Laughter and giggling could be heard throughout the Oxon Hill High School gymnasium as freshmen were asked questions relating to parts of the female and male anatomies and about common justifications for having sex or for not using protection during sex.

But toward the end of the questions, the issue of sex was no longer a laughing matter for students who said the assembly Wednesday on STD awareness encouraged them to consider better lifestyle choices.

Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. may be used to putting out political fires, but Friday they dealt with the real thing as they entered a smoking building at the county’s Fire/EMS training facility in Cheltenham and doused the fire inside.

The two officials weren’t considering a new line of work, but rather donned firefighting gear to demonstrate the skills 24 students at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale will learn through a new two-year fire science academy.

After failing to convince school officials to keep existing boundaries, parents at the two Bowie elementary schools most widely affected say their focus now is to make the transition easy for hundreds of local students set to move to new schools next year.

Children take their cues from their parents, and the message now is to set a positive example for them, said Dawn Wampler, co-vice president of the PTO at Heather Hills Elementary, about the choices now facing parents of more than 100 children at her school, where two-thirds of the students are in the Talented and Gifted program.

Also moving will be about 100 students from Rockledge Elementary to Yorktown Elementary, about three miles away, after a vote Jan. 18 by the Prince George’s County Board of Education.

Before arriving at Capitol Heights Elementary School in 2009, Principal Herman Whaley knew it would take more than teachers to boost the school's test scores.

Whaley brought to Capitol Heights Elementary the concept of a community think tank — a network of businesses, churches and nonprofits that donate goods and tutor children — that an area school board member now wants to replicate in more central Prince George’s County schools after the think tank’s volunteerism resulted in some of the county's biggest gains on the Maryland School Assessment in 2011. Whaley said it’s a think tank and not a partnership, because the idea was to get local organizations around a table and think outside the box on how to fit his school's needs.

School Board member Carolyn Boston (Dist. 6) invited civic associations and principals from schools such as Landover’s William Paca Elementary and Capitol Heights’ Carmody Hills Elementary schools to Capitol Heights Elementary on Jan. 12 to ask questions of the think tank and see how their model possibly could be duplicate

The Prince George’s County school board voted 8-1 to approve a plan that will affect about 4,000 students in the 2012-2013 school year as the school system looks to balance enrollment numbers across the county’s nearly 200 schools.

The controversial plan to alter school boundaries, shift some sixth-grade students into middle schools and offer new buildings to specialty programs drew more than 30 speakers — parents, students, teachers and county residents — at the Jan. 18 special meeting in Upper Marlboro after almost three months of public input on the issue.

“If my teachers have taught me anything, it’s to not give up on what you love and I love this school,” Samantha Lawson, a fifth-grade student at Heather Hills Elementary School in Bowie, told the board. “Please don’t kick me out of my school.”

As Heather Hills Elementary turns into a talented and gifted, or TAG, center for about 375 second- through fifth-grade students under the plan of boundary and program changes, Samantha and about 65 others will be rezoned to Kenilworth Elementary School, about two miles away in Bowie, because they are not part of the TAG program.

Glenarden Woods Elementary School also will become a TAG center for more than 400 elementary students, adding about 575 seats for students in county TAG centers, said Johndel Jones-Brown, the director of pupil accounting and student boundaries.

“Nearly eliminating the TAG waiting list is a very important thing,” said board member Henry P. Armwood Jr. (Dist. 7). “We’re not serving near the number of students we could be serving. Everyone who is identified as TAG should be entitled to that support.”

This support ensures TAG students receive more individualized instruction that challenges them and meets their academic needs, said Joseph L. Kitchen Jr., the president of the Prince George’s Association of Talented and Gifted Education, a parents’ group that advocates for TAG programs.

Students in the autism program at Tayac Elementary School in Fort Washington also need specialized support, parents argued at the meeting. The 17 students in Tayac’s program will be moved to Rosaryville Elementary School in Upper Marlboro, a move that will offer the growing program more space and will increase the efficiency of the busing route, Jones-Brown said.

Terrence Letko, of Accokeek, said his 9-year-old son Daniel, a fourth-grade student in the autism program at Tayac, could be on a school bus for an hour and 20 minutes, up from 40 minutes this year, to get to Rosaryville, which is 10 miles east of Tayac.

The longer travel time leaves less time for homework, said Letko, who also is concerned that the class sizes will be larger at Rosaryville. Daniel now has three classmates.

Instead of solving math problems with pencil and paper in Christina Jerome's eighth-grade classroom at Charles Carroll Middle School, students add and subtract with a simple swipe of a finger.

They're using iPads to take notes, study for quizzes and review homework, part of a federally funded experiment that county leaders say should serve as a national model for integration of new technology into the classroom.

"I can't stand paper," said Jerome, who uses the tablet computers to get instant feedback on student performance in class. "If I have the students use the eClicker app on the iPad, I can immediately see how many students got the right answer and which students need help."

Using a $1.3 million stimulus grant funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,Prince George's Countyis providing iPads to 3,000 students at four middle schools where a majority of pupils qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, known as Title I schools.

The program is aimed at preparing students for a digital future, said Meri Robinson, technology specialist for the county's Title I office.

 

Prince George’s residents may weigh in on the proposed fiscal 2013 budget for Prince George’s County Public Schools at two community forums later this month.

The forums, which both start at 6:30 p.m., are scheduled for Tuesday at Gwynn Park Middle School in Brandywine and Jan. 25 at Cora L. Rice Elementary School in Landover.

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. presented the budget at the Jan. 5 school board meeting, and the first public forum took place Wednesday at Laurel High School.

Before Wednesday’s Prince George’s County Board of Education budget hearing, Laurel High School English and journalism teacher Robert Giuliani handed out copies of the school’s award-winning student newspaper. Giuliani was at the meeting to express his concerns about Superintendent Dr. William R. Hite Jr.’s proposed $1.6 billion budget — and how it might affect programs like his journalism course.

Wednesday’s meeting at Laurel High School was the first of three community forums this month regarding the superintendent’s proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year. Hite, along with the school system’s Chief Financial Officer Matt Stanski, outlined plans for the budget before a group of about 30 Prince George’s County community members. Although the proposed revenue for 2013 looks nearly identical to that of 2012, there are some drastic changes in the decision-making process for how school budgets should be spent.

