New Elementary

A new elementary school to ease crowding in North Carroll is on the county wish list, but it may not come true until the turn of the century.Kathleen Sanner, facilities planner for the Carroll County Public Schools, painted a picture of continued crowding in the area's three elementary schools for the Hampstead Planning and Zoning Commission last night.The picture won't change until another school opens, she said."To have a new school in Manchester in 1998, we have to begin planning next summer," she said.

The eight handmade race cars that successfully zoomed down the 5-foot wooden ramp in the hallway at Sarah M. Roach Elementary on Friday not only highlighted the work of a diligent group of Baltimore third-graders, but marked the beginning of a revved-up effort by the city school system to get a long-derailed academic program back on track. Students at the school celebrated the culmination of a four-week science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) summer program by showcasing their projects, which included race cars made of recyclables, wind turbines powered by generators and boats that clean up oil spills.

The Harford school system has put plans for a new elementary school in Riverside on the fast track and wants to have the building built in record time.In the past it has taken at least 14 months to build an elementary school but school officials, including county school Superintendent Ray R. Keech, have vowed to build, furnish and open the 59,000-square-foot school in time for September 1993.Construction of the 600-pupil school, at Church Creek Road and Riverside Parkway in Belcamp, was delayed a few months ago pending a third test for chemical contaminants at the site.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien apologized Thursday for the pain caused by the recent round of Catholic school closings, as he visited a new elementary school intended to provide seats for displaced students. "I am sorry for the disappointment and pain that I know will remain for a while," O'Brien said in an interview. "To grow and heal, there has to be some pain. We are building a solid school system that will be stable and solid for a long time into the future. " Holy Angels Elementary opens Sept.

Students at Prospect Mill Elementary probably don't even know what the state Interagency Committee for School Construction does.But the IAC staff has taken a step that should improve the learning environment at the school within a few years.The IAC staff has recommended the approval of $3.4 million for construction of one elementary school in Harford County and approval ofthe planning of a second school.The recommended new school wouldbe a 600-student building located on Route 543; the school the IAC staff recommended that planning start on would be located in the Belcamp-Riverside area.

Anne Arundel County's largest elementary school houses 116 pupils more than it was built to hold and exceeds what the county projected for this school year by a full classroom. The Greater Crofton Council - which spearheaded a campaign for a new Crofton library - now wants a new school to relieve the crowding at Crofton Elementary."[The school is] crying for help," said Torrey Jacobsen, vice president of the council, whose daughter will start at Crofton Elementary in the fall. The county's long-term budget contains nothing for a new elementary school in Crofton.

The Howard County school board's decision on boundary lines for the new elementary school in Ellicott City didn't get any easier during a public hearing last night.The more than two dozen parents who testified about boundaries for the new school split on two competing proposals. The two sides offered dueling sets of enrollment data and educational theories to support their positions.The board also heard parents living in MacGill's Common oppose a proposal to redistrict their children to Oakland Mills Middle School.

With little debate, the county school board unanimously approved Superintendent Carol S. Parham's $43 millionconstruction and repair budget for the next fiscal year yesterday, paving the way for major renovations at a south county school and planning of a new elementary school in north county.Under Parham's proposal, the school system would spend $2.2 million to develop plans for a new Glendale Elementary School in Glen Burnie and to renovate science laboratories and put walls in open-space classrooms at South River High School.

Eager to vote on boundaries that will determine which Baltimore County students will attend a sparkling new elementary school campus in New Town set to open this fall, about 400 parents showed up to vote on the issue last night at Sudbrook Magnet Middle School. At issue were three boundary scenarios, the results of several months of work by a committee of parents, teachers and administrators. "It really wasn't that tough to decide," said Michael Franklin, vice president of the Baltimore County PTA council and boundary committee co-chairman.

Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin unveiled a $99.9 million capital budget last week that would include money for a variety of projects, such as a new school in northeastern Howard County that is slated to open in 2013. The amount of the 2011-2012 budget will likely increase in the coming months, according to Cousin. The school board must approve a version of the capital budget by Oct. 6, when a draft must be submitted to the State Construction Program staff. The school system will approve a final budget by June.

