Pta

America's public schools — for all their failings — are a glorious affirmation of the ideals of equal opportunity that we should be celebrating this Fourth of July weekend. Schools should be free and public, but two significant factors suggest that public funding could use a boost from parents and the private sector. While school foundations are springing up, why not rethink the role of that good, old-fashioned institution, the parent-teacher (-student) association, or PTA?

More than 100 parents and students gathered at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia on Thursday night to learn about how to prevent of cyberbullying and hear details of the Howard County public schools' anti-bullying policy. Thursday's forum was in the works before the Easter Day suicide of a Glenelg High School sophomore who had been bullied online. But experts say the conversation is especially timely given the threat of copy-cat suicides. "Cyberbullying doesn't directly lead to suicide," said Sameer Hinduja, the forum's keynote speaker and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center.

The role of the Parent Teacher Association in the school system has always been somewhat unclear: advocate or liaison, supporter or challenger?That ambiguity was exposed recently when the Harford County school administration suspended a teacher in Magnolia Middle School who has been accused of sexual misconduct by several students. The school and the countywide PTAs learned of the suspension from news reports. Their leaders were upset that they were not informed beforehand.PTA officials argued that they should be told before parents learn about it through the media and deluge them with questions they cannot answer.

Editor:  On Nov. 18, the Forest Hill Elementary School PTA sponsored our 11th annual PTA bingo fundraiser. It was a wonderful success and a great deal of fun. Funds raised are going to student materials and activities that will enhance their educational experience. Thank you so very much to the local businesses that helped us as well as our community families. We hope you will support these businesses that showed their support of our community and our students.  THANK YOU! Businesses that donated: 4 Paws Spa and Training Center, A Country Setting, Amazing Glaze, Applebee's, The Arena Club, Austin and Greig Masonry, Baltimore Ravens Football, Bel Air Athletic Club, Bradley Atlantic Ins. Management, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, Charm City Run, Chopstix, Chung's Martial Arts, Classic Image, Duclaw Brewing Co-Restaurant and Microbrewery, Edible Arrangements, Five Guys Burgers & Fries, Forest Hill Automotive, Forest Hill Framing, Freaky Pets, Geneva Farms, Goddard School, Harford Sports Training Academy, Italian Sensations, Jarrettsville Creamery and Deli, Jiffy Lube, Jim's Bottleworks, Jonathan's Florist, Kiddie Academy, Kids First Swim School, Liberty Ski Resort, Mountain Branch Grill & Pub, My Gym, NutraMax Laboratories, Papa John's Pizza, Portrait Innovations, Rapid Refill, Ronnies Fine Wine & Spirits, Round Top Ski Resort, Safelite Auto Glass, Saxon's Diamond Centers, Snap Fitness, Target, TCBY, The St. Paul Group, Tiddlywinks, Tim Dippel Lawncare,...

The county Parent-Teachers Association has flooded its 1,500 memberswith form letters to send the state Board of Education opposing proposed changes in high school graduation requirements.The Harford County Council of Parent-Teachers Associations argues the proposal should be opposed on grounds that it is being speeded to adoption without public participation.The PTA does not plan to testify on the proposal Tuesday in Baltimore, when parents, teachers and students from across Maryland tell the state Board of Education what they think.

Carroll County's PTAs and PTOs are expected to donate money to help the Hampstead Elementary association pay for pupil enrichment programs and activities, after the theft of more than $60,000 from the school's PTA fund. Members of the Friendship Valley PTO are organizing the fund drive, enlisting the county's 30 other parent-teacher organizations to make sure Hampstead's programs don't skip a beat. Police charged Hampstead's PTA treasurer, John N. Biggs Jr., with the theft of more than $60,000 in the association's funds this month.

Charles Carroll Elementary PTA is holding a community meeting tonight to discuss the future of the school, the oldest and smallest in the county. The 71-year-old school is being studied by a committee that will recommend to the Carroll Board of Education early next year whether to close or renovate the building. School officials lowered the rating of the school's condition from fair to poor this year, rocketing Charles Carroll up a list of construction priorities. The status change also triggered a formal site assessment and sparked a flood of concern from community members who cherish the history, tradition and charm of their tiny school, located about 10 miles north of Westminster.

We were asked to pay annual dues at the door, before eve attending the first meeting.bTC The main speaker extolled the virtues of the gift wrap that was being sold, with a show-and-tell demonstration of how much longer this wrapping paper roll was than competing products sold in the stores. She proceeded to inform us of the coming candy sale: Buy some for future birthdays, not just a measly chocolate bunny for Easter.The buy-a-balloon event, so popular last year, would not be held because of concerns about the environmental impact of flyaway balloons, she reported.

