County Public Schools

Howard held off defending champion Centennial at the 35th annual Howard County Championship meet, April 22 at the Howard Community College pool. Because swimming is not a sport that is sanctioned by the county's high school athletic program, the event is sponsored by the Columbia Clippers club team. Each school had a captain that recruited his or her classmates to form a team. Although Howard County public school swimmers get only one chance a year to represent their high school in the pool, many local swimmers will be continuing in college next year.

Theater and dance students in Prince George's County public schools can attend workshops in March that also offer the opportunity to perform. The second annual Theatre Arts Festival for county drama students will be held Tuesday, March 27 at 7 p.m. at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts, 15200 Annapolis Road, Bowie. Drama students from Prince George's County public middle schools and high schools will participate in monologue competitions and workshops with professional artists, and the day will end with student performances at 6 p.m. The 15th annual Dance Showcase, on Thursday, March 29 at Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School, 12650 Brooke Lane, Upper Marlboro, provides county dance students an opportunity to work with professional choreographers and receive instruction in various dance genres.

Students can earn service hours and help keep Rocky Gorge Reservoir beautiful at a community service day scheduled for Monday, Oct. 31, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Prince George's County public schools are closed for students that day. County students ages 11 to 18 can register to participate in the event, which is being held by the county's Police Athletic League and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which maintains the reservoir....

Hilda R. "Coach" Anderson, who was hired as Catonsville Community College's first woman coach and was an advocate for no sex discrimination in sports, died Oct. 4 of cancer at her Waverly Woods East home in Woodstock. The former longtime Windsor Hills resident was 83. The daughter of a shoe store owner and a homemaker, the former Hilda Roberty was born and raised in Mannington, W.Va. After graduating from Mannington High School in 1945, she earned a bachelor's degree at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, W.Va., in 1949.

Paul Joseph Coyle, a retired board-certified Baltimore County public school psychologist who earlier had been a teacher, died Saturday of lung cancer at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The Bel Air resident was 78. The son of a textile mill superintendent and a homemaker, Dr. Coyle was born in Central Falls, R.I., and raised in Lincoln, R.I. After graduating in 1950 from St. Raphael Academy in Pawtucket, R.I., he earned a...

Baltimore County Public Schools announced on Friday, Aug. 26, that all of its weekend activities for Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 27-28, at county schools would be canceled due to the pending arrival ofHurricane Irene. The school system sent out an alert that, "Because of anticipated inclement weather, all activities … are canceled. The school system is scheduled to have opening day of the new school year on Monday, Aug. 29, and that's still the plan, according to Charles Herndon, a spokesman for the school system.

Prince George's County Public Schools received the 2011 Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the United States and Canada. This award represents the highest rating given to government budget documents. Submissions are reviewed by three independent reviewers. PGCPS was rated proficient in all four categories: policy document, financial plan, operations guide and communications device, as well as the 14 mandatory criteria within those categories.

The national High School Challenge has named 13 Baltimore County Public Schools to its list of top U.S. high schools. The list, compiled and published by the Washington Post, is an annual project that ranks high schools based on academic rigor. From more than 27,000 high schools across the nation, the list spotlights more than 1,900 high schools that represent the top 7 percent of high schools in the nation, based on total student participation in rigorous coursework and exams.