CITY / COUNTY DIGEST

The Baltimore Sun

City teachers union seeking mediation in contract talks

The Baltimore Teachers Union is asking the city school system to go into mediation as the two sides try to negotiate a new contract.

The union represents the city's teachers and teachers' aides. The contract expired July 1.

Union officials said the negotiations have stalled over the school system's wage and health care proposals. The system wants to drop the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization, which the union says would require more than 2,000 union members to find new primary care physicians.

Marietta English, president of the union's teacher chapter, publicly challenged the system's new chief executive officer, Andres Alonso, at his first school board meeting Tuesday night. "Could it be that you don't really value teachers as much as you say?" English asked during the public comment portion of the meeting.

School board Chairman Brian D. Morris said during the meeting that the system officials cannot comment on negotiations that are under way.

Loretta Johnson, president of the chapter that represents aides, said in an interview that the system is focused on recruiting employees - offering signing bonuses of up to $5,000 - but not on retaining them.

The school board approved a new contract two weeks ago with the union representing principals and administrators.

Sara Neufeld

Baltimore

: School board

Campbell, VanHook, Duke re-appointed

James W. Campbell, George M. VanHook Sr. and Neil Duke were re-appointed to the Baltimore school board this month, an official with the governor's office confirmed yesterday.

Each was given a three-year term, according to Jeanne D. Hitchcock, Gov. Martin O'Malley's secretary-designee of appointments. The mayor and the governor appoint the city school board jointly.

At Tuesday's meeting, the school board re-elected Brian D. Morris chairman and Jerrelle F. Francois vice chairwoman, positions they have held since 2005.

Brent Jones

Anne Arundel

: Annapolis

Man is facing boating charges

An Annapolis man has been charged with boating offenses twice in five days - both times after he jumped into the water to escape arrest, Natural Resources Police said yesterday.

Thomas Daniel Haywood, 40, was first arrested about 1:15 a.m. July 1 while operating a dinghy near Loch Haven on the South River. Police said Haywood jujmped into the water and tried to elude officers..

Police eventually pulled Haywood from the water and charged him with 11 offenses, including operating a motor vessel while under the influence of alcohol.

Four days later, about 2 a.m., police stopped a vessel without proper navigation lights on Spa Creek in Annapolis. While officers were interviewing the boat's operator, Jonathan Sumner Wyall, 22, of Boerne, Texas, Haywood, the passenger, jumped into the water, police said.

Officers said Haywood was soon apprehended and was charged with obstruction or hindering law enforcement officers, failure to obey the lawful order of a police officer and disorderly conduct.

Wyall was charged with operating a motor vessel while impaired by alcohol and operating a vessel at night without proper navigation lights.

Carroll County

: Finksburg

Truck overturns, disrupting Route 140

An eastbound truck carrying five smashed cars overturned as it veered off the roadway toward the grassy median on Route 140, causing one lane of the road near Finksburg to be closed for about three hours yesterday morning, state police said.

Laura McCandlish

Copyright © 2021, The Baltimore Sun, a Baltimore Sun Media Group publication | Place an Ad
72°