Hebron High

Several Howard County schools will devise their own education plans next year as part of a new "school-based management" program approved by the Board of Education.The plan, approved last week, allows teachers, students, parents, and school administrators to take control of curriculum, finances, personnel and operation. All schools have been invited to apply, but only six will be chosen to participate.Advocates say the program will free schools from cumbersome bureaucracies by encouraging education plans that best suit their students' needs.

Animal attractionsDiscover the wilder side of art with your children at the Walters Art Gallery's "Animal Safari" on Saturday. Tour the gallery and explore how artists over the centuries have captured the elegance and mystery of animals.Children and adults can also enjoy unique animal tales and adventures. After the tour and story time, children will have the opportunity to create eccentric and colorful animal masks to take home, a wild time indeed.The program takes place at the Walters, 600 N. Charles St., on Saturday from 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. and is intended for preschoolers.

Name: Helen Suh, 17, of Ellicott City.Hobbies and other activities: Helen enjoys writing and communications. She is the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper at Mount Hebron High School. Helen works part-time at the Bagel Bin. She has volunteered for the past four years with the Columbia Festival of the Arts. Last year she volunteered at a shelter and soup kitchen in Baltimore. She now volunteers at Grassroots, a 24-hour crisis intervention telephone line with an emergency shelter and transitional housing program for homeless people.

Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey announced the appointments and transfers of 15 administrators at the school board meeting last week.The changes include:Patricia Tidgewell will become the new instructional director of elementary schools, replacing the retiring Edward Alex- ander. Dr. Tidgewell had been set to become principal of the new Ilchester Elementary School when it opens in the fall. She previously was the principal of Laurel Woods Elementary School.Jacqueline Lazarewicz, principal of Clemens Crossing Elementary School, will become the principal of Ilchester.

HOWARD COUNTY school officials have lured a Montgomery County administrator to serve as the director of student assessment and program evaluation. Theresa Alban, who holds a similar job as director of the Montgomery County school system's Department of Shared Accountability, will start April 1. Alban's appointment was approved by the school board last week. She replaces Leslie Wilson, a 14-year employee who is retiring. "It's the work that I love to do," Alban said. "I was fortunate to do it in Montgomery County and that I'm able to do it in Howard County."

From the production staff and orchestra to the actors and stage crew, the estimated 200 people who participate annually in Howard County Summer Theatre are ecstatic for two reasons: They are celebrating the company's 30th year and were finally able to nab the play they've been waiting to do for quite some time. The troupe will put on the 1999 Broadway revival version of Annie Get Your Gun, the story of a female sharpshooter who falls for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show's leading man. The musical is best known for songs like Anything You Can Do and Show Business.

3 high schools to hold workshops on making decisions for college The guidance departments of Hammond, Long Reach and Oakland Mills high schools and the schools' PTSAs will sponsor "College Visions, Big Decisions" - a program of speakers and workshops to clarify the college search and application process for students and parents - from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday at Hammond High School, 8800 Guilford Road, Columbia. Workshops include: The College Planning Calendar, Testing and SAT Preparation, The College Visit, Searching for Scholarships, A Student's Perspective of College Life, Students with Disabilities, The College Process for Student Athletes and Preparing the Successful College Application Essay.

IT'S NICE TO know that Ellicott City is the home of a world champion. That honor belongs to Luke Wilson, 14, who won first prize in an international pumpkin-tossing competition Nov. 4 and 5. Wilson, his cousin, Severna Park resident Melissa Wilson, also 14, her 11-year-old brother Alex, and their friend Skye Miller, 12, of Columbia took first place in their age group in the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition in Millsboro, Del. The team, called...

Air Force Staff Sgt. Craig W. Montgomery, son of Hollis and Iris Montgomery of Columbia, and Army Sgt. Henry H. Newman, son of Henry and Leida Newman of Sykesville, are serving in the Middle East with U.S. military forces participating in Operation Desert Storm.Montgomery, an aerospace propulsion technician at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., is a 1977 graduate of Oakland Mills High School.Newman, a computer operator at Fort Belvoir, Va., is a 1977 graduate of Queens College, N.Y.KOZAK STUDIES SHIPSNavy Ensign Kevin J. Kozak, son of Donald and Teresa Kozak of Ellicott City, has completed the Basic Surface Warfare Officer's Course.

After months of work winnowing down six proposals, the Howard County School Boundary Line committee presented two high school redistricting plans to the public last night as the county prepares to open Marriott's Ridge High next fall. The two plans - dubbed "green" and "red" - would start the process of filling the county's 12th high school, being built on Route 99 in Marriottsville. Similar to the opening of Reservoir High School in 2002, Marriott's Ridge will start with freshmen and sophomores.