Maxwell

Do you know that the driveway at President Andrew Jackson's Nashville home, Hermitage, is the shape of a guitar? Do you care? Of course not. Some other "fun facts": NASHVILLE Violence-prone citizens Tennessee's nickname, the "Volunteer State," comes from the War of 1812, when hundreds of volunteers - many more than the quota needed, many surely from Nashville - eagerly went off to war We're No. 7! In a 2007 U.S. News & World Report ranking of the 100 busiest airports, Nashville was named the seventh "least miserable" airport.

ISSUE: All 193 staff members at Annapolis High School must reapply for their jobs in a drastic step announced last week by Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell. He hopes the radical move will reverse anemic student performance and head off a state takeover. Annapolis High, which has about 1,700 students, has failed to meet state and federal benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act four years in a row. The school has struggled with poor reading test scores among low-income students and lagging graduation rates among minorities.

As a vote looms to formally close a charter school in Edgewater, Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold and schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell yesterday called on an Annapolis art institute and the college that has housed the 2-year-old KIPP Harbor Academy to find room for its students. But officials at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and Sojourner-Douglass College were surprised by the public call for them to "engage in another round of discussions" with KIPP representatives; the college's director called it "misleading."

Schools chief in Arundel gets a bonus of $6,000 The Anne Arundel County school board unanimously approved yesterday a $6,000 bonus for Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell, boosting his salary to $237,750. Maxwell, a veteran of the Prince George's and Montgomery school systems who took over Anne Arundel schools last year, was praised by board members for a staff restructuring at Annapolis High School and for his work promoting specialized "signature" programs and magnet schools. The performance bonus follows a 3 percent cost-of-living salary increase that became effective July 1. Maxwell is the fifth-highest paid superintendent in Maryland.

On August 31, 2007, DONALD W. WHITFORD "Double Dee" of Catonsville, MD, died at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Born November 13, 1942, in Utica, NY. He was the son of the late Charles and Ann Lupa Whitford. Mr Whitford is survived by his three children Allisyn Pletch of Owings Mills, and Eric and David Whitford, both of Jacksonville, FL. He is the grandfather of Jordan Marie Whitford and Maxwell Samuel Pletch; brother of Charles Whitford, Patty Ann Manning and Elaine Zenobio. Services and interment are private.

School officials couldn't quite fill all the seats when Meade High School launched a specialized pre-engineering curriculum four years ago. Now, overwhelmed by student demand, they plan to add a biomedical program to accompany the engineering courses. That will be in addition to scores of students - 50 percent to 60 percent of them minorities - expecting to take International Baccalaureate classes at Meade in 2008. "We've got academic momentum," Acting Principal Daryl Kennedy said. "And there's no stopping us."

ISSUE: Less than five months after Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell called for all 193 staff members at Annapolis High School to reapply for their jobs, the numbers are in: At least 45 of the 111 classroom teachers will not return. Maxwell announced the radical effort to "zero-base" the staff to help improve student performance and graduation rates, particularly among minorities, and head off a state takeover. The school had failed to meet state and federal benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act four years in a row. A handful of teachers who reapplied to stay at the school were turned away, and many more decided to move on. The result is that some departments will look drastically different when classes begin July 1 at the year-round school.

Saying the school system can be one of the country's best - and that the county can afford to pay for it - Anne Arundel schools superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has proposed a $920 million budget for next year. The operating budget, which he outlined to the school board on Wednesday, calls for a $131 million increase, or 17 percent, to expand special education services, pre-K and all-day kindergarten programs; bolster security; update technology; and launch the International Baccalaureate program at Meade High School and precursor programs at three middle schools.

Costumes are ready, and candy is bought, so it's time once again for Monte Maxwell's annual Halloween Organ Concert at the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel.Over the past three years, Maxwell's creepy and colorful musical extravaganza has become the area's most artful, delightful and popular celebration of the October holiday.Last year's concert brought a record-breaking number of people into the chapel for an evening of great music, evocative lighting, spooky, smoky special effects and many other surprises.

Lynda P. Maxwell saw the writing on the wall in 1995, when the major airlines capped the 10 percent commissions they had been paying travel agencies at $50 per airline ticket.That year, income at her Columbia travel agency, Destinations Inc., dropped by about 17 percent, she said. Her clientele was largely corporate then, and most of that business came from airline ticket sales."At that time, I made a conscious effort to sell products other than airline tickets," said Maxwell, president of the travel agency.

