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| Fall Archives 2010 |
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Chesapeake Students Can Take it to the
Bank
(Literally)
Chesapeake High School now has a
credit union in its building as the Bayhawk Branch opend in the school
store in the main lobby of Chesapeake High School on Sept. 27.
Dr. Joe Hairston attended the official ribbon cutting on Oct. 14 and is
impressed with the turnaround of Chesapeake High School. The school has
come a long way over the past five years and the addition of the credit
union proves to Hairston that academics are getting stronger.
“This is a classic example of demonstrating what is possible if you are
dedicated to young people,” Hairston said.
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Two New School Buildings for Dundalk
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Two of the oldest school buildings in the county can be
found in Dundalk. Sollers Point Technical High School was built in 1948
and Dundalk High School was built in 1959, but both buildings needed
upgrades. Councilman John Olszewski, Sr. said he received a video
showing the poor conditions of the Dundalk High School building and
that led to a meeting on the decision to either upgrade the current
schools or build a new facility. The task force decided a new school
was needed for both Dundalk High and Sollers Point. “It started as a
video that turned into a meeting that turned into a reality,” Olszewski
explained. That reality took place last week as members of the Dundalk
community gathered for the exciting groundbreaking of the new school
buildings on Oct. 21. “What a great day. The sun is starting to come
out. You can’t put a shade on a day like today,” County Executive Jim
Smith yelled into the crowd. Olszewski graduated from Dundalk High
School in 1978 and is sad to see the old building go but looks forward
to the future.“This is a very joyous day for me. I’ve been to many
ground breakings, but this is the most special one for me,” Olszewski
said. Both buildings will open in the fall of 2013. Today’s Dundalk
High freshman class will be the first class to graduate from the new
school when they’re seniors in the 2013-14 school year. The Dundalk
building will accommodate 1,857 students.
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Former NASA Astronaut Visits Eastern
Technical High School
Former NASA Astronaut Donald Thomas
visited students at Eastern Technical High School on Oct. 12 to share
his journey to success and advice on how to achieve your dreams.
Thomas received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Case
Western Reserve University, a Master of Science degree and a doctorate
in Materials Science from Cornell University, and was a recipient of
four NASA Group Achievement Awards, four NASA Space Flight Medals, two
NASA Exceptional Service Medals and the NASA Distinguished Service
Medal.
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Kenwood High Enlightens Students on the
Dangers of Bullying
On Wednesday, Sept. 22, 11th and
12th grade students filled the seats of Kenwood High School’s
auditorium to learn about the dangers of bullying. Guest speaker Keith
Deltano met with students to enlighten them on just how serious this
issue is within the schools.
In this day and age, bullying has taken on many forms due to the
growing popularity of online sites such as Facebook, as well as
technology which includes text messages, cell phone calls and e-mails.
Deltano has worked with the youth for several years throughout his life
as a military police officer, private counselor and public school
teacher, just to name a few.
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Eastern Tech Participates in Constitution
Week
Every year since 1956, Congress
commemorates the signing of the Constitution from Sept. 17 - 23. This
year happens to mark the 223rd anniversary of the Constitution of the
United States. In order to get in the spirit of things AP U.S. History,
American Government and Psychology teacher Jenny Decker, along with
fellow students at Eastern Technical High School, participated in
educational activities for the week.
On Sept. 22, Mary Freyer, a member of Daughters of the American
Revolution (DAR), visited with the high school’s 11th grade AP U.S.
History class and Decker, who is a graduate from the University of
Pittsburgh. DAR is an organization that requires proof of your direct
descent from a patriot of the American Revolution.
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Reading is Magic at Eastwood Elementary
Magnet School
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On Friday, Sept. 3, Eastwood
Elementary School, located at 428 Westham Way, gave away two brand new
bicycles as a way to recognize students who participated in the school
reading program over the summer, as well as encouraging good reading
habits. According to Joan Brauner, Principal, Target was very generous
by donating a $50 gift card to put towards the purchase.
“The children were so excited at the end of last year’s school assembly
after they found out they would be entered in a drawing to win a brand
new girl’s and boy’s bike once they completed their summer reading,”
Brauner revealed.
Over the summer, students who wanted to participate in the reading
program were required to read 110 “steps” by completing a solid 50
minutes of reading each day. Once completed, parents asked questions on
the material along with signing a reading log.
