Chesapeake Bay Middle

CHESAPEAKE BAY Middle School has kicked off its latest reading incentive contest for pupils. The Read Across America contest, which began last week and runs through the month, rewards pupils for individual efforts and recognizes classroom teams that read the most books. "We found that our students had slacked off a little on their independent reading at home," said Peg Sange, reading resource teacher. "Celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday last Friday was a great excuse for a new contest. We just expanded the Read Across America Day concept a little."

An elementary school in Pasadena will be closed Monday as Anne Arundel County school officials repair a water main break on school property, a county school spokesman said. Bodkin Elementary will be closed, but other schools on the same campus — Chesapeake Bay Middle and Chesapeake High School — were unaffected, said the spokesman, Bob Mosier. The elementary school usually opens at 9:20 a.m., so school officials were able to use the automated telephone notification system to alert families of the closure, he said.

About 110 sixth- and seventh-graders at Chesapeake Bay Middle School have the option of continuing at their current school until high school under a plan approved by the Anne Arundel County school board. The board voted to approve the superintendent's redistricting plan, which would return middle-schoolers from the Riviera Beach Elementary School area to George Fox Middle School but give sixth- and seventh-graders at Chesapeake Bay the option of remaining at the school. The board voted for the school department to provide transportation, despite protests from some board members over spending more money when the school department has an estimated $54 million shortfall.

About 110 sixth- and seventh-graders at Chesapeake Bay Middle School have the option of continuing at their current school until high school under a plan approved by the Anne Arundel County school board. The board voted to approve the superintendent's redistricting plan, which would return middle-schoolers from the Riviera Beach Elementary School area to George Fox Middle School but give sixth- and seventh-graders at Chesapeake Bay the option of remaining at the school. The board voted for the school department to provide transportation, despite protests from some board members over spending more money when the school department has an estimated $54 million shortfall.

Anne Arundel County school officials have added a briefing on four redistricting proposals to relieve crowding at George Fox Middle School and changed the date of a hearing.The second briefing -- one was to be held last night -- will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at Chesapeake Bay Middle School.The hearing, originally scheduled for March 27, will be at 7 p.m. March 28, also at Chesapeake Bay Middle School. The change was made to avoid conflict with school activities.George Fox is in the Northeast High School feeder system.

The Anne Arundel County school board unanimously approved a redistricting plan for South County, but delayed voting on a redistricting plan for the Mountain Road corridor in order to explore options for allowing some Pasadena middle school students to stay at the school they now attend. Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has proposed sending about 150 students who now attend Chesapeake Bay Middle School to George Fox Middle School, but board members are looking at ways to allow some students to remain at Chesapeake Bay. In conjunction with its meeting April 15, the Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the redistricting proposal for the Mountain Road corridor.

Jennie Bowman, a 12-year-old at crowded George Fox Middle School in Pasadena, worries that she will lose friends if they are sent to Chesapeake Bay Middle School in a proposed redistricting plan that could start in September.Some educators think redistricting could ease crowding, but some parents fear their children may have a hard time adjusting to unfamiliar teachers and classmates, a new school building and a longer commute to Chesapeake Bay Middle, about five miles east along traffic-filled Mountain Road.

Public schools in the Pasadena area will have a staggered opening schedule next week, with new students reporting a day earlier than returning students for orientation:* At Chesapeake High School on Mountain Road, new students will report to school at 7:25 a.m. Aug. 28. All other students should report to their homerooms at 7:25 a.m. Aug. 29.* At Northeast High School on Duvall Highway, new students and their parents are invited to attend an orientation program...

Anne Arundel school officials may pull the former Windmill Point Middle School at the Chesapeake complex out of mothballs to alleviate overcrowding at other Northeast county schools.Windmill Point opened in 1976 next to Chesapeake Bay Middle School -- then known as Bayview Middle -- on Mountain Road. The school closed in 1981 as enrollments declined.Now enrollments in the Northeast High School feeder system are climbing again, particularly at George Fox Middle School. Officials predict George Fox will have 400 more students than it was designed to accommodate by 1996 unless some changes are made.

A school only for sixth-graders in the Mountain Road corridor would be the best solution to crowding problems at George Fox Middle School, parents told the Anne Arundel County school board at a hearing last night.Parents said they recognized that having all sixth-graders from Fox and Chesapeake Bay Middle School grouped together at the Chesapeake building is probably the most expensive of the four suggested solutions. But they said it would be be the least painful for their children because the students would be disrupted for only one year and not three years.

