Around Maryland

At Broadneck High School a mural is in progress in a school bathroom with a silhouette, flowers and a statement: “You spend most of the time in your mind, make sure it is a beautiful place to be.” The painting began last year as part of a community project for the school’s Student Alliance for Flourishing, a new initiative in Anne Arundel County Public Schools funded by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Now in five high schools and three middle schools in Anne Arundel, the alliance uses a scale with six determinants of well-being or flourishing: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships and financial and material stability.

Despite unanimously requesting analysis of the plan a week prior, on Wednesday the Howard County Board of Education rejected another alternative redistricting proposal put forward by Elkridge residents. The motion to move forward with the Elkridge proposal, or “scenario 5,” failed 5-1, with only board member Christina Delmont-Small voting in favor. Board member Yun Lu was not present for the vote.

Anne Arundel County biking enthusiasts are celebrating a banner cycle of state grant funding for upgrading, extending and improving bike trails. Late last month, the Maryland Department of Transportation announced $35.6 million in combined state and federal funding for 53 bike and pedestrian projects. A significant chunk of the money is earmarked for projects in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, most notably, $2 million for extending the Poplar Trail from Taylor Avenue to Calvert Street.

Student success, teacher salaries, fiscal responsibility and censorship were among the topics candidates for the Harford County Board of Education discussed during a virtual forum on Tuesday evening, hosted by the League of Women Voters. Seven candidates spoke to more than 60 online viewers on issues important to them, with a pitch for why they should be elected to the school board.

Prince George’s County Schools CEO Monica E. Goldson recommended delaying the consolidation of two elementary schools Wednesday, after parents pushed back against an earlier boundary proposal that would have closed four campuses by next school year. Goldson’s recommendation came as the system reaches its final steps in revising its school boundaries in an effort to balance enrollment in different parts of the county. Some schools — particularly in the northern part of the county — have struggled with overcrowding, and more students are projected to enroll in the school system in the coming years.

“Tár,” the buzzy new feature film starring Cate Blanchett about a pioneering — and predatory — female classical music conductor, has become an unwelcome and troubling distraction for Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s music director laureate. The movie is entirely fictitious, as the writer-director Todd Field makes clear.