The former PTA treasurer who pleaded guilty to embezzling $3,500 from the Crofton Meadows Elementary School, and who will be sentenced tomorrow in Circuit Court, has been indicted on a new charge of stealing an undisclosed amount from the Crofton Athletic Council.On Jan. 20, Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. delayed sentencing Susan Haller, 32, until the athletic council could determine if the Crofton resident had taken any of its money while she served as its registrar from 1990 to 1994.A county grand jury indicted Haller Feb. 15 on a felony theft charge for allegedly stealing more than $300 from the athletic council account.

The former treasurer of the Crofton Meadows Elementary School PTA has pleaded guilty to felony theft in Anne Arundel Circuit Court for stealing up to $3,500 from the organization.Susan Haller, 32, of the 2000 block of Cambridge Drive in Crofton, admitted to Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. Oct. 26 that she took the money during her three years in the office.Assistant State's Attorney Eugene M. Whissel II said yesterday that Haller had agreed to pay $3,500 in restitution as part of a plea agreement reached in the case.

Daisy Alverda "Bert" Booth, who was elected to the House of Delegates from Baltimore County and was known for her strong advocacy of civil rights, died July 2 of a stroke at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The former Chestnut Ridge resident was 85. The daughter of a Catonsville pharmacist and a homemaker, Daisy Alverda Stagmer was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. Mrs. Booth, who family members said never used her first name, preferred to be known as Alverda "Bert" Booth.

The Hillcrest Elementary School PTA was honored twice at the PTA Council of Baltimore County awards banquet, which was held at Loch Raven High School in Towson on May 12. In addition to an award for Best PTA Communications, the school group was also recognized as one of only eight PTAs as a Unit of Excellence, a distinction the PTA also received last year. "It just shows all the hard work and dedication of all the volunteers," said Jennifer Parker, the second-year president of the PTA for the school on Frederick Road.

Yard waste collection Howard County's Bureau of Environmental Services will resume weekly yard waste collections, beginning Friday, April 1, and continuing through Jan. 20. Yard waste collection will be picked up once a week during a resident's regular recycling day and should be placed outside by 6 a.m. Allowable yard waste items include grass, leaves, hedge clippings/light brush, small limbs or branches less than 4 inches in diameter and...

For three decades, Ridgely Middle School's PTA has held an annual craft fair to raise money for the school. The $13,000 in proceeds from last fall's event will be used for such things as school supplies, student assemblies and phone directories distributed in September. Every penny raised by the PTA, organizers say proudly, goes back into the school. But this may be the last school year Baltimore County allows the event. The reason? The PTA leases space in the Timonium school to third-party, for-profit vendors (generally part-time purveyors of jewelry, silk floral arrangements, hand-knit sweaters and the like)

Stacie L. Price, the former PTA president at Johnnycake Elementary School, was given a suspended three-year prison term Monday after being convicted of stealing more than $9,000 from the organization. Price was also fined $500 and ordered to pay court costs, and must serve three years of unsupervised probation. Prosecutor Michael S. Fuller had asked the judge to send the 39-year-old defendant to jail, saying she had violated a position of trust by writing checks to herself from the PTA's bank account over six months and stopped only "because she got caught.

Deborah A. Rice, a former software designer and volunteer, died Monday of head and neck cancer at her Timonium home. She was 42. Deborah A. Budacz, the daughter of a steamship executive and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Towson. After graduating from Towson High School in 1985, she earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Loyola College. Mrs. Rice went to work for Century Computing, a Laurel software development company, as a member of a team that developed software for certain control systems used on the NASA space shuttles.

THERE'S A saying that if you want something done, you should ask a busy person. The idea is that such a person manages time better than anyone else. This is the case with Hammond Hills resident Frank Tesoriero. Seven years ago, when Tesoriero enrolled his son Paul, then 5 years old, in a soccer program, there were not enough coaches to go around. While Tesoriero had never played soccer (he's more the football type), he figured he could teach a passel of preschoolers the basics. Using videos and books, Tesoriero managed to learn enough to be a teacher at soccer clinics for 5-year-olds.

Renae Moore, the president of the Owings Mills Elementary School PTA, was removed from office Wednesday night by the group's executive board as PTA officials continue looking for thousands of dollars in missing money. Moore was removed for "non-performance of duties," including failure to provide all information requested by auditors of the PTA's bank accounts and to update records of the accounts, said Rodger Janssen, vice president for leadership of the PTA Council of Baltimore County.

The former president of the Johnnycake Elementary School PTA was convicted this week of stealing more than $9,000 from the group's bank account for her personal use. Stacie L. Price, 39, who was forced to resign from the organization in April after admitting to the crime, waived a jury trial Thursday in Baltimore County Circuit Court and pleaded not guilty to a single theft-scheme count. Judge John J. Nagle III found her guilty and set sentencing for Dec. 2. Price faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, although prosecutor Michael S. Fuller said she is unlikely to spend time behind bars because she has no prior criminal record.