The Anne Arundel County school board unanimously approved a redistricting plan for South County, but delayed voting on a redistricting plan for the Mountain Road corridor in order to explore options for allowing some Pasadena middle school students to stay at the school they now attend. Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has proposed sending about 150 students who now attend Chesapeake Bay Middle School to George Fox Middle School, but board members are looking at ways to allow some students to remain at Chesapeake Bay. In conjunction with its meeting April 15, the Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the redistricting proposal for the Mountain Road corridor.

6 'green' schools to be honored Six Anne Arundel schools will be honored this week for being "green" schools and integrating lessons about the environment into their daily curriculum. The Arundel schools-five public and one private-are part of a batch of 36 from across the state to be recognized by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) in an awards ceremony Thursday in Catonsville. Green school award winners for this year are Benfield Elementary, Broadneck High, Chesapeake Bay Middle, Hebron-Harman Elementary, Mayo Elementary and St. Andrew's United Methodist Day School.

On a cloudy, starting-to-feel-like-fall day this week, about a dozen sixth-graders from Chesapeake Bay Middle School waded thigh-deep into the Indian Creek branch of the Severn River. Though they were wearing rubber boots, their clothes were soaked at least to their waists. And they didn't seem to mind. "I think something just swam over my foot," said Carly Bair, 11, smiling. Nearby, several students were pulling a large seine along the water, capturing tiny bay anchovies and even a crab, and placing their treasures in a plastic container filled with water.

CHESAPEAKE BAY Middle School has kicked off its latest reading incentive contest for pupils. The Read Across America contest, which began last week and runs through the month, rewards pupils for individual efforts and recognizes classroom teams that read the most books. "We found that our students had slacked off a little on their independent reading at home," said Peg Sange, reading resource teacher. "Celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday last Friday was a great excuse for a new contest. We just expanded the Read Across America Day concept a little."

IT WAS A hard-fought battle for the St. Jane Knights girls under-13 soccer team at the Got Milk? 3v3 Soccer Shootout last month in Florida. But when the final whistle was blown, the Pasadena girls had captured the national championship in their division. They soon had milk mustaches to go along with their title. The Got Milk? 3-on-3 tournament requires players to combine many offensive and defensive positions that would usually be covered by a much larger team in a regular soccer game.

Science teacher Barbara A. Johnson is always ready when pupils hit her with the inevitable question after a lesson about DNA, chemistry or the metric system: "Mrs. Johnson, why do we have to know this stuff?"The veteran teacher has an answer, because she always has another question in the back of her mind."How do you teach what your county says and make it meaningful and relevant for students?" asked Johnson, 52, who has taught science at Pasadena's Chesapeake Bay Middle School for most of her two decades in the Anne Arundel public school system.

An elementary school in Pasadena will be closed Monday as Anne Arundel County school officials repair a water main break on school property, a county school spokesman said. Bodkin Elementary will be closed, but other schools on the same campus — Chesapeake Bay Middle and Chesapeake High School — were unaffected, said the spokesman, Bob Mosier. The elementary school usually opens at 9:20 a.m., so school officials were able to use the automated telephone notification system to alert families of the closure, he said.

Redistricting plan to be explainedSchool officials will present details of their plans to redraw some elementary school districts and send Riviera Beach students to Chesapeake Bay Middle School at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Northeast High School auditorium.Mike Raible, director of school planning, said a new Solley Elementary School, seven times larger than the existing facility, is being planned to alleviate overcrowding at Sunset, Solley and High Point elementary schools.To reduce crowding at George Fox Middle School, Riviera Beach-area students would be sent to Chesapeake Bay Middle School, Mr. Raible said.

Only 36 of 200 eligible George Fox Middle School students are opting to switch to Chesapeake Bay Middle School next year.To blunt community outcry over the Pasadena redistricting plan, the Anne Arundel County school board decided last month to give current sixth- and seventh-graders at crowded George Fox a choice whether to go to Chesapeake Bay.The original plan was to pull out 270 Fox students starting inAugust. Only about half that many will be going to Chesapeake. Current fifth-graders will get no choice where they go.Opposition to the redistricting plan was so vehement this spring that "I'm surprised any of them are going," Janet Bury, the school board member whose district includes Pasadena, said of those choosing to switch.

The Anne Arundel County school board has redrawn attendance boundaries to shift more than 1,000 students in four areas of the county and to modify its proposal for redistricting students in four neighborhoods in the northern tip of Edgewater.The plan, adopted late Wednesday, reworks for the third time the board's plans for Annapolis area schools, compromises on plans for Riviera Beach and Sunset Elementary students, relieves crowding problems in South County and sets attendance areas for a new Meade Area Middle School.