Park Middle School

IT'S BEEN SAID that the more things change, the more they remain the same. A recent assignment given to sixth-grade pupils at Brooklyn Park Middle School has shown that to be true. The assignment was to write a 150-word essay comparing the Brooklyn Park of today to the Brooklyn Park of the 1930s. A few little-known facts were uncovered. Allison Ports discovered that in 1853, the land in Brooklyn Park was owned by the Patapsco Co. At that time, the Brooklyn community was in Anne Arundel County.

After a year marked by heightened racial tensions and drug problems at Southern High School, two key administrators are leaving, school system officials announced yesterday. Principal Cliff Prince, who has been with county school system for 32 years, is scheduled to retire at the end of the month, and Assistant Principal Lee Watkins is being transferred to Severna Park High School as an assistant principal. Paul Vandenberg, principal of Lindale-Brooklyn Park Middle School, will replace Prince.

Construction of new sidewalks, road resurfacing and landscaping along Church Street in Brooklyn Park will begin this week as part of a $1.3 million improvements project. The work will extend from Ritchie Highway to the city line. In announcing the start of the project, state Sen. Philip C. Jimeno and Del. Joan M. Cadden, both District 31 Democrats, said the work is part of the state's Smart Growth initiative, which allocates funding to older, established communities for revitalization.

SEVERNA PARK HIGH School is preparing a show that has become something of a tradition -- its Rock 'n' Roll Revival XI, celebrating the music of the 1950s and 1960s. Tickets for the nostalgic blending of song and dance are on sale in the school lobby during lunch periods (about 10: 30 a.m., 11: 30 a.m. and 12: 30 p.m.), and from 6: 30 p.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays. Every March, for more than a decade, the school's students, alumni and teachers have wowed audiences with their version of what life was like in the "good old days."

ONE IMMEDIATE benefit to the Brooklyn Heights community's designation as an anti-crime HotSpot will take place on Tuesday when the Kids Club at Park Elementary School has its first meeting. Sponsored by the county Department of Recreation and Parks, the Kids Club will provide after-school enrichment programs for children in grades four through six. "Children in these grades can be latch-key kids," said Emily H. Tomasini, teen programs coordinator for the county Department of Recreation and Parks, stressing the importance of quality after-school programs.

DUMBFOUNDED IS the word I've heard most in the last week as north county residents tried to comprehend the news that the County Council has placed money for the renovation of Brooklyn Park Middle School in a contingency fund, rather than appropriate directly to the project.Members of the North County Coalition, fearful that the money might be used for something else, have drafted an open letter to County Executive John G. Gary to show support for the project and are asking residents to copy it, sign it and send it to him.The letter has the endorsement of two north county community associations, the Olde Brooklyn Park Improvement Association and the Linthicum Shipley Improvement Association.

About 30 students clacked away their waning minutes of class time in Harlem Park Middle School's darkened computer lab, their faces illuminated by the colorful computer games' graphics.Though the students were hard at play, lab manager Deborah Hardy assured guests that the students' 15 minutes of free time was a reward for finishing 30 minutes of algebra.The reward system is a hallmark at Harlem Park, where 98 of 1,212 students have achieved perfect attendance so far this school year, about 70 more than last year.

Poet Alan Britt asks 20 third-graders at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School to feel the Spanish guitar music of Ottmar Liebert spilling from a small stereo, so they can describe it using their five senses and figures of speech.As the first song, "Barcelona Nights," begins, the childrenexpress their feelings by dancing, clapping and moving to the beat. Britt smiles as a conga line forms, the students parading between groups of desks while their teacher, Marion Quickley Johnson, claps in time.

Four Severna Park youths and one from Millersville spent the Presidents Day holiday weekend in juvenile detention centers after they were arrested Friday on bomb-threat charges.TTC Hearings on the charges, which stem from threats at Severna Park High School and Severna Park Middle School, are scheduled for today.The first three were arrested after an administrator at Severna Park High found a note about 9 a.m. in a school stairwell threatening a bomb. Soon afterward, several students told the administrator they had overheard three students talking about a bomb-threat note, police said.

The rumors are true. Lindale-Brooklyn Park Middle School's assistant principal, Bill Eggert, is a biker.OK, it's not a Harley motorcycle, but a 10-speed bike that is Eggert's favorite mode of transportation. To share his enthusiasm for the sport with his students, he recently began a bike club at Lindale-Brooklyn.The bike club's 15 members learn about bike repair, safety and maintenance. Members are setting up a workshop at the school.An avid cyclist, Eggert started his first bike club while teaching at Southern High School.