Van Bokkelen

CAROL SHEFFEY Parham is a rising star among Maryland school superintendents. Promoted from within four years ago to head an Anne Arundel County school system engulfed in scandal, she has established a reputation for toughness and fairness as head of the state's fifth-largest district, with 72,000 students.The daughter of teachers, Parham, 47, began her career as a teacher at Pimlico Junior High School in Baltimore in 1970. She moved to positions in personnel and human resources in Howard and Arundel counties.

A NUMBER of our community groups and schools are having holiday celebrations this week.Unity African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is having a Christmas celebration from noon to 4 p.m., Saturday at Van Bokkelen Elementary School.The guest speaker is the Rev. Lewis Anthony, pastor of #i Metropolitan Wesley A.M.E. Zion Church, who will lead a rap session.A food, clothing and toy drive will be held during the Christmas celebration. The congregation, working with Van Bokkelen Elementary and Principal Rose Tasker, hopes to help at least 45 people.

AT A TIME when we have become accustomed to hearing about falling test scores, Anne Arundel County's results from the Maryland Schools Performance Assessment Program were pleasant news indeed.In the most recent round of testing of third-, fifth- and eighth-graders, scores improved significantly countywide. Anne Arundel was, in fact, the only large jurisdiction in the state to show significant improvement from last year to this year.In the annual battery of language usage, reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies exams, about 47 percent of students met the standards in these subjects, and in other important criteria such as attendance and dropout rates.

The state test scores for Van Bokkelen Elementary School in (( Severn, Maryland's first failing suburban elementary school, /^ improved this year, but not by much.The composite index for the school -- a formula that evaluates third- and fifth-grade performance on the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) tests as well as attendance rate and other variables -- rose from 18.46 in 1995 to 19.25 this year, according to test information released yesterday by the state Department of Education.

Van Bokkelen Elementary School is different this school year -- from the dolphin motif in the cafeteria to the 15 classroom teachers new to the school.From fresh paint to training in classroom techniques, the changes are designed to help turn around a school with standardized test scores so low that the state warned the county in February to reform the school or risk a state takeover.Positive attitudes and atmosphere were the first order of business yesterday.Before the fidgeting students who had gathered in the cafeteria learned their class assignments, they learned that "whatever I wish, whatever I dream, whatever I try for, whatever I plan, it is mine, if only I believe."

A new building, new uniforms, fresh paint.These are among the changes that will greet some of the 73,516 students expected in Anne Arundel County schools starting tomorrow.Students at Linthicum Elementary School, who are participating in a new voluntary uniform policy, will sport polo shirts and pants or jumpers in the school colors of yellow and blue.As many as 15 elementary schools have asked students to wear uniforms, and more schools are studying the idea, said Nancy W. Almgren, vice chairwoman of the Countywide Citizens Advisory Council.

For the past year, Edith Perry has turned her small townhouse in Orchards at Severn into a haven for young people in a neighborhood where poverty, drug-related crime and violence are prevalent.But with 75 elementary-school aged children expected to enroll in a free day camp she is organizing this summer, the community activist turned to the managers of her complex for help. They turned her down.Perry's nonprofit organization, People on the Move, wanted to rent two vacant townhouses for July and August from Apartment Services, the management company that runs the complex.

The Anne Arundel County school board changed the top administrators at about one-quarter of its schools yesterday, naming new principals at 18 elementary schools and nine secondary schools.The board traditionally moves administrators the first Wednesday in June, but a second round may be needed next month because of recent retirements, said David D. Lombardo, human resources director.In perhaps the most notable change, Charles Owens, the former principal at Van Bokkelen Elementary School, was named principal at Waugh Chapel Elementary.

From behind the podium, Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Clayton Greene Jr. surveyed his young audience and shouted a question into the microphone."It's five o'clock in the morning, where you going to be?"Without missing a beat the kindergartners through sixth-graders at Van Bokkelen Elementary School shouted back the answer: "Outside on the corner!"The exchange mimicked the lyrics of a popular song, but it was not the reply the judge wanted to hear."If you hang out on the corner, you are headed for criminal court as opposed to being headed for college," Greene said.

The State Board of Education approved yesterday Anne Arundel County's plans to improve Van Bokkelen Elementary School, one of two suburban schools threatened with state takeover because of low scores on standardized tests.The plan is an expanded version of one submitted in March by Anne Arundel school officials, and is the second of several steps for the Severn school. The officials must file a plan for a full overhaul by Feb. 3.State School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick described the plan, which calls for spending about $500,000 on books, a new reading program, more teachers and more teacher training, as a "model of how a reconstitution eligible plan ought to work."