In the past, the county’s central office dictated the budget and determined how much money each school received using a formula based on student enrollment. This year, the county is adopting the Student-Based Budgeting model, which will grant more control to the individual school communities and allow principals to make some staffing decisions.

The Student-Based Budgeting system assigns a base amount of $3,077 to each student and then allots additional funds based on specific needs of each school’s specific population, including poverty and academic performance.

The superintendent's proposed budget for Prince George's County's public schools would barely raise the school system's operating costs and includes no teacher layoffs.

William Hite's $1.61 billion budget, an increase of only $238,200 from last year's budget, requires cost-cutting measures in nearly every department of the public school system to compensate for declining revenue.

Prince George's Public Schools officials face a $44 million budget gap heading into fiscal 2013, one year after shedding about 700 teaching positions in sweeping cuts that reduced school spending by $13 million in 2012.

Declining enrollment and the precarious budget situations at the state and county levels required a conservative budgeting approach, Hite said.

Dr. William R. Hite Jr., Superintendent of Schools, presented his Fiscal Year 2013 Proposed Operating Budget to the Board of Education on Thursday, a $1.6 billion spending plan that reflects a stable fiscal outlook.     

The proposed budget includes a $238,200 increase over last year to bring the total budget to $1,614,596,800. 

The school system faces a $44 million budget gap due to declining enrollment and rising costs in employee health ($14 million) and retirement benefits ($2.2 million), and fuel ($1.3 million). 

“Despite our challenges in this tough economic climate, our goal is to create a budget that keeps  our schools moving forward,” said Dr. Hite. “We have made difficult cuts and we still face difficult decisions. However, we must focus our vision and priorities on the school district’s long-term success.”

The Prince George’s school board shut three dozen magnet programs after court-ordered desegregation ended in 2004. Diversity goals had become harder to achieve in the predominantly black school system, and officials found that extra program costs were not leading to better results. Now county schools offer a smaller number of “specialty programs” with goals of “raising student achievement and appealing to different students’ interests,” she said.

Experts say disparities appear to have complex causes. A disproportionate number of black students live below the poverty line or with a single parent, factors that affect disciplinary patterns. But experts say those factors do not fully explain racial differences in suspensions. Other contributing factors could include unintended bias, unequal access to highly effective teachers and differences in school leadership styles.

A robotic bunny armed with a rocket launcher fights zombies that can change shape in Chicago because the bunny needs chalk.

Sound like a video game that children might play?

Absolutely, said students who together created the game concept Saturday with help from Hyattsville native Gabriel Pendleton during the third annual Video Gaming Conference: Imagine-Innovation-Serious Play II, held at Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights.

Hosted by the nonprofit Patriots Technology Training Center based in Seat Pleasant, the half-day event introduced more than 50 students in grades five through 12 to some of the skills needed to work in the video game business, from designing the graphics to composing the music.

The technology center organizes workshops and competitions to encourage students to enter the S.T.E.M. fields of science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Pendleton, who currently tests and develops video games in Baltimore, randomly selected words off the lists made by the students to illustrate the basic elements of a video game — heroes, villains, weapons and goals — in a fun way.

The National Honor Society at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville is hosting its first coat drive this winter to provide warmth to those in need.

NHS co-sponsor Billy Shulman said the donation drive is run nearly entirely by the students as something they wanted to do for the community.

“This is something new that the students really wanted to do,” he said. “They’re trying to start a new tradition.”

A large donation bin is located inside the school’s main office for anyone interested in donating a gently used coat.

Her children have been taught by teachers who are black, Asian, white and Hispanic, those who are young and those a bit older, and teachers with foreign accents and those without. And for that, Kathryn Holmes Johnson is thankful.

The Glenn Dale mother’s daughters, Bailey and Peri — in fourth and seventh grades at Benjamin Foulois Creative and Performing Arts Academy in Morningside — have benefited greatly from the diversity of their teachers’ backgrounds, Johnson said.

In Prince George’s County, the percentage of teachers of color, 67 percent this year, is more than twice the statewide average of 26 percent last year, but the county still is working to close the gap between the vastly nonwhite student population and the diversity of teachers.

Proposed changes to Prince George’s school boundaries, grade structures and special programs should save the school system money, but many parents attending a series of public forums this week and last week on the plan are wary.

“We want our children to have more of a nurturing environment,” said Melissa Sweeney, who has two children at Mattaponi Elementary School in Upper Marlboro and opposes the plan to shift about 700 sixth-grade students countywide to middle schools next fall.

“We’re not ready for our elementary-schoolers to be exposed to [middle school],” she said, although Mattaponi Elementary is not slated for changes.

Children in Prince George’s County may one day be attending school year-round. That’s if the Board of Education (BOE) has its way. Year-round school is when a school’s schedule has several short breaks rather than that a long summer breaks. In November, the BOE in Prince George’s County voted in favor of the year round schedule.

The gist of the Nov. 16 news article “In search of Hispanic teachers” was that, because the number of Hispanic students is growing, Prince George’s County public schools and school systems elsewhere want to hire more Hispanic teachers. This is untenable as a matter of both law and logic.  

Federal civil-rights statutes and the Constitution forbid hiring teachers with an eye on race or ethnicity. The Supreme Court has expressly rejected the notion that faculty racial percentages should mirror student-body racial percentages (Hazelwood School District v. United States, 1977), as well as the “role model” justification for faculty discrimination (Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education, 1986). As Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. wrote in the latter case, “Carried to its logical extreme, the idea that [minority] students are better off with [minority] teachers could lead to the very system the Court rejected in Brown v. Board of Education.”

Being first to come up with the answers to questions such as “What year was Facebook founded?” and “What is the most-used search engine?”, Jabari Williams, 13, and his three-person team took first place in a “Jeopardy!”-style game Saturday that focused on popular technology.

“I'm into technology and social networking, so many of those questions were easy to answer,” said Jabari, an eighth-grade student at Ernest Everett Just Middle School in Mitchellville. “Plus I'm very competitive.”

