Friends School

Responding to concerns over the pending Friends School purchase of 18 acres from Baltimore Country Club, Roland Park Civic League will huddle this week to discuss how best to influence what happens to the land."

Flush with money but short on land, some of North Baltimore's private schools are leapfrogging into surrounding neighborhoods for the athletic fields and other amenities they hope will cement their future success.The real estate binge -- begun more than a year ago -- is stretching the traditional boundaries of the schools while increasing parents' driving times and straining the schools' relationships with neighbors.The Friends, Bryn Mawr and Roland Park Country schools have developed plans or closed deals for land to accommodate their teams -- at prices that reach into the millions.

Friends School has named new heads of its lower and upper schools, to replace one retiring administrator and another who left the Charles Street school last summer.Janice S. Morrison, chairwoman of the science department at Park School in Brooklandville, will become the new lower school head, replacing Diana R. McGraw, who is retiring after 31 years at Friends.Peter Vermilye, lower school head at Westtown School in West Chester, Pa., has been named upper school head. He is replacing Clint Wilkins, who resigned from Friends in June to become head of a new school in California.

AN OXFORD University theology professor once told me that it was impossible to live according to the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. The exact phrase is something like, "Whoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Further, he tells us that if any man "take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."I grew up in Baltimore and Virginia trying to live the Sermon on the Mount. It was hard. I finally gave up during the past couple of years.

The city's oldest private school is buying 18 acres for athletic fields and tennis courts for $5.1 million from the Baltimore Country Club.Friends School of Baltimore on North Charles Street has signed a contract to buy the land along Falls Road, school and club officials said yesterday.School head Jon M. Harris said the additional land -- about a mile from the campus -- will allow the school to build eight more tennis courts, two soccer or lacrosse fields and a baseball diamond.The purchase is the latest proposed expansion among elite North Baltimore's private schools, which have been hemmed in. In May, Bryn Mawr School for Girls on West Melrose Avenue bought the Mount Washington Club lacrosse field and clubhouse for its athletic program.

Rebuffing the Friends School's proposed $5.1 million purchase of 18 acres along Falls Road, Baltimore Country Club members voted down the idea of selling its property Sunday night.Community residents said the vote had fallen short of the necessary two-thirds approval of the country club membership, but an exact count was unavailable. Country club officials could not be reached for comment.The school will continue to seek at least 10 acres for athletic fields, either in or outside the city, said Jon M. Harris, the head of Friends School.

W. Byron Forbush II has run Friends School for 38 years. He wanted no surprises at his goodbye party.But the students didn't heed their departing headmaster.At a well-planned convocation, they rolled out an unexpected, and momentarily breathtaking, gift -- a ceramic table set with more than 1,000 tiles, each painted by a student or faculty member to represent the 1,010 students and "many faces of Friends School."The glib Forbush was surprised, though speechless for only seconds."I'm not sure I can even respond to that," Forbush said, his voice filling with emotion.

St. Paul's official rightly expressed tolerance of gaysAs heads of schools, we are writing in support of Headmistress Evelyn A. Flory's commitment to making St. Paul's School for Girls a place where all people can feel safe from discrimination, as all of us seek to do on our own campuses ("Stance on gays provokes parents," Feb. 21).Statistics show that gay male and lesbian high school students are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual young people, and more than one-third of these students have been victims of physical and verbal assault in school because of their sexual orientation.

It wasn't a typical first-day-of-school assembly, with the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up" warming up the crowd of students for the main act, their new headmaster.Nor is it typical for a headmaster of a Quaker school, which espouses pacifism, to be an ex-Marine.But, then, it isn't typical -- or wasn't until July -- for someone who is not named Forbush to be in charge of Friends School on North Charles Street.Now, the person in the headmaster's office is named Harris.The sandy-haired, preppy-looking guy is Jon M. Harris, a 44-year-old father of three, who grew up on Long Island, attended private schools and graduated from Harvard in 1976 before entering the Marine Corps.

'TC W. Byron Forbush II, who has spent much of his career and most of his life at Baltimore's Friends School, announced yesterday that he will retire in June 1998 after 38 years as headmaster.A fixture in independent education locally and nationally, Forbush is by far the longest-serving headmaster in Maryland, and perhaps in the country. His father, Bliss Forbush Sr., also led the Quaker school, from 1943 to 1960.He announced his long-rumored retirement at a meeting of the school's more than 200 staff and faculty members yesterday afternoon, and in a letter to parents of the school's 990 students, which was mailed yesterday.

