Wilde Lake High

An 18-year-old Wilde Lake High School student was arrested Wednesday and charged with armed robbery, Howard County police said.Police said Rolando Roberto Tompson of the 600 block of Turnabout Lane in Wilde Lake was charged in the Dec. 20 armed robbery of Wilhide's Florist in the Wilde Lake Village Center.Slightly more than $600 was stolen, said Sgt. Steven Keller, a police spokesman.Three employees were in the shop when it was held up by a man brandishing a handgun. No one was injured in the incident.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who says he has seen a broad spectrum of the nation's schools, from successful to struggling, left Wilde Lake High School this week singing not only its praises but those of the Howard County school system. During a roundtable discussion at the school, Duncan posed questions to Wilde Lake students about whether the system known for its diversity works for all of its students. Columbia's Wilde Lake, where school officials say more than 90 percent of students pass high school assessments before the 12th grade, has one of the county's most diverse student populations, with no ethnic group totaling more than 41 percent of its enrollment.

Rebuilding at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, scheduled to begin this fall, will include a $1.2 million school theater, a 750-seat facility for performing arts education and community events.Michael Galeone, president of the Howard County Arts Council, formally outlined those plans Friday during the council's seventh Business and the Arts Luncheon.The annual program included the presentation of the 1993 Howie Awards, which were presented to Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and two Howard County residents for their support and development of the arts in the county.

Howard teacher loses bid to keep working during suit A federal judge has ruled that a Howard County teacher who won a racial discrimination lawsuit against the school system two years ago cannot return to work while a subsequent suit she filed is pending. Michelle Maupin, 40, an English teacher at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, has been on paid administrative leave since September, when she said the principal, an assistant principal and a police officer came to her classroom and ordered her to leave the campus.

A "Salute to Music Education," the theme of a free evening concert, will be held Monday at Wilde Lake High School at River Hill.Performing will be the Howard County Gifted & Talented Elementary School Orchestra, the Patapsco Middle School Chorus, the Wilde Lake High School Percussion and Brass Ensembles and the Wilde Lake Beauty and Barber Shop Quartets.The event will feature the presentation of the first annual Music Educator of the Year Award offered by the Howard County Parents for School Music.

So much of what seemed fresh and innovative in public education two decades ago has gone by the wayside. The back-to-basics movement, itself now more than a decade old, was a recoiling to the liberal policies of the more radical 1970s. Only a few relics of that era survive, such as a smattering of open classrooms.But little compares to the dinosaur of experimental schools, the nationally recognized Wilde Lake High in Howard County. At last, it too is about to undergo a transformation, a back-to-the-future revamping that will bring it more in line with traditional methods of education.

Wilde Lake High School sophomore Lekisha West is one of 10 finalists in the 24th annual Maryland Miss Talented Teen Pageant (formerly the Miss Black Teen-age America Pageant) to be held at 5 p.m. Sunday in the Graham Auditorium of the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.Miss West, whose talents are singing and dancing, is competing for the opportunity to represent the state at the Hal Jackson Talented Teen International Pageant on July 17 at the Kennedy Center in Washington.Wilde Lake resident Pinnie Ross, who has been executive producer of the Maryland pageant for the past 24 years, says she is excited about the pageant's guest, Polydor Records recording artist Tanya Blount.

The Wilde Lake Village Board has selected two new teen representatives to serve the remainder of the 1994-1995 term.Alexandra Griffin, a sophomore at Wilde Lake High School at River Hill, joined the board to pursue her interest in government, learn more about the governmental process and become more involved in community affairs.Miss Griffin, who is an honor student, is also on the Executive Board of the Student Government Association.The other representative is Meaghan Kyle, also a sophomore at Wilde Lake High School at River Hill.

WILDE LAKE High School junior Suzanne Bailey is packing her bags and saying goodbye to her friends.The Clary's Forest resident leaves tomorrow for Chile, where she will spend a semester immersed in South American language and culture.A candidate for the National Honor Society, Suzanne plans a career in international business. And being fluent in a second language, she says, "will open more doors for me."Last summer, Suzanne traveled to Tres Cantos, Spain, as part of the Columbia Association Sister Cities Program.

In honor of Homecoming Week, the Wilde Lake Boosters Club will sponsor a fund-raiser, "Uno's Night," from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow at Uno's Chicago Bar & Grill in Long Gate Shopping Center. A percentage of each purchase will go to the boosters club. Coupons, which must be submitted when orders are placed, are available from students or from anyone in the school's front office. The proceeds will help pay for uniforms, competitions and other extracurricular activities. Wilde Lake High School's homecoming is Saturday.

