Nancy Grasmick

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday that he would "proudly" veto a bill passed by the General Assembly that imposes a moratorium on a state takeover of city schools, but Mayor Martin O'Malley and city lawmakers insisted that they had the votes to overturn the governor's decision. The governor said yesterday that federal education funds would be jeopardized if the state does not act promptly to find new management for 11 failing Baltimore middle and high schools. The state school board, at the recommendation of Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, approved the takeover last week, believed to be the first of its kind under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Many city lawmakers said the state action was heavy-handed and done without communicating with Baltimore leaders, and smacked of election-year politics.

A radio advertisement for a Baltimore bank says that Nancy S. Grasmick recommends its services, raising possible ethical questions for Maryland's superintendent of schools.On a commercial on radio station WBAL-AM, Dr. Grasmick's husband, lumber company executive Louis J. Grasmick, endorses Harbor Bank of Maryland and says his wife does, too."If you want a bank that's friendly, reliable and cares about your business, Nancy and I recommend the Harbor Bank of Maryland," Mr. Grasmick says.Later, an announcer urges listeners to visit a branch and says, "Like Lou and Nancy Grasmick, you will be convinced that the Harbor Bank of Maryland is Maryland's premier community bank."

An informal resume for Mary Ann Saar might identify her as a tough-as-nails prosecutor, a William Donald Schaefer loyalist and woman who once exchanged gunfire with three would-be robbers.She made her reputation in the city's criminal courts, where she was Maryland's first female chief deputy under then-State's Attorney William A. Swisher. She left the courtroom in 1983 for a series of political appointments under Schaefer, beginning with the Mayor's Coordinating Council on Criminal Justice.

The coming months will be very telling when it comes to the direction Harford County Public Schools will be taking in the future. The first three elected members of a board of education, recently expanded from seven to nine members, have been seated, and the appointed members of the board appear to have been chosen with a political eye toward having people in office who can face the voters when the time comes. And there's the matter of Nancy Grasmick retiring this year as State Superintendent of Schools after about two decades in that office.

You know it's summer when Solstice hits — both on the calendar, and at the Maryland Science Center. The center's "Solstice" has become quite the summer gala, with some 700 guests indoors and out, under a tent or under the stars, swinging on the dance floor or swinging by one of many food stations and bars. Van Reiner , the center's president and CEO, chatted with honoree Dr. Benjamin Carson and his wife, Candy Carson . Meanwhile, board member Dr. Patricia Schmoke and her husband Kurt Schmoke , Howard University Law School dean and former mayor of Baltimore, browsed the buffet with Dr. Bruce Taylor , Taylor Service Company president, and his wife, Dr. Ellen Taylor , Northwest Hospital chief of gynecology.

Rebound, a Colorado company that works with juvenile delinquents, is the choice to run Maryland's largest facility for juvenile offenders, sources said.Gov. William Donald Schaefer was to announce the selection of a vendor for the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School this afternoon at a State House news conference.Rebound, a Denver group, has a reputation for working with tough juveniles, but has not worked extensively with the Department of Juvenile Services in Maryland. However, at least one local youth, who had a record of sexual offenses, was placed with Rebound last year.

School funds not best sign of excellenceAfter reading Frank Langfitt's Dec. 19 article, "School aid: reform hasn't changed much," I was again reminded when it comes to school spending, the matter with money is not how much but simply how.In the 1993 Maryland School Performance Report, I found that on the nine measures of the Maryland Functional Tests, 13 counties outperformed Montgomery County.These included Calvert County, whose students achieved eight excellent scores and one satisfactory.

Am I the only one in Maryland feeling a twinge of sympathy for state school Superintendent Nancy Grasmick? Grasmick's taking heat for proposing that students who can't pass one or more of the high school assessments required for graduation be allowed to complete senior projects in lieu of the exams. Three months ago, Grasmick was telling me about the heat she was taking from parents because the tests were required for graduation. Throughout the 1990s, many Maryland teachers groused about Grasmick's support of the MSPAP -- the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program.

Wonderful. For 10 weeks, Our Lady of the Public Schools, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, has been selling this good-faith $254 million rescue plan for the schools of Baltimore, worrying she wouldn't be able to sell suburban legislators on the deal, only to find herself blindsided by politicians back in the city.The mayor of all Baltimore, Kurt L. Schmoke, is said to be having second thoughts, and maybe even third. Then the president of the City Council, Lawrence A. Bell III, a man of generally diplomatic temperament, talks of "hidden agendas" and "castration."

THIS SEMESTER, I teach a bright, charming, talented young woman named Kate Devlin who, as I write this, is deciding how to spend the $60,000 in college scholarships she's won for excellence in the fine arts.I'm also privileged to know Annapolis High's Robin Dudley, a fine violinist who fiddles in the Chesapeake Youth Symphony and was recently awarded a four-year tuition waiver by Towson State University, valued in excess of $24,000. (She passed up a similar deal at West Virginia University to remain in state, by the way.)