Gateway School

Gateway School to honor its seniors at ceremony Tuesday The Gateway School will hold a senior recognition celebration at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the West Middle School auditorium. Gateway School provides an alternative educational opportunity for middle and high school students who are experiencing behavioral and emotional adjustment in the traditional school setting. Tickets are not required for the ceremony. West Middle is at 60 Monroe St. Information: 410-751-3691. Board of Education to hold meeting on Wednesday The Carroll County Board of Education will hold its monthly meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday in Room 007 of the board offices, 125 N. Court St., Westminster.

People will gather tonight to ponder the future of a once-rural road - a highway that now carries more than 18,000 vehicles a day past gas stations, car dealerships and fast-food joints. Some people are still astonished by how quickly change came to Route 108 in Clarksville, propelled by improvements to the intersection with Route 32 and by Columbia's final village, River Hill. It is not uncommon for folks living in Howard's remaining countryside to point to that one-mile stretch as the symbol of everything they don't want, while nearby residents complain about the tangle of traffic.

After more than a year of delays, plans for a Gateway alternative school cleared all remaining hurdles yesterday as the school board and county commissioners agreed to a construction contingency fund, signed final paperwork, finalized the deed transfer and made plans to issue the first construction permit Tuesday. The boards quickly reached agreement on unresolved issues - and they did so without the fireworks expected from returning to a topic that last resulted in talk of mistrust and accusations of insufficiently documented construction spending.

A 20-year-old woman was killed yesterday afternoon when the car she was driving struck the rear of a Carroll County school bus that had stopped to make a left turn on Route 97 north of Westminster, state police said. None of the four students on board the bus was injured. Melissa Nichole Corbin of the 3600 block of Cemetery Lane, near Union Mills, was driving a 1999 Honda with her dog in the car when the crash occurred at 2:36 p.m., according to state police at the Westminster barracks.

Educational programs offered for all ages When most people think about the Carroll County Public School System, they tend to think in terms of our elementary, middle and high schools. All of these schools do an outstanding job, but we also have other schools and programs offering valuable services and support to students and adults throughout the community. Here are just a few examples. Carroll Springs School is dedicated to those children with special needs. Carroll Springs provides services for students with multiple disabilities between the ages of 3 and 21 who live in Carroll County.

Faced with a $1.3 million shortfall for building an alternative school outside Westminster, the Carroll County commissioners told the board of education yesterday they won't provide more funding for the project - at least not now. The board, in turn, agreed to rebid the project in January. After construction bids for the school came in $1.3 million over the $4.9 million projected in the budget, the school construction staff pared the project. The reductions, however, drew complaints from school board members who feared the project had been so scaled back it would be worthless.

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.

The 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.

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.

More time with Ecker CHARLES I. ECKER will be Carroll County schools superintendent for another year, thanks to a prudent move by the school board. Mr. Ecker has done much with his forthright manner to restore public trust and employee confidence in the beleaguered administration. He's no miracle worker -- hard work in the classrooms is needed to improve learning, as reflected in stagnating test scores. But the longtime schools administrator and former Howard County executive has shown a quick understanding of the Carroll system and its immediate needs.