School Day

Three schools in Baltimore are lengthening the school day based on the "success" of an expanded instruction program in New York ("Three city schools to extend day by three hours," Jan 1). What success? According to The Sun, New York's overtime students gained 2.2 percentage points in English Language Arts in three years, more than the city average of 1.5 points. Please do the math. That's a .7 percentage point difference over three years, about one quarter of a percentage point each year.

Del. Jon Cardin's recent comment on bullying suggesting that "kids were hurting kids" while "parents and teachers hadn't a clue" was remarkable ("Journey in grief leads to new curbs on bullying," May 2). Where has Mr. Cardin been? As a mother of three since 1980, my children and I can attest to the escalation and prevalence of bullying over the past 30 years. Teacher training on bullying in all its forms, including cyber-bullying, is provided at the start of every school year. Anti-bullying assemblies are held annually.

On Oct. 14, Relay Elementary School hosted "Muffins with Mom. " Over 700 students and their mothers shared a muffin and juice at school. It was wonderful to see these families enjoying time together in the schoolhouse that morning! I thank my committee of teachers and support staff for their hard work in preparing for the event. I would also like to recognize manager Vicente Zeledon and owner Jeff Taylor of the Elkridge McDonald's for donating milk and juice. At Relay Elementary, we truly partner with our parents for student success!

At Germantown Elementary School in Annapolis, students receive physical education once a week. Officially, that is. Unofficially, students are engaging in the same level of activity as their "go-outside-and-play" parents of previous generations. At recess, before classes and after school — and in some cases even during classroom instruction — youngsters are getting workouts by playing traditional games, learning new ones and creating their own spinoff versions. Germantown Elementary is among the first schools in the area to implement a San Diego-based physical education program called SPARK, which stresses to children the importance of physical fitness, then provides grade-level equipment and instruction to back it up. SPARK officials said the program began in 1989 as a result of a study supported by the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and San Diego State University.

At Cradlerock School in Columbia, it was a day for reading, riding and arithmetic. Dozens of students, parents, teachers and staff took part in Bike to School Day on Friday, the same day communities across the country participated in Bike to Work Day. While other local cyclists gathered at venues such as the nearby The Mall in Columbia to celebrate a day of getting around without automobiles, many youngsters arrived at Cradlerock on BMX bikes,...

I think even I would strive to get my marks up if there were a threat to increase the school day by three hours ("Three city schools add 3 hours to day," Jan. 2). To "arbitrarily" increase the hours would probably rationalize my being so tired now that "I just can't get all this work done," and I'd probably do much worse. A continuous threat, however, might not only encourage me but entice my peers to blame me if the school day were increased. Just a thought! George B. Wroe, Gylndon

Baltimore County students, set your alarm clocks a half-hour earlier.The school board last night voted to extend the school day by 45 minutes to make up for time lost to bad weather.At its student member's suggestion, the board voted to split the extended day by starting school a half-hour earlier than usual and ending it 15 minutes later.The decision means some high school students will be in class as early as 7:15 a.m., and they may be catching their buses as early as 5:45 a.m.The extended day will take effect April 5 and continue through May 31 -- or longer if there are any more days lost to snow.

Carroll County Public Schools will begin implementing an extended school day tomorrow.All schools will begin classes 20 minutes before and end 30 minutes after the regular school starting and ending times.Morning kindergarten will be extended by 35 minutes, and afternoon kindergarten by 15 minutes.The extended school days will continue through May 19. This will allow the school system to make up six days lost to inclement weather.

Here it is. Almost the last word on the Baltimore County's school calendar for what's left of this year:"We're going to school April 5 and 6. We're going to school June 21 and 22 -- assuming it does not snow again," Superintendent Stuart Berger said yesterday.The April days were originally scheduled as the beginning of spring break. The June days were originally scheduled for classes but were removed as part of a pay cut package the board proposed to teachers when it had to cut $6 million from the budget.

Parents' groups, local school authorities and teachers unions give mixed grades to a proposed 20-day extension of the school year by 1995.Some voice qualified support for the 200-day school year proposed by the State Board of Education on Tuesday, saying students could benefit from the extra class time.But a number of others doubt that the state and local jurisdictions can afford the proposal's $357.4 million price tag.Still others question whether schools can do a better job simply by keeping students in school a month longer each year.

