Staff Members

With their minds on national incidents of schools breached by armed individuals, the members of the Carroll County school board have zeroed in on school security - and an action plan designed to increase it. Larry Faries, coordinator of school security, laid out the facts for board members during a work session on the issue. While schools in Baltimore City and Prince George's and Montgomery counties can rely on a number of staff members who are focused on security - more than 100 in Baltimore's school police department, and about 200 each for Prince George's and Montgomery - Carroll schools' staff and students have one person, Faries, assigned to protect them, he said.

The fight to save Annapolis High School was hatched in a chat room. Over two weeks, the after-school movement grew in the din of Annapolis coffee shops and pizza parlors. What started with three students swelled to 20, then 50. In their first public act, more than 40 students launched a campaign yesterday to stop Superintendent Kevin Maxwell from forcing all 193 staff members to reapply for their jobs. Wearing neon green armbands and waving signs, they told the Anne Arundel County school board that Maxwell's Jan. 24 proposal would crush a demoralized school.

After complaints about the management of the city-run Patterson Park pool emerged this week, Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday announced a plan for the pool that includes greater oversight by top Recreation and Parks administrators, increased staff training and recruitment of additional "experienced" staff members. "I was deeply troubled by the concerns the community has about the center," Dixon said in a statement. "Residents bring their children and families to enjoy the summer by the pool.

Maryland General Hospital has shut off its hot water after routine tests showed low levels of Legionella bacteria in the water system. The bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires' disease, were detected Tuesday night during quarterly testing of water quality, said Monica Smith, a hospital spokeswoman. None of the 230-bed hospital's operations has been shut down or curtailed as a result of the problem, she said. Patients are being admitted, and no patients or staff members have shown signs of the disease, she said.

Setting the stage for a prickly debate over how to conduct a performance audit of Carroll County schools, Superintendent William H. Hyde will recommend that four of his staff -- and no school board members -- draft the audit proposal.The superintendent's recommendations are a setback for board member Susan Krebs, who has insisted that she and other board members, as opposed to Hyde and top-level administrators, play a big role in the development of the audit.It is standard practice in the corporate sector, Krebs has argued, for boards of directors to decide which offices and issues will be examined.

The Christian Coalition, which for 10 years has led the charge of the religious right in national and local politics, is now weathering serious financial and leadership turmoil that could affect its ability to exert widespread influence in the 2000 election, current and former staff members say.The coalition is hobbled by a $2.5 million debt, the departure of most of its experienced leaders, and so much turnover in local leadership that it currently has...

As Baltimore's curious precampaign saga ends, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume finds himself left with much to repair.Political and business leaders in Baltimore who wagered that Mfume would run for mayor were left yesterday feeling jilted. Many are saying his flirtations with a possible mayoral bid wound his political credibility for future races.And even as many in the NAACP celebrate Mfume's decision to stay, some board and staff members also are saying that his protracted and secretive decision-making unfairly left them in the dark.

WHEN YOU WALK through the door of the Highland post office, you know it's a special place. You've stepped into a scene from small-town America a few decades ago.The post office is small and crowded. The walls and shelves are full of colorful boxes, padded envelopes and stationery for sale. Everything is just an arm's length away -- including the postal staff.The staff is warm and friendly. If you live in Highland, staff members will probably greet you by name; if you don't, you'll still feel welcome.

Clinton urges U.N. to restart talks on curbing nuclear armsGENEVA -- Laying out his position for the world's "next major" disarmament treaty yesterday, President Clinton called on the United Nations to restart negotiations aimed at halting production of material for making nuclear bombs.John Holum, director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, said an agreement at the Conference on Disarmament, which he is attending, to limit production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium will help avoid a "runaway arms race in South Asia."

Deborah O. McCarty's 5-year-old son started kindergarten Monday at Northfield Elementary School a mixture of jitters and excitement. Yesterday, McCarty began her first day as Columbia's new leader much the same way."I'm glad to be here," McCarty said as she sat in her relatively empty office at the Columbia Association. "Packing, moving everybody has been an ordeal. Everybody keeps asking me what I want to do first. I want to hear from other people. I want to listen to them, learn how things work."

Three teenagers at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center have swine flu, state health officials confirmed Thursday, prompting precautions to limit the spread of the virus. Another 18 youths and two staff members at the downtown facility are reporting flu-like symptoms. All 21 teens are being treated with antiviral medicine. The sick youths have been separated from the general population and placed in two 12-bed dormitories, which are self-contained and have their own bathroom facilities, said Tammy Brown, a spokeswoman for the center.

