City Public Schools

Problems at Callaway Elementary School began on the first day, when eager parents arrived and helped teachers open boxes containing new teaching materials.What they saw inside the boxes shocked them: reproductions of social studies booklets from the 1950s that parents believe portray blacks and Eskimos in an offensive and racially stereotyped way.School officials quickly took the offending booklets away and said they will substitute relevant materials in the classroom. But the initial misstep has become a symbol for the difficulties a nonprofit, church affiliated group -- which ordered the school materials -- has had in taking over a city public school.

The second annual Charm City Classic, featuring five boys basketball teams ranked in the USA Today Super 25 poll, will be held Friday and Saturday night at Towson Center.The nationally ranked teams are No. 1 Simon Gratz of Philadelphia, No. 4 St. Anthony's of Jersey City, N.J., No. 6 St. John's Prospect Hall of Frederick, No. 9 Dunbar of Washington, and The Baltimore Sun's top-ranked Dunbar, ranked 10th nationally.Competition begins with Friday's 7 p.m. game between Simon Gratz, featuring the nation's top player, 6-foot-11 center Rasheed Wallace, and Lake Clifton, ranked No. 2 in The Baltimore Sun.Dunbar plays St. Anthony's in the 9 p.m. contest.

The dilemma hits me immediately when I turn to the local sports section of Friday's paper. Listed under the schedule for the day's high school football games are Poly at Dunbar, 2: 30 p.m., and Gilman at City, slated for a 3: 45 p.m. start.What is a high school football fan to do? I dismiss thoughts of a plot by the coaches of these schools to deliberately drive me crazy with such a scheduling conflict and get down to business. Which game do I attend?Dunbar is a defending state champion and ranked No. 1 in the Baltimore area.

Esther "Penny" Love, a Baltimore public school guidance counselor for nearly 40 years who was an outspoken advocate for emotionally challenged and dyslexic students, died Monday of lung cancer at Sinai Hospital. She was 89. Esther Shulman, whose parents owned a dry-goods store in the 2900 block of O'Donnell St., was born and raised in Canton. She graduated from Patterson High School in 1941. The summer after graduating from high school, she took a job washing test tubes in the detection laboratory at Edgewood Arsenal, under the direction of Solomon "Sol" Love, and earned his ire when she dipped the wrong end of a pipette in bleach.

For most high school students, the challenge of carrying a full course load while coping with adolescence, teen-age crushes and fitting in with the crowd is tough enough.Now imagine handling all that while living in an adult jail in the heart of the city.That's exactly what the 175 students who attend Baltimore City Jail School are facing. Even though they're still teen-agers, the students have been charged with the most serious crimes, ranging from armed robbery to rape and murder."The Jail School presents a final-hour opportunity for these adolescents," said LaMont W. Flanagan, commissioner of the state Division of Pretrial Detention and Services.

City football coach George Petrides says he is a firm believer that "to be the best you have to play the best."That's what members of City and Poly's football programs believe they will be doing when they rekindle old rivalries and play a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference schedule next season.The two city public schools had developed long-standing rivalries with the Maryland Scholastic Association teams before the MSA disbanded last year and City and Poly joined the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

Beatrice I. "Bea" Jefferson, a retired educator who taught in city public schools for more than two decades, died Jan. 24 of cardiac arrest at Sinai Hospital. She was 89. The daughter of a butcher and a homemaker, Beatrice Irene Knotts was one of eight children. She was born and raised in Wilmington, Del. After graduating in 1939 from Howard High School in Wilmington, Mrs. Jefferson earned a bachelor's degree in 1943 from what is now Morgan State University. Mrs. Jefferson worked for the Social Security Administration while earning her teacher's certification from what is now Coppin State University.

Disperse 'special' students among schoolsI have several suggestions for the new Baltimore City public schools leadership team.First, immediately stop the practice of moving middle-school students to high school merely because they are too old, too mature or just too large to remain in middle school. Thousands of kids are ''socially promoted'' (certain groups don't want to use this phrase although that is what it is) and enter high school unprepared to do high school work (where they actually have to earn credits to be promoted)

Eva Scott, Western High's athletic director, calls it "the culmination of years of hard work."Mitch Tullai, football coach at St. Paul's and former athletic director at the school, calls it "the death knell" of the Maryland Scholastic Association.This fall, Baltimore City's 16 public schools moved from the MSA to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. Walter Amprey, the Baltimore schools superintendent, mandated the move to the MPSSAA earlier this year. The effects are already being felt.