Baltimore County Schools

At Fifth District Elementary School in Baltimore County, pupils are so serious about improving their reading skills, some of them chart their progress on tests in notebooks. Every one of them knows the school's motto: "Keep reading."Three reading tutorials, pupil-driven literature clubs and a school day revamped to enable pupils to cycle more easily through reading workshops seem to be paying off.On state reading tests, the percentage of Fifth District third-graders scoring at a satisfactory level rose from 42.4 percent in 1994 to 78.7 percent in the spring.

As school systems scramble to find enough classroom teachers, many fear another looming shortage: principals and assistant principals.In Maryland and across the nation, superintendents say they're finding fewer and fewer qualified teachers who want to become the next generation of school leaders.And the problem could worsen in Maryland -- an informal state survey found that at least 75 percent of high school principals will be eligible to retire with full benefits in the next few years."We have such a need for people to become administrators," says state schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

The Baltimore County schools' chief financial officer, who is widely credited with bringing order and clarity to the system's finances, is threatening to quit, apparently after the forced resignation of his top deputy.Chief Financial Officer John M. Markowski called his staff together Friday and told them he was resigning from the school system, effective at the end of the fiscal year in June.Markowski's announcement came less than 48 hours after Deputy Chief Financial Officer Roy J. Hicks resigned.

The General Assembly gave final approval yesterday to legislation that would increase state aid to local school systems by $68 million a year, with much of the money targeted to students in poverty.The vote by the House of Delegates ends an often contentious struggle that began last year when legislators from the Washington suburbs objected to the General Assembly's passage of a major education spending increase for Baltimore.This year, in a politically balanced approach, all areas of the state receive new aid.The largest sum -- $18 million -- would go to Prince George's County, where student test scores rank second worst in the state, trailing Baltimore's.

Children and staff at an aging Columbia elementary school say the building is making them sick, and Howard County health and safety officials went there yesterday looking for explanations.Headaches, fatigue, stomach aches, blurred vision and an inability to concentrate are among the complaints by children, staff members and volunteers at Jeffers Hill Elementary.Some parents say a lack of ventilation, combined with possible mold and asbestos contamination, have created unhealthy air -- and unhealthy working conditions.

If I have a child remaining in a public school system, and I see Friday's front page story about the construction boom in the private and parochial schools around Baltimore, then I ask myself a disturbing question this morning: Am I delivering to my kid a future of second-class citizenship?The McDonoghs and Boys' Latins are spending money with both hands these days, and why not? The Bryn Mawrs and the St. Paul's schools have seen the future, and it looks bright with desperate public school refugees banging on their doors with checkbooks in hand.

Robert H. Chapman III, the Baltimore County schools' No. 2 official -- and the one with direct authority over the besieged facilities department -- abruptly announced yesterday that he will retire at month's end after 32 years with the school district.Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione said Chapman, 53, had two job possibilities elsewhere but would not elaborate.Marchione said he didn't think the decision resulted from violations of procurement laws and procedures uncovered by auditors but added, "I think Mr. Chapman felt responsible for some of what occurred, if not all of what occurred, because he was in charge of that whole operation.

Baltimore County racked up three distinctions yesterday in the state's School Performance Recognition Awards ceremony. It had the highest number of schools to receive money, 16; the largest amount of money of any school system, $453,250; and the single largest school award, $51,394 to Perry Hall Middle School."

Maryland schoolchildren yesterday braved slushy streets, ice- and snow-covered sidewalks and bus stops piled high with snow, but most managed to arrive for the first day of classes since the Blizzard of '96.One school-related injury occurred when a Howard County student on his way home was hit by a car and scraped his face.Heavy traffic and semi-plowed streets and parking lots made for harried morning and evening commuting, and late arrivals were almost universal. At some Baltimore County schools, principals and assistant principals were directing traffic.

When local homebuilders said last week that they would consider building schools to help offset the effect of development, people listened.Carroll County Commissioners have grappled for years with the problem of school crowding, but the issue has come to a head as the county faces a $5 million budget deficit and a rapidly growing school population, driven by residential development.But don't expect a magic bullet.Homebuilders say they want to share their expertise, not their money. Among their suggestions: adding modular units to schools, which can be done within months with no heavy construction on site.

