Parents And Students

PERCY BYSSHE Shelley wrote "O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"Officially, spring came early yesterday morning, but we wait still for the flowers and soft breezes of April. Our weather remains wintry. Meanwhile, there's much to celebrate and do in western Howard County.At Howard Community College Tuesday evening, several of our own received awards for excellence.Glenelg High School Principal Jim McGregor says math teacher Mary Ellen Doyle demonstrates the science and art of teaching.

The three R's are making room for a fourth: resolution.JTC Westminster High School students will get a contract on the first day of school tomorrow. The contract is a symbol to illustrate how students, staff and parents need to work together to make the school a safe place to learn.The contract doesn't create any rules. Students already receive a handbook, but it's 45 pages long. The contract is one page."This is really more a PR push to what we've been doing," Westminster High principal Sherri-Le W. Bream said.

With one semester of college under her belt, Amy Rogalski knows just what to tell Northeast High underclassmen: It'll be better and worse than you think.A year ago, the freshman at St. Mary's College was sitting just where her listeners will sit Jan. 9, hearing recent graduates return to the high school to talk about their experiences in a long-term program the school dubs the "Return of the Natives."Next week, the young woman from Pasadena will be the one passing on bits of painfully acquired wisdom.

Told there was a major problem with one of her students, the principal of Farring Elementary raced toward the schoolyard yesterday with a frown on her face, fear in her eyes.But when she arrived, the frown dissolved into a look of surprise. Before her were an audio system, cameras, her staff and 500 cheering students. Then music punctuated the air -- it was "God Save the Queen."For one day, Shirley L. Zongker wasn't merely principal of Farring. She was crowned "Queen for a Day" and given thered-carpet treatment by students, staff and parents who showed their appreciation for her work to bring life and achievement to the Brooklyn school.

About 70 parents and students at Francis Scott Key High School were told last night they need to start early to get ready for college.Students entering the ninth grade should look ahead and plan their course work for the next four years, said Audrey T. Hill, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling."

This is an edited excerpt of an editorial from the Los Angeles Times, which was published yesterday. THE SAT has long been a hallmark of meritocracy in U.S. education, affording students regardless of station in life a chance to prove they deserve access to the nation's best colleges. However, the SAT has been battered over the years by charges that its questions played to the white middle class and that scores were easily raised by expensive private coaching. But its reputation as the best evaluation tool available has largely survived.

Students in Anne Arundel middle and high schools might soon have a new reason to behave: avoiding the disciplinary measure of being "shadowed" by their parents at school for a day. That idea was recommended in a report submitted to the county school board last week by a task force reviewing disciplinary measures. Task-force members think it could help cut down on offenses such as students skipping school, cutting class, committing forgery and damaging school property. "You have to figure out what you can do to get attention, and sometimes the standard disciplinary actions aren't what gets the attention of today's kids," said Frank Wise, a member of the task force that drafted the new Code of Student Conduct.

Students in Howard County schools will be allowed to miss five days a year for college visits or family trips without being penalized.The school board adopted a revised attendance policy Thursday, except for one section that will be rewritten and approved in coming weeks.The revised policy accommodates objections to an earlier version that would have forced students to take a zero for work missed duringcollege visits and other trips taken on school days.Parents and students protested last month that the draft policy statement, "It isexpected that college visits will take place on weekends," was impractical.

Parents at the Cardinal Gibbons School vowed Thursday to fight its planned closing. Less than 24 hours after the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced it would shut the high school down at the end of the school year, parents had scheduled a rally on the Wilkens Avenue campus for 2 p.m. Saturday and were planning to launch a fundraising campaign to pay a debt of $1.3 million. "We know this will be difficult, but we have to try," said Chris Schene, whose son, Gregory is a junior at the school.

Thirty-three Mount Hebron High School students had their parking privileges revoked yesterday after failing to attend a mandatory safe-driving class that was prompted by the February accident that killed a classmate. "We take safe driving very seriously," Principal Veronica Bohn told a group of 26 parents and students at the 45-minute session that started at 6:45 a.m. High school students countywide were required at the start of the school year to attend a safe-driving class with a parent to receive parking privileges.