Glenelg High School

The Count Basie Orchestra is truly a legend in the music business, and the legend is coming to our neighborhood at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 at Glenelg High School.Every year, band director Barry Enzman manages to book a class act that the kids at Glenelg High and the whole community can enjoy. Last year's performer was Maynard Ferguson, and in 1991, Chuck Mangioni appeared.Mr. Enzman's goal is to bring in the best jazz acts in the world, and he's done well this time.The two-hour concert will begin with the fabulous Glenelg High Jazz Band, which will perform at two of the world's finest jazz festivals this summer.

Howard County school officials remain hopeful about getting state approval for a new wastewater treatment facility for Glenelg High School's much-needed addition, despite concerns over possible contamination of drinking water in western Howard County. Nearly 100 people gathered at Glenelg for a public hearing Monday night before the Maryland Department of the Environment, which must issue a permit for the treatment facility. The crowd appeared evenly split between those who were concerned over the effects of the proposed treatment facility on the drinking water and those who disagreed with that assessment, saying that the crowded high school desperately needs more seats.

A popular history teacher at Glenelg High School in Howard County has been charged with several sex crimes in which he is accused of exposing himself to one student in a classroom, sending suggestive computer messages to another and persuading a third to meet him at a park with the promise of alcohol. He is accused of abusing her. Joseph Samuel Ellis, 25, a graduate of the Howard County school system, was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Friday by Howard County police. He was released Saturday and is free on $150,000 bond.

AS MEMBERS OF Glenelg High School's Class of 1997, their families and friends crowded into the school auditorium for graduation Friday night, there was much to celebrate. Of the 243 graduates, 140 earned certificates of merit, which recognized that they took difficult classes while maintaining a high average.The class earned 124 scholarships.Noah Smith is a National Merit Scholarship Program recipient, and G. Thomas Finnigan and Christopher Selmer were program finalists in the National Merit Competition.

There is still time for you and your family to visit Neverland with Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain Hook and the lost boys. Opening night was last night, and there are performances at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, and at 3 p.m. Sunday at Glenelg High School in the auditorium. Under the leadership of Ron Oaks, the Drama Department has produced a spectacular play. Tickets are $6. Call 313-5528 for more information.*"They're really excited about this," were the words Leslie Vaccari, program chairman or the Glenelg High School PTSA, used to describe the enthusiasm of the administrators at the school.

Rebecca Hamilton of Lisbon was named Miss Maryland Agriculture 2005 Friday evening on the opening day of the Maryland State Fair in Timonium. Hamilton, 16, was chosen to compete for the state title when she was named Miss Howard County Farm Bureau this month. The contest included participants from 23 counties, the largest group of competitors in six years. "I think this is going to be an incredible opportunity for me throughout the year," said Hamilton, who plans to visit every county in Maryland to increase awareness of agriculture.

Students wept and hugged each other in the halls of Glenelg High School yesterday, trying to absorb the shock of the deaths of two of their friends in an automobile accident Friday night.Five Glenelg students were involved in the two-car crash. Of those in one car, juniors Jenny E. Olson and Deann E. Perry died and junior Joanna Tammaro was injured seriously and taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center.In the other car were 17-year-old seniors Andrew N. Kissinger, whose condition yesterday at Howard County General Hospital was stable, and Dominic M. Palacorolla, who was not seriously injured.

For many area high school bands, the pinnacle of the year might be a regional concert performance, or perhaps a trip to a national competition against their peers.But the Glenelg High School Jazz Ensemble is taking that rite of passage to an international level. Yesterday, 21 young musicians departed for a European tour that includes performances at the Montreux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, Netherlands, the world's largest festivals of their kind.

The secret to a great piece of fried dough is in the stretching. Before the popular fair treat is cooked in sizzling hot oil, coated in powdered sugar and handed to a hungry customer, the dough has to be pulled and prodded into just the right size and thickness so it will be chewy, not crispy. At the Glenelg High School band program's fried-dough stand at the Howard County Fair, "all those skills are passed down from one band generation to another," said Stacey Kight, a Glenelg senior.

We're in the midst of a "swing" revival that's sweeping clubs and dance halls across the country, as a new generation discovers the vibrant, rhythmic precision of the classic jazz style of the 1930s. On the other hand, you can't revive something that never died. And as jazz aficionados know, sleek, graceful, joyously syncopated numbers such as "One O'Clock Jump," "Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Sent for You Yesterday" and other epic standards composed by the immortal Count Basie have never left the repertoire since coming to artistic life some six decades ago. Now, 16 years after Basie's death, his extraordinary orchestra is still going strong.