Magnet Schools

Yesterday's story on Baltimore County schools that are changing their names inadvertently omitted that Southeastern School of Technology on Sollers Point Road will be come Southeastern Technical Magnet School.) The Sun Regrets the ErrorListen up, Baltimore County students and parents. Some of your schools are changing their names.* Central School of Technology is becoming the Carver Center for Arts and Technology.* Milford Mill High School will be Milford Mill Academy.* Eastern Vocational Technical High School will be Eastern Technical High School, but not until 1994.

Baltimore County's fast-growing magnet school program has developed without any strategic plan and needs revisions from its application process to follow-up courses, according to a consultant's study.The study, being used by the school system as the basis for changes, calls for a more consistent screening process for applicants. More collaboration is needed between magnet schools and comprehensive schools, the report adds, and more magnet programs are needed to provide continuity in courses.

Four Baltimore County magnet schools will get additional equipment as part of a renewable $2.26 million federal grant, school officials said yesterday.The schools will use the money to hire additional staff, buy computers and state-of-the-art laboratory equipment. Teachers in the magnet program also will receive extensive in-service training to better implement the programs.The initial grant comes from the Magnet School Assistance Program of the U.S. Office of Education.If the school system implements its voluntary desegregation plan to "reduce, eliminate or prevent minority isolation," it will receive an additional $2.26 million for the 1994-1995 academic year.

MAGNET SCHOOLS have been a popular draw in Baltimore County during the past three years, with more than 10,000 pupils enrolled in 25 of these specialized education programs. Now the county school board has voted to slow the rapid pace of expansion, in order to develop a strategic plan for new magnet programs and establish a systematic evaluation process.Although it did not adopt all the recommendations of an outside consultant and a school system steering group, the county Board of Education agreed that the magnet program needs a bit of breathing room for review and planning.

Old Mill and Annapolis high schools may become Anne Arundel County's first magnet schools, if school board members endorse the superintendent's plan to establish the International Baccalaureate program at those campuses. During a school board retreat yesterday, Superintendent Eric J. Smith told board members that the schools were logical choices to house the program of rigorous coursework because of their location and capacity to absorb more students. Old Mill, in Millersville, would serve students living in the northern parts of the county; Annapolis would serve those from the south.

A band played, banners flew, teachers grinned, and everyone went home with a souvenir as the Baltimore County schools introduced their special-interest "magnet" high school programs in a fair last night at Parkville High."

A congressman is pushing to build math-and-science magnet schools on or around Fort Meade to serve an expected influx of children from the national base realignment and expansion of the National Security Agency - the world's largest employer of mathematicians. The school would raise future generations of scientists, engineers and other specialized workers to support a growing cadre of defense agencies coming to Maryland, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger told more than 100 commercial developers, lawyers and government officials in Linthicum yesterday.

Armed with a list of recommendations compiled for him by education experts, Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston appears to be primed to enact bold changes. Among the possibilities are a review of magnet schools, a reshuffling of administrators at school system headquarters and giving more students free breakfasts. But Hairston and members of the Board of Education caution that nothing from the list has been set in stone, and that the experts' suggestions are more of a "big picture" look at the school system than a to-do list.

An effort championed by some local officials to establish magnet schools in Anne Arundel County for students with talents in the arts, math and science has fizzled because of a lack of funds. Superintendent Eric J. Smith directed his staff last week to abandon a planning process in the works since September. Smith said he failed to garner financial assistance from the cash-strapped county and state governments. And he recently learned that Anne Arundel was ineligible for a federal grant used to create magnet schools in other counties.

The Baltimore County school system will receive a nearly $6.5 million, three-year federal grant to improve student achievement and increase educational options for children through magnet schools. Funded by the U.S. Education Department, the Magnet Schools Assistance program provides competitive grants to help local school systems create magnet schools operated under a court-ordered or federally approved voluntary desegregation plan. About 50 school districts nationwide will share more than $108 million in the program.