Baltimore School

Baltimore School for the Arts will hold its annual orchestra concert at 7 p.m. today in the school's Schaefer Ballroom, 712 Cathedral St. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students. Works by Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Mozart will be featured in the debut of the school's new conductor, Ruben Capriles. Information: 410-625-0403, or www.bsfa.org.

Baltimore: Schools Delay closings vote, board is to be asked Baltimore school officials will ask city Board of Education members to delay for 30 days the planned vote on the closings of Thurgood Marshall and Hamilton middle schools at tonight's board meeting. School officials said yesterday at a meeting at the North Avenue headquarters that the proposed middle school closings will require more public hearings because of changes to their original proposal. Thurgood Marshall was originally scheduled to close in the summer of 2009, but the new proposal calls for the school to be shut down a year earlier.

Charlotte Lee Wheeler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rexford Lee Wheeler, III of Baltimore was wed to William Sherman Gordon, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. William Sherman Gordon of Keene, Virginia on April 28th. The bride is a graduate of Calvert School, The Bryn Mawr School, Washington and Lee University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. John T. King, III and the late Mr. and Mrs. Rexford Lee Wheeler, Jr., all of Baltimore. The groom is a graduate of Saint Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia and Appalachian State University.

Some of Baltimore's best amateur boxers will compete tonight against their counterparts from Washington, New Jersey and Philadelphia at the Upton Boxing Center, 1901 Pennsylvania Ave., in what has been dubbed "Baltimore's Boxing Bash." The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will feature Upton's 2006 Boxer of the Year, Angelo Ward. Admission is $10 for adults; $5 for children under 12. Information: 410-396-7900. Baltimore: Education Forums are set in CEO search The Baltimore school board will hold four community forums next week to gather public input as it conducts a search for a permanent chief executive officer.

The federal government is awarding the Baltimore school system $7.7 million through its E-Rate program, which provides discounts on technology to poor schools and libraries. It will be the city school system's first E-Rate award since the 2002-2003 school year. The federal government froze funds after that year as a result of an audit and sought to take back $2.5 million that the audit found was misspent. Howard Steptoe, the school system's technology officer, said the system has not been informed whether it will have to give back any of that money.

When Andres Alonso "fell" into teaching after ditching his job as a Wall Street lawyer, he took on a special education class in Newark, N.J., and dedicated himself to serving emotionally disturbed children for more than a decade, eventually becoming the legal guardian of one of his former students. To those who have watched Alonso's life evolve from those early days as a classroom teacher to a deputy chancellor of New York's behemoth school system, the man who is the new chief executive officer for Baltimore's schools didn't just switch jobs, he found his calling.

Edda M. Jakab, a Baltimore painter who at 17 married an American soldier in her native Germany, moved to the United States to raise a family and later blossomed into a well-reviewed artist, died of brain cancer Friday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The 61-year-old wife and mother of two died on her 44th wedding anniversary, according to her family. Mrs. Jakab began her formal art education in her 30s. The postponement of her art career sometimes frustrated her while she supported her spouse through graduate school and cared for two young daughters, according to her husband, George J. Jakab.

The Baltimore school system earned poor marks from Democratic voters in the city, according to a new Sun poll, which shows education second only to crime as the most important issue in this year's mayoral election. Asked to grade the city schools, respondents gave the system an average mark of D-plus. Forty-two percent selected grades of D or Fail. Forty-nine percent of poll respondents ranked schools as the largest or second-largest challenge facing the city. That compares with 86 percent for crime and 15 percent for the issue in third place, the economy and availability of jobs.

At first, Hannah Walsh says, it was nice to have some extra time off from school. She'd already had a little break two weeks ago, when all Baltimore public schools were closed Feb. 1 and 2 for staff training. Then last week, her high school closed early on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday because of heating problems. Wednesday was a snow day. By yesterday, when City College was closed for the entire day, this time because of a flood in the gymnasium, Walsh was getting annoyed. And now, with the forecast calling for snow, schools might shut down again today and tomorrow.

The Baltimore school system will receive $2.6 million this year to help identify troubled youths and prevent violence at 10 city schools under a grant announced yesterday by President Clinton in his weekly radio address.Rep. Elijah E. Cummings delivered the news yesterday at Lake Clifton Eastern High School during a summit with parents, politicians and educators who gathered to brainstorm plans for making classrooms safer and encouraging parents to become a larger part of their children's education.

ART Clayfest: If you aren't afraid to get your hands a little dirty, consider one of this year's best offerings of Free Fall, a monthlong festival of wallet-friendly events. Next weekend, Baltimore Clayworks will be hosting wheel-throwing, tile-making, raku-firing and even a "Clay Olympics" for would-be sculptors of all skill levels. Starts at noon Saturday. Web: baltimoreclayworks.org CONCERT Mario: This Baltimore-bred R&B singer was a smash on last year's "Dancing With the Stars," but at the time his music career had seen better days.

