Wednesday, November 27, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
FOLLOW US:

Around Maryland

Howard school board asks community what kind of superintendent it wants next

The Howard County Public School System is seeking public input on the national search for a permanent superintendent of schools. An online survey will be open through April 5, Board of Education President Jennifer Mallo announced at the school board meeting Monday evening. “We are looking forward to massive amounts of data collection for that,” Mallo said.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Baltimore wants to sell $1 vacants. Don’t expect the ’70s Dollar House program.

Have a buck? Then you may soon be able to afford a vacant rowhome in many Baltimore neighborhoods. The offer sounds like a steal, reminiscent of the famed 1970s Dollar House program that helped rebuild Baltimore neighborhoods like Otterbein. But city housing officials have stressed that their plan today is narrower — applying to a small fraction of Baltimore’s thousands of vacant properties.

 

baltimore,pier,ocean beach,city at night,yacht
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gives $2M awards to Baltimore nonprofits

MacKenzie Scott was a child of privilege, and educated at Princeton where she studied creative writing under Toni Morrison. She was previously married to someone named Jeff Bezos and together they started a company in Seattle called Amazon that has done quite well in the few decades it has existed. Now an accomplished novelist, one of the world’s wealthiest women and a famous philanthropist, Scott has distributed her fortune methodically, leaning hard into social causes.

Maryland’s teacher shortage: Will the Blueprint’s plan for better pay, training do enough?

Fifth-grade teacher Melissa Carpenter works a 10-hour day on average during the week, and her job sometimes requires her to put in hours on weekends, too. “I feel like teaching is one of those jobs where we go to work to do more work — to do work after work,” said Carpenter, who teaches at William B. Wade Elementary School in Waldorf, in Charles County. Carpenter’s long hours are far from unique among Maryland’s educators, as the state and nation grapple with a teacher shortage.

 

UMBC failed to protect athletes sexually assaulted by swim coach for years, DOJ finds

A three-year United States Department of Justice investigation released Monday found that University of Maryland Baltimore County knew about allegations of sexual assault, harassment and discrimination by a former head coach and failed to protect the students on his team. The investigation found that the university did not devote enough resources to comply with Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in education, which allowed Chad Cradock, who coached the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, “to do as he pleased without consequence, including engaging in physical sexual assaults” against students between 2015 and 2020.

Annual Westminster event for grandparents raising grandchildren aims to help caregivers navigate challenges

Part of Nicole Ranoull’s job as Maryland Access Point information and assistance manager at Carroll County’s Bureau of Aging and Disabilities is to help grandparents and older relatives who are faced with being the primary caregiver for young children. Though the bureau does not keep statistics on how many older residents are caring for young children in Carroll, Ranoull said about 20 individuals regularly access the Family Caregiver Support Program. She believes there are many more people who are not taking advantage of resources offered by the program.

 

Carroll officials approve road work priority list for 2025

A $504,000 study of a proposal to widen Route 97 between Route 140 and Bachman Valley Road in Westminster is expected to be completed soon, Mary Lane, bureau chief of Carroll County’s Bureau of Comprehensive Planning, said last week. Lane spoke at a meeting of the Board of Carroll County Commissioners on Thursday and said the bureau expects the study, which looks at the widening of the road from three to five lanes, including a new intersection at Meadow Branch Road, is slated to be complete this spring.

 

SquashWise looks to bridge racial gap after purchasing Greyhound station

SquashWise is working to introduce Baltimore City School students to a new sport and improve their education all while preserving a historic building. Squash is a racket sport for multiple players using a small rubber ball inside a four-walled court. SquashWise in Baltimore has been operating since 2008. It’s the only public school squash program in the city. It primarily works with students who live in under-served communities

Read More: WMAR
Captured in a metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia primary school, this photograph depicts a typical classroom scene, where an audience of school children were seated on the floor before a teacher at the front of the room, who was reading an illustrated storybook, during one of the scheduled classroom sessions. Assisting the instructor were two female students to her left, and a male student on her right, who was holding up the book, while the seated classmates were raising their hands to answer questions related to the story just read.
‘Crumbling Schools’: Lawmaker links poor Baltimore school conditions to lack of state funding

A state lawmaker who represents Baltimore City and oversees K-12 education funding said she wants her colleagues to visit Baltimore City Public Schools campuses to see the conditions of the buildings. Baltimore City Delegate Stephanie Smith, D-District 45, agrees that the issue is funding and said some people need to see it to believe it. “I just think we have to continue to make the case to our colleagues that our students are going to schools they wouldn’t even want their pets to enter,” Smith told 11 News Investigates.

Read More: WBALTV
She’s the only Black woman leading a state military. Her focus is on the future

She was born and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to “a family who was about service.” Major Gen. Janeen Birckhead is the 31st Adjutant General for the state of Maryland and is currently the only Black woman in the country to lead a state military. “I have been fortunate in my positions along the way to really be in good units with good mentors and leaders who have been able to give me some really good guidance about what steps to take next and where to go,” Birckhead told WTOP.

 

Read More: WTOP

The Morning Rundown

We’re staying up to the minute on the issues shaping the future. Join us on the newsletter of choice for Maryland politicos and business leaders. It’s always free to join and never a hassle to leave. See you on the inside.