Just got word that Baltimore County's first charter school will be closed for the first day of classes - Monday, Aug. 25.
The reason? Pat Crain, the regional director for Imagine Schools, tells me that the school just needs a final inspection from the fire marshal to get its occupancy permit. The fire marshal couldn't get out there today - which is why they won't be opening Monday. But they're hoping the inspection will take place on Monday, Crain said, so the students can start Tuesday.
The school, Imagine Discovery, is located in renovated office space in a building in the Woodlawn area. Crain said completion of the gymnasium kept them from getting the inspection done earlier.
Parents will be notified to verify opening day - and we'll also keep you posted here.
This just in: The finalists for 2009 Maryland Teacher of the Year:
The winner will be announced Oct. 3. Check out the official word from MSDE.
For the past couple days, I've been writing about proposed changes to the way the Baltimore County school board conducts its meetings.
Last night, members approved one of the revised policies, turning one of their two monthly meetings into a work session that would allow them to explore issues in-depth - without public comment. But the board tabled the other proposal, which involves more narrowly defining who qualifies as a so-called "stakeholder group," a unit typically invited to address the board.
Several people within and outside of the groups that would lose that opportunity expressed their concerns about that change - among them members of the grass-roots Baltimore County Education Coalition.
What I wasn't able to get into today's story is board President JoAnn Murphy's explanation on why they decided to pull the stakeholder item: for further study. Murphy said amendments on that item were already anticipated - but there was no consensus among members on what exactly those amendments should be. In short, board members themselves had questions on the item.
She said some members plan to sit down with folks from the coalition, and hopes the board will take the issue up again next month.
Throughout this discussion, there has been some suggestion that the board should not have tackled this during the summer months, as people are in and out with vacations and other activities, and not focused on meeting agendas. Murphy has noted that these policies have followed the same process as every other - three readings, including time for public comment and a vote with the third reading.
Today is the last day at The Sun for more than 40 of my colleagues who accepted a voluntary buyout. One of them is Gina Davis, who's done a great job covering Baltimore County education the past few years. Someone else leaving has been integral to this blog, though you've never seen his name on the site.
Mike Adams, a quarter-century veteran of the newspaper, served as our education editor, and since I started covering the Baltimore schools three years ago, he's been my direct supervisor. In recent months, he overcame his aversion to technology to edit and schedule our daily postings.
A native of Turners Station, Mike comes from a long line of educators in Baltimore city and county public schools. I first sent him an interoffice message when I was working in the Towson bureau and trying to land an interview with his cousin, who was principal of Woodlawn Middle School at the time.
Mike was a terrific choice to oversee a young out-of-towner like me because he has so much institutional knowledge to share – about our workplace, the city schools and Baltimore in general. And as a white reporter covering a predominantly black school system, it was extremely helpful for me to have an African-American editor with whom I could frankly discuss racially sensitive issues.
I love how Mike knows the history of seemingly every person whose name is on a Baltimore school building. The first time I wrote a story about Dr. Samuel L. Banks High, he told me about how Sam Banks used to write long-winded letters to the editor of The Sun using the biggest words in the dictionary. Once, when an article of mine mentioned Tench Tilghman Elementary, Mike was upset he didn't know who Tench Tilghman was. We had to stop right there and look it up. (We learned that Tilghman was an Army officer in the Revolutionary War who was born in Maryland.)
Can you tell we had fun?
Mike's wisdom and insight helped me to tell stories with greater nuance and sophistication. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work with him.
Maggie Kennedy, a national education consultant and Baltimore County community activist, applied for a position on the school board. The governor announced the appointments yesterday, and Kennedy did not receive one of the volunteer positions. She sent this letter via e-mail to her friends this morning.
Dear Friends,
I am extremely gratified and humbled by the recent outpouring of community support for a recent appointment opportunity to the Baltimore County School Board. Since last Friday, I know of 52 letters or phone calls of support that reached Jim Smith, the governor and his appointment secretary. Many of you reached out to other Baltimore County community leaders and for your support I am grateful. Please pass on thanks to others I may have not included in my email.
