Howard County Schools

Public schools in Howard County will open Monday, Aug. 29 for the 2011-12 academic year. Back-to-school nights will be held from August through October and offer the chance for parents to meet school staff and become familiar with school procedures. For information on Howard County schools or for dates of back-to-school nights, go to http://www.hcpss.org/schools/backtoschool.shtml.

A former Columbia school worker whose love letters to an 8-year-old student led to a precedent-setting conviction for sexual abuse asked the state's highest court Friday to overturn the finding. Karl Marshall Walker Jr., 41, was convicted in 2011 of sexual abuse and attempted sexual abuse of a minor based on his letters to the girl. His lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Katherine Rasin, told the Court of Appeals on Friday that Walker, a former teacher's aide at Bryant Woods Elementary School, neither molested nor sexually exploited the girl, nor had he tried to. "There has to be something sexual for it to be sexual child abuse," Rasin told the seven judges.

Listings are accepted on a space-available basis. Deadline is 5 p.m. Thursday prior to date of publication at the latest. To submit volunteer items, mail to Volunteers, Patuxent Publishing Co. Editorial, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21278; email hccalendar@patuxent.com ; fax 410-332-6336; or call 410-332-6497. Small Miracles Cat Rescue - Seeking volunteers to help with cleaning and feeding at the shelter, as well as a morning or evening at either the Columbia or Ellicott City Petco, and the adoption process.

Students at Howard High School emerge from cafeteria lines with plates as green as well-manicured lawns. They reach for steamed broccoli and fresh lettuce as quickly as they do macaroni and cheese and popcorn chicken. And they say they their healthful eating habits extend beyond school hours. "Away from school, I'm a big burger guy," Howard High senior Joshua Steward said. "And a burger, you know what color it is. So I try to make it greener, stacking on lettuce, tomatoes, everything to make it healthier, and it always turns out great.

The arts are not dying in public schools, or at least not in Howard County. Instead, they're being infused into language arts, social studies, math and science, breathing new life into those subjects while offering students a new approach to learning. The approach is called arts integration, and it is reaping dividends at several Howard County schools, particularly those at the elementary level. In using art, dance, drawing and painting in other class settings, teachers say they are improving students' retention and grasp of subject matter.

Students at Howard High School emerge from cafeteria lines with plates as green as well-manicured lawns. They reach for steamed broccoli and fresh lettuce as quickly as they do macaroni and cheese and popcorn chicken. And they say they their healthful eating habits extend beyond school hours. "Away from school, I'm a big burger guy," Howard High senior Joshua Steward said. "And a burger, you know what color it is. So I try to make it greener, stacking on lettuce, tomatoes, everything to make it healthier, and it always turns out great.

With hopes of learning more about social media and better combating cyber-bullying, Howard County school administrators have turned to the County Council's new digital communications manager. Howard County schools have been grappling with how to curb digital bullying in the wake of the Easter Sunday suicide of Grace McComas, a Glenelg High School student whose parents say she had been harassed online. Schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan said the challenge is that schools want to curb cyber-bullying but don't want administrators to become "social media police.

When a group of Betsy Adelman's students at Ellicott Mills Middle School learned that a low-pressure air zone created by wind turbines could kill endangered bats by causing their lungs to burst, they set about making a 41/2 -minute documentary instead of writing an essay. Titled"Gone with the Wind,"it was shown during a nonjuried screening of environmental films by the American Film Institute at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring. Now it will get a second look as a tool for teaching teachers.

Open houses set at Cedar Lane, Marriotts Ridge Cedar Lane School and Marriotts Ridge High School will hold open houses Aug. 28. The new Cedar Lane School, on the Lime Kiln Middle School campus in Fulton, will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and celebrate the opening of the new facility for severely disabled students. Howard County's newest high school, Marriotts Ridge, at 12100 Woodford Drive in Marriottsville, will hold its ceremony and open house from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The school will open this year for students in ninth and 10th grades, adding grades 11 and 12 in the next two years.

HOWARD COUNTY middle school pupils who take advanced math and foreign language courses will receive high school credit under a revised policy for graduation requirements. The school board unanimously approved last week a compromise that recognizes middle schoolers for their efforts while still requiring them to take three math courses during high school. Three math credits are required for graduation. Grades for high school-level courses taken in middle school would be recorded as pass/fail in a high school transcript and would not count toward a student's high school GPA. A committee reviewing the policy had recommended to the board that the school system continue its practice of not awarding high school credit for advanced math and foreign language courses taken in middle school.

