Johnnycake

Elaine Kolakowski can't put her finger on it, but she knows Johnnycake Elementary School is different this year -- and better.At first glance, it's the bright red polo shirts, crisp blue pants and smart plaid shorts and jumpers the students are wearing.But it's also the behavior and attitude of the children in the uniforms. And the attitude of their parents, who chose to make them part of a new structured program called the Johnnycake Academy."Our school needed a polish," said Mrs. Kolakowski, in her third year as principal at the Westview-area school in Baltimore County.

The second-grade students at Johnnycake Elementary in Catonsville have discovered that without George Washington Carver, there might not be peanut butter, and if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had not spoken out, schools might not be integrated. In their Black History Month research, they found ordinary men and women, who struggled and won Nobel prizes, Olympic medals and a firm place in the annals of American history. The 7- and 8-year-olds turned their efforts into a museum for their schoolmates Thursday.

A 25-year-old substitute teacher stabbed the principal of Johnnycake Middle School in the leg with a butcher knife yesterday, then chased him into another office, where he tried to attack an assistant principal before a parent wrestled him to the floor, Baltimore County police said.Principal G. Roger Proudfoot, 47, sustained a superficial leg wound.Terrance Leroy Alter of the 3300 block of Windsor Blvd. in Woodlawn was charged with attempted murder and assault with intent to murder and held at the Woodlawn precinct pending a hearing before a District Court commissioner.

Stacie L. Price, the former PTA president at Johnnycake Elementary School, was given a suspended three-year prison term Monday after being convicted of stealing more than $9,000 from the organization. Price was also fined $500 and ordered to pay court costs, and must serve three years of unsupervised probation. Prosecutor Michael S. Fuller had asked the judge to send the 39-year-old defendant to jail, saying she had violated a position of trust by writing checks to herself from the PTA's bank account over six months and stopped only "because she got caught.

Afraid that potentially harmful asbestos could have been released into the air at Johnnycake Elementary School this week, Baltimore County school system officials closed the west-side school yesterday in what they called "a precaution." The closing occurs two days after officials were roundly criticized by parents at Villa Cresta Elementary School for not responding quickly enough to a more serious asbestos release at that school. A worker in a boiler room at Villa Cresta in Parkville cut into an asbestos-covered pipe before classes began March 20, and air samples taken in hallways eight hours later showed elevated levels of asbestos fibers.

Enough is enough. That was Keith Rippey's first thought after hearing that a group of developers had requested a zoning change to build hundreds of homes on 100 acres of farmland near his new townhouse in western Baltimore County. The county had a similar reaction. Fearing overdevelopment in the area, the Planning Department will oppose the proposal, which could bring more than 500 homes to the neighborhood off Johnnycake Road, northeast of Patapsco Valley State Park. The proposed change -- from rural residential to higher density residential and office zoning -- would allow the development of the last large tract of farmland across Johnnycake Road from hundreds of new townhouses, condominiums and detached homes that have sprung up in the past 10 years beyond the heavily developed Security Boulevard area.

In an article Sunday on academies in Baltimore County, the principal of Johnnycake Middle School was incorrectly identified. The principal's name is Darryl Bonds.+ The Sun regrets the errors.

A Catonsville woman was killed shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday when a truck struck the car she was riding in at Johnnycake Road and Ingleside Avenue near Westview Mall. Police said the driver of a late-model Plymouth Laser traveling south on Johnnycake tried to make a left turn onto Ingleside when it was struck on the passenger side by a northbound truck hauling logs. Police said the victim was in her early 40s, but declined to release her identity pending notification of relatives. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Two teens implicated in an alleged sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl near Southwest Academy on Johnnycake Road have been located, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Police say they are trying to resolve the contradictions between the girl's and the teens' accounts of the incident. No charges have been filed, police said. On Friday, the girl told police that she was attacked as she was waiting for her mother to pick her up near Southwest Academy. She said two males approached her as she walked on Johnnycake Road near Marksworth Road and dragged her into bushes behind a house, where, she said, the attack occurred.

It was just about a year ago, with spring upon us and the war-for-oil behind us, that curiosity about the life of a 15-year-old boy named Chris Alston occasioned a visit to Johnnycake Middle School in Woodlawn. Everyone at the school remembered the boy well, though he'd spent only a month or so attending classes.It turned out that other endeavors had distracted Chris Alston from his studies, in particular his relationship with two older boys who sold drugs. By the time I got to Johnnycake to ask about him, Alston had fulfilled a prophecy of teachers.

