NEWS
May 27, 2007
Van Bokkelen PTA a national winner The Van Bokkelen Elementary School Parent Teacher Association will receive the Phoebe Apperson Hearst-National PTA Excellence in Education Partnership Award. It is the PTA's highest national award recognizing family, school and community partnerships that support student success. In winning the award, the Van Bokkelen PTA was able to effectively demonstrate the difference that family-school-community partnerships can make. The PTA created partnerships with the state's education department, community-based organizations including the local Boys and Girls Club and the YWCA, local and national businesses, and a community college.
NEWS
By Ruma Kumar and Ruma Kumar,Sun reporter | January 28, 2007
They tried to tell everyone that Van Bokkelen Elementary was the place to be. Teachers would have more planning time. Smaller classes. Supportive principals and assistant principals with fresh ideas. But months after Anne Arundel County school officials conducted a large layoff at the academically struggling school in Severn in 1996, only seven of the more than 35 teachers who had worked there had reapplied for their positions. When the district held a conference to fill openings at the school, which struggled with persistently low scores on reading and math tests, only one person came.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay and Liz F. Kay,SUN STAFF | July 1, 2005
After more than a decade of state monitoring, Van Bokkelen Elementary School finally has overcome the labels emphasizing its struggles. The school system successfully appealed the state's ruling that special-education pupils did not make adequate progress on recent state tests. As a result, Van Bokkelen was taken off the list of schools in need of improvement. "I think we really have turned the corner at Van Bokkelen," said Superintendent Eric J. Smith. Staff members learned the news Wednesday at a summer school training session with other schools that have a high proportion of children from low-income families.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay and Liz F. Kay,SUN STAFF | June 21, 2005
For nearly a decade, Rose Tasker has strived to improve the performance of Van Bokkelen Elementary School on state exams despite the problems its students face, including poverty and frequent family moves. The Severn school has made significant gains under Tasker's leadership, but the retiring principal recently got some bad news: Van Bokkelen failed to meet two of the standards in reading and math set by the state under the federal No Child Left Behind law. It might seem a tough way to say goodbye for Tasker, who was singled out earlier this month by Anne Arundel County Schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith for creating a strong foundation at Van Bokkelen.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay and Liz F. Kay,SUN STAFF | June 8, 2005
Pupils at three Anne Arundel County schools that had failed to meet goals on state tests in the past have improved their performance this year, though the gains were not universal. Two of the elementary schools, Freetown in Glen Burnie and Tyler Heights in Annapolis, posted double-digit gains on reading and math tests at nearly all grade levels. However, the percentage of third- and fifth-grade pupils at Van Bokkelen Elementary School in Severn reaching advanced or proficient levels on the reading test - a criteria for avoiding state sanctions - dipped slightly.
NEWS
By Liz F. Kay and Liz F. Kay,SUN STAFF | February 27, 2005
As they looked ahead to critical state tests this week, pupils at Van Bokkelen Elementary School in Severn considered where they came from and where they're going at the school's recent African American Heritage Night. A majority of the children are African-American. They need "to realize they come from kings and queens," organizer and instructional computer technician Betty Ann Esposito told the parents and children who gathered in the auditorium last week. The celebration is the largest of several heritage and cultural events at the school each year.