Woodlawn High

INSIDE TODAY WHAT THEY'RE SAYING TODAY'S SUN COLUMNISTS Listen up, high school students If you're proficient at math, like machines and don't feel like beginning your career with $30,000 or $60,000 in college debt, some vocational career tracks will take you further in Maryland than you think. Business baltimoresun.com/hancock Impact of Lewis criticism Ray Lewis' criticism of coach Brian Billick shows the Ravens to be in a precarious position, where their season could fall apart.

Marcus Garvey Gillespie, a father of eight who became a substitute teacher at Woodlawn High School after retiring as a carpenter, died of cancer Monday. He was 72.Mr. Gillespie began his career as a forklift operator at Bethlehem Steel, where he worked for 15 years. The longtime Baltimore resident then worked as a carpenter at both the Liberty and Harbor campuses of Baltimore City Community College before retiring in 1993.He is survived by his wife, Kaye Thompson Gillespie; three sons, Marcus G. Gillespie Jr. and Robert Gillespie, both of Delaware, and Rickey Gillespie of North Carolina; and five daughters, Carolyn Gillespie and Rosina Gillespie, both of Baltimore, and Jacqueline Williams, Lenora White and Sylvia Thomas, all of Delaware.

Woodlawn High School physics instructor Curtis Lee Jones watched his students achieve sixth place last Sunday in a national solar bike race. On Friday, he was given the school's Unsung Hero Award, an Employee of the Year Award -- and suspended.The abrupt change of fortune resulted from what police said was a violation of probation and what Jones said was his own mistake. The 38-year-old Woodlawn resident was arrested at the school Thursday, the day before classes ended.The arrest stemmed from a 1997 handgun possession charge, which Jones said was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Whizzing through Woodlawn High School's parking lot at 30 miles per hour, Kenneth Byrd is having the time of his life -- despite the fact that he's piloting a solar-powered vehicle so small that he barely has room to breathe.As the top driver for Woodlawn's "Road Warrior," Kenneth will be directing the first entry from a Maryland high school in Solar Bike Rayce USA. Kenneth -- as well as a pit crew and cheering section of 21 other Woodlawn students -- leaves today for the 1998 competition in Topeka, Kansas, and will race Sunday.

Antonio Moore began playing and singing gospel music as a youngster, touching a piano keyboard at home while humming songs he heard in church. At 12, he was an accomplished musician and became the music director at his church, in charge of five choirs."

Baltimore's National Aquarium had a problem with some of its poison-dart frogs, whose brilliant red, yellow and orange colors -- vibrant in their natural home in the rain forests of Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia -- were fading in captivity.That's bad for the aquarium, which wants to show authentic replicas of wildlife, and bad for the frog species -- because it fuels the market for frogs caught in the wild.Elizabeth Gladmon, a 12th-grader at Woodlawn High School, helped restore the colors with a school experiment that dusted the frogs' food with a natural dye found in the wild, a project that earned her a spot at next month's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Louisville, Ky.The aquarium, where Elizabeth conducted her research, has made the dye -- called Canthaxanthin -- part of the tiny frogs' regular diet and plans to submit Elizabeth's work to a scientific journal.

Were it not for the guidance of a black man who was his high school principal not so long ago, Eric A. Carlton might never have gone to college -- much less become a school administrator and a role model for students himself.Mr. Carlton, 28, of Baltimore has been assistant principal of Woodlawn High School for more than a year. He is one of the youngest school administrators in Maryland and a success story in Baltimore County's efforts to recruit and retain minority educators."I didn't want to go to college," said Mr. Carlton, a 1985 graduate of Wilde Lake High School in Columbia.

Faced with a growing disparity in the experience of teaching staffs -- and in how well students learn -- Baltimore County school officials are considering an ambitious mentor program for inexperienced teachers. Many sch can lead to stress and discipline problems, officials say.The disparity in experience is particularly glaring in schools with large black enrollments."It's possible to go through Johnnycake Elementary, Johnnycake Middle and Woodlawn High and never have a teacher with more than five years' experience," said Michael N. Riley, associate superintendent for administration and instruction.

When Rick Pizarro talks about soccer, you listen.Pizarro has been coaching the sport for 45 years at all levels from professional to high school, both boys and girls, to recreation, and refereeing at the collegiate level.Coaching stops in Germany and other parts of Europe, Woodlawn High (1961-1984, his longest stint), Catonsville High, Springfield (Mass.), Arbutus recreation program, junior varsity boys at Brooklyn Park and Centennial High in Howard County where he won two state girls titles, indicate a genuine love for the game.

