Gateway School

A Clarksville couple with deep connections in the development community is negotiating to buy the former Gateway School building on Route 108 and redevelop the lot. George and Holly Stone were chosen from among six finalists to redevelop the site, where a county-owned 7.8 acre complex of former school buildings just across the road from the River Hill Village Center is now being demolished. Holly Stone is a vice president of Percontee Inc., a Silver Spring building materials and quarry firm owned by the family of the late Homer Gudelsky, a prominent Washington developer who was her father.

The class at Oakland Mills High School was English for Speakers of Other Languages, which meant the students were accustomed to hearty doses of vocabulary. Even so, they appeared taken aback when Principal Frank Eastham laced his motivational speech with words one would scarcely associate with a school administrator: "truant officer," "welfare," "food stamps" and "learning disability. " During the 40-minute talk about his personal story, Eastham spoke of obstacles he faced while growing up impoverished in Washington, Pa., living on federal assistance, missing as many as 40 days of second grade to take care of an ailing single mother and showing such a lack of interest in school that he talked his mom into keeping him out of college preparatory classes.

Carroll County's plans for a new alternative school are on hold as the Board of Education and county commissioners continue to wrangle over the cost of the project. Designed to house 150 middle school and high school students who need special education programs or other alternative schooling because of behavioral and emotional problems in traditional settings, the Gateway School was scheduled for construction this summer and expected to open in August 2002. But school officials have struggled with the cost of the project for months, trying to meet the budget set by the county commissioners, who have pledged $2.5 million toward construction of the $4.9 million project.

Ethan Harvey hasn't played football in nine years. Before this season, Harvey last played organized football in 2003 - when he was in the third grade. So what is a 17-year-old doing in a Westminster Owls uniform in his senior year of high school, starting for a team that could make a run for a state title? Harvey has made an improbable comeback on and off the field this year as a starting lineman and a key cog for an offense that leads the county in scoring at 30 points a game.

The principal of Gateway School, an alternative program for middle and high school students, has been reassigned in the Carroll County school system.School officials refused to say why Robert Bowden left Gateway or what his new duties are."Dr. Bowden has been reassigned," said Stephen Guthrie, a personnel specialist with the school system.Guthrie said he could not discuss details of the reassignment because it is a personnel matter.Under school policy, an employee who is reassigned may be transferred to another position or could be placed on administrative leave with pay, Guthrie said.

When the president of Carroll County Student Government Association invited the Gateway School to elect officers for the first time, teacher Gary Nelson wasn't sure it was a good idea."

With much pomp and circumstance, they held a commencement yesterday at Gateway School in Northwest Baltimore. And for only three graduates. The pomp: robes and mortarboards, processions and recessions, songs and honors for the graduates, camera-toting parents, balloons, more than a few tears of joy. The circumstance: One graduate, Darius Roberts, 10, was honored for having learned to control his emotions and to read a few words. Kevin Thomas, 11, was praised for overcoming the turmoil of a rare disorder that causes him to eat compulsively.

The stage - if you can call a patchwork of six-inch risers a stage - was set up in the school's "gymteria," a room that is part gymnasium, part cafeteria. A computer cart covered with a white paper tablecloth served as a diploma table. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the colors of caps and gowns worn by the graduates. But none of that mattered. The hundreds of parents and cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings, teachers and counselors who crowded into the Gateway School on Tuesday night came for one reason: to see 24 students - many of whom never expected to make it through high school - receive diplomas.

Teens discover new paths Two pyramidal heaps of stone at the entrance mark the start of the winding pathway. They also mark fresh beginnings for the students who have toiled for weeks in the dirt and mulch. The students at the Gateway School in Westminster - an alternative school for middle- and high-school students serving extended suspensions or struggling with learning disabilities or behavioral and emotional problems - acknowledge that at first they whined about having to get their hands and shoes dirty.

Carroll's alternative school, beset with $1.3 million in cost overruns, won site approval yesterday from the county planning commission. The county has budgeted $4.9 million for construction of The Gateway School, a 27,000-square-foot building along Kate Wagner Road in Westminster. The county opted to build a school rather than continue leasing space for the alternative program at Westminster Air Business Center. Kathleen Sanner, school facilities director, said the project is over budget in part because the school system agreed to do off-site work, such as building a regional storm-water management pond.

After months of negotiations, Howard County has sold the surplus former Gateway school site in Clarksville to a local couple who plan to build a green mixed-use development that could involve Kendall's Hardware next door. "We've reached another milestone — a business milestone," said George Stone, who with his wife, Holly, hopes to settle the $5 million transaction within months and submit plans to the county for processing. The sale agreement was signed May 4 and disclosed last week.

A Clarksville couple with development connections is negotiating to buy the former Gateway School building on Route 108 and redevelop the lot. They envision a mixture of commercial offices, retail and a green boutique hotel. George and Holly Stone were chosen from among six finalists to redevelop the site, where a county-owned, 7.8-acre complex of former school buildings just across the road from the River Hill Village Center is being demolished. Holly Stone is a vice president of Percontee Inc., a Silver Spring building materials and quarry firm owned by the family of her father, the late Homer Gudelsky, a prominent Washington developer.

The last Howard County employees left the George Howard Building for temporary office quarters in Columbia in November, but a few citizens still show up at the former government headquarters to try to pay their taxes. "People think the county building is still here. They come and want to pay their taxes," ignoring the construction machines, the mud and the blue partitions intended to keep them out, said Clark Interiors' superintendent Jim Summers of the $23.5 million renovation of the government complex on Court House Drive in Ellicott City.

Carroll County school fundraising groups could sell banner ads for school-sponsored events, if the Board of Education approves a revised policy that adds such sales to the list of appropriate fundraising projects. The policy, which provides general guidelines for fundraising groups, would allow those organizations to sell vinyl banners that are 2 feet by 3 feet or 2 feet by 6 feet - and would cost $500 and $1,000, respectively - to hang on "stadium fences during regularly scheduled home events," according to administrative regulations.

Among the many requests on the Carroll County school superintendent's newly proposed operating budget, a couple of health and safety items have been added for the 2007-2008 school year. The school system is asking for about $12,750 to maintain the automated external defibrillators (AEDs) installed in high schools for this school year. District officials are also seeking about $129,000 for cardiovascular exercise equipment - such as treadmills, elliptical machines or stair-steppers - in middle and high schools.

Lynn Davis, director of the Carroll County Youth Services Bureau, dreams of a new facility for her agency, one that is more than twice the size of the cramped commercial space she uses in the JCK Center on 140 Village Road in Westminster. She envisions a new 20,000-square-foot building at Route 32 and Kate Wagner Road where her staff of 43 could congregate in one room for meetings. The Carroll County commissioners have offered to lease vacant land - at no cost to the bureau - for that facility.

The stage - if you can call a patchwork of six-inch risers a stage - was set up in the school's "gymteria," a room that is part gymnasium, part cafeteria. A computer cart covered with a white paper tablecloth served as a diploma table. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the colors of caps and gowns worn by the graduates. But none of that mattered. The hundreds of parents and cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings, teachers and counselors who crowded into the Gateway School on Tuesday night came for one reason: to see 24 students - many of whom never expected to make it through high school - receive diplomas.