Park Middle School

An article in Sunday's edition of The Sun in Anne Arundel about an art program at Lindale-Brooklyn Park Middle School misidentified student Timmy Whitt.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 3/25/97

For years, school systems across the nation dropped the arts to concentrate on getting struggling students to pass tests in reading and math. Yet now, a growing body of brain research suggests that teaching the arts may be good for students across all disciplines. Scientists are now looking at, for instance, whether students at an arts high school who study music or drawing have brains that allow them to focus more intensely or do better in the classroom. Washington County schools Superintendent Betty Morgan would have liked to have had some of that basic research in her hands when she began building a coalition for an arts high school in Hagerstown.

Olivia Goldberg, a Severna Park Middle School seventh-grader, has won the national InvestWrite essay competition, earning a new laptop computer and a trip with her parents to Disney World. Her teacher, Julie Weber, will also get a laptop, a trip to the New York Stock Exchange and a subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Olivia competed in the InvestWrite essay contest division of the Maryland Stock Market Game for middle school students and discussed the perfect stock to complement the money she is saving for college.

Nicole Fuller's story on the Maryland State Department of Education's differentiated accountability model for school improvement in your Aug. 28 edition provided an accurate look at how the model can assist a school like Brooklyn Park Middle School to increase the achievement for all its students. The headline accompanying the story, however, furthered the very perception that differentiated accountability sets out to eradicate. Brooklyn Park Middle School, in fact, did not "miss the mark" in meeting Adequate Yearly Progress targets for the most recent school year, as the headline implies.

There also is a huge difference in psychological, physiological and sociological development between the needs of middle schoolers and adults ("Roland Park parents push for middle-school recess," Sept. 23). Developmentally we know that middle schoolers are beginning to show characteristics of young adult development - yet importantly they are still children in many ways. I taught middle school for years. One of the places the balance between young adult characteristics and appropriate child like behavior was clearly on display was the middle school dances.

Augustine Pounds, an Anne Arundel Community College vice president, has received the Iowa State University Virgil S. Lagomarcino Laureate Award for prestigious service, educational leadership and commitment to teaching.The college vice president for student services, college development and intercollegiate athletics received her doctorate from Iowa State in 1980 and worked as an administrator and instructor from 1976 to 1989.She joined AACC in 1991.POLICE LOG* Candlewood: Someone stole a $300 Motor Cross bike Tuesday morning from a bike rack at Severna Park Middle School.

A 14-year-old carrying a gun was arrested yesterday outside Harlem Park Middle School after he led police on a short chase. Police did not release the name of the boy, who is an eighth-grade pupil, school officials said. School police requested help from city police about 2:45 p.m. after the boy was spotted with a gun outside the school in the 1500 block of Harlem Ave., said city police spokeswoman Officer Nicole Monroe. The boy threw the .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun on the ground before police captured him, Monroe said.

Prince George's County Public Schools will hold its first budget forum of the year in Laurel. The community budget forum will be held Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Laurel High, 8000 Cherry Lane. Other community budget forums scheduled for January include one on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Gwynn Park Middle School, 8000 Dyson Road, Brandywine; and Wednesday, Jan. 25 at 6:30 p.m. at Cora L. Rice Elementary School, 950 Nalley Road, Landover. For information, go to http://www.pgcps.org .

Racial slurs painted on middle school's wallsVandals spray-painted racial slurs and Nazi symbols on the outside walls and broke windows and lights at Severna Park Middle School over the weekend, county police said yesterday.Police said the vandals struck first between 11 p.m. Friday and 7:30 a.m. Saturday and returned between 6 p.m. Saturday night and 4 a.m. Sunday to spray-paint more graffiti on the outside walls and windows.Police said they had no suspects.

Indian Spirit Poem8,Everything learns from something else;The snow taught the mountain how to sway.Seaweed told the people how to tickle,and the giggles from the ticklish peoplewere so loud, they reached the sun.The clouds in the sky told secrets to one another,And from being around the clouds so long,the wind learned how to whisper;By watching the rainbows, gold learned how to glitter.Everything learns from something else,and this is how the world is.Elissa Prichep,eighth grade,Severn River Junior High,# Anne Arundel CountyFuture5)