Lake Clifton Eastern

Baltimore school officials said yesterday that they will move ahead with plans for creating a character-building academy at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School.But, bowing to the concerns of Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, officials said federal empowerment zone funds would not be used to finance the proposed Leadership Academy of Baltimore.The academy, a school within a school, would be developed using theories and practices of the private Hyde School in Bath, Maine. Hyde, which provides leadership training and challenges students and their families to take responsibility for their learning, already has a privatization venture in a New Haven, Conn.

A campaign to rebuild the burned-out library at Lake Clifton-Eastern High School was launched yesterday with a rallying cry that will send some Baltimoreans to their attics.In addition to thousands of nonfiction and fiction books, a Jan. 30 fire in the library devoured keepsakes that chart the histories of the two schools."All of our yearbooks are gone for Lake Clifton and for Eastern High School," Librarian Yvonne Mercer said yesterday.She realized that they had burned when she began compiling an inventory last week for the school's insurance claim.

A crew of 300 workers organized by a company specializing in emergency reconstruction rushed yesterday to scrub away soot and complete a $1 million cleanup to reopen Lake Clifton-Eastern High School this morning, exactly a week after it was heavily damaged by fire."

Students returned today to fire-damaged Lake Clifton-Eastern High School and to relatively minor inconveniences, including long, frigid detours between classrooms.Only the library, which will have to be reconstructed and restocked, was not functioning this morning, said Donna Franks, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore school system.However, halls connecting the school's burned-out library to other school buildings were closed. Instead of taking their usual indoor shortcuts, students and staff members were forced to take detours -- outdoors on icy sidewalks and into the sub-freezing cold.

Fire damage at Lake Clifton-Eastern Senior High School could reach $1 million -- twice the original estimate -- but Baltimore school officials vowed yesterday that the 2,229 students will return to class there Monday."

A four-alarm fire last night extensively damaged a large section of Lake Clifton-Eastern Senior High School , and classes for 2,229 students were not held today.The cause of the fire was under investigation.Donna Franks, a spokeswoman for the city school system, said the staff was to report to Harford Heights Elementary School in the 1900 block of N. Broadway.It was not immediately known how long classes would be disrupted, said Ms. Franks.The fire, said Battalion Chief Hector Torres, broke out either in the school's ground-level cafeteria or library and quickly spread through the ceiling, where it destroyed or heavily damaged administrative offices and several other rooms and filled the south end of the school with smoke.

First problem: a lack of skilled labor to fill some jobs at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Loch Raven Boulevard.Second problem: finding jobs for students who will graduate from Lake Clifton-Eastern High School next spring with no immediate plans for college.Solution: a special work-study program that will virtually guarantee jobs at the VA hospital for at least seven students upon graduation, and provide real-world training for some 25 more.The new program is one of a growing number of cooperative ventures between employers and the schools.