Bel Air Middle

A correct answer gets "Nice Neurons" or "Wowie Zowie." A blooper elicits a "Tragic Blunder."The Bel Air Middle students press ahead with the multiple-choice questions as they appear on the computer screen. The Knowledge Master Open (KMO) competition requires "Jeopardy" reflexes to win points."B, b, b, b," eighth-grader Crystal Tang shouts confidently, answering a question. Another Nice Neurons and praise from a student."Good, Crystal," eighth-grader Jennie Callas tells her during a practice session.

Havre de Grace will celebrate Independence Day with a parade, carnival, concert and fireworks today. Bel Air has planned daylong Fourth of July activities for tomorrow.Beginning at 2 p.m. today, Havre de Grace's parade -- with 18 bands and numerous floats that represent community organizations, businesses, volunteer fire companies and the Army -- will proceed along Union Avenue from Legion Square to (( Tydings Park.Performances by rock band Jam Trax and the Liberty Dixieland Band will begin at 6:45 p.m. at the park.

It's payback time at area schools for those deep-freeze days )) of ice and snow -- and the price is heat and humidity.Many students and teachers whose school systems extended sessions further into June to make up for cold-weather closings will be laboring this week in 90-degree-plus temperatures, thanks to a late-spring heat wave.In Harford County, where classes originally were scheduled to end last week, schools were dismissed two hours early yesterday because of heat.The irony was not lost on Claire Parker, an art teacher at Bel Air Middle School.

The proposed $96.3 million Harford capital budget for fiscal 1994 includes money for a new elementary school in Bel Air, renovations or additions to five other schools, new firehouses for Abingdon and Havre de Grace and a nature center at Leight Park.The capital budget, presented to the County Council on Thursday by County Executive Eileen M. Rehrmann, would increase construction spending by about $30 million, from this year's $66.3 million.But nearly $60 million of the proposed construction budget would be set aside for two sewer projects: the Sod Run and the Whiteford Area treatment plants.

Harford state delegates say they'll push for state money to pay for an addition to Bel Air Middle School, a building to house an apprenticeship program at the county's community college and an expansion of the Sexual Assault/Spouse Abuse Resource Center."

It still rains in some Harford classrooms -- to the dismay of county lawmakers."We thought we had taken care of the roof problems, but we continue to get letters saying, 'Our school has leaks,' and that upsets us," Council President Jeffrey D. Wilson told Harford School Superintendent Ray R. Keech at the council meeting Tuesday night."

A state agency that recommends school projects for state funding has turned down a 300-student addition to the Bel Air Middle School.But Harford County school officials say they are not fazed because they have two more chances to ask the state for the money.State money was approved Thursday to build Country Walk Elementary in Bel Air and replace the roof at Havre de Grace Middle School. But the 38,480-square-foot addition at Bel Air Middle School, which would cost the state about $2 million, was rejected because the state does not have enough money to fill all requests.

The organizers of the Bel Air Independence Day activities are expecting a crowd of more than 50,000 for the July 4 town parade and fireworks, and they are encouraging those who plan to attend to get an early start to find parking.The Bel Air parking garage on Hickory Avenue will be open all day and night for parade and fireworks spectators. Organizers encourage citizens to use the garage because it is close to the parade route. Other parking areas commonly used by spectators are the Bel Air Plaza parking lot and Howard Park, which offers free parking.

In last weeks' edition of The Harford County Sun, an article about aschool redistricting plan incorrectly reported that 140 students will shift from Southampton Middle School to Bel Air Middle.The plan calls for 75 Bel Air Middle School students to shift to SouthamptonMiddle. No students would shift from Southampton to Bel Air.About 900 students would move from the schools they attend now to the new Fallston Middle School under school redistricting plans recommended to the school board last week.

Brandon Lentz was apprehensive about attending Patterson Mill Middle School. First, there was the size of the building: Would he be able to find his way around the 266,476-square-foot building? And the middle school is housed in the same building as the high school: Were high school students really as mean as people said they were? "I was more than a little intimidated my first day of school," said Brandon, 14, of Abingdon. "You see kids on television in high school giving younger kids swirlies" - putting their heads in toilets and flushing - "and stuffing them in their lockers.

More than 30 years ago, physical-education teachers at Bel Air Middle School started a Turkey Trot, a fun run held around Thanksgiving. The program has grown each year, with more than 1,250 students participating. Unlike other Turkey Trots, which are designed to raise money for a charitable cause, the Bel Air Middle event is a fun run to promote fitness, said Jeff Eaton, the physical-education department chairman who heads the program. Five other teachers at the school also work with Eaton on the program.