Two names were handpicked out of a basket inside the gymnasium at
Eastwood, filled with anxious students and teachers. The winner of the
girl’s bicycle was second grader Jayla Foot who read 110 steps and
second grader Dylan Potter who read 112 steps won the boy’s bike. Other
students who completed 100 steps received medals and a brand new
folder, according to Brauner.
“We like for every child to participate in reading and in order for
that to happen we need to get them excited about it,” stated Brauner.
“On Fridays, we usually have the children wear their medals they have
won so that they can feel good about themselves and to spark an
interest in the other students who have not won any prizes or medals
yet.”
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Franklin Square Nurses Give Back Packs to
Two Schools
For the past four years, the nurses
at Franklin Square Hospital have given away free back packs to an area
school. This year the nurses decided to give backpacks to two area
schools. All students at St. Stephens Creative Learning Center in Essex
and Battle Grove Elementary School in Dundalk received a free backpack
filled with goodies for the school year.
“Even though some families are more in need than others, our goal is to
make sure we give a backpack to every student in the school,” said
Rebecca Graystone, Magnet coordinator at Franklin Square. “We want the
entire student body to be supported.”
According to Graystone, the hospital pays for 10 percent of the
backpacks with the rest coming from the private funds of the hospital
workers.
“This started out with nurses and it has expanded to every department
in Franklin Square. The employees go out and purchase the backpacks and
the materials inside the backpack,” Graystone added.
Kim Shanahan is a nurse at Franklin Square Hospital and she was able to
go out to St. Stephens Creative Learning Center and pass out the
backpacks. She has helped purchase the backpacks every year, but this
was the first time she got to see the smiles and reaction of the
children.
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Joppa
View Elementary Received Green
School Award
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Joppa View Elementary
(JVE), along
with 76 other Maryland Schools, 19 re-certifying Green Schools, and 6
model Green Schools make up the 2010 class of Maryland Green Schools
Awards. The Maryland Green Schools Award Program, developed and
administered by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor
Education (MAEOE), challenges schools to integrate the environment into
all aspects of the school culture including professional development
for teachers, curricular integration, modeling of best management
practices inside and outside the school, community involvement, and of
course, celebration.
JVE students and teachers worked very hard over the past several years
on numerous environmental projects that qualified them as a Green
School. Some of those activities included: waste reduction
such as recycling aluminum cans, plastic water bottles, and papers, as
well as “Trash Free Tuesdays” during lunch to help make our world a
cleaner and greener place; energy conservation by turning off light
switches; and habitat restoration which included building and releasing
(10) Oyster Reef Balls into the Chesapeake Bay, creating a “no mow”
zone to establish a meadow, planting trees, flowers, butterfly bushes,
herb gardens, as well as weeding and mulching around the school.
JVE has also developed a strong community partnership with
several local businesses such as Lowe’s of White Marsh, Weis
Supermarket, Home Depot and Walmart who have either donated or
discounted plants, environmental kits, supplies, etc. to the students.
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Spring Archives 2010
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Eastwood Elementary Magnet
School
Hosts Camp Invention
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Monday, June 21
through Friday, June 25, teachers and counselors at Eastwood Elementary
hosted Camp Invention, a weeklong summer program that teaches 21st
Century life skills to children, including teamwork, problem-solving
and hands-on activities.
Students entering first through sixth grades are eligible to
participate in the camp. According to Kim Geho, Kindergarten teacher at
Eastwood, this is the fifth year in a row that this program has been
made possible.
“In order for our students to participate in the program, I had to send
out over 20 letters to surrounding businesses in hope that they would
donate scholarship money so that the cost of the camp would be less
expensive for the parents to enroll their children in,” said Geho.
Out of the 20 letters sent out Geho only received two responses. One
from Johns Hopkins University and one from Baltimore Community
Foundation, who donated just enough money to the school.
Most of the lessons include many real-world math, science and learning
challenges that last from 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Throughout the day
students receive snacks as well as lunch, which is provided by the
child’s parent.
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Norwood Opens Up Ben Carson Reading Room
On Monday, June 7, President Barack
Obama named Kimberly
Burton-Regulski, mathematics department chair at Eastern Technical High
School, as the winner for the 2010 Presidential Award of Excellence in
Mathmatics and Science Teaching, making this the second time in two
years that an educator in Baltimore County has received this honor. No
more than two educators per state can be recognized.
Along with Burton-Regulski, another educator in Maryland won the award
for excellence in science. Nationwide there were 103 recipients of the
award this year, which recognizes Kindergarten through 12th grade math
and science teachers for superior teaching within the United States.
