Magnet

THE OVERHAUL of the Howard County school system's technology education program was designed to prep students for a broad range of blue-collar and white-collar jobs, but the revised curriculum never pretended to cover the entire spectrum of careers. It certainly was not meant to be the right academic course for all county high school students. More Howard eighth-graders have come to realize that over the last several months.A substantial number of next year's freshmen who gained acceptance into the new technology magnet program chose not to enroll after taking time to weigh all the factors.

Howard County students interested in entering the technology magnet program next fall must sign up by Dec. 20, more than four months earlier than last year, educators told the Howard County school board last night.Also last night, the board approved changing the county's grading policy to allow three high schools -- Howard, Long Reach and River Hill -- to eliminate midterm exams and reduce the number of report cards issued.In announcing the deadline for the technology magnet program that began this fall, school officials said it had to be moved up because the number of students intending to join the program next year needs to be known by January so a decision can be made as to whether Oakland Mills High will become a third magnet school.

Howard County school board members pledged last night to do all they can to ensure that no students are turned away from the school system's new technology magnet program next fall.But how the overwhelming student interest in the program will be accommodated remained unclear and likely won't be decided until sometime next month, board members and school officials said.Also during last night's meeting, the board approved an agreement with the federal Office for Civil Rights to resolve its concerns related to the disproportionately large number of minority students in Howard special education programs.

Even before the Howard County schools' new technology-magnet program begins its first year, school officials already are talking about expanding the venture beyond two high schools.Officials are discussing that possibility after recently receiving a flurry of registrations from next year's freshman class.At least 572 students have enrolled in the new program, to begin September at the River Hill and Long Reach high schools. Officials set a tentative registration deadline of March 15, but applications continue to trickle into the office and still are being accepted.

Baltimore County Executive Roger B. Hayden has pulled the plug on Sudbrook Middle School.One line in his budget, eliminating $500,000 the school board requested to equip the building, is enough to halt plans to reopen the 1,000-seat school with innovative magnet programs in math, science, performing arts and language.It also might force a boundary change that would affect Pikesville, Old Court and Woodlawn middle school students and renew the controversy over racial makeup that had plagued Sudbrook since the late 1970s.

Howard County eighth-graders hoping to enroll in the new technology magnet program next fall will learn their fate Wednesday afternoon under a lottery plan approved last night by the school board.The plan means that 357 of the 607 applicants won't be allowed into the program in the fall.And, -- in a new twist -- students who live in the Long Reach and River Hill high school districts, which have the program, also will have to compete for spots through a lottery.The board also recommended last night that the county Zoning Board not rezone 527 acres in North Laurel to allow a Columbia-style village, saying the Rouse Co. proposal would produce more new students than high schools can handle.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens is pushing for a math-and-science magnet program for Meade High School, and she says a major county employer - defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. - is ready to become a partner in the effort. "Northrop Grumman ... has made a firm commitment on the magnet school," Owens said Monday in Crownsville before the Maryland Military Installation Strategic Planning Council, a consortium of local, state and federal officials overseeing military growth in Maryland.

THE GOOD NEWS about Howard County's technology magnet-school program is that no lottery this year will determine who gets in.The county's school dedicated to technology education is not overwhelmed by applications from eighth-graders seeking to enroll, a reversal from last year when officials were forced to resort to a grab-bag selection system.Indeed, the opposite challenge confronts administrators. The excitement they initially stoked for the program is waning -- only 261 eighth-graders signed up to join the 1,000 enrolled at River Hill and Long Reach high schools.

After Erin Lauchman graduates from Howard County's technology-magnet program this month, she'll head to a summer internship in the graphics department at National Geographic in Washington. In the fall, she'll enter Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg as an engineering major. When Travis Feaga graduates from the program next year, he plans to go straight into his father's construction company, working there until he's experienced enough to start a career in excavating.

In one classroom, students pore over wires and switches, a complicated array of materials used to produce a working version of a mazelike circuit diagram on the projection screen. In another - actually not a classroom at all, but the woods behind a greenhouse - students poke insects, yell about a deer sighting and shriek as a tick finds its way up an exposed leg. The two very different experiences are part of a summer program for students attending the new science, technology, engineering and math magnet program at North County High School next month.