. The school auditorium is named for him. He retired in 1989 as director of fiscal services, school officials said. Two men, one of whom rented a house in Tamarac that Norman owned, were charged, according to police.

A former leader of a youth group of a church in Severn is facing charges that he brought marijuana on a group trip and smoked it with two teenage boys while on an overnight camping trip, Anne Arundel County police said Monday. Benjamin James Siggers, 31, a former substitute teacher in Anne Arundel County Public Schools, was charged with two counts each of possession of marijuana and contributing to the condition of a child, according to court records. He was issued a summons. Police said they and the Department of Social Services began investigating Siggers Feb. 19 in connection with the Severn United Methodist Church group activities.

Anne Arundel County police and school officials have thwarted a child abduction across state lines. Anonymous information related to a middle-school counselor on Sept. 6 detailed a 12-year-old girl's plans to run away from home with a boyfriend in a stolen vehicle. School personnel, including the resource officer, contacted the student's guardian and received permission to access the child's social media account and cellular phone data. Information discovered in those accounts convinced officials the boyfriend was an adult male, who likely knew the age of the child.

A 9-year-old girl was sexually assaulted last week while she was walking from her Pasadena elementary school, police said. Shortly after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, the victim was heading home from Lake Shore Elementary by walking through the Riding Woods neighborhood when a man "grabbed her and pulled her into a wooded area," according to a statement Tuesday from Anne Arundel County Police. The assault was reported to police on Sunday. Additional officers are patrolling the area.

The Anne Arundel school board received Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's redistricting recommendation Wednesday for Crofton-area schools, which delays plans to draw boundaries for a $38 million elementary school in Odenton that a developer has promised but some area residents have opposed. The proposed school, still included in the redistricting plan, would be along Evergreen Road and is part of the school system's efforts to ease crowding at Nantucket Elementary. Those plans also include redistricting Crofton Meadows Elementary, Arundel Middle and Crofton Middle.

When C. Berry Carter was named school superintendent in July 1992, we joined Anne Arundel residents in looking forward to a leader who knew that county's school system inside and out. A year later, no one questions Mr. Carter's knowledge. But his leadership during his first full school year proved disappointing.Faced with situations that begged for outrage, sympathetic words or efforts to support parents and students, Mr. Carter has almost always under-reacted. Like others in the Anne Arundel school system of which he is so much a product, he tends to deny problems, as if the denial renders the problems non-existent.

The Anne Arundel County school board voted Wednesday to allow Chesapeake Science Point to expand its high school but placed it on two years' probation as part of efforts to address concerns about the charter school. The board also said it would dissolve the entire school, which has grades six through 10, after the coming school year if it does not comply with terms of a revised charter. The 8-0 vote was the culmination of contentious open discussions about CSP, which since its inception has gained a reputation for high-performing students but has been marred by concerns about administrative record keeping and transparency in such areas as report cards, student transcripts and student selection.

Attorney Alan I. Barron's investigation -- for which taxpayers paid plenty -- of the handling of the Ronald W. Price sex scandal by Anne Arundel Superintendent C. Berry Carter is complete.But guess what? The Anne Arundel school board doesn't want to let anyone know what it says, at least not now.Some board members do not want to release this critical section of the report until November, when the entire investigation is to be finished -- even though they are due to meet tonight to discuss (and possibly decide)

Thank heavens that the Anne Arundel County school system is finally looking at starting high school at a time when teenagers are fully awake ("Md. school systems study later start for high schools," March 11). Of course, it is typical that their study fails to consider the benefits to the students of a later start by focusing only on logistics and cost of such a change. If benefits to students had been of interest, they would have changed the start times for high school to a reasonable hour years ago and perhaps both improved student performance and avoided the all too frequently fatal automobile accidents that seem to occur more among student drivers hurrying on their way to school in the morning.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education on Wednesday adopted a $1.01 billion operating budget request that marks a 3.2-percent increase over the current year's budget, and includes $16 million for employee raises. Allocations for a middle school science and technology program, health care costs and an Annapolis-based center for special and alternative education services are also included in the budget plan, which crosses the billion-dollar threshold for the first time. The school board approved the budget 8-1, with member Amalie Brandenburg voting against it. The plan now heads to the county executive - whoever that will be after a successor is chosen to replace John Leopold, who resigned this month.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted this week not to support Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's opposition to a state bill that would use video lottery proceeds for security and health services at schools. Board members then adopted a separate measure supporting the state bill — providing its revenue can be gained from more stable sources. House Bill 138 was crafted by Republican Del. Nic Kipke of Pasedena at the request on the Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's administration.

Anne Arundel County government officials on Wednesday vowed an increased police presence at public schools on Friday amid rumors about a possible school attack that officials say has been determined to be unfounded. At a news conference, Anne Arundel County Executive John Leopold, school Superintendent Kevin Maxwell and Lt. J.D. Batten, commander of the Anne Arundel County Police School Safety Section, sought to quell concerns about rumors of school shootings planned Friday. They declined to say which schools would have an increased police presence.

The Anne Arundel school board received Superintendent Kevin Maxwell's redistricting recommendation Wednesday for Crofton-area schools, which delays plans to draw boundaries for a $38 million elementary school in Odenton that a developer has promised but some area residents have opposed. The proposed school, still included in the redistricting plan, would be along Evergreen Road and is part of the school system's efforts to ease crowding at Nantucket Elementary. Those plans also include redistricting Crofton Meadows Elementary, Arundel Middle and Crofton Middle.

Kathy Flaherty of Severna Park, who has a special-needs child in third grade, wanted to know more about assistance for "twice-exceptional" students, who have disabilities but are intellectually gifted. Mark Turner of Odenton, who has a special-needs eighth-grader, suggested simplifying the language in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) process. Sylvia Barrett of Severna Park, mother of a middle-school student, simply sought to learn more about resources available for special-needs students because, she said, often "nobody tells you about it; you have to go by word of mouth.

An unused Anne Arundel County school is being readied as a reception and processing center in the event that thousands of American civilians now in the Middle East are evacuated.Under a contingency plan, the old Lindale Junior High school in Ferndale could be used to process "repatriates" arriving at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Andrews Air Force Base, said David McMillion, director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.Those two Maryland airports, along with five others on the East Coast, have been selected to receive 30,000 to 40,000 people if an evacuation is ordered, he said.

Gov. Martin O'Malley appointed an education administrator and former teacher to the Anne Arundel County Board of Education on Friday. Andrew C. Pruski, a Gambrills resident and manager of Baltimore County public schools' state-mandated assessment program, was appointed to serve the remaining four years of a departed board member's term. Pruski, who worked as a high school social studies teacher in Prince George's County from 2001 to 2005, takes the seat of former board member Tricia Johnson, who was appointed to an open seat on the Anne Arundel County Council.

Tensions between Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold and the school system over funding have been well documented, but Leopold's recent comments at a meeting with residents appear to have further strained the already contentious relationship. Leopold met with residents of the Green Haven community in Pasadena after two teens were charged in the fatal shooting Oct. 13 of a 21-year-old man outside a house party in the area. According to Patch.com, Leopold spoke about increasing police presence in Green Haven as well as other parts of the county.

After the Anne Arundel County school board received its annual update on the system's five-year strategic plan for student achievement, board member Solon Webb directed one question to school officials: "Are we winning or losing?" Webb's query prompted a discussion Wednesday almost as lengthy as the presentation of the 2012 Strategic Plan, which tracks students' five-year progress in Maryland School Assessments and High School Assessments, as well as International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement and honors participation and testing.