Middle And High

On bent knee, his arm outstretched, Mark Hiteshew proposed to a beautiful cockroach this week as part of an inaugural foreign-language summer camp sponsored by the Baltimore County school system. Mark, 13, and 29 other middle and high school students paid $100 each to polish their Spanish language skills during a weeklong camp at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County. Mark, a pupil at Catonsville Middle School, dropped to his knee for his role in a fanciful production of "La Cucarachita Bonita," a fable that the students will present in Spanish to their parents today, the last day of the language camp.

Baltimore County schools Superintendent Dallas Dance plans to issue digital devices to middle- and high-school students and wants all children in the school system to graduate bilingual, believing it will make them globally competitive, he said in the county's first state of the schools address Thursday. "Earning a Baltimore County public schools diploma needs to have greater meaning," he told a crowd at Valley Mansion in Cockeysville. The superintendent hopes to see kindergartners learning world languages and older students carrying electronic devices within the next five years, he said in an interview Thursday.

Howard County schools Superintendent Michael E. Hickey proposed yesterday a $35 million capital budget for next year that would complete all elementary school construction within two years and begin a rapid expansion for the expected explosive growth of middle and high school students.Hickey's plan includes the construction of two new elementary schools, four new middle schools and additions to nine other schools over the next 10 years. That's in addition to the two new elementaries and one new middle school that Howard will open next fall.

From Liz Atwood: For years we've heard about the teen and tween girls who have a negative body image. Trying to emulate the unnaturally thin models they see on TV or in magazines, they can starve themselves to death. But a new study shows that not only girls, but also teen and tween boys, can harm their health when they become too worried about their bodies. The journal Pediatrics recently published a study that shows a significant number of boys are using protein shakes and steroids to build their muscles.

School district lines are unfairly drawn I am writing you in response to the latest decision to exclude the Hooker's Mill Corridor from the new Patterson Mill Middle and High Schools district. Approximately two and a half years ago, my wife and I moved from Federal Hill [in Baltimore] to our current address in hopes that we would be moving to a forwardly advancing community. Well, here we are, beginning our family and are unable to utilize our town's new facilities, let alone be able to send our future children to a state-of-the-art educational establishment.

Chapelgate Presbyterian Church in Ellicott City announces the opening of Chapelgate Christian Academy for middle and high school students in the fall of 1991.Emphasizing high-quality, college preparatory education from a Christian perspective, Chapelgate Christian Academy will offer classes for students in grades six through nine its first academic year and will add one grade per year to complete its high school program.The school will be on the church's new property at Marriottsville Roand and Route 40. Information 465-7877.

YOU'RE HUNGRY. You're in a crowd. You have no money. Someone offers: Raise your hand -- in other words, admit you're poor -- and you can eat free. Do you swallow your pride and take the meal? Why should you have to? Embarrassment simply shouldn't figure into a decision to eat or go hungry. But for kids who participate in school free lunch programs, it does. That's especially true of middle- and high-school students, the self-conscious, need-to-be-cool teens who are trying hard just to fit in. For them, a free lunch card might as well be a billboard announcing they're poor.

The Poly boys figured they had the "petite slalom" all sewn up when their robot was the only one to clear the first heat without jostling any cones - in a blistering 18 seconds. Likewise, last year's "mystery course" champions from Hereford High School were predicting an easy repeat victory - a full hour before the secret course was unveiled. "I'm pretty sure we're going to win," said Justin Zelinsky, 15, with a shrug, as he plunked a pair of infrared sensors into his car-like "bot." Happily for the competition - and their nervous parents and coaches - the day had in store thrilling upsets, spectacular crashes, even disqualification for illegal robot enhancements.

The Carroll Board of Education will hold public meetings this week on preliminary redistricting plans for the new Piney Ridge Elementary School, scheduled to open in Eldersburg in September.The meetingswill be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Carrolltowne Elementary School and at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eldersburg Elementary School.Redrawing boundary lines in the elementary attendance area of southeastern Carroll, school officials said, is necessary to alleviate overcrowding and balance enrollment between Piney Ridge and the other schools -- Carrolltowne, Freedom and Eldersburg elementaries.

School board plans to discuss proposed policies The county Board of Education will hold a public hearing on proposed policies during the 7:30 p.m. session of its meeting tomorrow at the Department of Education, 10910 Route 108, Ellicott City. The board will discuss discrimination and violence as well as revisions to Policy 1815, Title IX/Harassment. The board is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. June 22. The meeting will begin with a Listening Post session. To sign up for either hearing: the board's executive assistant, 410-313-7197.