The trivia game was one of several interactive and educational games played by both parents and students at the first Patro-Tech Game Show Summit in southern Prince George's County at Gwynn Park High School. The summit was hosted by the Patriots Technology Training Center and Prince George's County Councilman Mel Franklin (D-Dist. 9) of Upper Marlboro to encourage Prince George's youths to consider going into the “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering and math, which have become vital to the future of the county and the nation, Franklin said.

The surge in Hispanic students across the nation is forcing schools to reckon with a deep shortage of teachers who share their cultural heritage.

More than 21 percent of schoolchildren are Hispanic, experts report, compared with 7 percent of teachers. No other racial or ethnic minority group has such a wide disparity. In the struggle to close this gap, the stakes are high: Research suggests that a more diverse faculty might lead to better attendance, fewer suspensions and higher test scores.

"DEBT-FREE COLLEGE DEGREE" the Seminar will return to Camp Springs, MD on December 10, 2011 at 3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. to empower students to avoid debt and cut their post-secondary education expenses by more than half.

A college education is required to obtain a better job, but college costs are too expensive for most. Taking on student loan debt seems to be the only way to pay for college while the job market remains unstable. And since student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, a default can be catastrophic to borrowers, their families as well as the health of the U.S. economy.

Teachers’ union: Salary isn’t why people begin teaching, but it is why they leave the field

A first-year teacher with a bachelor’s degree in Prince George’s County Public Schools receives a $44,800 salary. Ten years later, that teacher would make about $56,500.

New research released Nov. 1 by two Washington, D.C.-based think tanks, American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, says that’s too much.

“There is this widespread perception that teachers are underpaid,” said Jason Richwine, one of the study’s authors and a senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation. “Teachers are not underpaid in salaries, and may, in some cases, be overpaid.”

The boundaries for several Prince George's County elementary and specialty schools might be shifting to address student enrollment shifts, with school officials considering moving sixth-graders from overcrowded elementary schools to underenrolled middle schools.

Officials hope the boundary changes will reduce the number of overenrolled elementary schools in the northern part of the county and make better use of underenrolled middle schools, address schools with confusing boundary lines, and acquire additional space for early childhood education.

For Teresa Saathoff, the decision on whether to send her 11-year-old son, Henry, to their neighborhood middle school is coming a year too early.

The grade span at Calverton Elementary, where Henry is a fifth-grader, used to be kindergarten through sixth. But Prince George’s County school officials decided to move the sixth grade to middle school to alleviate crowding. That means Henry will go to Martin Luther King Middle School next year instead of remaining at Calverton.

King is the only Prince George’s middle school that met federal benchmarks this year under the No Child Left Behind law, but Saathoff is concerned that Henry isn’t ready for the middle school environment.

Here’s something worth pondering: What grades should be included in middle schools?

This week, administrators have been touring Prince George’s County schools to discuss a number of issues, including whether to add sixth grade to some middle schools, making them 6-8 schools.

In many parts of the county, elementary school runs through grade 6 and middle school covers grades 7 and 8.

Officials say they are considering a shakeup of that formula because of elementary school crowding. I’m still checking out the data, but a cursory glance shows that eight of the 10 most crowded schools in Prince George’s are indeed elementary schools (excluding “early childhood centers”).

Two dozen children in bright aprons carefully drew and painted Cubist-style faces during an after-school art program Oct. 6 at Perrywood Elementary School in Largo.

The school’s Parent Teacher Association partnered with a local artist for the inaugural session of a program at low cost to parents to supplement the school system’s arts instruction.

“We want to get art back in the schools,” said Pam Virgil, the PTA secretary. “We want to teach them art beyond the basic level they’re learning here. We want them to start learning about the history of art.”

Art teachers in Prince George’s County rotate between three or four elementary schools, spending a couple of weeks to a month in each school, said Brenda T. Makle, the visual arts supervisor for the county school system.

A teen driver whose passenger commits a crime can be charged with conspiracy, even if the driver doesn't know about the crime, a judge told Prince George's County parents and students Saturday.

“It's probably my most difficult decision when I see so many of you young guys: Do I send you to adult court because you think you're big and bad, or do I keep you in juvenile court?” Herman C. Dawson, an associate judge for Prince George's County Circuit Court, told students in his “Guilt By Association” session at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale.

The superintendent of Prince George’s County schools was tapped in June for a two-year term on the board of the National Parent Teacher Association, the school system announced Monday.

William R. Hite Jr., who has been the head of the county school system since December 2008, will work with 27 other members of the Alexandria, Va.-based board, which aims to promote family and community engagement in education.

Two southern Prince George’s middle schools have been tapped for a $100,000 pilot program throughout the next year to stop youth gang violence, with the community-based effort possibly spreading elsewhere in the county and state if it’s successful.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and United Way of the National Capital Area announced the initiative Tuesday morning at Benjamin Stoddert Middle School in Temple Hills, where the 12-month program will be started along with Thurgood G. Marshall Middle, also in Temple Hills.

FEWER THAN HALF of the children from low-income families who qualify for a free or reduced-price breakfast through the federal food program are taking advantage of the opportunity — and it’s not because they aren’t hungry.

Bus schedules and frazzled morning routines prevent many children from getting to school early. Others are reluctant to go to cafeterias when doing so clearly labels them as needy. But children who skip breakfast not only lose nutritionally but also tend to do worse at school. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to provide this critical morning meal where it has the best chance of being eaten — in the classroom.

Prince George’s County schools are among the latest to join a growing national trend of schools that have moved breakfast from the cafeteria to the classroom. Thanks to the $3 million Breakfast in the Classroom initiative promoted by four leading hunger, nutrition and education nonprofits, Prince George’s, where school is already underway this year, is now equipped to improve breakfast services at the schools with the biggest populations of students from low-income families. In addition to moving breakfasts from the cafeteria to the classroom, the program — funded generously by the Wal-Mart Foundation — expands the meal to all students.

Firefighters want students at two Prince George's County schools to start learning before they even crack open their books.

The Capitol Heights Volunteer Fire Station is passing out book covers with fire prevention and safety tips to students at Capitol Heights Elementary School and Doswell E. Brooks Elementary School.

"We're targeting the elementary schools because we want to get people at an early age so they can start learning about fire safety early on," Chief James McClelland said.