As many of you are aware, I did not apply for the position, but was approached by the governor's brother, Peter O'Malley. I was surprised by the call in early May, but was ready for the challenge. My vocation and avocation has always centered around student achievement, parent involvement, and a responsible school system. A safe and financially sound school system is necessary, but student success measures community success.
The customers are our children and parents and good teachers make all the difference. I have been privy to meet and work with so many great teachers in our county. Their support and commitment to student achievement make them true role models and leaders.
Children are not Democrats, Republicans, or Independents and deserve representation which serves them well. I hope the new appointments serve our children well. Student achievement and community safety dictates the destiny of our county. Monies in both categories are well invested and spent.
Valerie Roddy, former assistant to BC Government Fred Homan, David Oldfelder, CPA. and James Coleman, retired Coppin math teacher, have a responsibility to more than the capital and operating budget. They have a huge responsibility to the achievement of children in our school system. I wish them success and hope the school board continues to respond to the PDK audit and the recommendations.
Our school facilities need updating, air conditioning is needed in all of our schools, a new high school in the NE/central area, and a new elementary school in the Towson area are needed to address overcrowding. The curriculum needs to meet the needs of a diverse student population, as well as meet national, state and local standards to prepare our Baltimore County children to compete in a global society and teachers need to be paid equitably for experience and effective teachers rewarded.
As advocates and community leaders, thank you. Each of you have been an inspiration and care deeply about the success of a generation of our children. My respect for each of you and appreciation of your contributions to our Baltimore County community inspires me.
Hold our leaders accountable.
Warmest Regards,
Maggie Kennedy
The Schott Foundation for Public Education today released a report on the state of education as it pertains to African-American males. It also launched an interactive Web site with all sorts of interesting information about the achievement gap for black boys. Check it out here.
The report contains data not only for the 50 states, but also for their largest school districts. According to Schott's calculations, Maryland's graduation rate for black boys in 2005-2006 was slightly higher than the national average: 55 percent, compared with 47 percent nationally. That's due in part to the fact that Baltimore County reported one of the nation's highest graduation rates for African-American males, 72 percent. Montgomery County's rate was 69 percent and Prince George's was 59 percent. And then there was Baltimore City: 31 percent.
Using data from 2004-2005, the report said white, non-Hispanic boys were admitted to gifted and talented programs in Baltimore at twice the rate of black boys. Four times as many white boys as black participated in math Advanced Placement courses. Nine times as many white boys took science A.P. courses. Although this information is nearly four years old, it highlights the opportunities that have long existed for the small number of white students (less than 10 percent of total enrollment) in the city school system.
The report's release and the Web site launch coincided with this week's UNITY convention of 10,000 journalists of color, who gathered in Chicago.
Has anyone noticed how much the seventh-grade Maryland state test results went up in reading this year?
Across the state, 81.2 percent of seventh graders passed the reading MSA, up 10 percentage points from last year. In Baltimore City, the gain was much steeper, going up 18 points. In Prince George's, the scores were up 14 points. In Kent County, the increase was from 59 percent passing to 79 percent. In Baltimore County, the pass rate went from 68 percent to 81 percent.
Readers have asked how this could have happened in one year. The head of assessment for the state, Leslie Wilson, points out that there was a strong bump up in fifth grade as well. Her explanation is that if one looks back at how last year's seventh-graders did when they were in sixth grade, the results don't look as surprising.
In other words, we shouldn't be comparing this year's seventh-graders to the kids who were in seventh grade the year before, but to how they actually did when they were younger. Viewed that way, the results do look less startling.
For instance, 76 percent of sixth graders in 2006-2007 passed the state reading test. This year, 81 percent of those students passed the tests. In other words, the increase was just 5 percentage points. There are still some very large gains in Somerset and Cecil counties, for instance, which still went up more than 10 percentage points.
And there are still some increases that seem difficult to explain in other grades and on the math test. Are there any teachers or administrators who have theories on what happened?
