Oakland Mills High

Rosalie Bowen was honored by the Howard County school board this week for being named the 1997 assistant principal of the year by the Maryland Association of Secondary School Principals.Bowen, an assistant principal at Oakland Mills High School, was described by Howard Superintendent Michael E. Hickey as the "quintessential assistant principal.""She is very much a part of the high school leadership in this county," Hickey told the school board Tuesday night in recognizing Bowen's recent award.

Kimberly Feldman had no idea what was happening when Superintendent Sydney L. Cousin and other top-ranking school officials entered her class at Oakland Mills High School with a bouquet of flowers. Her students were thrilled by a mock trial lesson, which her principal said is indicative of the type of innovative, engaging lessons that make her a star teacher. It was these types of attributes that made Feldman the Howard County Teacher of the Year. "It was quite the surprise," said Feldman, who teaches ninth-grade English at the school in Columbia.

Oakland Mills High School will hold its 20th annual craft fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 8 in the main gymnasium of the school, 9410 Kilimanjaro Road, Columbia. Handmade jewelry, blankets, wooden items, scarves and other crafts for holiday gift-giving will be available. Music, food and a bake sale are also planned. Door prizes will be awarded. Vendors and artisans are needed. Admission is free for shoppers. Information: e-mail, OMHSCraftFair@yahoo.com. Center accredited The Cradlerock Children's Center, a nonprofit preschool for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, has received state accreditation.

Oakland Mills High School will hold its 20th annual craft fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 8 in the main gymnasium of the school, 9410 Kilimanjaro Road, Columbia. Handmade jewelry, blankets, wooden items, scarves and other crafts for holiday gift-giving will be available. Music, food and a bake sale are also planned. Door prizes will be awarded. Vendors and artisans are needed. Admission is free for shoppers. Information: e-mail, OMHSCraftFair@yahoo.com. Center accredited The Cradlerock Children's Center, a nonprofit preschool for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, has received state accreditation.

OAKLAND MILLS High has good news to wrap up 1998.Jennifer Anne Segawa, a junior, received a perfect score in all three sections of the Preliminary SAT.A representative of the College Board, which conducts the tests, reports that Jennifer is one of only a few students nationwide to receive a perfect score.The PSAT, a preparation for the SAT exam, serves as a qualifying exam for the National Merit Scholarship Program.Jennifer has maintained a 4.0 grade point average, and is in the Gifted and Talented English Class taught by Holly Pasciullo.

IT'S A MYSTERY, and it's funny." That was teacher and director Kevin Shea's synopsis of "Murder Is a Game," the play being performed this weekend at Oakland Mills High School.The play involves mystery and comedy, and cast members have devoted much time to developing the timing so crucial to the dialogue.The actors and actresses are Mike Lieberman, Laila Ayad, Laura Bacon, Naomi Sandler, Jack Lange, Beth Wilson, Pat Combs and Dawn Christensen.Pianist Christine Jensen will set the mood before the curtain opens and during intermission.

Under the direction of coach Robin Page, the Oakland Mills High School cheerleaders enjoyed a great year of competition.In November, the Junior Varsity Squad placed second at the Central Atlantic Regionals for National High School Cheerleading Championships and received a bid to attend the nationals in Florida this year.Last month, the Varsity Squad placed third and the Junior Varsity Squad placed fourth at the Friendly High School Open Invitational Cheerleading Competition, in Prince George's County.

The student: Reesa Phillips, 17 School: Oakland Mills High Special achievement: As a result of her exceptional grade point average, Reesa is the No. 1 student in her senior class. A student in gifted-and-talented and advanced placement classes, Reesa is French club treasurer, historian for her school's National Honor Society chapter and a member of the math team. She is also a member of the spirit club, a peer mediator and a safe peer leader to fifth-graders. She plays soccer, participates in track and field and sings in the girls' choir.

For Ken Hovet, life now is a mixture of relief, anger and anxiety. The 43-year-old former Oakland Mills High School athletic director and football coach got his teaching job and back pay restored by the Howard County school board this week. Today, he is due in Circuit Court, seeking $113,000 in legal fees and damages from his fight to obtain access to documents he needed to prepare a defense against charges that he should be fired in a grade-changing scandal. But important as all that is, there is something more vital to Hovet, a plain-spoken father of three who agreed to be interviewed yesterday in the downtown Washington law office of Thomas R. Bundy III, a 1991 Oakland Mills High graduate who represented Hovet.

As most Oakland Mills High School students board their buses for the ride home, Andrew Brown and Sara Andino are in a science room in the far corner of the building, holding a meeting of Environmental Club. As co-presidents of this ecologically friendly group, Brown and Andino volunteer their time to make the club a good place to learn about the "backyard science" of the Oakland Mills community. Their responsibilities include finding discussion topics and activities for club meetings, organizing projects such as cleaning up the school campus, and writing grant requests so that the members of the club can go on field trips with school science classes.

