Around Maryland

The Maryland State Department of Education’s (MSDE) draft literacy policy aims to establish a framework to support students and teachers. Yet, the conversation around this policy has been dominated by the issue of retention. By doing so, we are overlooking its broader intent: creating a robust support system.f

As the 2024-25 academic year begins at Baltimore County Public Schools, drivers should watch out for school buses that are newly installed with safety cameras. BCPS launched a new program Monday, the first day of school, that equipped all school buses with interior and exterior automated cameras to discourage drivers from passing while blinking, red lights are on.

Howard County public schools opened for the new school year Monday with a new superintendent, Bill Barnes, who officially took on his new role July 1. In an interview earlier this month, Barnes said his first 90 days on the job will be characterized by a focus on transportation, budgeting, human resources, learning, strategic vision, implementing the multibillion-dollar Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform legislation, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

Before school bells ring Monday morning in Montgomery County, Maryland, the public school system held its 5th annual Back-to-School Fair at Westfield Wheaton Mall on Saturday. A big section of the mall’s parking garage was used as space for the fun and games, immunizations and health checks. Meanwhile, row after row of tables bearing useful information were staffed by personnel ready to answer any questions by students and families.

A new summer nutrition program that one advocate called a “game-changer” reached 586,734 children this summer, 43,000 more than state officials had expected, according to recent numbers from the Maryland Department of Human Services. But officials said there is still time to sign up for the program, and were encouraging families to do so before the Aug. 31 deadline, in order to get $120 per child for grocery assistance.

The University of Maryland, College Park joined a new national program this year that allows colleges and universities to privately sponsor and resettle academically qualified refugee students. UMD is one of 17 higher education institutions across the country to enroll refugee students in Welcome Corps on Campus, which launched in July 2023. One such student will attend the school this year.

You, too, might be able to own a 596-foot-long, nuclear-powered floating time capsule that has been visited by a million and a half people, features a ballroom, bar and swimming pool, and once was a star attraction on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight” show. The Nuclear Ship (N.S.) Savannah — the first nuclear-powered ship ever built explicitly for peacetime purposes — has been moored in a quiet corner of the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore since 2008.

For the second time in a year and a half, Victor found himself in the hospital after one of his three kids woke up with excruciating pain. The first cockroach pulled from his 8-year-old’s ear was alive. Another one had died inside. Bugs were not the only problem that Victor, 33, said was plaguing his apartment in Brooklyn, a neighborhood in South Baltimore.