Jeffers Hill

The president of a Columbia consulting company will speak to the Jeffers Hill Elementary School PTA at the group's first meeting at 7:30 p.m. today.Osceola Edmondson, president of Common Sense Consulting, will discuss diversity and effective management techniques in education and in the workplace. Mr. Edmondson, who has extensive experience in human relations and management, is a member of the business faculty of the Howard Community College.Jeffers Hill Elementary is at 6000 Tamar Drive.

Maintenance crews inspected and repaired ventilation systems and fixed ceiling leaks yesterday in a Columbia elementary school building that parents fear is making their children sick.Howard County school officials, who visited Jeffers Hill Elementary yesterday, said that long-planned renovations on the building will start in the spring -- but no air quality tests are planned."This project has the highest priority of any new system renovation," said Sydney L. Cousin, associate superintendent.

To the relief of dozens of parents, the Howard County school board indicated last night that it would delay redistricting children who attend northeastern elementary schools next fall.The board made its intentions known during an unofficial "straw vote" at a public hearing on redistricting last night.Moving pupils in the northeast -- a rapidly growing area that has seen frequent redistricting -- probably isn't necessary next year because "the populations in these schools are not increasing as quickly as we expected," said school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan.

After listening to parents voice their opposition and offer suggestions on redistricting recommendations earlier this week, Howard County school board members and administrators responded last night. The board took some suggestions into account and rejected others during its second work session on the redistricting plan. In the plan unveiled in January, Associate Superintendent Maurice F. Kalin suggested moving 144 pupils from Waterloo Elementary School to Jeffers Hill Elementary School.

MANY PHELPS LUCK Elementary School students began 1996 focusing attention on the Howard County "Reflections" arts program.Kindergarten through second-graders who entered the visual arts division are Samantha Esposito, Rebecca Perbetsky, Max Pettis and Laura Swann. The third- through fifth-grade visual artists are Sarah Brown, Jaime Fields, Katie Connelly and Rebecca Switzer. Lykara Charters entered the music competition.Photography was popular with students in all grades, including Kenny Bahr, Kiarra Graves, Jacqueline Snyder, Sarah Ward, Amanda Brady, April Douville and Autumn Goad.

A Howard County school official recommended last night redistricting changes that would affect fewer students than proposed earlier. But the plan presented to the Board of Education would mean school changes for several dozen students who were not on the original redistricting list. Also last night, a task force recommended a three-year, $2.7 million plan to improve teacher recruitment and retention. In his redistricting proposal for next academic year, Maurice F. Kalin, associate superintendent of planning and support services, outlined a plan that includes ideas he shared with parents in December, with some modifications.

Several Howard County school board candidates used last night's final debate before the primary election to criticize incumbent Stephen C. Bounds' decision to apply for out-of-state superintendent jobs while running for re-election. The political forum, sponsored by four school Parent-Teacher Associations, drew about 30 people and all 17 actively campaigning candidates to Long Reach High School in Columbia. Four candidates will advance past the primary on Tuesday to the November general election.

Howard County parents are asking the state to save them from radical change they say last-minute adjustments to some elementary school districts will cause. "Basically, I'd like to get [the county school board] back to the drawing board," said Denise Ruggiero, parent of a Stevens Forest Elementary school pupil. Ruggiero has filed an appeal with the Maryland Department of Education asking for just that, as has Joanne Andrews, whose children attend Jeffers Hill Elementary. The state board combined the two unrelated appeals, and the county board has until Dec. 30 to file a reply.

As sports fields all over Howard County were active with the colors and sounds of soccer games, Jeffers Hill Elementary in Columbia came alive with the buzz of 100 pupils and about 10 teachers attending the first session of the Helping Hands Saturday Program. The Helping Hands Enrichment and Leadership Foundation, a local nonprofit organization, sponsors the fall and winter Saturday school and the Summer Learning Camp and Before and After Camp Care in the summer. Since its formation in 1987, pupils from all Howard County elementary schools have attended, with private schoolchildren and students from other states.

As Howard educators work to determine what is going wrong in the county's five worst-performing elementary schools - where scores on annual state performance exams are among the worst in the state - at least two other schools have emerged as examples of what is going right. Jeffers Hill and Running Brook elementary schools serve populations similar to the schools that are most puzzling to Howard school officials - in particular, the five that posted the county's lowest scores on the latest Maryland School Performance Assessment Program exams: Guilford, Swansfield, Dasher Green, Laurel Woods and Talbott Springs elementaries.