With Dr. Alonso and a half-dozen other school system officials up at Harvard for a conference this week, I thought last night's board meeting would be a quiet one. There wasn't much on the published agenda, and -- for once! -- not a single person signed up public comment. But a few items were tacked on to the end of the agenda, and that's where things got interesting. As I report in today's paper, the board approved locations for its two new alternative schools. And as we've been speculating on this blog, one of them is going in North Avenue.
Now, everyone who works for the city school system will have to interact with students. What a concept.
While officials initially looked at placing the school for over-age middle school students inside system headquarters, they ultimately decided the space configuration worked better with the school that will serve students on long-term suspension and expulsion. The school for over-age middle school students will be temporarily located at Chinquapin Middle.
Other news last night: Up in Towson, the Baltimore County school board named Patty Abernethy, the city school system's deputy chief of staff, as its new chief academic officer. Because of a last-minute change, the city school board didn't make its personnel agenda immediately available (supposedly, it will be online by this morning), but I'm told that Michael Carter, the previous chair of the Parent and Community Advisory Board, was named the system's director of parent involvement. As chair of both PCAB and the Facilities Solutions steering committee, Carter has volunteered hundreds of hours for the school system in recent years; he has been on the payroll as a consultant the past few months.
Here's an interesting article about an initiative in Michigan aimed at reducing the size of high schools. It's an especially timely article for those of you who may be following the debate locally about school size, an issue recently brought into sharper focus in Baltimore County because of a failed proposal to expand Loch Raven High School.
Click here for my article from last week about the school board's decision to nix the expansion plan at Loch Raven High School. And here for my article on County Executive James T. Smith Jr.'s response to the board's action.
If you haven't already caught it, please take a moment to read today's story about Joseph Kaminski, a centenarian who has worked as a bindery technician for the Baltimore County public school system for nearly three decades and says he plans to stay as long as his "body will allow."
Joseph -- who remarks that even the doctors want to know his secret to long life -- offered this gem of wisdom: Keep busy.
"You have to continue using the brain and the body for the circulation of the blood," he said.
Parents in the Towson area are hot under the collar after Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. decided yesterday that $12 million that had been budgeted for the expansion of Loch Raven High School will instead go toward other projects after the county school board unanimously voted to rescind its approval of the proposed addition (as reported in my story today).
Some have questioned why the money wouldn't instead be put toward adding air condition to the many schools that lack it. On Monday, Baltimore County closed all its schools three hours early because of the heat. While other counties closed a school here or there, Baltimore County closed all its schools because so many --- about half of them --- lack air conditioning that it made little sense to keep any of them open.
One community activist, Laurie Taylor-Mitchell, whose son attends Ridgely Middle School (which recently completed a $13 million renovation, but still lacks air conditioning), drove home this point in a WBAL radio interview this week:
"They need just $900,000 to add air conditioning," she said. "They now have windows that don't open at all or that open only six inches. The temperatures are 10 degrees hotter than it is outside."
On Smith's role, she added that his decision to put the $12 million into other projects without seeing whether the school board might support adding air conditioning to some of these school, "creates resentment."
"There's a feeling he is not thinking about the people in these schools, about the students and the teachers that are suffering much more with the lack of air conditioning, which is a health issue as well as an education issue, rather than repaving parking lots, loading dock replacements and footbridge replacements," Taylor-Mitchell said on the WBAL radio show.
In an interview yesterday, Smith said he is directing the $12 million toward these "site improvement" projects because the school board wants them done. He said the projects, part of a list that totals $20 million, were requested early in the budget process and only $2 million was able to be allocated for them. Scrapping the Loch Raven addition frees up that money, he said.
I have a call into the school system officials to find out if it would have been an option for the school board --- had they been consulted yesterday before Smith's decision --- to suggest using that freed up $12 million toward air conditioning projects in the coming year. Are there logistical or technical constraints? Is it as simple as, If only he had first asked the board what they wanted to do with the "found" money?
I'll update this post later with whatever response the school system is able to offer.
UPDATE:
5:56 pm. Thursday --- I just finished talking to Kara Calder, spokeswoman for the school system. She confirmed that, to her knowledge, the county executive did not contact school system officials before announcing his decision yesterday.