You can hear their passion for teaching the language, a Viva Italia! enthusiasm they hope to make infectious to those who sign up for the courses. For Italian language teachers Catherine D'Ascoli of Wilde Lake High School and Peter DiMarco of Hammond High School, the stream of students interested in the language has been, for the most part, unabated. In Howard County, Italian is taught at Wilde Lake, Marriotts Ridge, Hammond and Reservoir high schools. And though the offerings pale in comparison to those in Spanish and French - which are offered in all county high schools and middle schools - they make Howard a rarity among local schools when it comes to teaching Italian.

Atholton Title: "Dream Girl" (a comedy by Elmer Rice) Dates: Nov. 1-3, 7 p.m.; Nov. 4, 3 p.m. Cost: $12; http://www.atholtondrama.org. Centennial Title: "Twelfth Night" Dates: Nov. 15-16, 7 p.m., Nov. 17, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Nov. 18, 3 p.m. Cost: $10; http://www.chstheatre.org Glenelg Title: "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" Dates: Nov. 29-30, 7 p.m.; Dec. 1, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Dec. 2, 2 p.m. Cost: $10 Hammond Title: "The Mousetrap" Dates: Nov. 8-10, 7 p.m.; Nov. 10, 2 p.m. Cost: $12 at door, $10 advance; http://www.hammondhs.org/DramaAcad.htm Howard Title: "The Miracle Worker" Dates: Nov. 8-10, 7 p.m. Cost: $10; http://www.howardhighschool.net (go to theater department)

Mary Klatko grew up in Pennsylvania eating nutritious foods, some fresh from the family garden and cooked from scratch. When she was named Howard County's director of food and nutrition services 26 years ago, she assumed everyone ate that way, and though she would discover the contrary, she still incorporated a healthful-eating approach into the school system's menus. So Klatko was ecstatic, though not surprised, to learn that Howard County received an A-plus from the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which issues its School Lunch Report Card detailing how well school districts nationwide meet federal guidelines for healthful school lunches at elementary schools.

Howard County schools officials showcased the system's resources and educational approaches to a delegation of social studies and art supervisors from Thailand this week, joining officials in other local jurisdictions to welcome Asian educators. The Thai group, led by Benjalug Namfa, the country's deputy secretary general of basic education, met with Superintendent Renee Foose and curriculum staff Tuesday and visited classrooms at Howard High School and Ellicott Mills Middle School on Wednesday.

Each day while getting dressed, Elkridge Elementary School para-educator Adrienne Grein slips on one of the most important items of her wardrobe — a pedometer, which is part of a popular health and wellness program that has become a hit in the Howard County school system. The program is called Virgin HealthMiles, and it encourages employees to get in shape and stay healthy through everyday activity, even on the job. The program is part of a school system effort to create a wellness culture and help employees play an active role in taking care of their health.

0 Losses by Archbishop Spalding, the Baltimore area's No. 1 team last year. The Cavaliers compiled a 20-0 record to win the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference title. 5 Howard County schools in The Baltimore Sun's preseason Top 15 poll -- more than any other county. 69 Players who turned out for the first day of practice at River Hill this year -- believed to be a record for the school for volleyball.

As the county schools' new human relations coordinator, Jacqueline Brown is responsible for achieving the schools' top goal this year: improving the human relations climate.It's a task she believes that she is more than ready to tackle."It's a matter of hitting the ground triple-running," she said of her new responsibilities that encompass a greater vigilance of hate-bias incidents.Before joining Howard County schools, Ms. Brown was an associate professor of counseling psychology at Bowie State University.

When a group of Betsy Adelman's students at Ellicott Mills Middle School learned that a low-pressure air zone created by wind turbines could kill endangered bats by causing their lungs to burst, they set about making a 41/2 -minute documentary instead of writing an essay. Titled"Gone with the Wind,"it was shown during a nonjuried screening of environmental films by the American Film Institute at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring. Now it will get a second look as a tool for teaching teachers.

With hopes of learning more about social media and better combating cyber-bullying, Howard County school administrators have turned to the County Council's new digital communications manager. Howard County schools have been grappling with how to curb digital bullying in the wake of the Easter Sunday suicide of Grace McComas, a Glenelg High School student whose parents say she had been harassed online. Schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan said the challenge is that schools want to curb cyber-bullying but don't want administrators to become "social media police.