Baltimore County Public Schools

So little snow fell this year that Baltimore County public schools are shortening the school year by four days. Instead of ending on June 14, the last school day in the county will be June 8. The school system builds in extra days each year for snow and bad weather and then reduces the number of days if they are not used. This school year, the system only closed for two days at the beginning of the year when a hurricane knocked power out. liz.bowie@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

As a parent of a student at Cockeysville Middle School, I want to applaud the committed efforts of Dale Rauenzahn, head of safety and security for Baltimore County Public Schools, along with his colleagues who have implemented strong security measures at our school ("Baltimore Co. school veteran will lead new safety office," Oct. 29). After the recent violent incidents at several county schools, Mr. Rauenzahn and his team listened in person to concerned parents. We knew our school was an extremely safe place, but we wanted current security measures updated to ease worries that resulted from recent violence and threats in other schools.

School system seeks public comment on five-year strategic plan The public is invited to submit online comments regarding the draft of Baltimore County Public Schools' new five-year strategic plan, dubbed by Superintendent S. Dallas Dance as "Blueprint 2.0. " The draft document, and a feedback form, are available online at http://www.bcps.org/system. With the goal of completing Blueprint 2.0 by January 2013, Dance held a series of staff and community meetings to hear comments, and appointed a staff person to oversee the plan's development and production.

An Relay resident attending Catonsville High School and a Catonsville resident attending the Carver Center for Arts and Technology area have been chosen as 2013 candidates for the Presidential Scholars Program. Adam Antoszewski, a senior at Catonsville, and Sarah Miller, a senior at the county magnet high school in Towson, are among approximately 3,000 students from across the country recognized. They are the only students from Baltimore County public schools to be selected.

When today's high school seniors started kindergarten in 2000, there was no iPhone, text messaging was hardly used, and very few K-12 students took online classes. While virtually every other arena has seen rapid change over the past decade, K-12 education has remained virtually the same. However, we cannot successfully educate today's students to succeed in tomorrow's world with yesterday's curriculum and instructional methods. Together, we at the Baltimore County Board of Education and Baltimore County Public Schools propose to propel our school system and students forward with a bold new theory of action.

Baltimore County Public Schools will be closed on Monday, Aug. 29, delaying the start of the new school year due to what officials called, "the continuing effects of Hurricane Irene. " By Sunday afternoon, 65 BCPS schools were without power, and safety concerns prompted school officials to close schools on what would have been the first day of the 2011-12 school year for students. "The passage of this storm had a widespread impact on our area, leaving many homes and schools without power, flooding many roadways, and creating conditions that would pose a hazard for many children," said Joe Hairston, superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools.

Baltimore County schools Superintendent Dallas Dance plans to issue digital devices to middle- and high-school students and wants all children in the school system to graduate bilingual, believing it will make them globally competitive, he said in the county's first state of the schools address Thursday. "Earning a Baltimore County public schools diploma needs to have greater meaning," he told a crowd at Valley Mansion in Cockeysville. The superintendent hopes to see kindergartners learning world languages and older students carrying electronic devices within the next five years, he said in an interview Thursday.

The traffic impact study for Mays Chapel Elementary School that was published on the Baltimore County Public Schools web site Feb. 20 is seriously flawed ("Balto. Co. eschews facts in Mays Chapel Elementary decision," Feb. 19). Cullane Court, which is featured prominently in the study maps, has 11 residences. However, the study's maps failed to include Straffan Drive, a road bordering the school between Cullane Court and Roundwood Road. There are 110 residences on Straffan Drive, and the rear of most of them abut the current deeded open space park, where the county plans to build the school.

Riderwood Elementary School is one of 10 Baltimore County Public School slated to receive $1,000 in a grant from Patient First, a health care company that operates centers around the county. Through the donation, 10 BCPS elementary schools located near Patient First facilities will each receive $1,000. The company has announced that an additional contribution will be made in the spring when it opens a new facility in Towson. Currently, Patient First operates a facility in Lutherville, and Riderwood Elementary School will use the donation to purchase books for the school's library, according to school officials.

Baltimore County's Board of Education is seeking input from residents about its search for a new superintendent of schools. Three public forums have been scheduled for residents to inform board members of issues they should consider when choosing a new head for the county's school system. The first meeting will be held Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Loch Raven High School, 1212 Cowpens Ave. in Towson. On Thursday, two meetings will be held, both beginning at 6 p.m. One gathering will be conducted at Woodlawn High School, 1801 Woodlawn Drive in Woodlawn.