School Staff

ANNAPOLIS HIGH SCHOOL doesn't have a teacher problem. It has a parent problem. In the past month, Anne Arundel County Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has announced that the faculty and the staff at the school -- from the principal to the janitors -- must reapply for their jobs. The reason? A handful of students has failed assessment tests in each of the past four years, and the school is in danger of a state takeover. I think the state should take over the households those failing students come from and make the parents reapply for their jobs.

Wearing just their T-shirts and underwear, Christina Means and her family escaped from a house fire that struck in the middle of the night. They watched the Rosedale house burn in the cold December air and waited for the firetrucks, wrapped in the one blanket Means had grabbed when the smoke detectors had sounded and her boyfriend had shouted that he saw flames out the window. "We were so scared, we just ran out," Means said. "No shoes, no socks. " In the next 48 hours one thing became clear: All their possessions were burned or water-damaged, and a lapsed renters' insurance policy meant they were going to have to start over.

It's been 23 years since Patuxent Valley Middle School principal David Oaks has been in the classroom as a teacher.But today, the former math and science instructor will be teaching a class of Patuxent Valley eighth-graders about Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."Mr. Oaks' turn as a teacher is part of Patuxent Valley's "Trading Places" day, in which school staff members switch jobs with a colleague for one day.The plan was developed by the school's Human Relations Committee."The whole idea is to get the staff talking to one another, understanding one another and to see what everybody does in the classroom," said Bonnie Ritchie, the committee's chairwoman.

School and health officials worked Friday to ease parents' fears after three classmates at George Washington Elementary in Southwest Baltimore were diagnosed with scarlet fever — an ailment with a scary history, but one that is easily treated and usually not life-threatening. Principal Amanda Rice and a school liaison official from the Baltimore City Department of Health met with about 50 parents Friday morning to reassure them that students were safe. The school's facilities team spent the previous evening wiping down desks, bathroom stalls and stair rails with antibacterial agents, paying special attention to the classroom shared by the students.

No one was spared. Cafeteria workers. Teachers. School secretaries. The principal. All 193 staff members at Annapolis High School must reapply for their jobs in a drastic step announced yesterday by Superintendent Kevin Maxwell. It is a radical move that top Anne Arundel County school officials hope will reverse anemic student performance and head off a state takeover they fear is in the future of their flagship high school.

One recent morning, a group of fourth-graders filed out of Jane Brewer's classroom, appearing refreshed and ready for their afternoon classes. "I like to sing because it brings out `me,'" said 9-year-old Zakiya Sewell. Not only does Brewer's music class provide an artistic outlet for children at William Paca Elementary, but it also gives regular teachers - who take turns dropping off their classes at her door - time away from their pupils to collaborate with their colleagues and learn new teaching methods.

UPPER MARLBORO - A 17-year-old special education student died yesterday after tumbling to the ground and going into cardiac arrest during an altercation with a school staff member, officials said. The student, Carlton Eugene Thomas, was bruised about the face during the incident, said his mother, Sheila H. Bracey, who sped to the hospital and identified her only child. Her son, who was 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 145 pounds, complained last week that he had been physically abused by staff members at the school, she said.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education endorsed yesterday a spending plan for the next fiscal year that includes funds to screen parents and school visitors against national and state sex offender registries. The school board approved an operating budget of more than $801 million and a capital budget of more than $113 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget goes to County Executive Janet S. Owens, who can cut the budget before she adds it to her spending plan for the county, which then goes to the County Council.

Wearing just their T-shirts and underwear, Christina Means and her family escaped from a house fire that struck in the middle of the night. They watched the Rosedale house burn in the cold December air and waited for the firetrucks, wrapped in the one blanket Means had grabbed when the smoke detectors had sounded and her boyfriend had shouted that he saw flames out the window. "We were so scared, we just ran out," Means said. "No shoes, no socks. " In the next 48 hours one thing became clear: All their possessions were burned or water-damaged, and a lapsed renters' insurance policy meant they were going to have to start over.

School and health officials worked Friday to ease parents' fears after three classmates at George Washington Elementary in Southwest Baltimore were diagnosed with scarlet fever — an ailment with a scary history, but one that is easily treated and usually not life-threatening. Principal Amanda Rice and a school liaison official from the Baltimore City Department of Health met with about 50 parents Friday morning to reassure them that students were safe. The school's facilities team spent the previous evening wiping down desks, bathroom stalls and stair rails with antibacterial agents, paying special attention to the classroom shared by the students.

