County councilwoman gets scare learning her sons were in bus accident; both unhurt

The Baltimore Sun

County Councilwoman Courtney Watson, former chairwoman of the county Board of Education, received a scare Wednesday morning when her 13-year-old son, Patrick, called with news that the bus on which he and his younger brother, Jack, were riding was involved in a accident.

The bus, which was carrying 33 youths -- mostly from Howard County -- collided with a Cadillac at Windsor Mill Road and Mayfield Avenue in Baltimore County.

"He [Patrick] said, 'Mom we're fine, and we want to go to camp,'" Watson said.

Watson said she immediately drove to the crash site.

"I didn't know what had happened," she said. "It was much more severe than what [my children] said."

Thirteen youths were taken to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening. All of the children were released from the hospital that day.

Watson said her children were fine and did not need to go to the hospital.

"They are just mad that they missed camp," Watson said. "They want to know if they get an extra day to make up for it."

Other children on the bus had black eyes and cut lips as a result of the accident, she said.

"I would feel better if they had seat belts," Watson said.

Watson's children were heading to day camps at McDonogh School. Both boys have attended the program at the Owings Mills school the past two years.

The school bus on which they were riding carries about 20 students from Howard County, Watson said, making stops at Manor Woods Elementary and Centennial High.

Swapping land

The County Council approved a land swap Monday night that will give the school board 41.2 acres in the 2800 block of Marriottsville Road that can be used for a proposed middle school in exchange for a 10-acre site at Route 175 and Tamar Drive that will go to St. John Evangelist Baptist Church, which now owns the larger site.

The state Board of Public Works must approve the swap for it to be final. A vote is scheduled for its meeting Aug. 1.

The vote was unanimous, despite objections from several witnesses who live near the Long Reach site, which is partly wooded open space.

Helen Dietrick, a member of the Wooded Ridge townhouse board, raised several issues, saying that "traffic is congested on Tamar Drive," and that the group "would be concerned about water runoff." She added that residents also are "very concerned about losing the tree buffer."

Jerry Maddox, another resident, supported her, adding that the woods are home to groundhogs, deer, birds and other wildlife.

But Joan Becker, an attorney representing the school board, called the swap "a win-win situation," and said, "The church is sensitive to area residents."

The Long Reach plot is too small for a school by current standards but would be fine for the church. The larger site is could be used for a middle school, perhaps by 2013.

Council Chairman Calvin Ball, an east Columbia Democrat, said he is "very pleased to see the open and transparent way the swap is taking place."

System on Forbes list

Howard County is one of the best school systems in the country for the buck, according to the July issue of Forbes magazine.

The county ranked seventh in the business publication's ranking that accompanies the article, "Best and Worst Districts For The Buck."

"We think that this confirms what everyone in Howard County knows," said Patti Caplan, the system's spokeswoman. "It's nice to have a national publication recognize that we are providing a quality education for the money spent."

Montgomery County ranked fifth on the chart and is the top Maryland school system, according to the magazine.

Forbes uses per-pupil spending in school systems and compared it with college entrance exam scores, exam participation rates and graduation rates to determine the rankings.

The higher ranking school systems on the Forbes list deliver high performance at low cost, according to the article.

In addition to Montgomery and Howard counties, Frederick County ranked 21st, Carroll ranked 37th, Calvert ranked 51st, Anne Arundel ranked 75th and Baltimore County ranked 89th.

Union-fee stalemate

The negotiating process to establish a mandatory fee for non-union teachers and support staff members has reached a stalemate, which might result in the need for a mediator, said the president of the Howard County Education Association.

"We can't come to an agreement," Ann DeLacy said in reference to the union and the school system. "They [school system officials] have issued mandates for fair share that are just things we can't agree with. ... We're going to have to wait for an arbitrator to look at the issues and come to some resolution about it."

The mandatory union fee, also referred to as "fair share," would be paid by teachers and support staff members who do not belong to the union but benefit from union services.

DeLacy said the contention is stemming from procedural details of the potential fee.

"I'm not at liberty right now to discuss any more," DeLacy said.

Incomplete negotiations for the mandatory union fee resulted in DeLacy refusing to sign labor contracts for teachers and support staff members for about a month. She eventually signed the contracts, but only after disseminating a letter of protest.

The school system maintained that the fee was separate from the employee contracts.

Ex-teachers' trials

The Circuit Court trial for a former River Hill High School chemistry and physics teacher accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with three students has been postponed.

Alan Meade Beier, 52, was arrested Jan. 12 after he was accused of undressing and photographing a 16-year-old boy in his classroom in January and fondling a 17-year-old female student on two occasions, most recently in the fall 2006. He was accused of having inappropriate contact with a third student.

Beier was charged with four counts of sexual abuse of minors, three counts of fourth-degree sex offense and four counts of second-degree assault.

Meanwhile, the Circuit Court trial of Kirsten Ann Kinley, 27, a former special-education teacher at Marriotts Ridge High School, has been rescheduled for Aug. 28, said Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the state's attorney's office.

On Feb. 15, Kinley was arrested and charged with having sexual contact with a 15-year-old student in late 2004 and early 2005 while she was teaching at Hammond Middle School. In May, a second student made similar allegations against Kinley.

A grand jury indicted Kinley on three counts of third-degree sex offense involving that boy, who was 14 at the time of the alleged incidents in late 2004. Neither youth was one of her students.

john-john.williams@baltsun.com

Sun reporter Larry Carson contributed to this article.

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