Elementary School

MOST CHILDREN look forward to learning how to read. But unfortunately some lose interest once the basic skill is mastered. The PTA at Carrolltowne Elementary School is striving to promote a lifelong love of reading in its students by sponsoring a "100 Days of Reading" program throughout the school.In its sixth year, the program unites the school's administration, teachers, parents, students and the local business community in an effort to encourage daily reading by each student. The theme of this year's program is "Catch the Wave, Read."

An allegedly armed man robbed an Annapolis bank Monday and forced a lockdown at an elementary school, while police searched for him. The man entered Severn Savings Bank in the 1900 block of 1917 West St. at 10:45 a.m. A teller told police he displayed a handgun. He fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, police said. Mills-Parole Elementary School on Chinquapin Round Road was placed on lockdown for several hours, while officers searched the area. The suspect has not been found.

One line of Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden's proposed $1.1 billion budget has left the county's 132 elementary school nurses feeling like woozy victims of a hit-and-run driver, according to union President Susan Orthaus.To hear Mr. Hayden tell it, however, he's a good Samaritan who saw the accident and stopped to help.After years of campaigning to get the elementary school nurses paid at a level equal to that of secondary school nurses, Mr. Hayden moved the $3 million budget appropriation for the elementary school nurses from the Health Department to the school board's budget.

A PLAN that would relocate the Mayo Elementary School population to Annapolis Middle School while a new Mayo gets built is a sensible idea that's sensitive to students' and taxpayers' concerns. There would be inconveniences, just as there were when four other schools used Annapolis Middle as their temporary homes in recent years. Annapolis Middle is about 20 minutes from Mayo, so the daily trip would be longer. But once students, teachers and administrators arrive at Annapolis, they would have their own space.

Teachers, administrators, parents and community activists want police to clean up a newly renovated playground at Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School that is overrun by drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes.Without police intervention, they said at a meeting this week, kids can't play safely on the jungle gym, sliding boards or basketball court at the playground, which underwent a $100,000 face lift."Our children are in danger," said Damion Olds, 29, whose daughter, Antwauna Robinson, 8, is a third-grader at Eutaw-Marshburn.

Parents at two county schools are launching a letter-writing campaign to try to reverse a decision that transfers a principal and a teacher to other schools.The efforts follow angry reactions last week to school officials' announcement of a plan to reassign more than 60 teachers and administrators. Tempers flared at a school board meeting last Thursday as parents objected to the moves, and students staged a walkout at Mount Hebron High School, which will lose its top three administrators through reassignment.

Gov. Martin O'Malley said Tuesday he will seek more than $370 million in school construction funding in next year's budget, making the pledge at the same Anne Arundel County elementary school where six years ago he promised a massive infusion of state money if elected governor. The figure includes $350 million for the state's main Public School Construction Program and more than $20 million for two other programs to build and repair schools. "We are making the investments we need to make," O'Malley told students.

To balance elementary enrollments at crowded schools in South Carroll and Mount Airy, school officials have proposed moving about 350 pupils among schools in the southern portion of the county next year. About 120 Mount Airy Elementary pupils - this year's fourth-grade class - would move temporarily to Mount Airy Middle School and use portable classrooms on school grounds. One hundred and thirty-four pupils from Linton Springs Elementary would move to Winfield Elementary and 99 Eldersburg Elementary pupils would move to Freedom Elementary.

For nearly 20 years, Raymond Mathias presided over Winfield Elementary School with a gentle, hands-on style of leadership. He was a constant presence at the school -- in the classrooms, at cafeteria tables and on the playground.Yesterday, the close-knit Winfield community of students, faculty and parents arrived at a school without Raymond Mathias. The 52-year-old veteran educator was killed Monday when a tractor-trailer hit his car about a half-mile from the school."Ray Mathias was Winfield," said Anne Marie Mason, mother of a third-grade student at the school.

For those thinking of moving to Sparks, one of the most treasured sights in the community happens to be long and green and just off Belfast Road.It's not the rolling countryside in this northern Baltimore County neighborhood, but the distinctive green roof of Sparks Elementary School, considered one of the best academic public schools in the state.Real estate agents will say that schools are a strong force in determining where a family wants to buy a home. And Sparks seems to be an excellent case in point.