Crofton Woods

FRIDAY WAS the last day of school before the winter vacation. Children looked forward to presents, holiday trips and two weeks of fun. At Crofton Woods Elementary School, many children wore Santa hats and reindeer antlers. Red was a popular color for sweaters and dresses. Teachers' desks were piled with presents. First-grade teacher Tracy Gload struggled to put a large houseplant into her van. The plant was a gift from her secret Santa, one of the other teachers. She thought it would be a perfect decoration in her home, but she still needed room in the van for other presents, paperwork and her two children.

As the students in Mr. Incorvati's fifth-grade math class solved a word problem, the hum of more than 20 voices carried past the low-slung partitions. Not far away, Ms. Mulfry unfurled a United States map and told her class about shoreline sediment. Mr. Peddicord described a rudder to his students. And Ms. Graham was going over math problems on an overhead projector. With sound coming from all directions in this corner of Crofton Woods Elementary, she relied on a microphone to be heard.

THE MAN they call "Mr. Frank" takes his post about 8 a.m. each weekday. In a crisp white hat, bright red-and-yellow vest and orange gloves, Frank Welsh sends a clear signal to passing cars that neighborhood children are going to school, so it's time to be extra careful. Last week, Welsh began his fourth year as crossing guard for the Crofton Parkway-Tarrytown Avenue intersection, near Crofton Woods Elementary School. Sometimes, drivers make faces at him when he goes into the street to slow them down.

After 38 years of working in Anne Arundel County schools, retirement will not end the education of Peter Zimmer. The longtime principal of Crofton Woods Elementary School, known for his creative methods for bringing international culture into classrooms, his encouragement of teachers' growth and his love of travel, intends to jet around the world on what he calls "a make-believe sabbatical." Maybe he'll fly to London, or perhaps see his brother in Thailand. He'll definitely visit Santa Barbara, Calif.

When the moving truck showed up at Crofton Woods Elementary School on a recent weekday, students rushed toward it with boxes in hand. "I feel like I made someone feel special," said Sarah Gentry, a pupil at the school who was one of many students, parents and administrators who helped assemble more than 100 boxes of books, papers, pens and other materials for pupils at a school in Kituiu, Kenya. Pupils donated allowances and school supplies from home, and raised money through events such as a concert.

School board President Joseph Foster says he wants to end the bickering among parents at Crofton Woods Elementary over the school's French immersion program. So he has asked the board to meet at the school to help the community talk through its problems."There seems to have been a great deal of controversy, a lot of questions and a general lack of understanding what the program is all about," Mr. Foster said. "This is the best way to address that."Mr. Foster, a board member for three years, said he has never seen a community so up in arms about one educational program.

A controversial French language program at Crofton Woods Elementary School should be moved to a magnet school and standardized tests should be given to measure progress, according to a report the Anne Arundel County School Board reviewed this week.Those were two of the six recommendations a foreign language consultant made after evaluating the French Immersion Program.The voluntary classes immerse children in French all day. Kindergarten, first- and second-graders are involved now, but the goal of the six-year pilot program is to keep hiring teachers until there is one for each grade through fifth.

When the moving truck showed up at Crofton Woods Elementary School on a recent weekday, students rushed toward it with boxes in hand. "I feel like I made someone feel special," said Sarah Gentry, a pupil at the school who was one of many students, parents and administrators who helped assemble more than 100 boxes of books, papers, pens and other materials for pupils at a school in Kituiu, Kenya. Pupils donated allowances and school supplies from home, and raised money through events such as a concert.

After 38 years of working in Anne Arundel County schools, retirement will not end the education of Peter Zimmer. The longtime principal of Crofton Woods Elementary School, known for his creative methods for bringing international culture into classrooms, his encouragement of teachers' growth and his love of travel, intends to jet around the world on what he calls "a make-believe sabbatical." Maybe he'll fly to London, or perhaps see his brother in Thailand. He'll definitely visit Santa Barbara, Calif.