As for whether the money could've instead been targeted at adding air condition to schools, Calder explained that before any changes (such as adding projects not previously equested) could be made to the school system's capital improvements program list of projects for the fiscal year that starts July 1, all parties --- meaning the school board, county executive and county council --- would have to agree.
About the projects that Smith has recommended, Calder said, "The site improvements are much-needed projects. Some have been carried over for two or three years. There are definitely some significant needs there."
Shortly after this week's news that the Baltimore County school system has the fourth-highest graduation rate among the nation's 50 largest school districts, I caught up with county schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston at the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex. (See today's article.)
Hairston was there with a group of eighth-graders from Golden Ring Middle School, as part of a partnership between the school system and the community college to encourage the kids to start thinking about, and planning for, college.
While pleased with the county's graduation rate, he grew serious as he talked about the challenges that the school system faces to keep that high ranking. Not for the sake of rankings, but because of what those rankings represent, he said --- stability and effectiveness.
That means building strong programs at the elementary school level that will send students onto middle school ready for challenging courses that will prepare them for advance work in high school, he said. Middle school students have to come to the table with a solid foundation, ready to start thinking about their futures. He said he worries about the "bottle-neck" that is produced at the middle school level when too many students arrive behind grade level. But, he said, middle school is not the time to try to teach elementary-school concepts.
Hairston said he understands that some people may be worried about his plans to stop giving its middle schools federal Title I money that is aimed at schools with high concentrations of low-income students. (Click here for Wednesday's article on this news.) He said he understands that it sounds like he is taking away precious resources from the middle schools. But I think he summed it up best with these remarks:
"Spending (Title I) money for kids at the middle school level doesn't help if they are in eighth grade reading at the third-grade level. It makes more sense to invest that money in the elementary schools so those students don't get behind."
I've talked to some national education advocates, who seem to generally agree with Hairston's line of thinking. What are you thoughts?
Kudos to the students and staffs at several Baltimore County public and private schools --- Dundalk Elementary, Franklin Middle, Jacksonville Elementary, Norwood Elementary, Pot Spring Elementary, the Rosedale School, and the Odyssey School --- that are the most recent to join a growing list of "Green Schools" by learning and engaging in activities that help preserve the environment.
The county leads the state in the number of "Green Schools," with 42 of them, according to county, school and community leaders who gathered in the garden at the Old Courthouse in Towson. Also recognized were two "Green Centers" that were added to the list --- Marshy Point Nature Center and the Herring Run Watershed Association --- for their environmental education efforts.
"Baltimore County truly is a model for the rest of the state," said Carol Towle, who is the Green School coordinator for the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education.
Since 1999, the nonprofit organization annually has recognized schools and centers for their efforts to teach children about the importance of protecting the environment. In that time, Baltimore County students have completed 650 projects, including tree plantings, recycling and pollution prevention.
Towle said the commitment of the county's schools demonstrates "the importance of having our young people accept the responsibility of preserving our planet."
MAEOE looks for examples of schools that tie the environmental lessons to the classroom --- such as incorporating math, English and reading skills into their projects.
For instance, at Pot Spring Elementary in Timonium (home to 580 children in pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade), students and staff built a 200-foot long lawn sculpture made of 500 recycled laundry detergent bottles as a show of how to "reuse" things. All of the school's children were involved --- including pre-kindergartners and kindergartners, who helped by sorting the bottles by color. Kids in other grades handled tasks such as cutting string to certain lengths.
"Every student tied a bottle to the sculpture," said Karen Harris, the school's principal.
Examples of projects from the other schools include:
* Students from the Rosedale School planted 600 trees at Fleming Park in Dundalk to help reduce erosion and improve water quality, and planted more than 200 trees to reforest areas near Peerce's Plantation. To reduce energy loss through "phantom," or hidden usage, the school installed power strips so computers could be turned off completely at the end of the day.
* At Franklin Middle, students collected and recycled more than 75 pounds of batteries. They took old furniture that was heading to the trash and refurbished it and sold it at an auction.
* Working to improve indoor air quality at Jacksonville Elementary, a team of "I Spy Inspectors" looked for blocked air vents, dirty filters and mold.
