Around Maryland

Two seats on Baltimore City’s school board were up for grabs this election cycle with voters choosing from four candidates with strong ties to education and equity. School board races in Maryland are nonpartisan with the city’s school board members elected at-large to serve four-year terms. Candidates April Christina Curley, Ashley Esposito, Salimah Jasani and Kwame Kenyatta-Bey appeared on the ballot vying for two seats.

In Maryland’s Montgomery County, wastewater is now being monitored to detect COVID-19, with the aim of getting ahead of any winter surges. “Wastewater surveillance will be a game changer for our efforts to better predict outbreaks and prevent them from happening,” said County Executive Marc Elrich, in a news release. “With winter around the corner, we want to be prepared if there is another surge in COVID-19 cases and this surveillance system helps us do that.” The county first announced plans for the surveillance in March. The county is collecting water samples twice a week at five sites and sending them to the University of Maryland for analysis. The data then goes to the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services.

Hundreds of elementary school students were surprised with free tickets to see the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Sunday at The Senator Theatre. The lucky students at City Springs Elementary Middle School learned of their reward Monday morning. And they were excited. “I feel really good because we worked hard for it, student Amira said. The premiere is a collaboration between WJZ and The Baltimore Baltimore, which puts on a day at the movies for hundreds of school children. The event features the premiere, concessions and inspirational messages from WJZ talent, the Baltimore Banner, and Ravens players.

Meteorologist Justin Berk took Elmer Wolfe Elementary by storm Monday with a presentation for about 400 students on severe weather. Berk’s Storm Smart assembly is designed to teach children about a spectrum of weather, including clouds, rainbows and storms. It also includes information about how to classify storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. Berk said student anxiety levels are often high regarding severe weather and his presentation helps kids become better prepared for and less anxious about storms. “I cover a lot of things,” Berk said, “and some kids will remember one thing while other kids remember something else — as long as the kids remember something. Then, I encourage them to repeat it or tell their parents when they go home.”

Howard County residents are no strangers to Maryland Area Rail Commuter trips across the Baltimore-Washington region. But what today’s commuters might not know is they are riding the same rail system used by famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass nearly 150 years ago. From his post-Civil War-era home in Washington, D.C., Douglass could walk down to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad depot at 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and catch a train north. He would have disembarked at what is now the MARC Savage and Jessup stations for his visits to Howard County. “[He could] probably be in Howard County, if he caught the right train, within an hour, hour and a half, maybe even less,” said Columbia resident and local historian John Muller, author of the 2012 book “Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia.”