Around Maryland

There’s one thing some Howard County residents do not want forgotten: The county is a farming and agriculture hub, and its flag pays tribute to that with a shock of wheat in the upper-left corner. But when the flag was designed in 1968, it was a different time. The U.S. had not yet landed on the moon and the Beatles were about to break up. The county looked a little different, too.

At the end of the summer, CentroNía Martha Gudelsky Child Development Center will open at the old Silver Spring Library in Montgomery County, Maryland. The library operated for nearly 60 years, but will now provide early learning opportunities to nearly 130 children up to age 5. CentroNía’s President and CEO Myrna Peralta said this has been nearly 10 years in the making.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones, 59, announced Wednesday that he will end his 38-year career on the department and five-year tenure as police chief on July 1 when he retires. MoCo360 spoke with Jones to ask him to reflect on his time as chief of police and how he addressed challenges, like increases in gun violence and juvenile, and the pandemic.

The Baltimore County executive and the county’s Education Foundation are giving up to $1 million in scholarships for people of color and women in STEM pursuing a teaching career in the district’s public schools. The Growing Our Own for BCPS Scholarship aims to attract and retain more high-quality teachers to the school system and create a more diverse teacher workforce, according to a Thursday news release from the county.

A regional veterans court has been approved for Frederick and Washington counties, and a presiding judge is hoping to start hearing cases this summer. “I’m very excited. I’m very happy,” said District 11 Administrative Judge Eric Schaffer. “It’s been a long process.” Last year, Schaffer, an Army veteran, studied the need for a veterans court in District 11, which is Frederick and Washington counties.

After about a year of negotiations, Baltimore’s teachers will get significant pay increases — worth about $50 million — under a tentative contract approved by city schools and teachers union negotiators on Tuesday. If ratified by a vote of the entire teachers union and approved by the city school board in February, the new three-year contract would give the greatest increases to both ends of the scale — veterans and the least-experienced teachers.

As the filing deadline approaches for Anne Arundel County school board races, four incumbents are seeking reelection while three others haven’t filed to run, meaning there might be a few fresh faces on the board after the November election. As of Wednesday, 10 candidates had filed or announced their attention to run for seven seats in the purple county, where Democrats control the top offices. Interested persons have until 9 p.m. on Feb. 9 to file.

Frederick County elected officials advocated before the state’s Budget and Taxation Committee on Wednesday for a bill they argue is a first step toward a more equitable formula for school funding. Senate Bill 385, sponsored by state Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-3), initially included alterations to the formula that would have aimed to eliminate what officials call a “funding lag” that hurts growing districts.

So the Orioles are heading to new ownership, with John Angelos agreeing to sell the team to Baltimore native David Rubenstein and a group of investors that includes Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. Rubenstein will be the “control person” overseeing the the operation of the franchise and communications with Major League Baseball. John Angelos took over the role in 2020 for his father Peter, the team’s majority owner, due to the patriarch’s declining health.