Paolino

Anne Arundel School Superintendent Larry L. Lorton said today he will leave his job as head of the 65,000-student system.In an unexpected move, Lorton announced that he is stepping down when his four-year contract expires at the end of the current school year.Deputy Superintendent C. Berry Carter II called Lorton's decision "kind of stunning."A school system administrator, who asked not to be identified, said Lorton was discouraged by disagreements with the county Board of Education over budget and other issues.

Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County President Tom Paolino said yesterday that contract talks between the union and the Board of Education may be near an end, thus averting a possible work-to-rule job action.Under the two-year contract agreement, endorsed by TAAACleaders, the association gains 16 items it had requested before negotiations broke down and went to arbitration.Those include maintaining a 12-month schedule for the county's guidance counselors in schools with 750 students or more.

Union leaders reacted with outrage yesterday after labor negotiators for the school board said they wanted to renegotiate last year's hard-won contract to eliminate a promised longevity raise.The move to renegotiate, two weeks before the contract was to take effect, was "unprecedented," according to leaders of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County. The organization represents about 4,000 employees."We refused to negotiate," said Thomas J. Paolino, union president. "If they renege on this contract the Board of Education will lose all credibility with employees, the public and the elected officials of the county."

Gerald P. Starr, Republican District 1 County Council candidate, wants to increase the occupancy tax on hotel and motel rentals, using the proceeds to help pay for police and fire services.Out-of-town residents who rent hotels and motels use county roads, public utilities, recreation and park facilities and police, fire and emergency services, Starr said.Increasing the tax would bring in more than $1 million, Starr said, which he wants to put toward police and fire services.MEADE PTA SETS CANDIDATES' FORUMThe Meade High School PTA will conduct a candidates' forum at 7 p.m.Oct.

The majority of county students scored higher than the state averagein the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program.While taking pains not to emphasize the numbers associated with the MSPAP, school officials said they were pleased with how county students scored on the tests, which measured skills in four areas -- reading, writing,mathematics and language usage.County schools did "remarkably well" considering they did not have the chance to adjust their curriculums based on test results from spring 1991, acting Superintendent C. Berry Carter II said.

Anne Arundel County teachers voted overwhelmingly yesterday to drop a lawsuit seeking money lost when they were furloughed for four days in 1992, in exchange for a new contract that will give them their first pay increases in three years.The contract, passed by a vote of more than 30 to 1, should be submitted to the Board of Education for ratification Sept. 13, said Thomas Paolino, president of the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County.The contract calls for granting teachers a 2 percent raise on Jan. 1, 1994, and a 4 percent raise on July 1, 1994.

Two months after the Anne Arundel County school system said it lacked money for a reception for retiring school workers, officials threw a farewell party for Fort Meade's retiring post commander, angering employee groups stung by a third year of no pay raises.Union officials said they consider the small gathering for Col. Kent D. Menser, held Wednesday at the Board of Education offices in Annapolis, a slap in the faces of people who make their careers in the county schools."We have no money for our own employees, but we have money for a reception for Col. Menser?

A lawyer defending the Northeast High School teacher charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy says her client is a victim of an atmosphere of "hysteria" at the school that has followed the April arrest of a male teacher."

New positionsCooper is senior scientist at Hughes AssociatesHughes Associates Inc., a Baltimore-based fire science, research and engineering firm, appointed Leonard Y. Cooper senior scientist/engineer. He will have responsibility for the study of all aspects of fire science and technology pertaining to the company's government and private-sector clients. Formerly head of the Building Fire Modeling Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, he received his doctorate from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Facing a third year in a row without a raise, school system employees last night asked the school board to include money for a salary increase in the budget year that begins July 1.The president of the teacher's union also told the board that some members were looking for jobs elsewhere and that others were in economic distress because their salaries have not kept pace with the increased cost of living."