When Interim State Superintendent Bernard Sadusky decided to waive the state law to allow Baltimore County to hire S. Dallas Dance to be the next school superintendent, he gave it on the condition that Dance be a guest teacher in a middle and high school this coming school year. State law requires superintendents to have three years of teaching experience, but Dance has only two, in a high school near Richmond. In addition, he did not take teacher preparation courses in college.

Thousands of Prince George's County high school students missed a third day of classes Wednesday as school officials said it could take more than a week to sort out the chaos caused by a new computerized class scheduling system. Students were put in gyms, auditoriums, cafeterias, libraries and classes they didn't want or need at high schools across the county as their parents' fury over the logistical nightmare rose. "The school year comes up the same time every year," said Carolyn Oliver, the mother of a 16-year-old senior who spent Wednesday in the senior lounge at Bowie High School.

Board of Education Ethics Panel to meet The Anne Arundel County Board of Education Ethics Panel will meet at 6 p.m. Monday in Conference Room I at the Parham Building, 2644 Riva Road, in Annapolis. The panel's duties include overseeing all ethics forms relevant to school system regulations; providing advisory opinions on ethics matters and making determinations on complaints alleging violations; referring findings on complaints and other enforcement matters to the board; and holding an information program on ethics regulations.

Parents of Baltimore City students will soon be involved in evaluating their school principals. They'll be able to check homework assignments online. And they'll have summer classes of their own to learn what to expect when their kids go to middle and high school. Baltimore school administrators unveiled last night an unprecedented initiative to get parents involved not only in the education of their children but also in the governance of their children's schools. The school board signed off on spending about $1 million in public and privately raised money next academic year to contract with community-based organizations, which would be charged with getting parents involved and forming PTAs in the many schools that don't have them.

Cartoons can be destructive. Sarah Russo knew this, but there was something about the way John W. Hodge illustrated the point yesterday that jarred the mother of a kindergartener. Hodge, a nationally known motivational speaker, had just aired excerpts from an episode of the animated series South Park, which follows the lives of four foul-mouthed third-graders in a small Colorado town. In the episode, the boys mock a school counselor's anti-drug lecture and get him fired. Later, the counselor, homeless and depressed, slips into drug use and casual sex. "Ten-, 11-, 12-year-olds are watching this," Hodge said.

Some Mount Airy parents would like to see their local middle and high schools on the school system's newly proposed capital improvement plan, which the Board of Education is expected to vote on Wednesday. Both buildings are in need of modernization, parents say. "We moved to Carroll County on the assumption that our children would have the same opportunities as those in neighboring counties and the same opportunities as those within the same county," wrote Jennifer Seidel, who has a child at Parr's Ridge Elementary, in a letter to Carroll Superintendent Charles I. Ecker, the school board and the county commissioners.

A dance instructor at George Fox Middle School has come up with a creative way to ease the transition for children from elementary to middle school -- dance them through it.For the third year, students from Pasadena area schools will put on a free dance show, which helps elementary school youngsters make connections through dance with middle and high school, said Pam Swaggerty, dance instructor and chairwoman of physical education at George Fox.Students from...

Goucher president to present speech Sanford J. Ungar, president of Goucher College in Baltimore, will be the keynote speaker as part of a weeklong series of "Let's Talk Annapolis" events designed to encourage a dialogue on city issues. He will speak at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 in the Conversation Room at St. John's College in Annapolis. Ungar has been the president of Goucher College since July 2001. Before that, he was director of Voice of America and the dean of the School of Communication at American University in Washington.

Soldier killed by police officer A police officer killed a soldier from Fort Meade who was armed with a large handgun. The officer was breaking up a fight at a downtown Baltimore parking garage when the shooting occurred. Bag ban debated A proposal in Annapolis to ban plastic shopping bags and require recycleable paper or reusable containers drew reaction from both sides of the issue. Dog hunt started When Reilly the dog ran away, its Baltimore County owners spared no expense, hiring private detectives and a helicopter to look for the pooch.

Amid concerns about cheating at Severna Park High School, Anne Arundel County student government leaders said that the problem is common at their schools too and goes unchecked because of defensive parents, weak administrators and a frantic competition to get into top colleges. At a forum this week with two school board members, students said they do not believe their schools are abiding by a five-year-old Board of Education policy that requires an Honor Council made up of parents, educators and students in every middle and high school.