Elementary School

For Sarah Wagner, her last year at her beloved Ferndale Elementary School became the last for the whole school. In 2003, the school closed because of low enrollment. "It was a sad year," said Wagner, now a sophomore at Annapolis Area Christian School. "The whole time I was there, we were just fighting to keep it open." Those sad feelings were swept away, she said, when she saw her former elementary school transformed into Anne Arundel County's first preschool and kindergarten center, according to school officials.

Teachers, parents and administrators in Baltimore County are getting a head start on the next school year -- about 700 of them are meeting this week to create school improvement plans.The three-day seminar, which began yesterday, is the largest for the annual event first held three years ago to help educators refine their goals, said Superintendent Anthony G. Marchione. He visited Perry Hall Middle School, one of two activity sites. Perry Hall High School is the second site."The feedback has been that the planning sessions are very helpful," he said.

Four years after Carroll County raised taxes to pay for an ambitious school construction program, four of the first five projects are over budget by more than $2 million. Two did not open on time.A fifth school, which was completed on time and under budget, had a dangerous water-heater problem that was discovered in January.The problems in the $106 million construction program, which is supposed to meet the needs of Carroll's rapidly growing population, have county and state officials trying to figure out what went wrong: Westminster's Cranberry Station Elementary School, expected to be completed in August, is $1.7 million over budget and a year behind schedule.

Anne Arundel County schools could end up with as many as 67 new teachers next school year because of a commitment by county officials to cut the size of elementary school classes and the willingness of the federal government to help fund smaller classes.Anne Arundel educators are expecting to receive $1 million in federal money -- enough to hire about 33 new teachers -- this summer, and 34 other new teaching positions are in the fiscal year 2000 school budget.Kenneth Lawson, assistant superintendent for instruction and student services, said the teachers would be placed in first grade to reduce the number of children in each class from 25 to 20.Last year, schools Superintendent Carol S. Parham received county and federal grant money that paid for 16 new teachers in elementary school classrooms.

Cranberry Station Elementary School's original contractor filed a defamation suit yesterday against top Carroll County school officials, claiming they falsely accused him of being unable to finish the project on time or within budget.James W. Ancel Inc. of Towson took issue with statements made at a public meeting last month by Superintendent William H. Hyde, Assistant Superintendent Vernon F. Smith Jr. and school board attorney Louis J. Kozlakowski, who argued that Ancel's contract was terminated because of scheduling concerns and disputes over rock removal and steel work.

In Baltimore CityCecil Elementary wins third library reading awardThe Enoch Pratt Free Library awarded its Director's Cup trophy last week for the city school with the highest participation in its "Catch the Reading Wave" summer reading program, and the winner was Cecil Elementary School -- again and again.While Cecil was winning for the third straight year, runners-up were Highlandtown, Eutaw-Marshburn, Harford Heights and Thomas G. Hayes elementaries.Nearly 12,000 children signed up for the nine-week program at libraries, PAL and recreation centers, and SuperKids camp sites (a 25 percent increase over 1998)

Pupils arriving each morning at Gilmor Elementary School are greeted by a poster on the front door encouraging them to "Achieve More!"A bright green and yellow banner draped across the main hall at Sarah M. Roach Elementary School proclaims the school motto: "Where Students' Minds Reach for the Stars!"The messages are similar, but with last week's release of school-by-school report cards, they no longer serve the same purpose.At Sarah M. Roach in Southwest Baltimore, where test scores soared, the banner is cause for celebration.

TOWSON -- Children at Stoneleigh Elementary School could be forced to congregate in a cramped and noisy cafeteria for yet another year while Baltimore County officials figure out how to pay for a proposed addition.The 70-year-old school's experience is symbolic of the problems facing many older county schools awaiting money for renovations."It certainly has some strong competition," said Valerie A. Roddy, public schools senior fiscal analyst. "There are some big-ticket items coming up in 2002, including a new high school in [Owings Mills]

Anne Arundel County voters made it very clear during last fall's elections that they wanted more attention paid and major improvement made to their schools.So Shirley Murphy, one of the new County Council members that voters swept into office, has spent the past month researching what the 13 schools in her district of Pasadena need most. She's wandered school halls, talked to teachers and met with parents at every building. She says she found some good, some bad and some surprising things.

Parents and students lobbied county school board members last night for everything from new teachers to new schools during the first of a series of budget hearings on Superintendent Carol S. Parham's proposed $516 million budget.About 200 people attended the hearing in the auditorium of Old Mill High School in Millersville. Mostly, they supported Parham's spending plan for next school year, which includes a raise for teachers and 180 new teaching positions.They urged the board to approve programs aimed at increasing the number of computers in classrooms and reducing first-grade classes.

Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin unveiled a $99.9 million capital budget last week that would include money for a variety of projects, such as a new school in northeastern Howard County that is slated to open in 2013. The amount of the 2011-2012 budget will likely increase in the coming months, according to Cousin. The school board must approve a version of the capital budget by Oct. 6, when a draft must be submitted to the State Construction Program staff. The school system will approve a final budget by June.

This is the first of two parts. Sometimes, preventing violence means getting the buses to run on time. That's why the city's school police chief, Marshall "Toby" Goodwin, marched up and down the sidewalk on a street off Gwynns Falls Parkway on the opening day of classes, a BlackBerry pressed to his ear, barking orders, talking to a transit supervisor sitting in her SUV, pleading for help. Students from one of three high schools inside the old Lemmel complex were pouring out, the first of three staggered and carefully choreographed dismissals.

Gov. Martin O'Malley shuttered four schools Friday attended by students suspected of having the swine flu - even though there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Maryland yet - and said the state will close any public or private school where a student is believed to be infected. The move comes a day after health officials said there was no need to cancel classes at schools with suspected cases of the new virus and reassured parents in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties that it was safe to send their children back to schools where students had become sick.

Annapolis Elementary School has its charms. Striking views of city landmarks, including the State House dome. Floors of Italian marble. And at the entrance, a bronze bell that is rung by the principal on the last day of the school year. The bell is a gift from the Class of '98. That's 1898. Annapolis Elementary is among the oldest buildings still used to teach children in Maryland. And while its age brings complications - tiny classrooms and energy-leaking windows, to name two - it continues to withstand suggestions that it be closed in favor of a new building.

The Baltimore school board approved last night the creation of three more charter schools, including an elementary school to feed into the city's most successful middle school and the replication of a school with a long wait list. Two of the new charter schools, public schools that operate independently, will open in August 2009. One will open in 2010. The Knowledge is Power Program, which operates the high-achieving KIPP Ujima Village Academy in Park Heights, was given the go-ahead to open KIPP Harmony Academy.

Since the e-mail announcing that her school was named a Blue Ribbon School landed in her inbox, Sister Linda Larsen, principal at St. John the Evangelist School in Severna Park, has been a busy woman. The prestigious national education award has brought droves of congratulatory phone calls. And local newspapers, as well as Catholic publications, have been lining up for interviews. "My office is pretty messy because I haven't been able to keep up with my work because the fame is taking over," Larsen, clearly ecstatic, said in a phone interview last week.

The new Towson elementary school will be designed to hold about 450 students, contain about 69,000 square feet and be built with "green" features in mind, according to a presentation yesterday evening to a Baltimore County school board committee. A few months after recommending the construction of what is being called Towson West Elementary School, board members had the opportunity to get a sense of what the new building would look like. The building, to be built next to Ridge Ruxton School on Charles Street, is on track to open in 2010, according to the report from Design Collective Inc., a Baltimore firm.

Whether going off to a newly constructed school in the suburbs or a newly created school in a renovated building in the city, several lucky groups of students shared the same sense of adventure yesterday: They were the first to walk through the doors. Across Maryland, about 850,000 students started class yesterday, but these students are starting their own traditions. At the new Vincent Farm Elementary School in White Marsh, the joy was expressed most simply by a kindergartner as she played hopscotch on her classroom rug. "I like my new school.

Public schools to be closed for holiday Harford County public schools will be closed tomorrowfor Memorial Day. Elementary school students will be dismissed at 1 p.m. June 2 for teacher planning time. Information: 410-588-5203. Army Band recital set for Thursday Harford Christian School will host a recital by members of the U.S. Army Band stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the school, 1736 Whiteford Road, Darlington. Bassoonist Benjamin Lawyer, oboist Kristin Barrett and clarinetist Doris Herri, members of the 389th U.S. Army Band, will perform works by John Philip Sousa, Gordon Jacobs, George Gershwin and Scott Joplin.

Some Baltimore County legislators and Towson residents are urging state officials tomorrow to reject a nearly $4 million proposal to help expand Loch Raven High School, calling it a "haphazard project" and saying the area instead needs a new high school. School and county officials want the money to build a 400-seat addition at the school on Cowpens Avenue to help ease crowding in the county's central and northeast area, which includes Loch Raven, Towson and Perry Hall high schools. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $18 million.