The burgeoning arena of cybercrime is reordering the priorities of law enforcement agencies, and they are going to need money to fight it, Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson says. Johnson, speaking at a budget workshop meeting Monday convened by County Council members, said that in just a few years, most if not all crimes will have some Internet- or computer-based component, and that police agencies had better be prepared. "We have just begun recently to collect DNA at the point of arrest," Johnson said, as an example of a databank that might be subject to cyber-incursions, or hacking, by people who want to change stored information.

These are excerpts published in the past week on The Baltimore Sun's InsideEd blog: A belated push to save Harriet Tubman: Sun photographer Algerina Perna and I went [last Monday] to a community meeting at Harriet Tubman Elementary, where we found a dozen staff members, parents and neighborhood residents brainstorming to try to save the school before the April 28 board vote on the reorganization plan. The group is rushing to submit something to the board with ideas for recruiting more students to the Sandtown school, recommended for closure because of low enrollment and academic performance.

The court records read like a scene out of Goodfellas: From their prison cells and with the help of corrections staff, authorities say, members of a violent gang were feasting on salmon and shrimp, sipping Grey Goose vodka and puffing fine cigars - all while directing drug deals, extorting protection money from other inmates and arranging attacks on witnesses and rival gang members. A seven-month investigation that included wiretaps on contraband prison cell phones led to the indictment on drug and weapons charges of 24 people - including four state prison officers - who authorities believe are leaders or associates of the Black Guerrilla Family prison gang, officials announced Thursday.

Salary: $62,000 Age: 32 Years on the job: 10 How she got started:: After graduating from Towson University with a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology, Allen went to work as director of admissions for a Baltimore-area long-term nursing care and rehabilitation center. She came to Levindale in 1999 as a guest relations specialist. Two years later she became director of guest relations, and in 2006 she started as a "neighborhood" leader. Typical day:: The day starts early for Allen, who said she's usually in by about 6 a.m. One day a week, she arrives by 10 a.m. and stays through dinner service in an effort to keep in contact with all three shifts of employees.

Edgewood Alliance plans breakfast meetings The Edgewood Alliance will hold a series of breakfast meetings to help the Edgewood business community. The group's mission is to involve residents in creating a positive image of Edgewood. The breakfasts will be held at 7:30 a.m. the second Friday of every month at the Edgewood American Legion, 415 Edgewood Road. Doors will open at 7:15 a.m. for a breakfast buffet. The cost is $10, payable at the door. The meeting will feature Shelter Group Woodbridge Commons staff members discussing Edgewood's residential growth.

The County Council and its staff are about to get a lot more cozy. Some of the county government work force is scheduled to move to cramped, makeshift quarters for a year while the George Howard office building undergoes renovation. But because they will be giving up their offices and high-walled cubicles for rows of open work spaces in a Columbia office building, some council members and staff members are concerned about privacy in their temporary workplace. "It is a competitive political environment," said council Chairwoman Courtney Watson.

A Prince George's County man was sentenced yesterday to probation for assaulting a 13-year-old patient of a psychiatric hospital during a field trip to Sandy Point State Park in Anne Arundel County, after prosecutors said they would not be able to prove allegations that she and another girl were raped. Juan R. Payz Reyes, 34, of the 2300 block of Pemberell Place in District Heights, pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree assault. Reyes was initially charged with two counts of first-degree rape, sodomy and other charges in the alleged attacks Aug. 12 on her and an 18-year-old girl, both patients of the Sheppard Pratt Heath System, while swimming in the Chesapeake Bay. The Sun does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.

A staff member at Calverton Elementary/Middle was putting in extra hours at the West Baltimore school Sunday afternoon when two 13-year-old boys broke into the building and one tried to rape her, police confirmed yesterday. Realizing that her attacker was unarmed, police said, the woman fought back, and both the boys - identified as students at the school - fled. When they returned for class Monday, they were arrested and charged as juveniles with attempted first-degree rape, attempted robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing, police said.

Ronda Cooperstein wasn't surprised to hear of the assault on a teacher at the school where she used to work. The only difference between this one and those she saw was that it was captured on video - and drew nationwide media attention. Until 2006, Cooperstein worked as the librarian for adjoining Reginald F. Lewis and W.E.B. Du Bois high schools, where a teacher's beating April 4 was recorded on a student's cell phone camera and aired last week on CNN and the Today show. During Cooperstein's three years at the schools and 20 years in the city school system, assaults on staff were a "chronic problem," she said.