ODYSSEY OF the Mind teams from Crofton Middle, Crofton Elementary and Crofton Woods Elementary schools competed last weekend in the statewide Odyssey at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Crofton Middle's Marvelous Mentor team of Jimmy Drury, Katie Elliott, Erin Frey, Christina Miller, Cara McClesky, Sean Nicholson and Dana Rashidi took second place in its category.Nathan Dissmeyer, Lydia Hu, Lauren McClee, Johnathan Rashidi, Matt Schulz and Calli Vance, also of Crofton Middle, formed the third-place Morph Magic team.

It's been four years since Carol and B.J. Diamond's infant daughter, Cameron, underwent a bone marrow transplant - a risky, complicated medical procedure - to beat the leukemia that was threatening her life. Since then, the Crofton couple have watched Cameron grow into a healthy toddler - a little girl who, with her bright smile and dimpled cheeks, could easily allow her parents to forget about the deadly disease she was born with. Instead, the Diamonds have vowed never to forget it. Tomorrow, they are joining more than a dozen of their Crofton neighbors, along with a team from Johns Hopkins Hospital, to hold a bone marrow donor recruitment drive at Crofton Woods Elementary School.

The table shows the percentage of 4th graders in Baltimore area schools who scored at advanced or proficient levels in reading and math tests last year under the Maryland School Assessment program. Anne Arundel School ..................Read ... Math County average 82.1 73.9 Annapolis ........... 65.5 75.8 Arnold ................. 94.2 97.1 Belle Grove ......... 78.1 65.7 Belvedere............. 92.5 92.6 Benfield ............... 90.5 92.1 Bodkin ................. 91.3 86.4 Broadneck .....

When the moving truck showed up at Crofton Woods Elementary School on a recent weekday, students rushed toward it with boxes in hand. "I feel like I made someone feel special," said Sarah Gentry, a pupil at the school who was one of many students, parents and administrators who helped assemble more than 100 boxes of books, papers, pens and other materials for pupils at a school in Kituiu, Kenya. Pupils donated allowances and school supplies from home, and raised money through events such as a concert.

When the moving truck showed up at Crofton Woods Elementary School on a recent weekday, students rushed toward it with boxes in hand. "I feel like I made someone feel special," said Sarah Gentry, a pupil at the school who was one of many students, parents and administrators who helped assemble more than 100 boxes of books, papers, pens and other materials for pupils at a school in Kituiu, Kenya. Pupils donated allowances and school supplies from home, and raised money through events such as a concert.

FRIDAY WAS the last day of school before the winter vacation. Children looked forward to presents, holiday trips and two weeks of fun. At Crofton Woods Elementary School, many children wore Santa hats and reindeer antlers. Red was a popular color for sweaters and dresses. Teachers' desks were piled with presents. First-grade teacher Tracy Gload struggled to put a large houseplant into her van. The plant was a gift from her secret Santa, one of the other teachers. She thought it would be a perfect decoration in her home, but she still needed room in the van for other presents, paperwork and her two children.

CROFTON'S Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church will take a cabin-fever break Saturday, and hold a potluck dinner and Olympic Games in Fellowship Hall, beginning at 5 p.m. Olympic partygoers are asked to bring international potluck dishes as well as souvenirs and crafts from other countries. Each table of "Olympians" will create a "country" flag and an anthem. After the dinner, the group will welcome the Olympic torch, signaling the opening ceremony, leading to a series of games, such as freezer pack curling and church hall ski jumping (using playground slides and stuffed animals)

The Anne Arundel County school board got its first look this week at a proposed policy to limit student travel.Work on such a policy was spurred by arguments that ended with the board twice saying "no" to fifth-graders at Crofton Woods Elementary asking for an exchange trip to France.The proposal would bar travel for elementary school children outside the continental United States on school-sponsored trips. Middle school children would not be allowed to take trips outside North America.Board member Michael A. Pace found the plan stifling.

Foreign language programs -- including a French program at Crofton Woods Elementary School -- will be the focus of a county school board review this week."