Corkran Middle

Members of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association voted last night to spend nearly $1,000 in overlooked carnival revenue on civic activities and insurance.The extra $956.86 was discovered after the association's $162,656 budget for 1997 was presented to the membership. The budget was approved last month.Last night, members decided to use the extra money to give $500 to the North County Emergency Outreach Network (NCEON) and $250 to Corkran Middle School, and to use the remaining $206.86 for insurance.

PUT THE DOORS back on Corkran Middle School's bathrooms in Glen Burnie.The six student restrooms may be easier to monitor and quieter without outer doors, but the benefits are not worth the debilitating message this ridiculous policy sends to students, teachers, parents and the surrounding community.Principal Robert Janovsky, who did not originally remove the doors but continues the policy, justifies it by the results: Kids are not smoking, making loud noises or fighting in the bathrooms.

When Lindsay Breach gets home from a six-hour day at Corkran Middle School in Glen Burnie, her mother says she makes a beeline for the bathroom.She doesn't like to use the bathrooms at school. They don't have outer doors."I don't want anybody looking in there or anything," said Lindsay. The sixth-grader worries eighth-graders would laugh at the sight of her adjusting her clothes or belt outside a stall.Robert Janovsky, in his second year as principal of Corkran Middle, says he likes the doorless bathrooms because they are easier to monitor.

COUNTY SCHOOLS open their doors Monday to welcome students for the 1996-97 school year.Some students will get an extra day of vacation because Monday will be a school day for new middle and high school youngsters. Everyone will be expected to report Tuesday.John Kozora, principal of Marley Middle School, sees the staggered opening as a way of easing the adjustment to a new school."The separate opening -- will give school staff the opportunity to provide extra assistance to sixth graders who are attending Marley Middle for the first time," he explained.

ONE WOULD THINK the freedom to call our sons on the phone was the primary goal of the women's movement," mused my friend after yet another phone call for my son interrupted our visit.I nodded in agreement."And the way they dress!" she continued. "My son went out with a girl who, I swear, was wearing only an Ace bandage."We continued to swap stories of the moral decline of young women until my son suddenly popped his head out of the refrigerator."You sound like Grandmom," he announced.Grandmom?

Members of the Glen Burnie Improvement Association approved last night a $162,656 budget for next year, an increase of $16,000 over this year's spending plan.But association members will have to wait until next month to vote on how to spend an extra $956.86 in carnival revenue that had been overlooked and was discovered after the proposed budget was presented.The board of directors proposed using the extra money to give an additional $500 to the North County Emergency Outreach Network), $250 to the Corkran Middle School PTA and to use $206.

A team from Glen Burnie High School took first place at the regional tournament in the Odyssey of the Mind problem solving competition earlier this month.The first-place showing advances the team to the state competition, where it will be joined by two teams from Corkran Middle School, each of which placed second in their respective categories."This is the first time [we] ever had a team and then they took first place. We're very proud of them," said Glen Burnie High parent volunteer and coach Elaine Sangkavasi.

Perhaps the most touching testimony on a proposed school redistricting plan came last night from a 10-year-old girl who attends Southgate Elementary School.Sarah Ayersman, a fifth-grader who supports the school board's plan, sketched three pictures of over crowding at Southgate."First, I have noticed that there are a lot of students in my class. The teachers have trouble teaching class because of too many students," Sarah told the county Board of Education at the first public hearing on the redistricting proposal, held at Old Mill High School in Millersville.

Original artwork from students at Glen Burnie Park Elementary School has been reproduced on a variety of gift items including aprons, sweat shirts, T-shirts and calendars. Prices range from $2.10 to $25.20. All profits benefit the school's art program.Art teacher Sue Owens plans to use the profits for Art Night, a showcase of student artwork scheduled for March 30."Each parent has the opportunity to own a wearable piece of art created by their child," Ms. Owens said. "Every item is original to their child."

When William Hubbard retired from his family brokerage business six years ago, he turned to the Anne Arundel County Department of Aging -- not because he needed help but because he wanted to help his community.Today, this Linthicum resident goes to Corkran Middle School twice a week to tutor students in language arts. Many of the students are considered "at risk" and have problems that make learning especially difficult.Mr. Hubbard, who is legally blind, understands some of the difficulties.

Shane Severe, an incoming sixth-grader at Corkran Middle School, had the usual misgivings of a new student when classes started Monday. How would he find the right classroom and read his schedule? Would he be able to make new friends? Whom could he ask for help? "I was really nervous because I thought I wouldn't understand anything," Shane said. But after orientation with his eighth-grade mentors, he felt relief. "I know they're going to help me out when I need help," Shane said. The Anne Arundel County School System starts sixth-graders a day before their older middle school classmates so they can get used to their new environs, but Corkran is one of the few that offers its students a mentoring program similar to those offered in high schools.

