Angie Taddia, Havre de Grace Middle School health educator, was selected as a Blue Apple Health Education Award winner. There are only 12 recipients in the nation, and Ms. Taddia is the first middle school teacher ever from the state of Maryland!
The Blue Apple Health Education Awards is an annual program honoring schools that serve as models of excellence for others across the nation in the area of school health education programs. For more information, visit www.BlueAppleAward.org. Ms. Taddia will be formally recognized for her achievement at the December 21st Board of Education meeting at 6:30 p.m.
The Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) recently announced the finalists for the 2009-10 Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award, which include three students from Harford County Public Schools (HCPS).
The finalists from HCPS are Alex Hutcheson, senior at C. Milton Wright High School; Drew Thatcher, senior at C. Milton Wright High School; and Jacob Silverman, senior at Patterson Mill High School. Both Mr. Hutcheson and Mr. Thatcher were recognized for the achievement category, while Mr. Silverman earned his award in the talent category for instrumental music.
Furthermore, 17 Harford students were selected as semi-finalists this year for the Distinguished Scholar award in the achievement category, three were named semi-finalists in the talent category and 201 students and 22 students earned an honorable mention for the achievement and talent categories, respectively.
In addition, the National Merit Scholarship Program announced the nation’s 2010 semi-finalists, including three students from HCPS. These three students are ...Continue Reading
Do you support a tax increase to pay for recently-built schools? Should Red Pump Elementary School or other school construction projects be stopped?
If your answer is NO to either of these, then oppose Bill 09-29, School Development Impact Fee, because this Bill stops the school impact fees charged on new homes.
New homes bring more kids into the school system. History reveals how many additional kids, on average, will come to school from those houses. Without new homes, we wouldn’t need to build new school capacity. (Renovate, yes, but not increase the total space for more students.)
Now consider BRAC. We’re told that the next few years will bring tens of thousands of new, high-income workers to Harford. For every 1,000 new houses they buy, their impact fees provide over $8,000,000. ...Continue Reading
Continuing to feel the economic crunch, Maryland county governments will be looking for new ways around a long-standing state law requiring them to fund their portion of local education budgets according to a formula known as Maintenance of Effort (MOE).
Maintenance of Effort was designed to ensure that county governments provide school systems with at least the same funding from to year on a per pupil basis.
The potential loss of MOE funding is likely to be seen as a serious blow by local school boards. They have argued that MOE should be the floor and not the ceiling in terms of local funding, given that MOE does not account for inflation or the seemingly endless stream of unfunded mandates handed down from state and federal authorities.
The Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) plans to push for legislation in the next Maryland General Assembly session that would ...Continue Reading
(Bel Air, MD – March 11, 2009) – - The 1st Annual Women’s Conference will be held Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM at Patterson Mill Middle-High School, located at 85 Patterson Mill Road, Bel Air.
The Conference will feature leading women of Harford County to speak on topics such as politics, education, health, the economy and more.
The agenda consists of the Panel of Leading Women, a “Women in the Know” series and closing commentary by the Honorable Billy Boniface, Harford County Council President.
Speakers include: Dr. Rose Mary Hatem Bonsack (Keynote); Senator Nancy Jacobs (Maryland State Senate); Judge Angela Eaves (Harford County Circuit Court); Capt. Teresa Walter (Havre de Grace Police Department); Acting Superintendent Patricia Skebeck (Harford County Public Schools); Dr. Luba Chliwniak (VP of Instruction, Harford Community College); and more.
The cost is $20 ($10 for students and over 60); lunch is included. To register online, visit www.harfordcountymd.gov/services/women. ...Continue Reading
Per this form-letter email to County Councilman Dion Guthrie, feel free to click the link and tell Gov. O’Malley what can be done to improve our schools:
From: Governor Martin O’Malley
To: guthrie, dion
Sent: Thu Feb 19 15:09:11 2009
Subject: How can we improve our schools?
Dear Dion,
I’ve been getting a lot of great suggestions from Marylanders lately when
I’ve asked for your ideas on how we can tackle the challenges our state is
facing, so I hope you’ll indulge me if I ask for your help once again.
This time, I want to hear your thoughts on our public schools.
Earlier this week, I announced the launch of our first-ever statewide survey
of Maryland educators, TELL Maryland. We’ve asked for educators’ honest
opinions on how we can help kids learn, improve conditions in schools, and
make teachers’ lives easier.
The road map for progress that we build from this data won’t be complete
without your take. Everyone’s connected to our public schools ...Continue Reading
MIT announces its MITES Program, (Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science), a challenging 6 week summer program that prepares promising rising seniors for careers in engineering and science. If you are selected, all educational, housing, meals and activity costs are covered. You must, however, pay for your own transportation to and from MIT. To apply, go to http://mit.edu/mites/www Deadline is Feb. 2.
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Science & Engineering Apprenticeship program (summer) – Applications due: Feb. 27, 2009 – This program places academically talented H.S. students (at least 16 yrs old, sophomores/ juniors) with interest in science & math in Dept. of Defense laboratories for an 8-wk period over the summer. This is an invaluable experience in the world of scientific research, with hands-on exposure to scientific & engineering practices not available in the HS environment. It is a paid apprenticeship ($2,000) and the ...Continue Reading
I bet the state is content with many of Baltimore City’s students having a bleak future.
In 2000, Judge Joseph H. Kaplan ordered that the state issue adequate funding to the city after he deemed that students would need to receive between $200- $260 million in addition to other funds in order to comply with students’ constitutional rights.
As expected, these demands have yet to be met. I think the state doesn’t want to admit that they set our youth up for failure.
That’s what is happening to a few Dartmouth students that evidently pissed off their lecturer. Below is an email the teacher, Priya Venkatesan, sent her class:
Dear former class members of Science, Technology and Society:
I tried to send an email through my server but got undelivered messages. I regret to inform you that I am pursuing a lawsuit in which I am accusing some of you (whom shall go unmentioned in this email) of violating Title VII of anti-federal discrimination laws.
The feeling that I am getting from the outside world is that Dartmouth is considered a bigoted place, so this may not be news and I may be successful in this lawsuit. I am also writing a book detailing my eperiences as ...Continue Reading
It’s budget season in Harford County, when public hearings are held, pleas for funding are made and grumblings about taxes waft through the air. At one such hearing last Wednesday night, Harford County Public Schools were a hot topic. But don’t you wonder what the Board of Education does with its money? Let’s look at one example.
A few years back, the Board of Education approved a series of high school reforms known as Comprehensive Secondary School Reform (CSSRP). One of the core concepts behind reform was that students would be more engaged in school if they could take more electives, which also meant that students would spend less time in classes covering math, science, English and social studies.
The idea was that something had to be done to improve student achievement; and this was definitely something. Despite warnings from teachers, parents, students, a few brave administrators and a boatload of research, ...Continue Reading
…because they might sue you.