On August 23, Barack Obama Elementary School welcomed the surviving members of the 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars Team. The team shared with students their story of being the only all Black little league team, in formerly segregated Charleston, SC.

“It is an honor to have the 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars Team visit with the students and staff of Barack Obama Elementary School,” said Pearl Harmon, principal, Barack Obama Elementary School. “I am thrilled that my students had the opportunity to engage in living legends who utilized unfortunate circumstances to create an extraordinary opportunity.”

A family in Prince George’s County recently told us their horror story. When the mom brought in her notice of consent to drop off in person:

“They asked for my photo ID and told me to have a seat. When they came back, they still wouldn’t give me my ID back. They said they had to have a conference with me about my information and what was required of me. There was nothing wrong with anything I gave them. After they read every single word of everything to me twice they finally gave me my ID back along with all the papers they just read to me ‘to take home and read.’ At one point I was even told I have to teach the exact same information and material as their local school they were attending when I took them out. I finally was able to leave 2½ hours later! I actually had to cancel a doctor’s appointment because of it.”

Today, U.S. Representative Donna Edwards joined Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III at the Hillcrest Heights Community Center, where the County and the American Red Cross have opened a shelter for residents displaced by yesterday’s earthquake. The visit was part of the Prince George’s County Government’s ongoing efforts to respond to yesterday’s events.

“The Prince George’s County government is going to be here for all of our students and all of our residents for as long as it takes to handle the aftermath of this earthquake,” said County Executive Rushern L. Baker, III. “We are going to get displaced residents back in their buildings and students back in their classrooms as quickly as possible, but only after those buildings have been deemed safe and secure. In the meantime, I ask that we, as a community, keep the families affected by this event in our thoughts and prayers, and I thank our agencies, the Red Cross and our citizen volunteers for all they’ve done for our citizens.”

Prince George’s County Public Schools were closed today while buildings were inspected for structural damage and safety.

“The safety of our students, teachers and staff is our number one priority,” said Dr. William R. Hite, Jr., Superintendent of Schools. “We are working as quickly as possible to get the necessary building inspections completed so that school can resume for all students.”

With 14 years in Prince George’s County Public Schools, Cheryl Hughes has worked as a teacher, vice principal and principal, but always has identified as an educator with a passion for helping children.

Hughes comes to Riverdale Elementary, after three years as the principal at Yorktown Elementary in Bowie.

“I was always driven by working with children,” she said. “I thought (teaching) was where I was going to be many years, but as opportunities came my way I took them.”

Since taking her new role, Hughes has met with the staff and with the executive board of the PTO.

“Great things are happening at Riverdale,” she said, noting the relationships between the school

Prince George's County Public Schools will host its inaugural Back-to-School Fair on Saturday, Aug. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, 7601 Hanover Pkwy., in Greenbelt. The event is open to all county students, teachers, staff, parents, community leaders and county agencies. The fair will provide parents and students with access to the resources needed for a successful school year. Guests will have the opportunity to speak with school representatives and get information on before- and after-school programs, school registration, PTA registration, school supplies and more.

Dr. Dukes has served as State Board vice president for the past two years. She is president of Prince George’s Community College and has had 27 years of progressive leadership experience and administrative responsibility in higher education. She is a former member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education, and has served in a variety of professional organizations, including the National Council on Student Development, the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the Maryland Network, an affiliate of the Office of Women in Higher Education/American Council on Education.

Parkdale High School in Riverdale will offer a few of its students a program in the coming year that will break new ground in Prince George’s County.

The program is banking — as in real people moving real cash.

Some Prince George’s County student sailors reached star status during a recent awards ceremony at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Honored by the Brendan Sail Training Program for Youth with Learning Differences, Gordon McIntire of Bowie and Stephen Hunt of Greenbelt earned the sailing stars award for their accomplishments in the 2010 program.

McIntire, who participated in the program at the Annapolis school, received the “NoGutsNoGlory” award in the 11-14 age group. The award is named after the sailboat “Nogutsnoglory,” owned by long-time program volunteers. During his award presentation, McIntire was described as someone who loves being on and around the water, and is always mindful of the environment and the needs of his fellow students. Program officials added that he is safety conscious for himself, as well as for others, and is always willing to lend a helping hand.

Chief strategy officer Brian Lewis said about 500 people have signed up for this year’s conference.

“This is a rare opportunity [for the presenters] to have a broad impact on what it is they have created,” he said. “They come with great passion and great expertise to this conference to share that knowledge.”

According to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, there are 257 certified teachers in Prince George’s County and 634 certified teachers in Montgomery County, including Messina-D’Haiti, Shetley and Johnson.

Shetley, who presented at a previous conference, said one benefit is allowing teachers to gain a national perspective of classrooms.

She will lead a seminar this year to expand teacher leadership outside the work environment and school community.

“We are so focused on the goals and needs of our own state that oftentimes we don’t get to hear from other practitioners without reading about them,” she said. “The conference provides first-hand information and opportunities to dialogue and work with folks across the entire country.”

Summer vacation may be in full swing, but on Saturday morning, a group of elementary school students sat in the North Brentwood Community Center and did their homework. Whether reading a book, writing unfamiliar vocabulary down and making a diorama inside a shoebox illustrating a scene from the book, the 15 students remained on task.

The students were taking part in North Brentwood's summer reading program, a six-week course aimed at boosting reading, writing and vocabulary skills. And while there was some grumbling about having to squeeze the work between camp commitments and video-game playing, students admitted that the program got results.

“There always has been trouble around that school,” he said. “My impression is that it’s [racial issues] between white and black and Hispanic. This area is what we call the poor side of town.”

The Hyattsville City Council on May 31 gave a slight nod to plans for a new Hyattsville elementary school after months of negotiating with the Prince George’s County school system to rework a number of things on the site, including traffic flow.

Paul Taylor, director of capital programs for Prince George’s County Public Schools brought a revised site plan, which has all school traffic removed from Nicholson Street.

During certain trips to games with her school’s soccer team, Bowie resident Faith Jackson wasn’t just thinking of her competition, but also why the junior varsity and varsity teams were on different buses when they could have ridden together.

