Farfel

Drawing cheers from more than 100 supporters, the Baltimore City school board pledged last night to work closely with architects of a plan to open a new school to be run primarily by parents and teachers but with city money.Board President Philip H. Farfel's announcement came at the start of last night's board meeting, minutes after supporters rallied in front of school system headquarters for the second time in two weeks.Reading from a prepared statement, Dr. Farfel promised that the board and Superintendent Walter G. Amprey would "establish a partnership" with the proposal's supporters to move ahead with the proposal to open the new school next fall.

A behind-the-scenes struggle between state and city school officials -- with control of underachieving city schools in the balance -- has delayed by two weeks the state's annual list of schools to be reformed.State school officials are expected to identify the schools next week, but with fewer Baltimore schools on the list than they had originally intended.City school officials have said the reform program is unfair and should be halted, and school board President Phillip H. Farfel said yesterday that, despite the reduction in number, they are ready to continue their challenge.

Superintendent Walter G. Amprey asked the Baltimore school board yesterday for a $646.6 million operating budget for next academic year.Dr. Amprey is seeking a spending increase of about $14.7 million, or 2.3 percent, more than was approved for the current budget."

Dr. Harold Seymour Farfel, a pediatrician, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. He was 82. A doctor who prided himself on making house calls, Dr. Farfel continued until his recent illness to attend pediatric rounds at Sinai Hospital, where he was a resident from 1950 to 1952. One of the patients at his practice in Catonsville, which he opened in 1955, was a boy who would grow up to be governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said Dr. Farfel's son, Dr. Mark Farfel of New York City.

IN MANY of Baltimore's older and poorer communities, demolition of decrepit buildings is a fact of life. Unfortunately, notifying nearby residents that the buildings are coming down - and giving them advice about what they should do when the wrecking ball hits - is not. Dr. Mark Farfel figures there is not much he can do about the former reality, nor does he necessarily want to. But the associate professor at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins...

In a class action lawsuit filed Thursday, Kennedy Krieger Institute is accused of exposing poor black children to "dangerous levels" of lead as part of a housing experiment in the 1990s. The suit, filed Thursday in Baltimore City Circuit Court by attorney Billy Murphy, accuses the instituteof negligence, fraud, battery and violating the state's consumer protection act. It seeks damages, interest and unspecified attorney fees. The hospital "used these children as known guinea pigs in these contaminated houses to complete this study," the suit states.

"Pour it in. Pour it in. When you get the feel of it, you'll know."That's what Mollie Klock's mother used to say as her daughter watched and tried to master her mother's holiday baking preparations."I was never able to just pour things in," Ms. Klock, now 82, said while reminiscing about some of her favorite Passover foods in time for the holiday, which begins Monday evening."Over the years, I took all her recipes and I worked on them until I got the right amounts in measurements."Some of those holiday treats, in the family now for more than 100 years, were so intriguing that we asked Ms. Klock to share the recipes.

For the second time this week, state lawmakers in Annapolis have voted to force change in the Baltimore school system.The Senate unanimously approved a measure yesterday that would require the city to create a new education program for violent and disruptive students.The proposal, House Bill 970, now goes to Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who has not yet said whether he will sign it.Earlier this week, legislators voted to withhold $5.8 million in state aid from the city school system until they see improvement in its management.

A mutinous Baltimore school board tried last night to delay parts of a controversial school rezoning plan for one year but was thwarted by its chief, who ended the meeting rather than conduct a vote he said might be illegal."