Sales Academy

TOWSON -- A fire that killed two elderly people Sunday was started by discarded smoking materials, said Baltimore County Fire Department investigators and a department spokesman.The spokesman, Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard, said the victims were known to be heavy smokers but he could not be specific about the type of discarded smoking materials blamed for causing the fire.Paul Kardulis, 76, and his wife, Dorothy, 82, died in the fire in the 2800 block of Vermont Ave. in Baltimore Highlands.

An article yesterday did not note who runs Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville. In 1985, the Dominican Sisters from the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn., took over the school. Today, there are seven nuns among the 50-member faculty and staff, headed by Sister Helen Marie.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 10/25/96

An article yesterday did not note who runs Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville. In 1985, the Dominican Sisters from the Congregation of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tenn., took over the school. Today, there are seven nuns among the 50-member faculty and staff, headed by Sister Helen Marie.The Sun regrets the error.For the first time in its 144 years, Mount de Sales Academy is undertaking a capital campaign, kicking off a $5.5 million fund drive tonight to build a gymnasium and fine arts center.

An investment group says it is close to making final a deal to buy the financially troubled Columbia Academy Elementary School and its sister operation, the Columbia Academy Pre-School, both of which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.Members of the group, headed by a Woodbridge, Va., businessman who operates 25 private elementary schools and day-care centers in Virginia, vow to repay a $130,000 loan made to the private elementary school by a parents' group last summer."We have every intention of paying back the parents' loans," said Charles Leopold, founder and operator of Minnieland Private Day School Inc. in Woodbridge.

Teresa "Tess" CrockerSchool: Mount De Sales Academy for GirlsHometown: ClarksvilleAge: 17Tess, a senior at Mount De Sales Academy in Catonsville, has a grade-point average of 3.62 in mostly honors and advanced placement courses. Her schedule this year includes advanced placement English, European history and Latin.Tess has been a member of the National Honor Society for two years. She is president of the Student Government. She is vice president of the Drama Club and contributes to Images, the school literary magazine.

Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillec, of Linthicum, a senior at Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, was recently notified that poetry she wrote will be published in the National Poetry Society's National High School Anthology.Her work was selected from more than 72,000 entries nationwide and is among 10 by Mount de Sales students that were selected.Poets, publishers, screenwriters and playwrights served on the selection committee.

Walk down the hallway near the Pedro Pio Library in Mount De Sales Academy in Catonsville this month and you'll see Frederick Douglass, Eubie Blake and Jackie Robinson.Their faces are there because of Arlene Simms King of Columbia's Long Reach village. She put up posters of the black history makers at the all-girls academy to teach the 297 students and their teachers about the contributions that Douglass, Mr. Blake, Mr. Robinson and 61 other blacks have made.The posters are part of the more than 200 Mrs. King has collected since 1977.

The controversy between Mount de Sales lacrosse coach Bill Held and the Baltimore Board of Officials for Women's Sports was resolved yesterday at a closed-door meeting between both parties and their attorneys.Board officials now will work the Association of Independent Schools A Division Tournament quarterfinal game between Mount de Sales and Seton Keough, according to a press release from Mount de Sales athletic director Tony Kurek. The game is scheduled for 3:45 this afternoon at Mount de Sales.

A 28-year-old Elkridge woman escaped serious injury Monday morning when she was pushed and attacked by a knife-wielding man as she got into her car.The victim was pushed from behind into the car's side window about 11:43 a.m. outside her Athol Avenue home. The man then tore the woman's blouse and cut her bra with a knife.Police said the woman kicked the suspect and was able to run back inside her home and call police as the man ran away.The woman was taken to Howard County General, where she was treated for a bruise to the head.