On August 27, 2009, CAROL LEE TOLZMAN (nee Davis), devoted mother of Kurt, William, Karl, Rachel and the late John. Also survived by Ed Tolzman, Jr. Lee was co-founder and vice president of SPEAK (Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids). Lee enjoyed singing and participating in Fred Waring's "Pennsylvanian's" Summer Workshops. She was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church and active member of the youth group, a graduate of Friends School and attended University of MD as an English major.

On August 27, 2009, CAROL LEE TOLZMAN (nee Davis), devoted mother of Kurt, William, Karl, Rachel and the late John. Also survived by Ed Tolzman, Jr. Lee was co-founder and vice president of SPEAK (Suicide Prevention Education Awareness for Kids). Lee enjoyed singing and participating in Fred Waring's "Pennsylvanian's" Summer Workshops. She was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church and active member of the youth group, a graduate of Friends School and attended University of MD as an English major.

Graham Bernard Harrison, a Friends School freshman who acted, danced and sang, died of acute lymphocytic leukemia Sunday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The North Baltimore resident was 15. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Patricia Ragusa Harrison, an actress, and Michael Harrison, artistic director of the Baltimore Opera Company. He was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at the age of 18 months. Family members said he was treated at Hopkins for three years and remained in remission for another decade.

Earlier this week, I wrote about the death of Joseph Glus, 84, a longtime Charles Village resident who was hired as the first Russian-language teacher by Baltimore County's public schools in 1959. Mr. Glus, who was the son of immigrant parents from the Carpathian Mountains, grew up in McKeesport, Pa., in a bilingual household, where he learned Russian. Across town, he would eventually become acquainted with his counterpart at the Friends School, Claire Groben Walker, who had introduced the teaching of Russian at the North Baltimore private school in 1956, a year before Sputnik 1 spurred the teaching of the language in high schools and colleges across the nation.

The pinch of rising food, fuel and other costs is driving more families with children in private and parochial schools to request financial aid, school officials in and around Baltimore say. With price tags that can rival tuition costs at four-year universities, it's no surprise that many families seek financial aid when first applying to a private school. But that's not the population with the greatest rise in requests, schools say. "There are people applying to financial aid who never needed it before," said Matthew Micciche, the head of Friends School of Baltimore.

On their first day of school, the 28 students at Harford Friends School never saw a desk, textbook, or whiteboard. Instead, the middle school children went to an outdoor learning center, where they spent the day rock climbing, problem-solving, and team building. "We bring our students here to give them a safe environment for taking healthy risks," said Jonathan Huxtable, Harford Friends head of school. "It's neat to watch the eighth-graders step up and take the lead." Since the school's inception four years ago, students have been going to the Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center in Parkton on the first day of school.

Cecil to offer classes for 'Kollege' kids Cecil College's Kids in "Kollege" summer program, offering a variety of classes for children ages 7 to 12, will be held for four consecutive weeks starting July 7 on the North East campus. Children and their parents can select from 60 classes in science fiction, sports, art, music, dance, writing, science and history. Campers may select up to four classes each week, and can participate in one, two, three or all four weeks. Sessions are from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays and include field trips, guest speakers and demonstrations.

Thirteen Harford County children conjured up a week in the Middle Ages. One day they learned about peasants and royalty, and made tunics, crowns and orbs. Another day they mixed berries to make ink, carved stone, and made a lantern from tin. And another day they made castles that included arrow loops, crenels, merlons, turrets, and a drawbridge. The camp culminated with a feast where the children ate with their hands. "My goal is to give the children an understanding of what life was like during medieval times," said Margaret Ann Knaub, of Elkton, who taught the program.

Crane accident prompts safety review A construction worker died Wednesday after being crushed in a crane above a building near Annapolis. State officials said they are looking for ways to tighten safety regulations for such heavy equipment. City Council looks to restore tax cut Baltimore City Council leaders said Thursday that they are looking for ways to restore a 2-cent property tax rate cut that Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration pulled from its budget proposal last month. Howard police shoot 62-year-old woman Howard County police shot a 62-year-old woman in a senior citizens complex Wednesday.

The couple were visiting Baltimore for the first time 17 years ago when they decided to make an impromptu visit to a private school on Charles Street. Paul and Margaret Strasburg met with administrators at Friends School, a conversation that eventually turned into a $1.28 million pledged endowment at the time of their deaths, the largest gift ever received by the school. The Strasburgs' benevolence has captivated former and current administrators at the school. Neither of the Strasburgs attended Friends.