Around Maryland

Wednesday was the start of the Washington Wizards winter reading challenge, a free-to-join challenge that aims to encourage early readers, children and teens to build reading habits and connect with local libraries. Montgomery County Public Libraries partnered with the D.C. basketball team to promote the challenge, which runs from Jan. 3 to March 20.

As part of an initiative to connect with a diverse community, Anne Arundel County Public Schools has launched Facebook pages specifically tailored for families fluent in Chinese, Korean, Urdu, and Vietnamese. “The creation of these additional Facebook pages is a tremendous step forward in fulfilling our commitment to ensure every student and every family in AACPS genuinely has a sense of belonging in their school,” said Joanna Bache Tobin, president of the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County.

Property values rose 46.1% in Worcester County, according to the state’s latest reassessment. The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) announced the 2024 reassessment of nearly 800,000 “Group 3” properties last week. Statewide, the overall value for that group of properties was up 23.4% since the last reassessment three years ago.

The Maryland Energy Administration on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to help K-12 public schools across the state reduce and eliminate carbon emissions. The Decarbonizing Public Schools Program will provide capital to help local education agencies more fully incorporate a wide range of clean energy and energy efficiency measures into Maryland’s public schools.

Have New Year’s fitness goals or just itching to play a game of pickup basketball? If you’re a Montgomery County, Maryland, resident, you can have full access to fitness rooms and many recreational activities for free this year. The county announced on Dec. 27 that free RecFit passes will be available again after their extreme popularity last year.

The University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health unveiled a 130,000-square-foot medical center in Aberdeen on Wednesday that will provide care for thousands of patients as part of a $260 million plan to grow the health care system in Harford County.\ The University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center Aberdeen combines a traditional emergency department with a behavioral health pavilion at 660 McHenry Road.

Daniela Krahe likely will never know the tall gentleman’s name. He was dead when they met, so she didn’t get the chance to ask. She’ll never know where the man grew up or whether he had siblings. She won’t know what made him laugh, what movies he liked to watch or what meal his mother used to make him when he was sick.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Frederick County notably increased at the start of December and have remained at about the same level coming into the new year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The overall rate of hospitalizations related to respiratory viruses across the state, including COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also rose after Thanksgiving and exceeded 10 hospitalizations per 100,000 residents throughout December.

Chronic absenteeism in Harford County Public Schools declined during the 2022-23 school year, according to a presentation at a Harford County Board of Education meeting last month. Harford County high schoolers saw the highest percentage of chronic absenteeism throughout the district at 28.3% during the last school year, according to the presentation.