Around Maryland

The $32 million overhaul of Baltimore's Montebello Elementary-Middle School includes 307 new windows, a revamped gym and auditorium and high-tech wiring with large touch screens to replace traditional chalkboards. The project to redevelop the 100-year-old academic landmark on a hill overlooking Lake Montebello has been in the works for 18 months as part of the $1.1 billion 21st Century School Buildings program that so far has replaced, revamped and renovated 26 city schools over the past six years.

 In Baltimore, the Maryland community with the highest numbers of needy students and the most demand for experienced teachers, the salaries of teachers with a master’s degree decreased from 2010 to 2020 to the lowest in the state, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Education. The average salaries for Baltimore teachers with a master’s degree declined from $72,758 in 2010, when it was among the middle of pay for such teachers in the state, to $64,405 in 2020, the data shows. The salary was more than $8,000 lower than what teachers with master’s degrees were paid in Garrett County, the next lowest pay for a Maryland school district.

Maryland’s public defenders on Tuesday voted to join the largest union for state government employees, more than two years after launching a unionization push. The state’s Office of the Public Defender employs some 600 lawyers, paralegals, social workers and administrative assistants, with outposts in every Maryland county and Baltimore, to represent marginalized people accused of crimes. Tuesday’s landslide vote means the office’s attorneys and support staff will be represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and immediately reap the protections of AFSCME’s contract with the Maryland.

Johns Hopkins University graduate students have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to create a union, an important step toward a union election. As part of the push to unionize an estimated 3,335 Hopkins graduate students under the Teachers and Researchers United (TRU) banner, the group looks to join United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Organizers filed the petition on Dec. 2 and plan to host a union election next semester. The organizers hope to provide a minimum yearly stipend of at least $40,000 a year to workers, ensure on-time payments, make reforms to the grievance process and provide visa assistance for international students and other changes to create better working conditions for graduate students. The group would represent students who currently provide instructional and research services to the Baltimore institution.

Baltimore City Public School students inside Claremont Middle and High School gathered on Friday to learn the fundamentals of computer coding. High school senior Felicia Mosely-Putman stood in the hallway of Claremont with green and purple tiles from Sphero Kits. “It’s fun and I hope we keep doing it,” said Mosely-Putman. She worked together with seniors Jason Ford, Tashauna Fisher, and Ciera Luck on the project during computer science education week where students dedicate one hour each day to learn computer coding. Ford chimed in, “It’s fun, we enjoy coding and working with different people.” National non-profit Code.org awarded $10,000 each to Claremont and Maree G. Farring Elementary and Middle School for teachers to purchase new technology and develop computer science courses.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Monday scheduled oral argument for Feb. 2 to consider an appeal from the family of Hae Min Lee seeking a redo of a hearing at which a judge threw out the conviction of Adnan Syed for her killing — a case that received worldwide attention in the podcast “Serial.” Steve Kelly, an attorney representing Young Lee, Hae Min Lee’s brother, contends that his client neither received adequate notice nor an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the hearing — in violation of his rights as a victim of crime in Maryland.

An annual audit of Baltimore’s finances found instances of serious fault with how well the city adheres to rules governing federal contracts. City Comptroller Bill Henry noted Monday that a company that contracts with the city to review city finances had found four “significant deficiencies” concerning contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during fiscal year 2021.