Around Maryland

The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore held a Mass for Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday to remember his legacy on the church. Though he is known as the first pope in 600 years to resign, Pope Benedict’s legacy is larger than that. Sean Caine, former director of communications for the Archdiocese of Baltimore said he remembers Pope Benedict in another way.

Some residents of Columbia, Maryland, rallied to the side of the community’s top leader against what they say is an attempt to fire her after 18 months on the job. Supporters of Lakey Boyd, president and CEO of the Columbia Association, the homeowners association which manages the community of about 105,000, held a rally in Columbia Monday to warn association board members not to oust Boyd. Residents spoke out in favor of Boyd’s leadership. “Lakey embodies what Columbia was built on, future thinking and community focus — live, work and play,” said resident Laura Bacon. She said that since Boyd took leadership of the association in April 2021, she has made every effort to connect with Columbia residents of all backgrounds.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore will hold a Mass on Thursday in honor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died Saturday. The Mass will take place Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. “Priests throughout the Archdiocese are warmly invited to concelebrate this Mass,” Most Rev. William E. Lori, the archbishop of Baltimore, wrote on the archdiocese’s website. Lori asked the faithful to pray for the repose of the soul of the former pope, who was the first to resign in 600 years. “Pope Benedict was a man of deep faith and keen intellect who placed his considerable gifts at the service of Christ and his bride the Church,” Lori said in the statement on the archdiocese’s website.

Yasmine Young is the historian of her family. As such, she has bought and is in the long process of restoring her family’s big house in Ashburton, built in the 1920s. She’s traced her family’s history back eight generations, including 352 ancestors who came to Baltimore from Virginia and the Eastern Shore. She’s also keeping alive traditions passed down throughout the years. One is Manning’s Hominy at the breakfast table. A corn product first produced in a Canton backyard and one of the last canned goods to leave Baltimore, Manning’s has a more than 100-year legacy in area kitchens. Think of it like Charm City’s answer to grits.

A public argument over the direction of Maryland’s second largest city erupted Monday as a group of residents called for the recall of Columbia Association board members to prevent them from ousting the association’s top paid staff member. The board has not commented on speculation that it is about to remove association president, Lakey Boyd, who believes the heart of the issue is the tension between old and new in a growing community of 104,000 residents. Two board members reached Monday declined to comment.

As we look forward to the second half of our school year, Baltimore City school staff, the Baltimore Teachers Union and Baltimore City Public Schools need to work on an overhaul of teacher salaries and the teacher evaluation process. According to data from the Maryland State Department of Education, the salaries of Baltimore City teachers with master’s degrees became the lowest among Maryland jurisdictions in 2020. Starting salaries for Baltimore teachers now rank at No. 20 out of 24 school districts.

Maryland’s second-largest school system reached a tentative agreement with its teachers union this week, after a roughly two-month impasse. The Prince George’s County Educators’ Association — which represents about 10,000 educators — announced the agreement in a statement Wednesday. The union characterized the deal as making “strides on empowering educators to lead the district,” but there was little information shared about the agreement’s details. A spokeswoman for the union said further details will be released in September, when the contract is ratified.