Months after announcing that nearly 20 percent of the region's Catholic schools would close, the Archidocese of Baltimore is preparing to open a new elementary school designed to retain some displaced students, fighting skepticism from some parents and teachers who question the move. Holy Angels Elementary School will make its debut next month on two floors in one wing of Seton Keough High School on Caton Avenue. The archdiocese has spent about $1.4 million to renovate a nearly 40-year-old building and carve out space for its newest elementary.

Schools Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin unveiled a $99.9 million capital budget last week that would include money for a variety of projects, such as a new school in northeastern Howard County that is slated to open in 2013. The amount of the 2011-2012 budget will likely increase in the coming months, according to Cousin. The school board must approve a version of the capital budget by Oct. 6, when a draft must be submitted to the State Construction Program staff. The school system will approve a final budget by June.

Howard County's long struggle to eliminate school crowding seemed won over the past two years when no elementary or middle schools were projected beyond capacity, but this year six primary schools are on the annual list of future trouble spots. Unlike past years, crowded classrooms are predicted in older neighborhoods instead of in newer, more rural areas where multimillion-dollar schools were built early in the decade. In addition, school officials say newer apartment and condominium projects along U.S. 1, once expected to produce few school-age children, are outstripping predictions - something that could have implications for redevelopment of the town center in Columbia with 5,500 homes and apartments.

Four Towson families filed suit Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court against the Board of Education, contending that it failed to comply with laws and policies in deciding to build a new elementary school - and calling for a stop to the project. The residents, whose properties border the proposed site for West Towson Elementary, contend that adding another building next to Ridge Ruxton School on North Charles Street - along with several hundred more students - raises safety and environmental concerns, according to the suit.

Contracts for a new Towson elementary school are to come before the Baltimore County Board of Education on Tuesday, including bids for site improvements and excavation. "This is just the next big step," said Michael Sines, the school system's executive director of physical facilities. "We are exactly where we want to be." The three contracts - for testing site materials, excavation and concrete work, among other things - are "simply the first group" of more than a dozen contracts that will be brought to the board as the project progresses, Sines said.

The Baltimore school board approved last night the creation of three more charter schools, including an elementary school to feed into the city's most successful middle school and the replication of a school with a long wait list. Two of the new charter schools, public schools that operate independently, will open in August 2009. One will open in 2010. The Knowledge is Power Program, which operates the high-achieving KIPP Ujima Village Academy in Park Heights, was given the go-ahead to open KIPP Harmony Academy.

Two turns away from Pulaski Highway's car lots and motels sits a flower farm where the Vincent family once grew dahlias the size of dinner plates. Although the property changed hands long ago, at least eight families in the eastern Baltimore County neighborhood trace their roots to the farm and even recall the scent of chrysanthemums that clung to workers there. Now, they say, the family will receive long-deserved recognition when construction begins on a new elementary school named after the farm.

No one disputes that northwestern Baltimore County is in desperate need of a new elementary school to relieve classroom crowding. But whether the school system picked the best site for the new Woodholme Elementary, on Mount Wilson Lane near Reisterstown Road, has become a source of controversy. Community leaders, including the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce, Pikesville Recreation Council and County Council President Kevin Kamenetz, have a host of problems with the location. They are concerned the school will exacerbate traffic problems on the narrow two-lane road with blind curves, and they don't want to lose coveted park space.

Towson needs a new school As concerned parents of a Rodgers Forge Elementary School kindergartener, we would like to express our appreciation for The Sun's coverage of the overcrowding of Towson's schools ("Board decries political pressure," March 30). It is becoming quite clear that County Executive James T. Smith Jr. (a lame-duck county executive) is more concerned with securing his own future as a state politician than with addressing the needs of his current constituents. Rodgers Forge, Hampton, Stoneleigh and Riderwood elementary schools are 451 students over their total collective capacity.

When the new Pasadena Elementary School opens Jan. 4, Debbie Jester will get everything -- new rugs, new baby dolls -- for her kindergarten classroom. She would get nervous when students kicked the occasional ball toward one of her classroom windows in the old school during recess. The impact jars loose the putty that plugs up the windows. But Jester couldn't help getting choked up Wednesday when she heard the announcements on the last day of classes for the 52-year-old school. She was a member of its inaugural first-grade class in 1955.