School Year

Barbara Gaskins says she took her 15-year-old son to his bus stop every morning at 7:30, well in time for his 9 a.m. homeroom bell at Patterson High School. She obtained as many medical excuses as the doctor would allow when her son suffered from a series of stomach viruses. And she has taught her children that they have to "get an education to get somewhere in life. " But Gaskins was recently jailed for 10 days — one of the dozen parents of Baltimore City students to receive a sentence this year — after failing to send her child to school 103 of 130 days.

Loading his earthly belongings into a laundry cart that he rented from Campus Services, Johns Hopkins University freshman Austin Dennis made several trips from his dormitory room to his car on residential Greenway at North Charles Street, opposite the Homewood campus May 15. It was move-out week for Hopkins students as the school year ended, and Dennis, an economics major, was catching a flight that night to his hometown of Miami, Fla., where he...

Cindy Compton once mused among friends about how nice it would be to be chauffeured to school in a limousine on her last day before retirement. Compton, as it turns out, has the kind of friends who remember wishes and the kind of principal and co-workers intent on making them come true. They surprised the 51-year- old first-grade teacher yesterday morning by sending a white stretch limo to drive her and four longtime friends and fellow teachers from Compton's Westminster home to Mount Airy Elementary School, where Compton has taught the same grade for 31 years.

The deputy superintendent for the Baltimore County school system will step down next month, officials confirmed Thursday. Kevin Hobbs, who was brought on by Superintendent Dallas Dance last year, will return to his family in North Carolina, said schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson. Dance informed the county school board of Hobbs' planned departure, saying that he "vigorously recruited [Hobbs]," who was a top administrator in the Wake County, N.C., public schools, to help him during his transition.

The deputy superintendent for the Baltimore County school system will step down next month, officials confirmed Thursday. Kevin Hobbs, who was brought on by Superintendent Dallas Dance last year, will return to his family in North Carolina, said schools spokesman Mychael Dickerson. Dance informed the county school board of Hobbs' planned departure, saying that he "vigorously recruited [Hobbs]," who was a top administrator in the Wake County, N.C., public schools, to help him during his transition.

A crowd of about 800 Baltimore County school administrators gathered at Perry Hall High School on Friday to face a question from their boss. Superintendent Joe A. Hairston asked how they can continue "making the right things happen" for nearly 104,000 students. As he delivered the 11th opening address of his tenure as superintendent of the 173-school system, which has about 17,000 employees, he did not expect an answer. "The complete answer to that question is revealed only as our former students become adults — as we see who they become and what they achieve," said Hairston, who took over leadership of Maryland's third-largest school system in 2000, when this year's senior class began first grade.

Harford County's Board of Education on Monday named the system's current executive director of middle school performance to become the interim superintendent for the 2013-2014 school year. Barbara P. Canavan, who came to the county as an assistant teacher 40 years ago, will fill a vacancy being left by Robert M. Tomback, who is leaving the system at the end of June after a four-year term. Canavan first came to Harford County Public Schools in 1973. She taught at various middle schools in the county through 2010, when she took the middle school performance position, which included oversight of curriculum and instructional programming.

The school year for Baltimore County's public school students will end on Friday, June 8 -- four days earlier than originally scheduled, county schools announced today. The 2011-2012 school year had been scheduled to end Thursday, June 14. County schools were in a position to end school early this year because of the mild winter, which meant schools were not closed due to snow, and because the school system has effectively managed built-in emergency closing time. The schedule for the final days are as follows: • Wednesday, June 6: Assessment Day: High schools will close three hours early; teachers will remain on duty.

As schools opened Tuesday in Anne Arundel County with a record 76,600 students, Bates Middle School sixth-grader Londell Owens said he's looking forward to learning much in his classes "and having fun doing it. " Among those who were in attendance at Bates on Tuesday morning were Superintendent Kevin Maxwell, several board of education members and interim state Superintendent Bernard Sadusky, who took over when long-time superintendent Nancy S....