Wilde Lake High School Theatre Arts will present Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials, The Crucible, at 7 p.m. Nov. 20, 21 and 22 in the Jim Rouse Theatre at the school, 5460 Trumpeter Road. The play is part of the 11th-grade curriculum in Howard County schools. Tickets are $10 in advance; $12 at the door. Information: 410-313-6965, or e-mail abbyfutter@comcast.net. Concert at Oakland The Oakland Nights Music Series, an informal concert series with dessert and coffee sponsored by the Town Center Community Association, will present a performance by Eileen Bernstein from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday in the ballroom at Historic Oakland, 5430 Vantage Point Road.

The Howard County Office on Aging will present its 10th anniversary 50+ Expo from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 17 at Wilde Lake High School, 5460 Trumpeter Road. The event for Howard County seniors will include 140 vendors and exhibitors, a health fair with screenings and flu shots for those who want them, an alternative care fair, educational seminars and free all-day entertainment. The Capitol Steps, a satirical political review, will perform; Milkshake will provide family-friendly music. www.howardcountymd.

Tell the story of your life The Howard County Library invites residents to be interviewed about their life histories as part of the "This is Your Life" project, a countywide initiative to encourage people 50 and older to record the stories of their lives. The Columbia Archives will keep the histories as part of its permanent collection. Interviews will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday at the east Columbia branch library, 6600 Cradlerock Way, Columbia. Anyone who lives or works in Howard County is welcome to participate.

Skateboard enthusiasts are pushing Howard County to build a place where they can showcase their skills, and county officials hope to accommodate them. Two Wilde Lake High School juniors - Evan Sokolosky and Daniel Lesko - are part of the movement to get a skateboard park built at Centennial Park. The pair worked with Gary Arthur, direction of the county Department of Recreation and Parks, on a layout that would appeal to users of the park and to those funding it. The proposed facility would replace an aging basketball court behind the park's north entrance, off Old Annapolis Road.

The parents of students at Wilde Lake High School who went to the press ("School offered $30 for names," The Sun, Jan. 10) with the story of the food fight should be ashamed of the example they have set for their children. They have taught them not to address things directly, but rather to go to the press with their grievances. Neither the food fight nor the "aftermath" was significant or newsworthy events at Wilde Lake High School. I have two sons, a junior and a senior in the school.

Sixty awe-struck second-graders from Bryant Woods Elementary in Columbia saw their favorite books brought to life this week through culinary artistry by Wilde Lake High School students. The annual activity that mixes gingerbread-house-like creations with storytelling was a chance for Wilde Lake students to flex their culinary muscles while stressing an appreciation for reading and high school. "I really wanted to do something that encouraged reading," said Yvonne Lund, who heads the school's Culinary Academy.

I WAS AT the gulag the other day, visiting inmates. Yes, I'm talking about Wilde Lake High School. With parents decrying the repression of students' democratic rights there, I had reason to be apprehensive about setting foot in the place. A journalist who might reveal to the world what an utterly demoralizing, stifling, police-state mentality exists at Wilde Lake might find himself "disappeared," Nicaragua-style.I don't mean to make light of the very real tense situation at Wilde Lake, which apparently has some students, and teachers, fearful of expressing their opinions.

EIGHTY-EIGHT students at Wilde Lake High School were inducted into the National Honor Society at a recent ceremony in the James Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts.Nancy S. Grasmick, state superintendent of schools, was the keynote speaker.Students inducted included Christian Alexander, Aaron Altscher, Lynore Arkin, Kara Bane, Chris Barkley, John Bash, Ray Beitry, Andrew Bright, Matt Bucknor, Matt Caporaletti, Laura Cathcart, Alice Cheong, Michelle Choi, Andrew Chung, Ben Coffman, Allison Davis, Andrea Devereaux, Stephen Devito, Vera Dianova, Jeanette Dove and Yael Eskinazi.

Kishna Davis strode onto the stage at the Jim Rouse Center for the Performing Arts in a long red gown with a deep neckline, dripping in jewelry and perched atop sparkly stiletto sandals. "You have a diva in the house," she announced, and the students at Wilde Lake High School roared. Davis, a soprano who can sing in seven languages and performs around the world, downplayed her accomplishments when she told the audience of freshmen and sophomores yesterday that opera is not so different from television reality shows.