* Students at Norwood Elementary worked with an arborist to select trees to plant on one side of the building. The trees provide wildlife habitat and shade for classrooms.
* At Dundalk Elementary, fifth-graders wrote, illustrated and printed a book about the Chesapeake Bay that is used in the school's library as a reference text. They also worked with carpentry students from Sollers Point High School to build and install bluebird boxes.
* Students at the Odyssey School built, maintained and monitored a bluebird trail and bird feeding stations. They also designed, built and test solar cookers.
For a complete list of projects and previously named schools and centers, visit the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education's Web site.
Today's article about growing opposition to a proposed 400-seat addition at Loch Raven High School mentions a study conducted five years ago that recommends building a school to alleviate crowding in the county's northeast and central areas -- namely at Perry Hall and Towson high schools.
Here's a link to that study, called the Comprehensive High School Facility Utilization Study/DeJong Report (which is in PDF form and is posted online at the school system's Web site, bcps.org).
This morning, I spotted this note from Cathi Forbes, whom I profiled in yesterday's paper, pledging the group's continued vigilance. After last week's victory convincing the Baltimore County school board to build an elementary school in Towson to help ease crowding, Forbes said the group will continue to keep a close eye throughout the process.
Read Cathi's note, which I came across on The Forge Flyer blog:
Continue reading "Towson group vows to keep close eye on school construction" »
Zach Urtes, a senior at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts, is in the running as a regional winner in the "Doodle 4 Google" national competition. This year's contest challenged students in K-12 to "reinvent" the homepage logo of the online search engine's Web site based on the theme, "What if ... ?"
As one of 40 regional winners --- chosen from among thousands of doodles, according to Google --- Zach moves into the "public vote" portion of the contest for one of four national finalists awards. Online voting continues through Sunday, May 18. To vote, go to http://www.google.com/doodle4google/index.html, click on "Vote Now."
The winning doodle is expected to replace Google's usual logo for 24 hours on the Web site's homepage on May 22.
You'll find Zach's entry --- which appears at the top of this post and is titled, "What if Artificial Intelligence flourished?" --- under Grades 10-12, Region 3. The accompanying description, posted on the contest's Web page, asks these questions: “What does the future hold? What if artificial intelligence was allowed limitless enhancement? I believe that technology will reach a point where machines will be engineered in our image. Using our own anatomy as a stepping point, what if the pursuit of perfection results in the new age of robotics?”
The national winner will receive a $10,000 college scholarship, a laptop computer, and a $25,000 grant to establish or improve the computer lab at his or her school. Each of the other three national finalists will win laptop computers.
Baltimore County schools Superintendent Joe A. Hairston is scheduled tomorrow to award the system's second annual round of scholarship loans to three graduating seniors who are aspiring teachers.
The program, which I wrote about last year, is based on a "grow your own" concept. The hope is that these students, who must earn a degree from an approved Maryland teacher education program, will return to the county to teach. The students must pledge one year of service in a priority or Title I school for each year they receive the scholarship loan, worth $4,000 each year.
This year's recipients, according to a school system press release, are:
-- Ryan Goff, an honor student at Eastern Technical High School. He is taking Advanced Placement classes in psychology, English literature, and calculus and is a varsity track and cross-country team member. He is a member of the SAT 1300 Club (with an SAT score of 1360). (Last year, Ryan’s sister Meghan received this scholarship.) Ryan plans to teach secondary math.
-- Brittany McNeal, an honor student at Dundalk High School, where she is treasurer of the Future Educators Association and a varsity field hockey player. She takes courses at the Community College of Baltimore County in Dundalk. She is a member of her school’s Class of 2008 Steering Committee and Calculus Club, and volunteers with the Berkshire Area Community Association and Dundalk Renaissance Corp. Brittany plans to teach secondary math.
-- Malcolm Rowe, who plans to pursue technology education, has taken Advanced Placement psychology and environmental science courses and participated last year in Pikesville High School’s jazz and gospel choir. He volunteers with the Community Outreach Food Pantry.