The former president of the Johnnycake Elementary School PTA was convicted this week of stealing more than $9,000 from the group's bank account for her personal use. Stacie L. Price, 39, who was forced to resign from the organization in April after admitting to the crime, waived a jury trial Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court and pleaded not guilty to a single theft-scheme count. Judge John J. Nagle III found her guilty and set sentencing for Dec. 2. Price faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, although prosecutor Michael S. Fuller said she is unlikely to spend time behind bars because she has no prior criminal record.

The students trickle into the gym at Johnnycake Elementary, deposit their bags against a wall and make a beeline for one of the colored dots marked on the floor. Then it's time to dance. The electric slide, the Cotton Eye Joe, the Macarena - even the chicken dance. For half an hour before school, the student members of Johnnycake's folk-dance group cover them all, easily hopping, clapping or sliding from one to the next without missing a beat. "We get a lot of different eras in there," said Sara Hampt, the school's vocal music teacher, who took over the team a year ago. The kids are divided by age, the younger ones - who usually need more repetition - coming in on Mondays, and others split between Wednesdays and Fridays, Hampt said.

The students trickle into the gym at Johnnycake Elementary, deposit their bags against a wall and make a beeline for one of the colored dots marked on the floor. Then it's time to dance. The electric slide, the Cotton Eye Joe, the Macarena - even the chicken dance. For half an hour before school, the student members of Johnnycake's folk-dance group cover them all, easily hopping, clapping or sliding from one to the next without missing a beat. "We get a lot of different eras in there," said Sara Hampt, the school's vocal music teacher, who took over the team a year ago. The kids are divided by age, the younger ones - who usually need more repetition - coming in on Mondays, and others split between Wednesdays and Fridays, Hampt said.

Two teens implicated in an alleged sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl near Southwest Academy on Johnnycake Road have been located, Baltimore County police said yesterday. Police say they are trying to resolve the contradictions between the girl's and the teens' accounts of the incident. No charges have been filed, police said. On Friday, the girl told police that she was attacked as she was waiting for her mother to pick her up near Southwest Academy. She said two males approached her as she walked on Johnnycake Road near Marksworth Road and dragged her into bushes behind a house, where, she said, the attack occurred.

Baltimore County police are looking for two men who allegedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl Friday. The girl, a student at Southwest Academy, told police the attack took place about 3 p.m. as she was waiting for her mother to pick her up after school. According to the girl, two young men came up to her as she walked on Johnnycake Road near Marksworth Road and dragged her into some bushes behind a house. They threatened to kill her if she screamed. One man assaulted her twice. The other held her down for part of that time.

When the pupils in Meghan Keating's fifth-grade language arts class were told to be quiet yesterday morning, a hush fell over the room. Before speaking, they raised their hands. And when the class of 20 received its first major assignment, some of the children cheered. After a five-day hiatus in the wake of Tropical Storm Isabel, many pupils at Johnnycake Elementary School in Westview Park seemed excited about their return to schoolwork. "I don't think all of them will admit that they're glad to be back because it's not cool," Keating said.

When the pupils in Meghan Keating's fifth-grade language arts class were told to be quiet yesterday morning, a hush fell over the room. Before speaking, they raised their hands. And when the class of 20 received its first major assignment, some of the children cheered. After a five-day hiatus in the wake of Tropical Storm Isabel, many pupils at Johnnycake Elementary School in Westview Park seemed excited about their return to schoolwork. "I don't think all of them will admit that they're glad to be back because it's not cool," Keating said.

Faced with a growing disparity in the experience of teaching staffs -- and in how well students learn -- Baltimore County school officials are considering an ambitious mentor program for inexperienced teachers. Many sch can lead to stress and discipline problems, officials say.The disparity in experience is particularly glaring in schools with large black enrollments."It's possible to go through Johnnycake Elementary, Johnnycake Middle and Woodlawn High and never have a teacher with more than five years' experience," said Michael N. Riley, associate superintendent for administration and instruction.

A Catonsville woman was killed shortly after 5 p.m. yesterday when a truck struck the car she was riding in at Johnnycake Road and Ingleside Avenue near Westview Mall. Police said the driver of a late-model Plymouth Laser traveling south on Johnnycake tried to make a left turn onto Ingleside when it was struck on the passenger side by a northbound truck hauling logs. Police said the victim was in her early 40s, but declined to release her identity pending notification of relatives. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Seneca Elementary School in Bowleys Quarters was evacuated yesterday afternoon because school officials feared a suspicious glue-like substance scraped off chalkboards over spring break could be asbestos. Tests later found no traces of the potentially hazardous material, and the school will reopen on time today, said school system spokeswoman Sharon Norman. The scare occurred on the same day two other county elementary schools -- Villa Cresta and Johnnycake -- were cleared to reopen after problems with asbestos.