“This is really such a great opportunity,” said Burton-Regulski. “I
have been at Eastern Tech for 12 years now, and I never want to leave
because it’s such a wonderful school and it’s very rewarding for my
hard work to be validated.”
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Gold Named National Distinguished Principal
Vincent Farm Elementary School is only
in its second year, but their
principal won an award for a lifetime. Principal Anne Gold was named
National Distinguished Principal in 2010 for Maryland. To celebrate,
the school had a surprise ceremony for Gold.
“I can’t tell you the amount of time Ms. Gold puts in at this school,”
said Vincent Farm Assistant Principal Paul Balsamo. “That motivates
teachers and students to try their best.”
To show their appreciation, students in all grades created banners and
gave balloons to their principal. The ceremony also included a song
that was sung by students. Gold thanked the teachers and students for
the ceremony and credited them for her award.
“This means so much to me. I get to work with the best teachers and
students,” Gold said. “The award I was is everybody’s award and I truly
mean that. I couldn’t have won it without you.”
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| Students at
Vincent Farm Elementary congratulate their principal Anne Gold on her
award as a National Distinguished Principal. |
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Norwood Opens Up Ben Carson Reading Room
Students at Norwood Elementary got a
gift as the Carson Scholars Fund
and the Allegis Group announced the grand opening of the Ben Carson
Reading Room at the Dundalk school. A ceremony was held at the school
on Thursday, May 13 where Norwood students gathered to celebrate with
song and dance. Principal Pat Goldys invited Ben Carson’s wife Candy
Carson and BCPS Superintendent Joe A. Hairston.
“The Carson family is known worldwide, not national, but
internationally, and we have them here in our school,” Hairston said
with pride.
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Sophomore Student Wins Ford Focus at
Eastern Tech
Friday, May 14 marked the 19th Annual
Car Giveaway at Eastern
Technical
High School, for the 2009-10 school year.
Senator Kathy Klausmeier hand-picked the winner at 9:30 a.m. inside the
school’s library. The lucky winner was 15-year-old sophomore Grayson
Drake, who is a part of the Allied Health program at Eastern Tech.
Drake’s name was put in a box along with hundreds of other students’
names waiting to be picked. Shock and excitement were the two emotions
that Drake displayed while sitting inside his 2002 Ford Focus.
“I am extremely excited. I will be getting my driver’s permit
soon and
look forward to driving it,” stated Drake.
The Ford Focus was donated to the school by Al Packer Ford White Marsh.
In order to be eligible in the drawing for the car giveaway, a student
must achieve honor roll status, which will earn one chance per quarter
for the first three quarters. The students who make honor roll each of
the first three quarters will earn three extra chances. Achieving
perfect attendance is another way for students to be eligible for the
drawing. Students who miss two days or less each quarter will win one
chance and achieving perfect attendance each quarter will earn a
student two chances. Drake has earned perfect attendance since he has
been enrolled at Eastern Tech.
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Colonial
Camp Takes Glenmar Elementary School
Back to the Past
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On Wednesday, May 5, fifth
graders
from Glenmar Elementary School,
located in Essex, had the opportunity of meeting and interacting
with The Colonial Camp, a year-round Colonial-American Program which
offers opportunities to the public to experience the lifestyle during
the 1770s time period.
The camp was started about 10 years ago by a man named Graydon
Stephenson, who is currently the director of the program. Ever since,
The Colonial Camp has been a success by traveling from school to school
across the East Coast from New York to Florida.
“The great thing about this program is that we can use history to help
teach children integrity, hardwork and character development,” stated
Stephenson. “This organization stands out from all the others because
the kids get a hands-on experience about how life was during the
colonial period by participating in crafts and activities.”
Glenmar Elementary School is just one of 150 schools the organization
visits each year. Some of the stations the students participated in
included, “Indian games,” “candle-making,” “Indian war paint” and
“Colonial clothing,” where they could try on auhentic Colonial-American
clothing. Other stations included, “weaving,” where the students
learned the history of fabric-making, as well as “quill making,” which
is an exercise of using a feather quill and ink well.
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Eastern
Tech Students Score Big
The
Automotive Technology department at Eastern Technical High School has
seen its share of successful students over the last few years, as the
school has won the state finals of the Ford-AAA Student Auto Skills
Contest four years out of the last five (they took second place in
2007). This year, two top students are gearing up to add another win to
school’s impressive record.