We've survived the first week of school and I'm not sure who had more homework, the kids or I. I had to write my contact information for every one of my middle school student's six teachers. Really, can't the school give the teachers this information so I only have to write it once? And if it was OK to give my son a cough drop last year, it's still OK this year. I also signed up to get grade reports for my kids, although I'm thinking it's time to stop nagging my high school junior about doing his homework.

Annapolis Area Christian School is looking for a varsity swimming coach and a girls varsity soccer coach for the next school year. For information, contact athletic director Jim Domoracki, jdomoracki@aacsonline.org or 410-519-5300 x3150.  

After a decade on the job, Mount St. Mary's University President Thomas H. Powell announced Tuesday that he plans to leave the post at the end of the next academic year. "Like any position, the presidency of a university goes through seasons of beginning, developing, and ending, and then beginning again," Powell said in a letter to the Emmitsburg university Tuesday morning. "It is clear to me that the season of change is here. As a university, we are in a good place to welcome a new President to take the helm and continue moving our beloved Mount forward.

St. Mary's College of Maryland has only locked in about two-thirds of the students it needs for a full freshman class next school year, a shortfall that could cost the public liberal arts school $3.5 million in lost tuition. Though the school's admissions department is trying to fill about 150 vacant spots, the president warned faculty and staff to prepare for budget cuts. "All of the numbers on this campus are small numbers, so this has a large impact," said President Joseph R. Urgo, who since becoming president in 2010 has revamped the school's admissions department.

Harford County's Board of Education on Monday named the system's current executive director of middle school performance to become the interim superintendent for the 2013-2014 school year. Barbara P. Canavan, who came to the county as an assistant teacher 40 years ago, will fill a vacancy being left by Robert M. Tomback, who is leaving the system at the end of June after a four-year term. Canavan first came to Harford County Public Schools in 1973. She taught at various middle schools in the county through 2010, when she took the middle school performance position, which included oversight of curriculum and instructional programming.

With city schools CEO Andrés Alonso's announcement last week that he is stepping down at the end of this school year, Baltimore finds itself in the market for a new leader who can continue and expand upon the reforms he instituted. Whoever succeeds Mr. Alonso will have a hard act to follow, and finding a replacement who possesses the right combination of leadership, management and interpersonal skills won't be easy. That's why the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners must insist on conducting a thorough, nationwide search for the city's next schools CEO and resist pressures from some city leaders to short-circuit the process by rushing to name a successor.

Education observers were split Tuesday on whether the city's school board should launch a nationwide search to replace schools CEO Andrés Alonso or give the job of taking on the district's daunting challenges to his hand-picked successor. Some, such as principals union president Jimmy Gittings, said they'll push for the board to name interim CEO Tisha Edwards as permanent superintendent. School officials said late Tuesday that Edwards, Alonso's chief of staff, would not have to obtain a state waiver despite lacking the teaching experience typically required by state law for the post.

The headmaster of the Calvert School in North Baltimore will depart at the end of the coming academic year for a new position at a school in Houston, school officials announced Wednesday. Andrew Martire has been headmaster of the Calvert School, located in the Tuscany-Canterbury neighborhood of Baltimore, since 2004. He has accepted the job of Head of School at the Kinkaid School in Houston starting next year. Both schools are private coeducational schools for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Monday, May 6, 2013 Dear City Schools Partners and Friends, I am writing to you today to let you know that at the end of the current school year, I will retire and leave Baltimore City Public Schools and this great city to return to my home in New Jersey to care for my aging parents and begin an academic position at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It has not been an easy decision, because what we have accomplished together in recent years has been both important and extremely gratifying to me, professionally and personally.

As city schools CEO Andrés Alonso steps aside, he's turning the system over to a close adviser he's trusted during some of his administration's most trying moments. Alonso's chief of staff, Tisha Edwards, will lead the system through the 2014 school year as the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners searches for a permanent replacement. During a news conference Monday at school headquarters, Alonso called her an "extraordinary leader" who has been "a part of every moment of crisis and every moment of celebration.