A North Carroll Middle School eighth-grader is being charged as a juvenile after he voluntarily surrendered a handgun he brought to the Hampstead school Wednesday, Oct. 26, to a school staff member he went to for help. Maryland State Police identified the student is a 15-year-old male. He is not being identified because he is being charged as a juvenile. According to police accounts, shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, the student was in the school lunchroom for his lunch period when he approached an assistant principal in the room and said he was troubled with thoughts of harming himself.

Baltimore County high schools are beginning to decide which classes — likely the electives and small Advanced Placement courses — they won't be able to afford next year, as they begin eliminating as much as 10 percent of their faculty. The reduction to the teaching force is being felt hardest at the high schools, where class sizes will rise from an average of 26 this year to 29 next year, according to budget documents. Elementaries, which the system protected from cuts through second grade, stand to gain five teachers overall because enrollment is growing.

With the academic turnaround at Annapolis High School solidified, Superintendent Kevin M. Maxwell has adjusted staff scheduling to return the majority of the staff to a 200-day-a-year schedule. Under Maxwell's plan, which was agreed to by collective bargaining units and announced last week, department chairs in the four core academic subject areas, special education and ESOL will remain on the 12-month schedules. The school's testing, International Baccalaureate, Middle Years Program and signature program coordinators will also remain as 12-month employees.

Baltimore County schools officials have developed a plan to improve student achievement and the graduation rate at Dundalk High School that includes replacing some school staff, fostering community ties and switching to a six-period day of classes. "It's all about moving our kids forward," said Tom Shouldice, principal of the high school since July, of what is officially called an "alternative governance plan." The plan, which the school board is to consider tonight, is part of a requisite process for schools that have repeatedly failed to meet benchmarks known as adequate yearly progress, or AYP. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, states must annually identify schools and school systems that miss the benchmarks.

The Baltimore County school board voted last night to reject changing retirement plan services to a single provider, after a protest from hundreds of employees and the district's five labor groups. The board unanimously opposed the recommended contract with 403(b) plan provider Lincoln Financial Group, which would have moved away from the multiple vendors currently available to employees. Member Valerie A. Roddy recused herself. "What I think the board would like to see is possible scenarios of multiple vendors, certainly not going beyond the five who have ... answered the requests for proposals," said President JoAnn C. Murphy during the board's meeting last night.

As thousands of families pour into Maryland in the next few years as a result of the military base realignment and closure (BRAC) plans, where they choose to live is likely to be heavily influenced by what local school systems have to offer. The latest wave of newcomers will include a higher proportion of civilians, who are more amenable to commuting, making their impact on specific communities much less predictable. That's why the state needs to give school districts additional flexibility in building or renovating schools, with perhaps more priority and funding given to BRAC-related school projects.

The county school board will begin wrestling tonight with a new version of its policy banning portable pagers in school.Current policy includes the pagers, often used by drug dealers, in a blanket ban on alcohol and firearms. But the school staff is expected to recommenda separate statement for the pagers during the meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the board headquarters on Riva Road.A state law passed last year makes it illegal to possess pagers on school property.The staff also is recommending that individual school principals be given some flexibility in deciding who may be allowed to have pagers on school grounds.

Shuffle students and parents protest.Well, almost. That adage, if it is one, didn't necessarily prove true last night when the schoolboard held its first public hearing on a redistricting plan that could affect students at four Carroll elementary schools.The crowd, about 60, at William Winchester Elementary was smallerthan expected. School staff, realizing redistricting can be a "highly emotional issue," expected at least 100 people and had placed about200 folding chairs in the school's gymnasium.

At Bollman Bridge Elementary School, Staff Appreciation Week will include massages and minifacials. At Hammond Middle School, all employees will receive custom-made bookmarks and several meals. Atholton High School is hosting a root beer float party, and Centennial Elementary School is asking students to bring in real or hand-drawn flowers. Staff Appreciation Week, the first full week in May, was started by the national PTA in 1984. Each year, the event tests the creativity and resources of Howard County parents as they find budget-conscious ways to honor their schools' teachers and other employees.

In a field where failure is the norm, the Bowling Brook Preparatory School seemed to be the rare program that worked. Judges sent young armed robbers there, and they emerged college-bound high school graduates. A rural community watched with approval as urban delinquents became young gentlemen who volunteered at town fairs and pancake breakfasts. Lawmakers in Annapolis took notice, showering the privately run reformatory with millions in construction dollars so it could house and rehabilitate more of the state's swelling population of juvenile offenders.