Brandon Lentz was apprehensive about attending Patterson Mill Middle School. First, there was the size of the building: Would he be able to find his way around the 266,476-square-foot building? And the middle school is housed in the same building as the high school: Were high school students really as mean as people said they were? "I was more than a little intimidated my first day of school," said Brandon, 14, of Abingdon. "You see kids on television in high school giving younger kids swirlies" - putting their heads in toilets and flushing - "and stuffing them in their lockers.

For about a decade, students and teachers at Bel Air Middle School have participated in an annual initiative to raise money for the American Heart Association. But when the physical education teachers at the school announced that they were unable to coordinate the event this year, Charles Spinnato took action. Fearing that the fundraiser, called Hoops for Heart, would be canceled, the 13-year-old wrote a petition that was signed by 100 teachers and students at the school. He wasn't about to give up, he said.

When the timekeeper said "Go!" Mark Weider grabbed a basketball and let it fly. In the gym at Bel Air Middle School, the eighth-grader fired five shots from beyond the three-point line before moving on to the next spot and shooting five more. He had one minute to shoot from five locations. In all the commotion, he wasn't sure how he had fared. "I don't know how many baskets I made," he said after finishing the first of two rounds last week. "I was shooting too fast to count." The 13-year-old is not the only one trying to fill up the hoop at a local school.

Recalling the vote for Moe Noodleman Your article "Just who is this Shellnut running for county sheriff?" in the May 7 edition reminded me of an incident that occurred at the newly constructed Bel Air Middle School (now Southampton) in the early 1970s. As a reaction to the fact that students were to elect a new class president on the merits of an intercom speech instead of a live assembly, a group of eggheads - Jon West, Ed Cohen, Ed Knapton and Gordon McPhee - were inspired to create a fictional candidate, "the infamous MOE NOODLEMAN" to run for class president.

Carolyn Conn loaded tennis balls into a plastic cup at the end of a homemade wooden catapult. Prettany Overman scrutinized a bicycle wheel that she transformed into a working Ferris wheel. Andrew Ellis and Tim Odell fit plastic guardrails on a small replica of a roller coaster. The diverse assortment of projects the Bel Air Middle School pupils are working on are part of an extracurricular activity designed to challenge their creativity and build problem-solving skills. The program is called Destination ImagiNation, and middle-schoolers across the county are taking part, preparing for a regional competition Saturday at Bel Air Middle.

Add air conditioning at Bel Air Middle I am writing on behalf of the PTA to express our support for funding to fully air condition Bel Air Middle School. The Board of Education has requested this funding as part of an ongoing program to provide air conditioning to every Harford County public school. The request for Bel Air Middle has been made in the past, but remains unfunded. This year, in light of the county surplus, we believe the time has come to put this program back on track. In fact, there are only six Harford County public schools that are not fully air conditioned.

Government-related public meetings in Harford County. Tomorrow Board of Education: Business session, 6:30 p.m., Bel Air Middle School, 99 Idlewild St., Bel Air, Bel Air, 410-588-5348. Tuesday County Council: 8 p.m., legislative session, council chambers, 212 S. Bond St., Bel Air. 410-638- 3343. www.co.ha.md.us/council/Agenda.cfm. Harford Roundtable: noon, Holy Trinity Parish House, 2929 Level Road (Route 155). www.co. ha.md.us/services/homeless/roundtable.cfm. Wednesday Zoning Hearing Examiners: 6:30 p.m., council chambers, 212 S. Bond St. 410-638-3343.

Leila M. Panowitz, a Baltimore City and Harford County public school teacher, died of cancer Thursday at her Bel Air home. She was 54. Born Leila McDonald, she was a native of Norfolk, Va., and moved to the Hamilton section of Baltimore in 1962. She graduated from Eastern High School in 1966 and earned a degree in elementary education in 1970 from what is now Towson University. She met Edward A. "Skip" Panowitz at St. John's United Methodist Church of Hamilton. The two married in 1969 and lived in Gardenville.

A correct answer gets "Nice Neurons" or "Wowie Zowie." A blooper elicits a "Tragic Blunder."The Bel Air Middle students press ahead with the multiple-choice questions as they appear on the computer screen. The Knowledge Master Open (KMO) competition requires "Jeopardy" reflexes to win points."B, b, b, b," eighth-grader Crystal Tang shouts confidently, answering a question. Another Nice Neurons and praise from a student."Good, Crystal," eighth-grader Jennie Callas tells her during a practice session.