Consolidating team trips to save the school system money in transportation is just one suggestion the 16-year-old Charles H. Flowers High School junior has as she takes on her role as Prince George’s County public schools’ newest student Board of Education member.

Sixteen Prince George's County public schools received national recognition this week for their efforts to increase healthy eating and physical activity for both students and staff.  Representatives from schools nationwide received their awards during the National Healthy Schools Forum in Little Rock, Arkansas, hosted by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. A total of 19 county schools have been recognized for their healthy efforts by the Alliance over the past year.

To earn these awards, schools revamped their meals service and physical activity programs to meet or exceeded stringent standards set by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program, which provides expert advice and free resources to more than 12,000 schools nationwide to help them reverse the national trend in childhood obesity. Schools are eligible for Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum National Recognition Awards based on their level of achievement.

Hollywood Elementary School is at 140 percent capacity, the former Friends School on Calvert Road remains closed, and the Prince George’s County School Department is facing budget cuts stemming from declining revenue that could make problems worse.

William Hite Jr., superintendent of schools for Prince George’s County, was on hand at Tuesday’s worksession of the College Park City Council to discuss local problems and his budget proposal, expected to be released Thursday.

The state budget restored some of the original cuts made to the budget in February, but certain programs will still see less money.

Being a parent is intensely rewarding, but also deeply challenging. Parents work to keep their kids safe and healthy while helping them grow into independent, well-adjusted young adults. Alcohol can seem so common and familiar that parents might forget how risky drinking is for young people. Alcohol kills more teens than all other illegal drugs combined. Underage drinking is especially prevalent as students take part in prom after-parties and celebrate their graduation from high school.

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) is partnering with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) in their Power of Parents program. Through funding provided by Nationwide Insurance and in partnership with the National PTA, the NFL, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American Association of School Administrators, MADD is sharing information through a workshop and handbook that can help parents substantially reduce the chances of underage drinking.

In Prince George’s County, where housing revenues continue to fall and a $100 million infusion of federal stimulus dollars has dried up, schools are particularly strained. The school board in February approved a budget that would eliminate more than 1,300 jobs and increase average class size by one student in most grades.

First Lady Award honors women who have overcome to reach success

Genie M. Glymph was a 16-year-old cheerleader in 1993 at Forestville's Bishop McNamara High School when she had her only daughter, Myla.

She has one vivid memory of a parent of a fellow cheerleader coming to practice and asking, "Whose baby?"

"She's mine," responded Glymph, who is now 34 and lives in Capitol Heights.

 

Supporters of an embattled outdoor education center are relieved the center has gotten a promise of partial funding to stay open, but are pushing for more money to avoid staffing and program cuts.

At a Prince George's County Council public hearing Monday, more than 20 staff, students, teachers and parents attended to rally behind Brandywine's William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center, which is known as Camp Schmidt and provides outdoor education overnight outings for county fifth-graders.

Eleven students huddled over scratch paper and calculators, furiously scribbling to determine the number of vertices in a Star of David and the Washington Monument.

Six and nine, respectively.

The "Jeopardy!"-style math competition was one of four events Saturday in the first Scholastic Olympics, an academic contest for high school students, held in Upper Marlboro's Watkins Regional Park.

They're eighth-grade students now, but in four years, 100 Prince George's County students could have both a high school diploma and an associate degree as they prepare for careers in health.

The Academy of Health Sciences, a joint effort by the county school system and Prince George's Community College, plans to enroll its inaugural class this summer. Students will start with a three-week, welcome-to-college term on the community college's Largo campus.

...Applications, which are due April 26, are available on the PGCPS website.

Brandy Meminger's daughter was going to start pre-kindergarten this fall, joining her older brother, a kindergarten student, at the John Hanson French Immersion/Montessori School.

But potential cuts to busing for specialty schools such as John Hanson might derail that plan, said Meminger, a Clinton resident. It would be "a severe inconvenience," she said, to drop off both children at school and still make it to her job in Sterling, Va., on time.

The federal government imposed a $1.7 million penalty on the school system Monday for a "willful violation'' of labor laws after concluding that it should have paid $4.2 million in processing and payment fees for 1,044 teachers who received temporary work visas, known as H-1Bs. Individual teachers paid those expenses, which exceeded $5,000, out of their own pocket.

On Tuesday, school officials expanded their defense, saying they didn't encourage teachers to make those payments — and didn't know teachers made them.

The vast majority of the county's foreign teachers are from the Philippines. Many paid an agency to prepare and present their portfolios to the school district, and those processing fees were folded into the agency's services, unbeknownst to the school district, Prince George's officials said.

I truly believe that the most important obligation of any parent is to create an enabling environment for children to reach every goal they are willing to work hard enough to achieve. My daily prayer is that my two children won't have to shelf their heart's desires because I couldn't nurture their interests with the necessary time and resources. In a 2010 CNN Money report, 15 of the top 20 careers with the most job growth require training in math or science. We can position our county to be a regional leader by dedicating more resources to prepare our children for the careers of tomorrow.

The 2010 Maryland State Assessment (MSA) reflects that the percentage of Prince George's County eighth-graders reaching proficiency in math fell 4 percent since 2009, from 45 percent to 41 percent. And though we've made progress in science, improving from 40 percent to 44 percent, we remain 24 percent below the Maryland state average. As a state, Maryland will become ground zero for the next generation of science and technology jobs. Will Prince George's County be positioned to compete with the rest of the state and region?

Allison McMahon doesn't know how she'll get to school next year.

Now, it's predictable: The 15-year-old climbs aboard a school bus for a 45-minute ride from Beltsville in northern Prince George's County. The trip ends at the red doors of Suitland High School, where she's a sophomore in the visual arts program. "The only school I wanted to go to," she says.

The sheriff of Prince George's County is adopting a more aggressive approach to maintaining the peace at county schools, following a string of violence recently documented on video.

Sheriff's deputies will be placed at High Point High School -- where an attack on a student last week was documented on YouTube -- and other schools which Sheriff Melvin High would not identify.

"The chief mission that they have is to make sure they are safe schools," High says, adding the additional police presence is only the first step.