Christ United Methodist Church will hold a Vacation Bible School from 6 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. June 22-26 at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center, 7246 Cradlerock Way. The Theme is "Power Lab: Discovering Jesus' Miraculous Power." The cost is $6 a child each night; $30 a child for the week, and includes a light supper. Registration is requested, but not required. For registration forms: www.gbgm-umc.org/christcolumbia. Or call 410-381-6329. Sign-in begins at 5:30 p.m. June 22. PFLAG awards 2nd scholarship The Columbia-Howard County chapter of PFLAG - Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, presented its second scholarship to Emily Pagano, a recent graduate of Oakland Mills High School who will be attending Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

The Howard County Library will present its Teen Time Showcase. Teen Time is an after-school program for children in grades 4-8 at the east Columbia branch library. The program includes help with homework, a snack, field trips, crafts, book talks and other presentations. The showcase, which includes a buffet dinner, karaoke, a dee jay, dancing and caricature drawings of guests, will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday at the 50+ center of the east Columbia branch library, 6600 Cradlerock Way. Reservations are required.

The Kiwanis Club of Columbia will join with the Oakland Mills Community Association in supporting an early childhood dental clinic from 9 a.m. to noon May 16 at The Other Barn in the Oakland Mills Village Center. The clinic is sponsored by Parents As Teachers, a parent education and support program of the Howard County Office of Children's Services. Children can receive a free dental examination and a free application of fluoride. The Kiwanis Club has selected Stephanie Hunter, a senior at Oakland Mills High School, as Teenager of the Year.

Konyinsola Oshikoya, a 14-year-old sophomore at Howard County's Oakland Mills High School, is always on the lookout for new members of the Alpha Achievers. "If I see someone in the hall who I think should be there, I'll pull them aside," Konyinsola said. That kind of commitment has allowed the organization, which encourages excellence among minority students, to spread to five Howard County high schools over the past 10 years. As school systems struggle to close the student achievement gap, programs like the Alpha Achievers are growing in popularity.

As most Oakland Mills High School students board their buses for the ride home, Andrew Brown and Sara Andino are in a science room in the far corner of the building, holding a meeting of Environmental Club. As co-presidents of this ecologically friendly group, Brown and Andino volunteer their time to make the club a good place to learn about the "backyard science" of the Oakland Mills community. Their responsibilities include finding discussion topics and activities for club meetings, organizing projects such as cleaning up the school campus, and writing grant requests so that the members of the club can go on field trips with school science classes.

Ravens' Stover to talk about dads, sons Baltimore Ravens kicker Matt Stover will discuss authentic father-son relationships and what it means to be a "Real Deal Dad" at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow at Oakland Mills High School, 9410 Kilimanjaro Road in Columbia. Also, Gatorade is sponsoring a Junior Training Camp for elementary and middle school-age sons who accompany their fathers. A light breakfast will be provided. "Our theme for this year is `connections,' and this event will help the school connect with fathers, and fathers connect with their sons," said Oakland Mills High School Principal Frank Eastham said in a statement.

The technology magnet program should be expanded to Oakland Mills High School next school year, a school official recommended at last night's school board meeting.If approved, the expansion would reverse a Howard County school board decision earlier this year to limit the program to two schools.Also last night, the board approved a toughened policy against tobacco use that will allow administrators to expel students caught smoking or using other tobacco products more than three times.An expansion of the technology magnet would begin with one course for Oakland Mills freshmen in fall 1998 and would grow by adding courses for the next three years until all grade levels are included, said Eugene Streagle, instructional coordinator in charge of high schools.

Members of Oakland Mills High School's PTSA invited the school board to lunch at the school yesterday and served a little humble pie. Instead of pulling out the finest linens and catering in, the parents offered sandwiches and chips on the school's splintered 30-year- old football bleachers to board members Jane B. Schuchardt, Sandra H. French, Virginia Charles and Patricia S. Gordon. The meager meal and dangerous seats had a larger message: Oakland Mills is in dire need of renovation, the parents said.

If you've driven by Oakland Mills High School in the early morning or evening, you might have noticed strobe lights flashing from the roof. The lights are a way to repel about 100 turkey vultures that roost on the roof and rip away patches of material in the process. The vultures started showing up in November, and school officials are illuminating the strobe lights every day from 5 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. and from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. Maintenance workers are exploring the use of reflectors to repel the birds.

After 10 years of encouraging academic excellence among ethnic minority male high school students at Oakland Mills, the Alpha Achievers will celebrate Jan. 14 and take a bow. The group -- made up of students with at least a 3.0 grade point average -- will celebrate from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Oakland Mills High School cafeteria. Alumni and current members will get a chance to interact and reminisce. The event costs $10. "It will be a little bit of history," said Vincent James, a guidance counselor at Oakland Mills High who volunteered to be the adviser for the group.