New School

Elkridge will get a new elementary school for the 2013-2014 academic year now that the sellers of a 10.1-acre site on Ducketts Lane have settled a dispute in court. The Howard County school system was supposed to close the deal with Ducketts Ridge LLC in October, but a shareholder refused to release a lien to the sellers. The $2.64 million deal was put on hold, leaving the school system without property needed to alleviate overcrowding in the northeast and causing the system to file a lawsuit in December.

Last month more than 104,000 students returned to Baltimore County Public Schools. While those students came back to the 26th largest school system in the nation, a new school tucked away in Lutherville welcomed just nine students. The Auburn School, on the ground floor of the Towson Unitarian Universalist Church, enrolls children between first and seventh grades who are "strong students" but need help with social skills, communication, language and organization. Head of School Marjorie Hoffman, who has spent 42 years in both private and public systems, believes the school is needed.

County school officials broke ground yesterday for a new Solley Road Elementary School -- a project intended to replace an overcrowded school built in the 1930s.Money for the school was won last year in a bitter fight. The project was deleted from the county's budget in May, but restored in June.The 74,000-square-foot building, which is expected to cost $6.5 million, is scheduled to open its doors in September 1995. It has been designed to accommodate about 600 students for the Pasadena-Glen Burnie area.

Clint Marshall Sr. hasn't been to elementary school in many a September. But he came yesterday with a handful of home-grown roses for the principal.At a time of day when he usually stops at the Seven Oaks Senior Center, Mr. Marshall walked a little farther to see the shiny new Seven Oaks Elementary School, to welcome the principal and to offer his help.Principal Karen Schafer greeted him graciously just inside the front door of the new Perry Hall school and invited him to a reception for volunteers in the cafeteria.

When the Howard County school board votes on new school boundary lines at today's 7:30 p.m. meeting, Alistair Leslie, a parent, hopes the five members instead will consider his proposal to change the school system's five-year building plan.Armed with graphs and transparencies, and using the school system's own data, the Dorsey Hall father of two has come up with an alternative plan he says better meets the school system's high school enrollment needs, saves as much as $8 million in operating costs and defers up to $18 million in bond debt until 1997.

Sparks Elementary School, destroyed by fire Sunday, was born again yesterday as its 300 youngsters went to class in their new, temporary home at Cockeysville Middle School.Despite throngs of well-wishers, a flurry of pink sharks and a librarian dressed like Little Red Riding Hood, the students' return was orderly -- a tribute to long hours of hard work by their teachers, school officials and the community."Are you ready, Ms. Davidson?" Sparks Principal Thomas Ellis asked a first-grade teacher shortly after 9 a.m."

Howard County's new elementary school in Fulton will be named, appropriately enough, Fulton Elementary School, the Howard school board decided last week.Fulton Elementary was the name recommended to the board by a committee of parents and school officials. The school is being built off Route 216 near Lime Kiln Road and Murphy Road.Fulton, one of Howard's smallest villages, developed in the 1800s as a crossroads community to provide services to area farmers. It is named for Charles C. Fulton, a former editor of The Sun, according to historical research presented by school officials.

St. Anne's Day School in Annapolis has bought 10 acres on Arundel on the Bay Road to build a new school complex that will be the first Episcopal elementary and middle school in Anne Arundel County.The land was sold to the school by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.Parents and friends of the school have raised half of the $1.2 million to pay for the first segment of construction.Barbara Stowe Tower, chairwoman of the school's board of trustees, said the first phase will include 12 classrooms, a multimedia library with flexible space for a chapel, a computer lab and a playground.

Parents and church leaders who want to start a new Catholic high school in southern Carroll or northern Howard have rescheduled their first organizational meeting.The meeting was postponed Friday because of ice on the parking lot at St. Joseph Catholic Community in Sykesville.The meeting at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at St. Joseph on Liberty Road will be to form a committee and survey parents on the need for the school.The movement to open a new school began in July with parishioners whose children attend Holy Family Catholic School in Randallstown.

The water and sewer hookup bill for New Windsor Middle School has gone down, but it's still in the six-figure range.Before New Windsor will approve the start of construction, Mayor Jack A. Gullo wants $183,600 in hookup fees for the new school that will replace the building on Green Valley Road.The school system will have to go to county government for extra money, said Lester Surber, supervisor of school facilities and planning.Mayor Gullo said he presented school officials yesterday with a figure reduced from the $228,000 he originally requested.