High Point High School Principal Michael Brooks has been removed from his post following accusations that rowdy and violent students have been essentially running amuck and unchallenged for weeks, creating what other students say is a frightening environment that interferes with their ability to learn.

Prince George's County Schools Superintendent Dr. William Hite made the announcement of Brooks' removal in a letter sent home to parents after school Tuesday.

Outraged High Point High students posted disturbing cell phone videos on Facebook and YouTube last Thursday, documenting a brawl on campus that apparently started in the cafeteria.

Debby Wood has been teaching in Prince George's County for 38 years, and if there's one thing she never tires of, it's seeing her first-grade students when they can read a book on their own for the first time.

"Their faces light up. They are so proud of themselves," said Wood, a reading teacher at Phyllis E. Williams Elementary in Upper Marlboro. "You can't put a price on that expression."

But at an annual cost of $4.5 million, the school system has decided it must end the program for first-graders who struggle with reading.

The Prince George's County school board approved on Thursday night a gloomy budget that slashes more than 1,300 jobs and increases class sizes, despite the pleas of parents and educators who begged the panel to find another way.

Still, Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said the 8-to-1 vote was only a first step, as he held out hope that the tough-love fiscal plan might persuade the state and county governments to contribute more money. Both entities must approve the budget before it is implemented.

School and community leaders, parents and students met on Tue., Feb. 15 to decry bullying, youth violence and gang activity in and around Prince George's County schools and pledged to take definitive actions against activities that they say are tied to the recent spate of homicides.

District 3 Board of Education member Amber Waller organized the two-hour forum and declared in an interview with The Washington Informer that "the community call to action was a success."

More than 100 students, parents, family members, public school employees, and members of the community attended the forum at Northwestern High School. One important reason for the success, said Waller is that there was "a great vari-ety of participation from our community," including students who took advantage of the opportunity to voice their experi-ences and concerns to the officials present.

Ana Palma of Colmar Manor was laid off 18 months ago as a construction project manager and said she cannot afford proposed cuts to the Prince George's County Public Schools budget that would require her to provide transportation for her daughter to attend Landover's Kenmoor Middle School.

"These are the kids that are probably going to run the country, and they're the ones being hurt," said Palma, whose daughter, Natally, is a seventh-grader enrolled in the Talented and Gifted program at Kenmoor; her neighborhood school does not offer the program.

Oxon Hill Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Jamea Hunter, 26, said the overnight trip she took in 1996 as a fifth-grader to the William S. Schmidt Outdoor Education Center inspired her career choice.

Watching her students roam the center's grounds Feb. 16, Hunter said she is "enraged" about a proposal to close Schmidt — a Brandywine facility owned and operated by the Prince George's County public schools system — as part of countywide school budget cuts.

"When the children come to school, they're being constantly pressured with standardized testing," she said. "Schmidt is that time to step out of the classroom and make sense of the world around them."

The fiscal 2012 budget proposed by Superintendant William R. Hite Jr. includes cuts totaling $155 million. Closing the 450-acre Schmidt center, which employs eight full-time employees, would save an estimated $687,000 annually, according to Hite's proposal.

Robinson offered the school board his recommendations for how to cut the budget without staff cuts or furloughs:(video)

Testimonials by people of all ages on the school board budget.

Dozens of Prince George's County parents and teachers criticized the county school system's proposed budget Thursday night, arguing officials considered too few alternatives before proposing to increase class sizes and eliminate more than 700 in-school positions.

County Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. released a revised budget proposal Tuesday, that would cut numerous programs and 1,132 total positions in order to close an expected $85.7 million shortfall in the system's $1.6 billion budget. The Board of Education will consider the proposal before approving a budget Feb. 24.

Prince George's School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has proposed cutting more than 1,100 jobs, paring back pre-kindergarten programs and increasing some class sizes to close a major budget shortfall.

The cuts are more severe than what Hite proposed just seven weeks ago, when he presented a budget for fiscal 2012 that would freeze pay and eliminate middle school sports while also cutting hundreds of jobs.

Since then, state officials have proposed lower local school funding levels than Hite expected. The budget he proposed Tuesday night includes nearly all of his previous cuts and many new ones, with the goal of saving $155 million and bringing the bottom line to $1.6 billion.

Prince George's Community College (PGCC) has been awarded $200,000 for scholarships from Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States. Over two years, the funds will provide tuition assistance to nearly 60 low income and diverse students studying to become allied health or nursing professionals. Areas of study include certified nursing assistant, dental assistant, emergency medical technician, health information manager, licensed practical nurse, medical biller, medical coder/biller, medical office assistant, medicine aide, nuclear medicine technologist, phlebotomy technician, radiographer, registered nurse and respiratory therapist.

Little-known fact: most public school systems have a public relations office. They do everything from sending out press releases to helping reporters find data, with an occasional dab of yelling at reporters who write unflattering things about their press releases and/or data. In fact, Montgomery County's Office of Communications and Family Outreach was worth $10.6 million as of fiscal 2011. The more you know!

The current news in Prince George's County is that Superintendent William Hite is tossing his public relations department, or at least two two information officers: Darrell Pressley and Tanzi Barbour.

A Prince George's County School District parent took sweet revenge on the senders of a robocall message that woke him up at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The phone call informed 31-year-old Aaron Titus that the school district would be delayed by two hours due to the snow, a fact that Titus had found out the night before. Unfortunately, the call ruined any chance of a sleep-in Titus had.

"I thought, 'C'mon, people. Really?" Titus told the Washington Post.

Titus, familiar with technology, decided to return the favor with a 4:30 a.m. robocall delivered to every number listed for nine school board members on Thursday morning.

Residents in the Fairwood community of Prince George's County are lobbying once again for an elementary school that was promised more than six years ago, The Washington Post reports. To justify building the new school, officials are considering closing one of two aging elementary schools in the Bowie area, which has enraged parents at those schools.

Prince George's schools superintendent says plan to eliminate middle school sports and other reductions may not be enough

A dozen current and former Prince George's County Public School employees recently filed a multi-million lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the school system and the Prince George's County Educator's Association, alleging racial discrimination at work.

The $50 million mass action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt Nov. 22 by 12 former and current county school teachers and secretaries against the Prince George's County Educator's Association and Prince George's County Public Schools.

