Around Maryland

State officials hired a new contractor to process payments to behavioral health providers, ditching a troubled system that wreaked havoc in the treatment community at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was increasing demand for mental health and addiction services. A state spending board approved the new contract Wednesday for up to nearly $340 million with Boston-based Carelon Behavioral Health Inc. replacing one with Minnesota-based Optum Inc., a subsidiary of the managed care giant UnitedHealth Group.

Within just a few months of living in Piątek, a small town in central Poland, Leah Michaels, M.F.A ’21, intermedia and digital arts, has already traveled to Romania, where many recipients of the Fulbright U.S. Student award placed throughout Europe gathered at a media literacy conference.

Dressed in matching red heart headbands and necklaces, a pair of volunteers roamed the halls of LifeBridge Health Carroll Hospital Tuesday visiting patients alongside Raven, an 11-year-old Dalmatian outfitted in a red T-shirt, red tutu, pink and red bows and painted red nails.

Maryland’s first chief of the unit tasked with investigating police fatalities is leaving for a new role, she confirmed Tuesday. Dana Mulhauser was hired by the state in 2021 to helm its new Independent Investigations Division, a part of the state Attorney General’s Office. She left earlier this month and will become Everytown for Gun Safety’s deputy director of affirmative litigation.

Exterior improvements are complete on nearly a dozen downtown buildings. The mayor and City Council received an update on the facade makeovers at a work session Tuesday. The updates are part of a $950,000 downtown comprehensive investment program that matches grant funds for capital improvement projects including outside appearance of buildings, infrastructure and residential development.

A state audit shows at least eight Maryland school systems didn’t use $12.3 million designated for students in underserved communities. According to the document from the Office of the Inspector General for Education, officials with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) didn’t provide training and guidance for local school officials to utilize what are known as concentration of poverty grants.

The Harford County school board backed Superintendent Sean Bulson’s budget request Monday night in a 6-3 vote. Bulson proposed a budget with a $47.3 million or 7.7% increase over the current school year mostly by asking the county government for an increase in local funding of $40 million.

When Geraldine Giordano started classes at Anne Arundel Community College, the native of Colombia spoke little English. On her way to earning her associate’s degree in business and administration, she took nine courses in English, progressing to reading and writing academic papers in her second language.