The 372 students attending Baltimore School for the Arts have never once spontaneously poured out the doors to dance atop the rooftops of cars stalled in traffic. Nor are there jam sessions in the cafeteria, in which tabletops are upended and transformed into percussion instruments, while the cafeteria workers smile benignly. Ah, Hollywood. Ah, "Fame." Those scenes from the 1980 film about life at a performing arts school in New York became a cultural touchstone for Gen Xers. They're often the first thing prospective parents bring up upon meeting the local high school's principal, Leslie Shepard, and they make her simultaneously wince and smile.

" You ain't seen the best of me yet, Give me a chance, I'll make you forget the rest." - from "Fame," by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford The hardest thing that Alana Bower has had to do in her 15 years on this planet was to tell her parents that their dreams for her future didn't match her own. At the time, she was just 13 years old, and an argument could be made that kids that age are too young to know their own minds. Perhaps Alana wasn't quite as studious as her older sister Ariel, a math whiz who now is studying computer science at the Johns Hopkins University.

Growing up in Baltimore in the late 1980s, Dan Griffiths and Jeremy Kasten knew each other just enough to be wary. When, as freshmen at Boston's Emerson College, fate cast them as roommates, neither was exactly thrilled. "I called the school right away," says Griffiths, "to say, 'Hey, I kind of know this guy. Is there a way I can not live in this guy's room?' " The two men roar with laughter. If the housing people at Emerson had only listened. But they didn't, and now, some two decades later, these two Baltimore guys are sitting together on a couch in a largely deserted West Baltimore school building.

The Rev. William E. "Little Buddy" Lambirth, a retired machinist, World War II veteran and ordained minister, died in his sleep June 7 at a Lancaster, Pa., nursing home. The former Baltimore resident was 90. Mr. Lambirth was born in Kinston, N.C., and moved to Baltimore in 1931. He was a 1936 graduate of George Washington Carver Vocational School and attended the Baltimore College of Commerce. During World War II, he served with the Army's 4341st Quartermaster Corps under Gen. George S. Patton in Europe.

Brian D. Morris, the charismatic and well-connected former Baltimore school board chairman who was to start a high-level school district job Monday morning, resigned Saturday amid questions about the hiring process and his history of financial troubles. In statements issued Saturday, the school board and Morris said he had decided to withdraw his name for the $175,000-a-year post, which would have given him oversight of school system operations. Since Tuesday, when the school board approved the appointment on the recommendation of schools CEO Andr?

Beatrice Rigby's choice of the flute as an instrument to play in the fourth grade felt as random a selection as what she would eat for lunch that day. But that simple decision to go for the "oooh, shiny" instrument would guide much of the rest of her childhood. She learned quickly and her music teacher at Cross Country Elementary School suggested she try out for the Baltimore School for the Arts' TWIGS program for young city artists. The training at TWIGS prepared her for a place at the School for the Arts, and she will graduate today as an experienced musician and will attend Towson University with the goal of being a music teacher.

Melvin Berger, who founded a Baltimore County savings and loan and was the co-donor of downtown Baltimore's Holocaust Memorial sculpture, died in his sleep Friday at his Pikesville home. He was 76. Born in Baltimore and raised on Whitechapel Road, he graduated from City College in 1950 and attended the University of Baltimore School of Law. He entered his parent's real estate business, William Berger Real Estate, on East North Avenue. In 1961, he founded Yorkridge Federal Savings and Loan Association in Baltimore County.

Maurice Cardin, a retired lawyer and former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, died of heart failure March 23 at JFK Medical Center in Lake Worth, Fla. The former Baltimore resident was 99. Mr. Cardin, the son of a soft drink manufacturer, was born and raised in a rowhouse at Baltimore and Ann streets. He was a graduate of the Army-Navy Preparatory School and earned his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1929. For many years, Mr. Cardin, who maintained a general law practice, was a partner in the Baltimore law firm of Cardin & Cardin.

Aromas of various dishes floated around the Du Burns arena, as did a certain undertone of orange - thanks to a specialty Orange Crush cocktail being served at one end of the building. The sounds of rock 'n' roll reverberated off the walls, alongside that of happy chatter and laughter. But there was something else in the air at the "Fifth Annual Rock the House" party. It was a certain warm, fuzzy feeling about the evening's beneficiary, Believe In Tomorrow Children's Foundation, which provides housing and services to critically ill children and their families, including one house just up the street in Canton.