The lawsuit alleges that Largo High School Principal Angelique Simpson-Marcus, a black woman who took the job in 2007, has targeted white teachers because of their race and in an effort to force the white teachers out of the school and black teachers and employees who stood up for them.

A request from Prince George's County's for $139 million more in state education aid than was budgeted this year brought a sharp rebuke Friday from the administration of Gov. Martin O'Malley (D).

"Your proposal ... suggests that you believe that the governor's winning reelection is the
equivalent to winning the lottery," T. Eloise Foster, O'Malley's budget secretary, wrote in a letter to Prince George's Schools Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. "Like the moms and dads who live in Maryland, government must learn to live within constrained budgets. I would suggest that you look to streamline administrative and non-classroom functions."

New data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a wide gap in income and education levels among Prince George's County residents as well as insight into the commuting patterns of residents.

The wealthiest households were in Woodmore, according to the new data collected between 2005 and 2009, where the median household income was about $154,000. By contrast, residents in Cottage City took home a median household income of just $38,750.

South county residents continued to have the longest commutes. In Brandywine, Accokeek, Friendly, Temple Hills and Fort Washington, more than a quarter of residents reported traveling at least an hour to get to their job.

We support the State of Maryland honoring its commitment to support education by continuing to fund teachers' pensions. We are working to stop transfer of pensions to the counties and Baltimore City for several reasons. Such a transfer would lead to increased crowding in classrooms, undermine achievement by Maryland's students, exacerbate fiscal stress in counties and in Baltimore, and cause other serious problems.

Transferring pension obligations to the counties and cities would devastate local economies, defund public schools and public safety, prevent needed transportation repairs and new projects, and bankrupt our local governments. We have better choices

The Prince George's County school board was sworn in Monday afternoon, welcoming a group comprising nearly half newcomers who will be tackling a budget shortfall.

New board members include Peggy Higgins (Dist. 2) of Greenbelt, Patricia Eubanks (Dist. 4) of Capitol Heights, Carolyn Boston (Dist. 6) of Fairmount Heights, Henry Armwood Jr. (Dist. 7) of Capitol Heights, as well as Edward Burroughs III (Dist. 8) of Camp Springs.

At 18, Burroughs is the youngest member in the board's history, but he is coming off serving two one-year terms as the board's youngest school board member. He was elected student member for the first time at 15.

More than half of the Prince George's County school board is new this week, but the challenges that members face aren't. The school system is confronting another year of budget troubles and struggles to improve academic performance.

In interviews, board members - two of whom were laid off by the school system over the summer - pledged that they would try to shield classrooms from further financial fallout. They also said they wanted to make it easier for community members to voice their opinions during budget planning. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. will announce his budget proposal next week, kicking off a process that could last until June.

Eight Maryland counties including Montgomery and Prince George's have asked the State Board of Education to give them a pass on mandatory school funding because of an influx of federal dollars.

State law requires counties to increase funding to schools each year based on factors such as higher enrollments, independent of dollars coming in from state and federal sources. But in dire budgetary times, counties can petition for a waiver. And the promise of extra federal money helps their case.

IT'S HARD TO imagine that Maryland lawmakers would jeopardize $250 million in federal education dollars, particularly in these tight budget times. That, though, is what a special committee of the General Assembly has done in following the lead of its chairman, Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George's). The committee voted against regulations requiring teachers and principals to be judged by how effectively they promote student achievement. What makes the committee's action more disturbing is Mr. Pinsky's conflict as an employee of the teachers union that is fighting these sensible new rules.

Prince George's County Public Schools soon will receive a 2010 Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for using accounting practices that are consistent with national standards, Schools Superintendent William R. Hite, Jr. said recently.

The accounting firm, Clifton Gunderson LLP, audited the 2010 financial statements of the school system for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

The independent auditor of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report found "no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies," but noted that timecard approvals for substitute teachers and rebate revenues should be addressed.

Hite said that the school system has established internal accounting controls for its financial practices. For this reason, he said that officials are reasonably assured that assets are properly safeguarded and accounted for, and reliable accounting information is used. This helps in preparation of financial statements that follow generally accepted accounting principles, he explained.

Oxon Hill High School senior Tyler Mays, 17, said it used to take the computers at his school up to 30 minutes to boot up or load programs.

But the flat-screen desktop computer he was using Oct. 27 -- one of more than two dozen donated to the school through a new partnership between Prince George's County public schools and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and federal contractor Lockheed Martin -- took about 10 seconds to start up, he said.

"It's much faster; there are more options, more capabilities," Mays said. "We'll be able to do more."

The students at Barack Obama Elementary School boasted presidential manners and flashed toothy grins, eager to show off songs they learned for the school's official dedication last week.

Parents, elected officials and special guests were just as excited, filling seats, lining the walls and giving the occasional standing ovation to the inaugural student body at the Upper Marlboro school.

Concerns over bullying and staffing cuts at Prince George's County schools were raised at a community forum held this week by incoming county executive Rushern Baker.

Joe Murchison, a Laurel resident and the executive director of the nonprofit Side by Side, said he was worried about the effect recent parent liaison layoffs at county schools would have on the Hispanic community.

"Our Spanish-speaking families, they make up a sizable number of our families," said Murchison, at the Tuesday night forum at Lake Arbor Elementary School. Census Bureau data from 2009 reveals that persons of Hispanic or Latino origin make up 13.5 percent of the population of Prince George's County. Many of those families don't speak English and need bilingual parent liaisons to help them get involved, Murchison said.

Thousands of struggling elementary students in Maryland remain all but immune to massive and costly efforts to improve public education. The reason is they miss at least a month of class every school year.

State records show that more than 19,000 elementary students - or 6 percent of the total statewide - were absent for more than 20 days in the year that ended in June.

In Prince George's County, where schools serve many children with a host of economic and educational disadvantages, the chronic absence rate for elementary students was nearly 8 percent. At more than 30 county elementary schools it exceeded 10 percent. The figures include absences counted as excused or unexcused.

Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich began to open up about how he would pay for some of the tax cuts he's been promising on the campaign trail and told AP reporter Brian Witte that he'd chop the extra education money that goes to Baltimore, Prince George's County and Montgomery County.