The nonprofit Journey Foundation raised about $3,000 at its April 24 jazz concert and silent auction to help pay for breakfast and lunch for needy students at Corkran Middle School in Glen Burnie. The money helps provide meals for 10 students whose families don't qualify for the federal reduced-price lunch program but still need assistance, said Pamela Fowler, a teacher at Corkran and a board member of the Journey Foundation. Her brother, jazz musician Norman Evans, founded the organization in 2006 after hearing her stories about hungry children misbehaving in class.

Eighth-grader Paige Bray considers herself an expert on middle school, so she has been practicing a spiel designed to ease the transition for incoming sixth-graders. "Don't act too hyper and make people nervous," the Corkran Middle School student says. "And you can't come in and try to be, like, all popular or else you lose your old friends. I tried to do that and it didn't work, and I lost a lot of friends. But I'm slowly getting them back now." It's the kind of advice new middle schoolers likely won't receive from the adults in the building, but Paige is planning to dole out a lot of it as one of more than 35 peer mentors trained at Corkran Middle in Glen Burnie this summer.

The Harundale Youth Sports League already runs a popular winter basketball program. But Rudy Brown, the organization's treasurer and a coach, was among those who noticed something interesting two years ago: The kids wanted to keep playing in the spring. So the league decided to do something a little different, starting a spring basketball league, at a time usually reserved for baseball, softball, lacrosse and soccer. Since its launch in 2004, the youth spring basketball league has nearly doubled in size and is gearing up to start another season in about two weeks.

Corkran Middle School Principal Chris Truffer is looking for music, foreign language and physical education teachers. Kevin Dennehy, the principal at George Fox Middle School, has hired an art teacher and a technical education instructor. Like Truffer and Dennehy, principals at all 19 county middle schools are busy shifting teaching assignments and hiring staff so that all their pupils will be able to take physical education and fine arts in the fall. For years, the courses have not been required for county middle schoolers, but that will change in the next school year when Anne Arundel schools - prodded by community activists - begin offering a middle school curriculum that complies with state law on electives.

THE MUSIC PROGRAM at Glen Burnie High School hit a sweet note over the weekend. About 250 young musicians from Glen Burnie High and its feeder system - Marley and Corkran middle schools, and Oakwood, Quarterfield, Richard Henry Lee, Woodside, Freetown, Glendale, Marley and Point Pleasant elementaries - performed in the Glen Burnie Gala of Music. The second annual gala was staged at the high school Saturday. The high school band and orchestra director, Jeff Thompson, took part in a similar program in a previous teaching assignment at Meade High School.

Dozens of promotions, transfers and retirements throughout the county school system were approved last week by the Board of Education. The promotion list included the appointment of Deborah Huey as instructional director, a position in which she has been working on an acting basis. Retiring Principals retiring are Lawrence Campbell of Oak Hill Elementary School, Robert Janovsky of Corkran Middle, Jack Malloy of Ruth Parker Eason School, Sarah McGowan of Bates Middle and Cliff Prince of Southern High.

How do you cure a misbehaving child? Timeout. And how do you treat adults who seem to think youth sporting events at public school gyms are no different than fight night at Madison Square Garden? Timeout. Yes, timeout was the medicine Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks officials used to remedy a behavior disorder that has afflicted growing numbers of parents, coaches and young athletes throughout the county and throughout the country. The disease is highly contagious. Parents can infect other parents, and children on the court are bound to catch it. Recreation officials have tried some remedies, but none worked.

PUT THE DOORS back on Corkran Middle School's bathrooms in Glen Burnie.The six student restrooms may be easier to monitor and quieter without outer doors, but the benefits are not worth the debilitating message this ridiculous policy sends to students, teachers, parents and the surrounding community.Principal Robert Janovsky, who did not originally remove the doors but continues the policy, justifies it by the results: Kids are not smoking, making loud noises or fighting in the bathrooms.

When Lindsay Breach gets home from a six-hour day at Corkran Middle School in Glen Burnie, her mother says she makes a beeline for the bathroom.She doesn't like to use the bathrooms at school. They don't have outer doors."I don't want anybody looking in there or anything," said Lindsay. The sixth-grader worries eighth-graders would laugh at the sight of her adjusting her clothes or belt outside a stall.Robert Janovsky, in his second year as principal of Corkran Middle, says he likes the doorless bathrooms because they are easier to monitor.