School Officials

Anne Arundel County police found a stash of high-powered weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle and an Uzi carbine, at the home of a 25-year-old man who they said entered North County High School in Glen Burnie through a back door. Police said Justin Matthew Beaumont, 25, of the 6000 block of Eiderdown Road in Glen Burnie got into the school around 1:45 p.m. Monday by following a school employee. He was later apprehended by the school's resource officer and charged with misdemeanor trespassing.

An executive suite in the city school system's headquarters that underwent $250,000 in lavish renovations last year will soon be empty. Jerome Oberlton, who repeatedly came under fire for his spending habits as the system's chief technology officer, has resigned his post, city school officials confirmed last week. Oberlton, who came to the district from the private sector in March 2011, has been named the new chief of staff for the Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas school district announced Friday.

A Baltimore school staff member was injured Monday during an altercation with a woman who pulled out a knife when she was informed she couldn't visit a student, according to city school officials. The school system lauded the rapid actions of school employees who stopped the unsupervised visitor, at a time when school systems across the country are being especially vigilant after a mass shooting at a Connecticut school Friday in which 20 children and six school employees were killed.

A former principal at Coppin Academy High School in Baltimore was charged Thursday in the theft of more than $10,000 from a student activity fund at the school in 2011 — three years after he last worked there. William L. Howard Jr., 37, who is currently assistant vice president for academic services at St. Mary's College of Maryland, was charged by a city grand jury with four counts of felony theft and one count of misdemeanor theft in connection with unauthorized transfers from the high school's activity fund to accounts in his personal control, according to the Office of the State Prosecutor.

Anne Arundel County Public School officials said on Thursday the county Department of Health has not recommended additional cleaning steps to be taken amid the Tuesday death of a Glen Burnie High School junior, who had become ill the day before with symptoms associated with bacterial meningitis. School officials on Wednesday said that a letter was sent home to students' parents outlining the girl's death and providing information about bacterial meningitis. "The county Department of Health has not recommended any additional cleaning procedures for us outside of our normal daily cleaning procedures," said Anne Arundel schools spokesman Bob Mosier.

City school officials offered few answers to Hazelwood Elementary/Middle parents during a contentious meeting Thursday about an employee accused of impregnating a 15-year-old and misrepresenting himself as a child therapist. Separately, the city school board chairman said in an interview that members would scrutinize the system's process for verifying potential employees' credentials. The incident marks the third time under city schools CEO Andrés Alonso's administration that employees have apparently misrepresented their credentials.

Baltimore city school officials acknowledged this week that lax employee verification protocols may have contributed to a temporary employee -- who was recently arrested on charges he impregnated a 15-year-old girl in Harford County -- taking on a number of leadership roles at Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School. In the story today, officials said that Shawn Nowlin was hired as a temporary professional to do outreach work, but posed as, among other things, a child and family therapist for the school system.

For Erica Hamlett-Nicholson's 11-year-old son, Shawn Nowlin was his most trusted confidant when the Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School fifth-grader suffered from depression caused by his parents' separation. For Duanelle Woodard's nephew, he was the guidance counselor who helped him secure placement in a high school of his choice. And for Antoine Jackson, Nowlin was the heavy-handed administrator who suspended his son for the first time in his academic career. But Nowlin was a hall monitor, not a child and family therapist as he claimed, according to Harford County prosecutors and Baltimore City school officials.

Armed with a plan for protests and petitions, phone banks and pep rallies, the Northwestern High School Alumni Association has set "Operation Hands-Off Northwestern" in motion. The association's leadership met Tuesday with parents and community activists to map out what they say will be a fight to the bitter end to save the large Baltimore City high school from closing - from a pep rally Friday to a legal injunction and civil rights lawsuit when the school board takes its final vote on the recommendation in the 2015-2016 school year.

As Baltimore City education and political leaders prepare to present a $2.4 billion facilities plan in Annapolis next legislative session, officials in Baltimore County said they are eyeing a similar approach to repair their school infrastructure. County schools officials are in the process of studying each of the system's 174 buildings to determine how they might fit into a long-term plan to upgrade the system's infrastructure, estimated to cost at least $1.7 billion. The city decided this week on a 10-year plan that would close 26 buildings, end or relocate 29 programs, and renovate or rebuild 136 facilities.