Eastern Technical High School
seniors Ernie Kuehne and Dan Sarzynski
received the highest written scores in the state on the written portion
of the contest. Fifty-eight Maryland high schools were represented,
with a total of 635 students taking the written test. This is the sixth
time in the last seven years that Eastern Tech students have received
the highest scores on the written test for this contest.
Credit is
due to Automotive
Technology Instructor Eldridge Watts. “He’s
a great teacher,” explained both Kuehne and Sarzynski, adding that
Watts often stays after school on his own time to help his students.
Because they aced the written test, the two seniors will now work as a
team to compete in the “hands-on” portion of the contest which takes
place in May at CCBC-Catonsville.
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Eastern
Technical High School’s automotive students were in for a real
treat when they went to class on Friday, April 9. Instead of the usual,
regular old cars of which they’re used to being under the hoods, they
got the chance to take a look at two beautiful sports cars worth a
combined $500,000.
Instructor Eldridge Watts invited two of his friends, with whom he used
to race vehicles back in the day, to visit his classes with these
luxury vehicles.
Chris Fredericks of ATI (Automotive Training Institute) is the owner of
both vehicles, a 1969 Chevy Camaro and a 2009 Chevy Corvette ZR1. The
Camaro was a Central Office Production Order. Only 269 were made.
Co-sponsor and former co-worker Ed Warren explained the vehicle
recently underwent a $300,000 restoration in Canada. Though Fredericks
and Warren once raced the Camaro, it had been in storage for 35 years.
“It still has the original carburetor from 1970,” Warren explained.
The ZRI Corvette, a $140,000 vehicle with a top speed of 205 mph, is
the fastest production car in the world. Fredericks noted that late
night talk show host Jay Leno purchased the first one. The seniors had
the opportunity to ride along with Fredericks on a test run. As of
press time, it could not be determined whether the students had more
fun riding in the vehicle than Fredericks did driving it.
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Essex
Elementary Chess Club
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On March 20,
the
Essex Elementary Chess Club took fourth place at the Maryland State
Chess Tournament in Hagerstown. The team was led by George Lang
(21st place, 3-1-1), Luke Catlin (17th place, 3-1-1), Alex Potts (3-2),
Uma Joy Kokilepersaud (3-2), and Tommy Holcomb (14th place, 4-1).
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On March 6,
the Essex Elementary Chess Club took fourth place at the Maryland State
Team Chess Tournament in Towson. The team was led by Dominic Hill, Alex
Potts, Alex Tingleff and Joey LeBrun.
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On March 6,
the Essex Elementary Chess Club took seventh place at the Maryland
State Team Chess Tournament in Towson. The team was led by George Lang,
Luke Catlin, Dimitri Ensor and Tommy Holcomb.
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Chesapeake High Gets Big Fat Check
With tough economic
times, school systems are hoping not to lose money in budget cuts.
There sure aren’t expecting an increase in funds, which made Lockheed
Martin’s $15,000 donation to Chesapeake High School a nice surprise.
Stephanie Hill, Vice President Ship and Aviation Systems and Baltimore
Site Lead of Lockheed Martin presented a check of $15,000 to Baltimore
County Public School Superintendent Joe A. Hairston and Chesapeake
principal Maria Lowry at the school on Friday, Feb. 26.
“Lockheed Martin has an outstanding support of education and deep
interest in investing in the future,” Hairston stated. The check went
toward the school’s Project Lead the Way (PLTW) program that prepares
students to be innovative and productive leaders in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics.
Hill is concerned that China has 200,000 engineers and India has over
200,000 engineers while the United States only has 129,000 engineers.
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Perry Hall High School Alumni Association
Inducts its Hall of Fame Members for 2010
The Perry Hall
High
School Alumni Association is proud to announce five new inductees into
the Perry Hall High School Hall of Fame, a registry that honors the
most outstanding graduates of Perry Hall High School. The 2010 class
was honored at the Alumni Association’s bull roast on Jan. 31 at
Columbus Gardens.
“We are delighted to induct these ‘best and brightest’ from our alma
mater into the Perry Hall High School Hall of Fame,” commented Shannon
Otakie Bray, President of the Perry Hall High School Alumni
Association. The inductees are:
Charles
“Bud” Heil, Jr., Class of 1966; Steven John Melewski, Class of 1978;
Dara Ann Lawrence, Class of 1986 and Scott Kennell, Class of 1994.
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