Around Maryland

Facing another funding shortfall, the Washington County Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday morning to cut nearly $3.7 million from a funding pool for potential raises as a way to balance its $348 million budget. School system officials said that leaves the school board with enough money to provide at least a 3% pay raise for employees, though negotiations are continuing with the three employee groups.

Less than three months after a massive container ship struck the Key Bridge, sending it collapsing into the Patapsco River and killing six workers, officials shook hands with port workers and celebrated the reopening of the river’s shipping channel on Wednesday — marking the end of a crucial phase of the response to the catastrophe.

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The Baltimore County school board voted unanimously to reshuffle the district’s language curriculum Tuesday night, cutting 25 classes from the course catalog that administrators say were mostly elective, mislabeled or redundant. Courses in Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, German and Hebrew, as well as English as a second language, were cut.

The Frederick County Board of Education on Wednesday night narrowly voted to reallocate $1.5 million that would’ve gone to a trust fund dedicated to post-employment benefits and use it to restore the Remote Virtual Program for middle schoolers and cut back newly increased athletic fees from $205 to $185. The board eliminated the Remote Virtual Program (RVP) for grades 3 to 8 during its meeting on May 15 to help balance Frederick County Public Schools’ fiscal year 2025 operating budget.

In the days before Anne Arundel County is required to pass its fiscal 2025 budget, the County Council voted to reallocate more than $3 million in education funding in light of the delayed opening of New Village Academy. The charter high school, originally planned to open this fall in the former Nordstrom space at the Westfield Annapolis Mall, will delay its opening to fall 2025 after being unable to finalize a lease.

Posters of the Eiffel Tower, pictures of the Great Wall of China and French and Chinese flags will be the likely reminders for students to check their English at the door and immerse themselves in another language and culture. That’s at least the goal of Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School, which will soon become Baltimore County’s first language immersion school and its second charter school.

Shopping carts are being abandoned all over the place in Salisbury. It’s caught the attention of city leaders and they’ve had enough. Officials are working up legislation to get those carts back home and off the streets. At the City Council meeting on June 10th, officials held a first reading for the ordinance. If passed, the legislation would make it illegal for anyone to temporarily or permanently remove a shopping cart from a store’s property.

Anne Arundel County on Tuesday announced a new register of wills, Jasmine M. Jackson, following the resignation of her predecessor for misconduct in office. Previously an auditor in the office for 14 years, Jackson replaces Erica Griswold, who resigned after pleading guilty to charges stemming from cashing a cashier’s check intended for her office, according to a news release from the state prosecutor’s office.

Maryland fell behind a majority of states on markers of childhood health, as kids experience higher rates of obesity or being overweight and tens of thousands of children still do not have health care, according to a report released Monday. The 2024 Kids Count Data Book, which is based on data from 2022, ranked Maryland 27th out of the 50 states for kids’ health. Maryland has been slowly falling in the rankings in recent years.