Carroll County Health Department referral card distributed in high school health classes that mentions condoms, venereal disease testing and pregnancy will be reviewed by the school board.
In response tocomments made by South Carroll parent Jeanne Martin during Wednesdaymorning's school board meeting, the board agreed to review the card and rule on whether its distribution by teachers and other school officials will be allowed.
"We are told over and over by teachers and Carroll County officials that abstinence is what is being taught during this class," Martintold the board, adding that she had found the card on top of a stackof her ninth-grade son's school books. "Yet our students are given acard on which they are told where to get three for free -- three condoms available on a walk-in basis."
Ninth-graders receive about a month of sex education, officials said.
NO NEW SCHOOL FOR TOWN
TheCarroll County school board last week rebuffed pressure from Manchester officials when they decided that a second elementary school for the small North Carroll town was not to be built in the foreseeable future.
In making no changes to their construction master plan, the board said that no new Manchester elementary school would be planned before 1997, and most likely would not be occupied before 1999.
Board members commented that new school construction sites are determined by total projected student enrollments for an entire area -- NorthCarroll, in this case -- rather than an individual town.
The Manchester Town Council had written a letter to the board to exert a little "friendly pressure" to move a new town elementary school up on thepriority list.
Manchester Elementary School, with 958 students, is the largest elementary school in the county. The York Street building's capacity is set at 700.
$4.3 MILLION BID LET
A Hunt Valley contractor has been awarded a $4.3 million bid to construct additions and renovations to the Sandymount Elementary School.
John K. Ruff Inc. of Hunt Valley was the lowest bidder in a field of 12 bidders. The highest bidder came in slightly more than $5 million.
The project includes renovations and additions, as well as new tennis courts, gym equipment and road improvements.
STUDENTS HONORED
The Carroll County school board Wednesday honored a half-dozen Westminster High School students during their regular monthly meeting.
Three studentswere honored in the Future Homemakers of America's Nutrasweek GivingIt 100 percent Award. Theresa Miller, 12th grade, Susanne Robinette and Bridgett Simms, both 11th grade, were given awards. All are members of Future Homemakers of America. Westminster High's FHA was named the state winner in the contest.
Eric Larson, and 11th-grader, participated in the Music Educators' National Conference All Eastern Orchestra in Pittsburgh last month.
Todd Dickensheets, a 10th-grader,won a first place award in the Maryland You Are Beautiful Student Literacy Writing Competition. This year's theme was Say No to Drugs.
Also honored was Staci Ridgely, an 11th graders, who was elected state Vocational Industrial Clubs of America president in March.
BUDGET IS INTRODUCED
DL: SYKESVILLE
SYKESVILLE -- Town Manager James L. Schumacher is expected to present the Town Council with a second budget draft for fiscal 1992 at the Town Council meeting 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Town House, 7547 Main St.
If accepted by the council, the budget would be advertised for a public hearing, probably in June.
Also on the agenda is the proposed annexation of 34.5 acres of property on Oklahoma Road. The town's Planning and Zoning Commission approved the annexation last Monday.
A resolution on the annexation wouldbe advertised for a public hearing.
BUDGET ACTION SET
DATELINE: WESTMINSTER
WESTMINSTER -- The City Council is expected to act on its controversial budget proposal tomorrow.
The $5.3 million package for the coming fiscal year has drawn fire from citizens and Mayor W. Benjamin Brown because of a request for $1.3 million for additional city government office space.
When added to previous allocations, the total the council would have available for the project under the proposed budget would be $1.6 million.
Critics charge the council should delay financing at least until a $35,000 consultant's study on City Hall space needs is completed. The study findings are expected later this month.
As an offshoot of the proposed budget, the councilis expected to enact a 21 percent sewer rate increase at tomorrow's meeting.
The council is also scheduled to introduce -- and possibly pass as emergency legislation -- revised rules of its own procedural guidelines.
Results of tomorrow's council election are expected to be announced at the meeting. Seven candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for three seats on the council.
The council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at City Hall.
SPEED LIMIT LOWERED
DATELINE: MOUNT AIRY
MOUNT AIRY -- The Town Council cut in half the speed limit on Watersville Road near Mount Airy Middle School.
At itsregular monthly meeting Monday, the council voted unanimously to reduce the speed limit from 30 mph to 15 mph.
The action followed years of complaints by residents of nearby Friendly Acres that the intersection near the school posed a hazard to students crossing the street.
The lower speed limit -- which will be in effect on school daysfrom 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. -- will be accompanied by yellow warninglights.
The council also decided to commission a traffic study ofthe road to determine whether more traffic-control measures would beneeded.
BYRON AGAINST BRADY BILL
Saying her constituents were overwhelming against the Brady bill, U.S. Representative Beverly B. Byron, D-6, cast the Maryland delegation's only vote against the measure Wednesday.
The bill, which calls for a national seven-day waiting period for purchases of handguns, passed the House by a 239-186 vote.
"The support in the district was overwhelmingly in favor of rejecting the bill," said Byron spokesman Beau Wright. "There was no question in her mind about that."