Harford County Public Schools officials have taken two days in April scheduled for faculty professional development and converted them to regular school days to make up for earlier closings because inclement weather. April 29 and April 30 had been designated on the 2012-2013 school calendar for Teacher Staff Development, according to the HCPS website, and they were also set aside as make-up days for inclement weather if needed. Eight days in the spring were set aside as make-up days if schools closed for bad weather, and five have been used, with the most recent closing taking place Wednesday in anticipation of snow that never actually arrived in any magnitude.

Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) - CASA/Prince George's County offers the opportunity to help abused or abandoned children in the community. An information session for volunteers will be held Wednesday, March 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at Local 400 Union Hall, 4301 Garden City Drive, in Landover. CASA recruits and trains volunteers ages 21 and over to advocate for the needs of children living in foster care. Volunteers spend about 12 hours per month visiting with a child and collaborate with other adults who are protecting the child to ensure his or her needs are met and a safe permanent home is found.

A recent op-ed on the Guilford Elementary/Middle School vegetable garden focused on one project that didn't meet expectations ("Harvest of disappointment," Nov. 23). Yet discussions have already begun about how to incorporate the garden into the curriculum next spring, and we hope that this still can happen. The op-ed also failed to mention the many partnerships that are helping the long-struggling school improve. At the school, there are a number of great partnerships working under the auspices of the Greater Homewood Community Corporation.

The Baltimore school system is looking into whether an event held at a public charter school to promote passage of a question on the Nov. 6 ballot was an improper use of facilities to promote a political cause. Advocates of the Dream Act, a measure that would extend in-state college tuition to the children of illegal immigrants, held a news conference Tuesday afternoon with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings at the Patterson Park Public Charter School on North Lakewood Avenue. But in response to a reporter's inquiry, a school system spokeswoman said the event may have been held in violation of the district's policy.

Jina Shin, a South Korean schools budget analyst in the U.S. for three weeks of study, stood in a schoolyard among a boisterous crowd of children, teachers and parents at dismissal. The end of the school day at St. Mark's School in Catonsville is fairly typical of most in terms of noise, enthusiasm and organization. "It is strange to see so many parents here to pick up their children," she said. "In Korea, children, even the little ones, get home by themselves. " Although she has also found American students a bit more lively in the classroom than their Korean counterparts, she has noticed more similarities than differences in the schools systems, she said.

A cheerful wave from Daniel Borowy greeted 14-year-old Katherine Kraft on Monday morning, easing the freshman's nerves on her first day at Perry Hall High School. "It was adorable," Kraft said. "I didn't think anyone would wave or anything. It was nice. " Within hours Borowy would be critically injured, shot in the back in the school cafeteria by another student. That Borowy was the victim made the violence all the more troubling for his peers. Borowy, a 17-year-old special education student at Perry Hall, is well-known for welcoming waves, high-fives and other friendly interactions, classmates said.

With an extra 12 minutes, you can poach four eggs, run more than a mile or watch half a television sitcom, or you could add the equivalent of six days to the school year.Anne Arundel County school officials are studying the costs and logistics of lengthening the school day by 12 minutes, at least for high school students and maybe for all 72,000 students, to avoid a recurrence of the problem they have this year.Because of snow-related delayed arrivals, early dismissals and full days lost, high school students will be short of the state-required 1,170 instructional hours if this school year is not extended.

At least 100 angry students sat outside Cockeysville Middle School yesterday and refused to attend classes to protest budget cuts and a teachers' work-to-rule action that have forced the cancellation or rescheduling of two spring events.After the students stayed outside at the beginning of the school day about 8 a.m., it took Principal Julie K. Szymaszek, administrators and parents more than an hour to persuade the youngsters to enter the building, located in the 10400 block of Greenside Drive.

My child's school bus driver is a pleasure to greet every school-day morning. She always has a big smile and a kind word and wave. So, being curious about the world of school bus drivers, I asked a friend's school bus-driving daughter what kind of holiday and end-of-year gifts she likes to get the most. Her reply was that she gets no gifts from her students' or their families. She said that anything she could use to bridge the gap over the summer such as gift cards, coffee, cards, would be greatly appreciated.

So little snow fell this year that Baltimore County public schools are shortening the school year by four days. Instead of ending on June 14, the last school day in the county will be June 8. The school system builds in extra days each year for snow and bad weather and then reduces the number of days if they are not used. This school year, the system only closed for two days at the beginning of the year when a hurricane knocked power out. liz.bowie@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts