Parole Elementary

As Pasadena Elementary School Principal Rocco Ferretti was busy opening a farewell present, third-grader Courtney Ryan looked at a visitor and said, "He loves me more than pizza and chocolate chip cookies."Then there was Sallie -- with an "i" and an "e" -- who gave him the book she entitled, "52 Reasons Mr. Ferretti is a Great Principal."And Scott Sturgeon, an 11-year-old fifth grade "graduate," who said he thought Mr. Ferretti was the greatest because "he thinks it's fair for everybody to sit where they want at lunch."

Seven-year-old Shannon Dee moved his fingers across the computer keyboard with the skill of a budding pianist.But instead of hearing beautiful music, Shannon's keyboard playing produced geometric shapeson the computer screen.Eight long, thin rectangles and six tiny squares appeared, followed by a message telling Shannon he had counted 86 correctly.But Shannon didn't revel in his triumph. Instead, he moved on to the next number, 27. No problem. A few quick strokes on the keyboard and Shannon had punched out another correct answer: two rectangles and seven squares.

Admirers of the late Principal Walter S. Mills are trying to have Parole Elementary School renamed for him before it reopens to students next month.A technicality may stand in the way of their tribute, however."

Merlan C. E. Banks didn't want his three children to grow up suffering the indignities of racial intolerance that he endured."I just had to get involved, honey," says the Annapolis man with 40 years of activism behind him. "If you want things to change, you've got to get involved."So he did -- in the 1940s before he thought about children, in the '50s when he had his children, in the '60s as they were in school, in the '70s as they were graduating, and beyond."You always want to improve the community and make it better for your children," says the Bestgate neighborhood resident, recipient of the 1993 county NAACP's Morris H. Blum Humanitarian Award.

Margaret Julia Thomas Bivins, a retired Anne Arundel County public school teacher, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Northwest Hospital Center in Randallstown. She was 99 and lived most of her life in Lothian. Born Margaret Julia Thomas in Lothian, a southern Anne Arundel County community where her family had lived for generations, she was educated at the Zion Academy in her hometown and graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington. Early on, she wanted to be a teacher, and she earned a diploma from Minor Teachers College in Washington.

Governor invites 5th-grader to State of the State addressSherkia Collins, the Mills-Parole Elementary School fifth-grader who spoke in October at the unveiling of the Thurgood Marshall statue on Lawyers Mall in Annapolis, has been invited by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to attend today's State of the State address.Math competition team to receive trophies todayCentral Middle School's mathematics competition team will receive trophies today, and its adviser, Paul Marshall, a plaque.The school is on Central Avenue in Edgewater.

The Annapolis Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended the city approve a 162-townhouse development near Aris T. Allen Boulevard and Bywater Road despite potential crowding at Parole Elementary School.The panel of residents appointed by the mayor to review land-use proposals ruled Thursday night that the city does not have the authority to charge the developer of Oxford Landing a fee to compensate for crowding, a practice used in the county.The commission did recommend that the city require the developer to work with the developers of Oxford Mews and a new Safeway shopping center to widen 400 feet of Bywater Road from two lanes to five.

For the first time, Annapolis officials are planning to intervene in the school redistricting process.At issue is whether students should be bused past neighborhood schools to achieve racial balance, or whether they should attend the school nearest their homes -- even if that means the schools are not as racially diverse.City Council members plan to meet with the Board of Education Wednesday about Superintendent C. Berry Carter II's plan to redraw the school attendance boundaries of nine elementary, two middle and the single high school in the Annapolis area.

Residents of communities in northern Edgewater turned out in force last night to say they want to send their children to school with the youngsters in the rest of Edgewater and have their neighborhoods pulled out of Annapolis schools.Testifying at a packed Anne Arundel County school board hearing on redistricting, parents said that from shopping to Little League, their families are attuned to Edgewater, where they feel Edgewater Elementary, Central Middle and South River Senior High schools should be their local schools.

An allegedly armed man robbed an Annapolis bank Monday and forced a lockdown at an elementary school, while police searched for him. The man entered Severn Savings Bank in the 1900 block of 1917 West St. at 10:45 a.m. A teller told police he displayed a handgun. He fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, police said. Mills-Parole Elementary School on Chinquapin Round Road was placed on lockdown for several hours, while officers searched the area. The suspect has not been found.