Letters and calls from constituents in the largely rural district were against the measure by about 960 to200, Wright said. Byron supported the Staggers amendment, which would have set up a system for background checks of handgun buyers at thetime of purchase.
Byron also introduced an amendment that would remove a provision barring women from combat positions in the Air Force. The amendment is part of the Defense Authorization bill.
BUDGET HEARING SET
DATELINE: TANEYTOWN
TANEYTOWN -- The City Council will sponsor a public hearing at 8 p.m. tomorrow on a $1.4 million spendingplan for next fiscal year.
The proposed budget maintains the property tax levy at 78 cents but will increase water and sewer fees by about 17 percent. The fees will rise from $1.50 to $1.75 for city residents and from $2.25 to $2.65 for out-of-city residents.
Officialsare seeking the increase to meet the rising cost of operating the water and sewer plant. Residents have not seen an increase in rates since January 1986, city officials said.
The proposed spending plan is 18 percent, or $216,760 , more than the current budget, which ends June 30. The bulk of additional revenue is needed for capital improvement projects.
The council is expected to take action on the budget following the hearing.
STATE DECLARES IMPASSE
State Superintendent Joseph L. Shilling has declared an impasse in contract talks between the Carroll school board and the association representing about 1,300 teachers.
An impasse hearing with the American Arbitration Association has been set for May 30, said Maureen A. Dincher, president of the Carroll County Education Association. The hearing is not open to the public.
The CCEA and the board reached a deadlock last month after failing to agree on several non-money issues, including working conditions and proposals for a sick-leave bank and a smoke-free workplace.
The school board and the association representing clerical and secretarial workers are still waiting for the state superintendent to determine whether an impasse exists in their contract talks.
Other associations, representing administrators and supervisors, food service workers, and custodial and maintenance workers, have reached tentative contracts for fiscal 1992, which beguns July 1.
CARROLL RANKS NINTH
Carroll County ranks ninth among the state's school districts in the average salary -- $36,724 -- it paid teachers in the 1989-1990 school year, according to information from the state Department of Education.
However, Carroll's salary is more than $3,000 above the national average, which is $33,015, according to a survey bythe National Education Association.
Maryland districts ranking ahead of Carroll include Montgomery, $45,393; Anne Arundel, $40,658; Baltimore County, $39,378; Howard, $39,364, and Prince George's, $39,017.
William H. Hyde, assistant superintendent of administration, noted that although Carroll ranks ninth in the state, the district has increased teachers' salaries by 38.5 percent since 1986.
"Carroll has made tremendous strides in the last four years in teachers' salaries," Hyde said.
Maureen A. Dincher, president of the Carroll County Education Association, which represents about 1,300 teachers, saidsome of the substantial increases given over the past five years were "sorely needed after years of losing."
"We're closer now to whatteachers ought to be paid," she said. "But it's important for us to maintain those levels and not let them slide."
CCEA ELECTS PRESIDENT
Cindy Cummings, a fourth-grade teacher at Charles Carroll Elementary School, has been elected to a two-year term as president of the Carroll County Education Association, succeeding Maureen A. Dincher.
Cummings will assume the position August 1. Dincher, who has served two terms as president, will return to the classroom to teach English.
CCEA represents about 1,300 county teachers.
COMMISSIONERS APPEAL
The County Commissioners have filed a motion asking the MarylandCourt of Special Appeals to reconsider a ruling it made against the county in a zoning case last month.
The state court ruled that thecounty acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner in determining that the owner of a milk transporting business near Keymar was operating an illegal junkyard on his property.
It ruled the county did not have authority to force Maurice R. Zent to clear abandoned trucks from his property, which he uses as a source of parts for his vehiclefleet. The storage of trucks is not a junkyard, but an "accessory use" to a business, the court determined.
In the motion, the county charged that the court failed to consider fully the facts of the caseor apply the county's legal definition of a junkyard. The county contends that Zent was cited for a zoning violation for maintaining a junkyard as early as 1971, but the order was never enforced.
The county also argued that Zent stores other items, such as old cars and household products, on his two-acre property off Middleburg Road.
The appeals court, which affirmed a Carroll Circuit Court ruling, characterized the case as a clash between rural and suburban expectations in an evolving county.
JOB COMPETITION GROWS
A representative fromthe Mid-Maryland Private Industry Council told the County Commissioners Thursday that the recession is masking a more serious underlying economic problem in the region -- the mismatch between workers' skills and the positions area businesses need filled.
Several Mid-Maryland PIC members gave a presentation describing their activities to the commissioners Thursday. The PIC, comprised of 22 public and privatesector representatives from Carroll and Howard counties, provides policy guidance and oversees employment-related programs financed underthe federal Job Training Partnership Act and other sources.
Matching clients involved in employment training programs to jobs is becoming more difficult because of the recession, said Bruce Wahlgren of the PIC. Many workers who have solid employment experience and skills have been laid off, he said. Some of those workers are taking lower-level jobs, in essence competing with the job-training clients, he said.