The additional funds are fondly known in Annapolis as the GCEI, or Geographic Cost of Education Index. The theory is that the money pads allocations to places in the state where the cost of living is either quite high (Montgomery County) or where the conditions are so unappealing that teachers need hardship duty funds (Baltimore and Prince George's County).

Charles Herbert Flowers High School, one of Prince George's County's newer schools, has always set high standards for its students and seems to be meeting them. It is one of three high schools in the county with a science and technology program. In 2009, it met all federal targets for adequate yearly progress. Its graduation rate was 82 percent, well above the national average. Its 12th-grade passing rate was above 80 percent on state tests.

Yet, it was one of the few schools in the Washington area refusing to let average students challenge themselves in an Advanced Placement course. Students were told this year that AP English, biology, American history, calculus and most of the other college-level courses at the school were open only to those with at least a 3.0 grade-point average. They also had to have written permission from a teacher.

Much of the basis for Maryland's No. 1 rank rests in a score of a B+, graded on a curve in a national education magazine. By other measures, including raising test scores in failing schools, it's in the middle of the pack. On a closely watched eighth-grade math score, Maryland ranks last among the 50 states.

With the economy robbing incumbents of applause lines, O'Malley (D) has increasingly focused on schools. "We're at the top of the nation," he said Wednesday at an event at Oxon Hill High School in Prince George's.

Prince George's County students will be able to take their learning online Tuesday with the launch of the first web-based program for juniors and seniors in county high schools.

The program, called ACCESS Online, will combine personalized in-class learning with online curriculum at Annapolis Road Academy Alternative High School in Bladensburg. It will be available for the first 60 students who apply.

Word that Maryland will share more than $4 billion in federal education grants stirred excitement among school leaders and had another group grinning: Gov. Martin O'Malley's re-election campaign.

The Democratic governor has made education a central theme in his campaign, which most opinion polls show to be a closely fought contest with former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican.

O'Malley brags about the state's top ranking by Education Week magazine and his efforts to preserve school funding. He endorsed changes in tenure laws and teacher evaluations to boost Maryland's chances at getting the federal money, a stance that angered influential teachers unions.

Summer vacation ended Monday morning for hundreds of thousands of students in the Washington region, some of whom reported to a new school named for the sitting president. Early reports indicated few problems.

After more than 8,000 Prince George's County students sat idly in auditoriums for the first week of school last year because of a massive scheduling snafu, parents are reporting that schedules available online are incorrect.

Problems have been reported at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, where parents are saying students have not been signed up for required classes, such as science.

"I preregistered [classes for] my daughter through her middle school, and what we signed up for we didn't receive," said parent Nicole Miles of Mitchellville.

Cameron Miles, a freshman at Flowers, did not receive the science or language classes she signed up for and instead received Reserved Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), an elective class, her mother said.

Prince George's County schools will open to students Aug. 23 with a new cell phone policy, orientation program and plan to prevent the class schedule glitches that plagued the start of last school year.

Last year, a computer glitch left 8,000 county students without class schedules for the first week of school. This year, schedules will be mailed and available on SchoolMAX, the school system's centralized software program for student records, possibly before the start of school, school spokeswoman Tanzi West Barbour said.

Ebony Cross and Lacey Robinson are counting on two heads -- and then some -- being better than one when they take the reins at Landover's G. James Gholson Middle School this fall.

Cross, 35, and Robinson, 37, will be the first co-principal model in Prince George's County Public Schools, and they are counting on collaboration with staff, students and parents to create a vibrant learning community.

When Wendy Holland heard that a security guard was gunned down at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last June, she didn't think much of it. She saw the clip on the evening news and went back to life as a 17-year-old in Prince George's County: advanced classes, sports practices, hanging out with friends.

The Transition Program for Middle and High Schools is an orientation program that is being presented system-wide for rising sixth, seventh and ninth grade students that will be entering middle or high school for the first time. Our goal is to help students successfully transition in order to begin the road to help them become college and career ready and provide them the support to help them be successful.

All county middle and high schools will participate in this program on August 19, 2010 during the transportations' dry run day. All schools will operate on a three-hour early dismissal schedule.

Although Maryland School Assessment scores released today show a steady rise in many categories, all 25 middle schools in Prince George's County failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress, the state's mandated annual achievement goals.

Out of 137 elementary schools in the county, 51 failed to make benchmark improvements.

To earn AYP, schools must make progress in reading and math for all demographics and meet the testing participation requirement of 95 percent. The goal under the No Child Left Behind Act is to have all students meeting the requirements by 2014.

DuVal High School hopes it has closed what many members of the school community have called its revolving door.

Eric Harrison, who served as the Lanham school's acting principal during the 2009-10 school year, was named the school's principal June 28 after a nearly two-month interview process and an outpouring of support from the school community at a June 24 Prince George's County Board of Education meeting.

...Gates grants are propelling initiatives that otherwise might be put on hold because of tight budgets. For example, in the Washington area, suburban Prince George's County, Md., schools and the D.C. Public Education Fund, which supports the city school system, won separate, $2.5 million grants for teacher evaluation and training.

Greatness comes when you stand up for what is right and are willing to take a chance without knowing the outcome, the Rev. Al Sharpton Jr. told graduates at a special baccalaureate service Sun., June 27.

Sharpton, a tireless civil rights leader and a candidate for the democratic nomination for U.S. president in 2004, pointed to the efforts of former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela and U.S. President Barack Obama to persevere without knowing whether they would achieve their goals. Their successes are examples of greatness, he said.

"Everybody was born to some purpose," Sharpton told an enthusiastic crowd jammed into First Baptist Church of Highland Park.

"Part of the purpose of life and the challenge of life is to seek your calling and fulfill your calling. If you fulfill your calling, you will wear a crown."

When John E. Deasy, the high-profile schools superintendent in Prince George's County, resigned abruptly in September 2008, many thought it spelled yet another whiplash change in direction for the school system, which had gone through four leaders since 1999.

Instead, the county chose continuity, hiring Deasy's number two, William R. Hite Jr., for the top post. At the end of his first full year on the job, Hite has proved a steadying hand, calm where Deasy was fiery and conciliatory where Deasy took a hard line, elected county officials and educators say.