What exactly happened to Maxwell C. Byers, president of the Western Maryland Railway, who was gunned down in a spectacular noontime murder on Sept. 23, 1930, in his fifth-floor office in the Standard Oil Building on St. Paul Place? His murder, nearly eight decades later, still haunts his family. "It's unbelievable. It's like his entire family was placed under a gag order," said a grandson, Dr. Robert Maxwell Byers, 72, a retired Houston surgeon, who is determined to get to the bottom of the case.

Sadly on August 5, 2009, CAROL A. BUCHANAN; beloved wife of Maxwell Buchanan, Sr.; loving mother of Maxwell, Jr., and Stacy Buchanan, Amanda Brown and Toni Arnold; cherished grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of four; devoted sister of Lisa, Doris and Ben. Also survived by many nieces, nephews, family members and friends. Relatives and friends may call at the family owned AMBROSE FUNERAL HOME OF LANSDOWNE, 2719 Hammonds Ferry Road, Lansdowne, MD, 21227 on Sunday and Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. A funeral service will be held on Tuesday at Outreach Ministries Evangelical Bible Church, 2444 Washington Boulevard, Baltimore, MD, 21230, beginning at 12 noon.

DVD Push ** (2 stars) Starring Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning. Directed by Paul McGuigan. Released by Summit Entertainment. $26.95 (Blu-ray $34.95). Set "two days from now," in a Hong Kong where you can't walk 10 yards without encountering someone with mutant powers (including a posse of Asians whose power consists of making bug eyes and bursting glass fish-tanks with their high-decibel shrieks), Push watches as a bunch of second-generation mutants have-at each other, with the future of all Mutantdom as the prize!

Organizers say there will be no shortage of local talent when the Gatorade Free Flow Tour holds a skateboarding competition Saturday at noon at Baltimore's Charm City Skatepark. The tour, an amateur skateboarding and BMX series that travels throughout the country during the summer, will be returning to Baltimore for the second consecutive year. Charm City Skatepark owner Jason Chapman said he expected the event to attract anywhere from 60 to 100 competitors in two age groups: 12-and-under and 13-18.

Noting the looming $46 million schools budget deficit, Anne Arundel County Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell told the school board that expected budget cuts will be "untenable" and will likely include furloughs, staffing cuts that will result in larger class sizes and salary decreases. "Less teachers, less salaries, furloughs, [larger] class sizes," Maxwell said. "There is nothing in this economic climate that will allow us to do anything about that. We're talking about some significant issues in our budgets.

In response to the schools superintendent's recent decision not to allow the 2009 city elections to be held in schools, the Annapolis City Council discussed at length Monday night where to hold the elections that will determine the city's next mayor. In a letter dated April 15, Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell wrote to Mayor Ellen Moyer that having city elections on a school day would "interfere with our activities and our sessions," despite the fact that schools had been used for decades.

Annapolis Middle School, which has failed to meet federal reading mandates in five of the past six years, will undergo a state-monitored restructuring that will emphasize a rigorous academic program, replace some staff, require more professional development and offer year-round instruction to students, according to a plan approved by the school board last week. The Anne Arundel County Board of Education unanimously approved Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell's restructuring plan for Annapolis Middle School, which has consistently failed to meet what is referred to as "adequate yearly progress" in reading.

Anne Arundel County schools Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell and County Executive John R. Leopold said they will be working closely in the coming months to bridge their budgetary priorities, after the school board last week approved Maxwell's recommended $977.4 million operating budget and $213.8 million capital budget. The budgets will be forwarded to Leopold, who has said it will be "nearly impossible" to fund them in full, citing a sharp decline in revenue and the worsening global financial crisis.

On January 17, 2009 RAYMOND JOHN PAUL, beloved husband of the late Dorothy M. Paul, loving companion of Theresa F. Law. Devoted father of Richard D. Paul and his wife Kim. Loving grandfather of Shelby L. Mai and her husband Kyle, Kara N. Maxwell and her husband Chris and Alyssa Paul, great-grandfather of Brinley Maxwell. Dear brother of Bernice Machamer, Regina Brilhart, Ronald Paul, Delbert Paul and Glenda Geist. Funeral services will be held at the family owned Duda-Ruck Funeral Home of Dundalk, Inc., 7922 Wise Avenue on Tuesday at 10 A.M. Interment Sacred Heart of Mary Cemetery.

Do you know that the driveway at President Andrew Jackson's Nashville home, Hermitage, is the shape of a guitar? Do you care? Of course not. Some other "fun facts": NASHVILLE Violence-prone citizens Tennessee's nickname, the "Volunteer State," comes from the War of 1812, when hundreds of volunteers - many more than the quota needed, many surely from Nashville - eagerly went off to war We're No. 7! In a 2007 U.S. News & World Report ranking of the 100 busiest airports, Nashville was named the seventh "least miserable" airport.