A 16-year-old Woodlawn High School student who had been reported missing by his mother early yesterday was found shot and killed several hours later in the back yard of a home in the 6200 block of Liberty Heights Terrace in Gwynn Oak.The body of Rashad Aron Grogan of the 3500 block of Meadowside Ave. in Gwynn Oak was discovered a few blocks from his home.The homeowner, who was not identified by police, saw the body in the bushes shortly after 8 a.m.. The back gate to the yard had been broken down.

In the next few months, the unblinking lenses of digital cameras will be trained on roads and drivers around more than a dozen Baltimore County schools. Their aim: to catch speeders and deter others with heavy accelerator feet. On Friday, police released a list of 15 school zones where they plan to install the cameras, some before the end of the year. The list does not specify their locations, and officials would say only that the devices will be placed within half a mile or so of each school.

For nearly a week, dozens of Maryland youths have rubbed elbows with the pros on the football field, picked their brains and even caught a glimpse of a real Super Bowl ring. But they also took time to talk about the challenges they face daily: choices about drugs, about girls, about school. The 80 or so boys and young men participated in a new football camp called Commitment 4 Change, which aims to teach children from ages 8 to 17 how to better play the game - and equip them with what they need to succeed both on and off the field.

Public forums on growth set across state Marylanders will have an opportunity to air their views about future growth and development in a series of "listening sessions" scheduled across the state next month, the Maryland Department of Planning said yesterday. The six forums are planned to provide public input to a task force appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley to review Maryland's Smart Growth laws and policies. Officials say the forums are planned as "town hall" meetings, with open discussion among attendees.

Funding shortfalls totaling millions of dollars could adversely affect the Baltimore County school system's ability to maintain some services, such as special-education programs, county school officials said last night. An anticipated loss of state money because of declining enrollment is likely to wipe out the modest increase in state funding that the school system is expecting. Meanwhile, an infusion of about $3.2 million will be needed to replace decreasing special-education grant money.

Administrators at Woodlawn High School, the only Baltimore County high school to have reached "restructuring status" after years of failing to meet state benchmarks in reading and math, have begun the wrenching process of planning an overhaul of the school's academic program. In recent meetings with teachers, staff and parents, Principal Edward D. Weglein explained the four options being considered but stressed that no decisions have been made. "Within any of them, there's no real perfect answer," Weglein said in an interview.

INSIDE TODAY WHAT THEY'RE SAYING TODAY'S SUN COLUMNISTS Listen up, high school students If you're proficient at math, like machines and don't feel like beginning your career with $30,000 or $60,000 in college debt, some vocational career tracks will take you further in Maryland than you think. Business baltimoresun.com/hancock Impact of Lewis criticism Ray Lewis' criticism of coach Brian Billick shows the Ravens to be in a precarious position, where their season could fall apart.

Woodlawn High teen injured in assault Two students were charged and a third was being sought in connection with an assault on a student at Woodlawn High School yesterday morning, Baltimore County police said. A school administrator called 911 at 10:35 a.m. to report the attack, which left a 17-year-old male student with injuries to his back, police said. The victim was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and was treated and released. The incident occurred outside the building on school property.

Woodlawn High School was almost empty on a recent day, except for a group of boys in Room 228. The rising freshmen, all wearing khaki shorts and matching yellow T-shirts, had spent the morning researching their career goals. While several of the boys said they wanted to be professional athletes, their classmate Jordan Hall did not. After having spent time in the kitchen with his mother, the 14-year-old, who said that "sports aren't everything," wants to be a chef. The boys are part of Youth REACH (Resilience, Effort, Awareness, Creativity, Honesty)

Energy firm appeals LNG court ruling AES Corp., the global power supply company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on Sparrows Point, is appealing a federal court ruling that upheld a Baltimore County ban on such facilities in coastal areas. The challenge, filed in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday, contests the June 22 decision of U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, who determined that the county's zoning law on LNG terminals was valid. The law, passed by the County Council in February, prohibits LNG plants and other facilities, such as oil refineries, from being located in environmentally sensitive coastal areas as an amendment to the county's Coastal Zone Management plan.

Brittany Lomax earned respectable grades and stayed out of trouble. But dealing with family crises such as a heroin-addicted mother and homelessness left little time to ponder college. When she began high school four years ago, her goal was to graduate and get a job. That changed three years ago when she enrolled in a college-prep program at Dundalk High School. "Now, instead of thinking that I want a job, I know that I can have a career," said Lomax, 17, who recently won a $20,000 scholarship, a laptop from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and about $15,000 in annual grants for four years of college.