Robert Moton

The Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton School held its 26th annual reunion and scholarship dinner April 17 at Martin's West in Westminster.This year's event honored students who graduated from the old Robert Moton School, in the classes of 1938, 1948 and 1958.The school closed in 1965.During the program, Home Ownership Purchase Effort Inc. presented the group with a $5,000 donation to its scholarship fund. Maj. Stanford O. Franklin also presented a $1,000 donation from the Coalition of Black State Troopers, matching its contribution of last year.

Carroll County educators have cause to celebrate: None of the system's elementary or middle schools made the state's 2007-2008 list of Maryland schools in need of improvement. Last year, one elementary and five middle schools failed to meet federal government's benchmarks for "adequate yearly progress": Robert Moton Elementary and East, North Carroll, Oklahoma Road, Sykesville and West middle schools. Carroll Springs School, which serves students with disabilities throughout the county, also was identified as needing improvement.

They came for what was billed as an elegant evening at the Wakefield Valley Golf Club. They wore tuxedos and floor-length sparkling dresses, ate baked Cornish game hens and danced to a jazz band.They hugged one another and talked like family -- using familiar nicknames and repeating jokes from long ago when they attended the Robert Moton School in Westminster, the last all-black school in Carroll County.The last all-black class graduated in 1965 from Robert Moton, now a county elementary school.

Parents and children settled on blankets and towels and waited for the show to begin. It was an evening at the zoo. Only this time, the animals from Frederick County's Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo were coming to them. The adventure was all part of the Judy Center's parent involvement night at Robert Moton Elementary School. "We try to do at least one thing fun and different," said Tammie Polk, parent involvement night coordinator for the center, which holds monthly sessions with a focus on children up to age 5. Besides enjoying the sensation of super-soft fur, the roughness of reptile ridges and the powerful pipes of a parrot, the young viewers were treated to a nature lesson.

THE FORMER Students of Robert Moton School, a Westminster-based group, will hold its annual Scholarship Dinner / Dance at Martin's in Westminster on Friday.Organizers expect at least 300 people, all former students of the old Robert Moton School, which closed in 1965. It's a chance to remember old times and to honor members who graduated during years with a seven."Since it's 1997, we'll honor students who graduated in the years 1937, 1947 and 1957," said Elizabeth Hooper, one of the honorees.

For more than two decades, alumni of the former Robert Moton School have encouraged young African-Americans in Carroll County to embrace the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s love for learning by awarding scholarships to local youths.Fueled by King's passion and memories of their tiny clapboard school, once the only school for African-Americans in Carroll, the aging graduates have been working to raise enough money to set up an endowment that will carry on their work for future generations.Since 1973, they have been holding annual events -- a King breakfast each January and a dinner-dance each spring -- to solicit support.

A portrait of Richard N. Dixon, former state treasurer and longtime Carroll County legislator, moves from the obscurity of the artist's home to a place of prominence in the lobby of a Westminster elementary school today. Dixon will be on hand for the dedication ceremony and plans a few impromptu remarks to an audience of pupils, teachers, former legislative colleagues and county officials gathered at Robert Moton Elementary on Washington Road. "I thought the portrait-hanging days were over for me," he said.

Robert Moton Elementary School has been awarded a $644,000 state grant to set up an early child care and education center aimed at boosting school readiness among young children. The Westminster school is one of 11 in Maryland - and the only one in Carroll - that will receive a grant for a Judy Center, which offers before- and after-school programs, health services, courses in reading and speech development, and other services. "The establishment of this center will give [Robert Moton]

Before they head off to middle school this fall, the former fifth-graders at Robert Moton Elementary School want to leave it with a new playground.The students spent the past year leading several fund-raising projects at their Westminster school and have raised about $7,000. They finished the year with a letter-writing campaign, seeking donations from county officials and businesses.To show the community how badly a new playground is needed, the students are holding an open house tomorrow.

Cynthia H. EckenrodePrincipal, Mechanicsville Elementary SchoolAge; residence: 39; WestminsterSalary: $59,285Family: Husband: Thomas, assistant principal at Northwest Middle School; Children: Joanna, 8, and Andrew, 6Education: g achelor of science degree, Lock Haven State College in Pennsylvania, 1974; master of science degree, Johns Hopkins University, 1977; additional graduate study at Western Maryland College, Loyola College and Towson State UniversityPrevious experience:...

George Howard "Toots" Collins, a former warden with the Maryland Division of Correction who was active in numerous community organizations, died of complications from diabetes Tuesday at Continuum Care of Sykesville. He was 76. Mr. Collins graduated from Robert Moton High School and attended Catonsville Community College, Baltimore Community College and the University of Baltimore. He received a bachelor's and a master's degree in criminal justice from Coppin State University. He was warden of the Maryland State Penitentiary and Jessup Pre-Release Unit.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," Cassidy Caldwell gently pleads as she swirls her mouse around to coax an idle computer to life. Then, one keystroke at a time, Cassidy, 5, a kindergartner at Robert Moton Elementary in Westminster, carefully types in her 12-character user name to log on to the school's computer system. She searches the desktop for the icon that will lead her to the software program she needs. Navigating a series of drop-down menus, she settles on one of several educational games that teachers throughout the county have customized to match lesson plans.

The mesmerized pupils at Robert Moton Elementary in Westminster contorted their bodies so their eyes could follow the African dance troupe prancing about the school's gymnasium. The eight dancers, their lean bodies adorned in the traditional clothing of dark reds and deep oranges and draped in the beadwork of their Kenyan and Tanzanian homelands, whistled and chanted as they strutted along the edges of the audience and down the middle aisle in a demonstration of the Maasai tribe's shepherd song.

The Historical Society of Carroll County will help the county celebrate its 168th birthday today with punch, cake and the recollections of a revered teacher. J. Sidney Sheppard will speak as a former student and teacher at the Robert Moton School, once Carroll's only high school for African-Americans. Sheppard, a member of the Class of 1939, will reminisce about the school's namesake, its mission and its alumni. He will speak of an era when schools were segregated and students had to struggle for an education.

More than half of Carroll County's schools are being recognized by state education officials for their performance on the Maryland School Assessments last spring, county school officials announced yesterday. In all, 22 of the county's 41 public schools are being awarded cash or certificates. Title I schools will receive financial awards through funding provided under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Other schools will receive certificates acknowledging their achievement.

A portrait of Richard N. Dixon, former state treasurer and longtime Carroll County legislator, moves from the obscurity of the artist's home to a place of prominence in the lobby of a Westminster elementary school today. Dixon will be on hand for the dedication ceremony and plans a few impromptu remarks to an audience of pupils, teachers, former legislative colleagues and county officials gathered at Robert Moton Elementary on Washington Road. "I thought the portrait-hanging days were over for me," he said.

The sun brought a glow to the purple T-shirts worn by athletes, coaches and volunteers who crowded the football field at Westminster High School yesterday for the Carroll County Special Olympics Area Spring Games.The day began with a parade for the 187 athletes, who competed while families, coaches, teachers, former teachers and county officials watched and cheered.The athletes, who ranged in age from 8 to 52, participated in events including the 50-, 100-, 200-, and 400-meter runs, the softball throw, the standing and running long jumps, the shot put, the 25-meter walk, and manual and motorized wheelchair events.

For the 15th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast held yesterday in Westminster, The Former Students and Friends of Robert Moton School Inc. gave the task of guest speaker to one of their own. The Rev. Burton L. Mack, alumnus of what was until 1964 the county's only high school attended by African-Americans, praised his teachers and all the parents who encouraged children to overcome the deprivations of segregation and get an education....