Norvice G. Penny, an educator who later was director of human relations for Baltimore County Public Schools and who worked tirelessly to improve race and community relations as well as the quality of education for all students, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 18 at Northwest Hospital Center. The longtime Lochearn resident was 76. "I would give Norvice the credit for ushering Baltimore County schools into diversity and minority recognition and providing full equality to all students and the broader community.

A day after proposing one of the most austere state budgets in the past two decades, Gov. Martin O'Malley stopped at a Baltimore County high school yesterday to highlight a brighter point in his spending plan - $333 million for school renovation and construction projects in the coming year. It is the second-highest amount of money proposed for such work, county and state officials said. The appropriation for this school year - $400 million - was the highest, they said. "There's nothing that speaks to the expectations that we have of our children quite so much as the condition of the buildings in which learning and teaching take place," O'Malley said after touring Western School of Technology and Environmental Science in Catonsville.

Pikesville High School junior Marcia Mellinger has evolved from a painfully shy C student to one who has a high B average and is involved in a half-dozen extracurricular activities. Senior Brandon Walker was earning A's in the school's standard courses, but with a bit of a nudge he was persuaded to take more-challenging courses. "I wanted to go to college, but I wasn't doing what it would take to get into college," Walker, who now takes honors, gifted-and-talented and Advanced Placement classes, said yesterday in the school's library.

Bonnie S. Copeland inherited the top job in the Baltimore school system in the midst of a financial collapse in 2003. In the years since, the system has achieved financial stability, and elementary schools have shown significant academic gains. But the performance of many middle and high schools remains dismal, and the flurry of controversy surrounding the city schools has never ceased. Now more than ever, Copeland is a woman under siege. Last summer, a federal judge ordered nine state managers to oversee all school system departments that affect special education.

Nearly 20 schools - including a handful of public schools - have made donations to political campaigns in Maryland in recent years, prompting criticism that the money should be spent on students, not candidates. Though the contributions are small and appear to be an oversight in some cases, the schools - from Baltimore County's Parkville High to the Foundation Schools, which offers special education courses near Washington - are listed on state records as giving to campaigns. A statement from the Maryland attorney general's office said the contributions would "not be a proper use of public funds."

Clutching a framed photo of her stepson who was killed in Iraq, Tia Steele made a tearful plea to the Baltimore County school board. Steele, a pacifist, explained that she had been surprised when her stepson enlisted in the Marines after being recruited while attending Dulaney High School. So Steele begged the school board to better educate parents about how they can keep information about their children from military recruiters. Steele learned the hard way about a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act that received little publicity when the landmark education bill passed in 2001: Every public school district in the country is required to pass along to recruiters the names, phone numbers and addresses of students -- unless the student or a parent specifically requests otherwise in advance.

Sixth- and ninth-graders in Baltimore County will no longer have the buildings to themselves on their first day in their new schools. School officials have banned a longstanding practice at some county middle and high schools of staggered starts - when only sixth- and ninth-graders attend school on the first day, and their older peers join them on the second day. In August, all students will start school at the same time. The staggered starts were never part of a formal policy, said Charles A. Herndon, school district spokesman, adding that principals of each school had decided whether to participate.

TOWSON - Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston said this week that he will appoint a task force to study how the school system creates its calendar. Hairston is responding to a request from school board member Michael P. Kennedy, who said at a board meeting Tuesday night that he wants to find common ground with the county's Muslim community. For the past year, the Muslim community has been lobbying the board to close school on its two most important holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Baltimore County teachers would get a raise for the second consecutive year under the 2005-2006 school year operating budget that Superintendent Joe A. Hairston proposed to the school board last night. The $994 million budget request is an 8 percent, or $73 million, increase over the current school year's budget. It includes money to expand full-day kindergarten, preschool and college-readiness programs. The increase is the biggest that Hairston has requested in four years. Like superintendents in Anne Arundel and Harford counties, who are proposing even larger percentage increases, Hairston says his district needs the additional money largely to meet the increasing demands of the state's Thornton plan, the federal No Child Left Behind Act and rising health care costs.

Arelyn Mahan, a retired Dundalk elementary school principal who won accolades in her profession, died Monday of complications from Parkinson's disease at Oak Crest Village in Parkville, where she lived for six years. She was 78 and a former longtime Towson resident. Born Veta Arelyn Thomas on a farm near Bucklin, Mo., she moved to Annapolis when her father joined the Naval Academy faculty. A 1943 Annapolis High School graduate, she earned a degree at what is now Towson University and taught third grade at Towson Elementary for three years.