2003-04 Annual Report - Harford County Public Schools

• Harford County Public School’s third, fifth, eighth, and tenth grade students who took the Maryland School
Assessments in March 2003 compiled average scores well ahead of the state average in both the reading and
mathematic portions of the test ranking from third to seventh among the state’s 24 sub-divisions in the tests.
• In the Maryland High School Assessments, given in January and May of 2003, the percentage of Harford
County Public School students passing the tests was 7.2 percent higher than the state in English; 10.4 percent
higher than the state in Algebra; 5.1 percent higher than the state in Biology; and 6 percent higher than the state
in Government.
• Former Board of Education member Eugene C. Chandler received both the Charles W. Willis Award and one
of Harford’s two Achievement Initiative for Maryland’s Minority Students Award. The Willis Award is presented
to one Board member statewide each year who best exemplifies the role of a Board member at the local and
state level. Two Achievement Initiative for Maryland Minority Students awards are given in each of Maryland’s
24 sub-divisions.
• Ann Thu Phan, a junior at Harford Technical High School, was awarded one of Maryland’s ten Achievement
Initiative for Maryland’s Minority Students $500 scholarships. The awards note those students who have contributed
significantly to the progress of minority, disabled, or low socioeconomic students in the state.
• Brian Folus, an instrumental music teacher at Fountain Green Elementary School, had his treatment of the 18th
century English Composer William Boyce’s Symphony #1 published
in the summer of 2004 in the Alfred International
Catalog, one of the world’s most respected publications of band
and orchestral music for purchase by those who conduct musicians
from elementary school to adults.
• Fran Plotycia, a second grade teacher at Abingdon
Elementary School, was named Maryland’s Elementary School
Math Teacher of the Year for 2003 by the Maryland Council of
Teachers of Mathematics. The designation marked the second
year in a row a Harford Public School Teacher (Scottie Vajda of
Emmorton Elementary School was the 2002 recipient) was
named for the award.
• Andre’ Joyner and Maggie Stuempfle, fifth graders at
Edgewood Elementary School, were chosen as the only two
children in America to help President George Bush and first
Lady Laura Bush light the National Christmas Tree on
December 4, 2003. The two ten-year-olds won the opportunity
through the Boys and Girls Clubs of America through an
essay contest.
• Karen Zello of Bel Air Middle School and Bonnie Fry of C.
Milton Wright High School were named recipients of the 2003
CHAMPION - ‘Jenn’ Chang, Edgewood
High School 2003-04 senior, is the reigning
Junior Pan American light heavyweight Tae
Kwon Do champion. The honor student
who aspires to be a pediatrician and an
Olympic champion also won tournament
MVP at the November 1, 2003 Rio de
Janeiro competition.
Simon McNeely Awards emblematic of “consistent dedication
and leadership to their profession.” The awards were presented
by the Maryland Association of Health, Physical Education,
recreation and Dance Association. The award is the top recognition
a Maryland Physical Education teacher can receive.
• Youngshin Jennifer “Jenn” Chang won the light heavyweight
Junior Pan American championship in Tae
Kwon Do during November 1, 2003 finals
staged in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Ms. Chang, a 17-year-old 2004 senior at Edgewood High
School, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She is two-time national junior
champion in the sport.
• Emily Schmidt, a nine-year-old fourth grader at North Harford Elementary School in 2003-
04, had her painting chosen as the one to be used as the model for the Maryland State
Department of Education’s official 2003 holiday greeting card. State Superintendent Nancy
Grasmick personally chose the painting for the card reproduction which was signed by Dr.
Grasmick and sent throughout the world to bring greetings from her Maryland Education
office.
• The varsity football teams of both Joppatowne and Aberdeen high schools won Maryland Public Secondary
School Athletic Association (MPSSAA) state titles in games played back to back on Wednesday, December 10,
2003, at the M&T Bank (Ravens) Stadium. The Joppatowne Mariners topped Beall Mountaineers of Allegany
County 26 to 6 to win the Class 1A title; while the Aberdeen Eagles defeated the Potomac Wolverines 33 to 25
in overtime to claim the Class 2A crown.
• Edith D. “Edie” Smith, a 26-year art
teacher at Aberdeen Middle School,
became the Harford County Public
School System’s sixth active teacher to
achieve National Board Certification
through the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards. The
rigorous personal staff development process
requires between 200 and 400 hours
of work in creating a series of portfolios
validating exemplary work done in the
classroom followed by a grueling daylong
test to prove the teacher’s mettle in
solving real-life classroom issues.
PAGES - Five Harford County Public Schools seniors served as
pages in Annapolis during the 2004 session. The students were
selected during a highly competitive process last fall. Pages
include, from left, Kevin Kelleen, Anastasia Feaster, Amanda
Henninger, Diane Ketler, and Jacob Tanenbaum. Attending the
Fallston High School December 10 breakfast honoring the pages
were, from left back, Julie Rivas (Del. Mary-Dulaney James’
aide), Del. Joanne Parrott, Sen. Robert Hooper, Del. Barry
Glassman, Del. Susan McComas, and Del. Charles Boutin.
• Five Harford Public School seniors —
Kevin Killeen and Diane Ketler of Fallston
High; Jacob Tanenbaum and Amanda
Henninger of Bel Air High; and Anastasia
Feaster of Edgewood High — were chosen
to serve as student pages in the 2004
Annapolis General Assembly. The students
were chosen on the basis of their
keen interest in and aptitude for government
service. They each spent two nonconsecutive
weeks serving either in the Maryland Senate or House of Delegates during the 90-day session.
• Fallston High School’s Marching Band was one of only 25 bands to qualify for the prestigious Atlantic Coast
Championships Tournament of Bands competition which took place in Scanton, Pennsylvania in early
November 2003. The Marching Cougars earned the right to take part in the ACC event by virtue of its second
place finish in the Chapter Championships held earlier in the fall.
• Linda A. “Lin” James won her 500 game as a high school girls basketball coach on January 29 when her North
Harford High School Lady Hawks defeated C. Milton Wright by a 51 to 36 score. Mrs. James, 60, began her
coaching career in 1965 in Augusta, Georgia’s Langford High School; and began her coaching career at North
Harford in 1968. Through her January 29 win, her career record was 500 wins against 226 losses.
• Dwayne “Buzz” Williams, Assistant Principal at Bel Air High School, had his book, Spare Parts, published by
Gotham Books, a subsidiary of Penguin Press. The book tells the story of the former Marine Corps reservist who
was called to active duty during the First Gulf War in 1991. Mr. Williams, also a former member of the staff at
the Kennedy Krieger School in Baltimore where he
was named a National Teacher of the Year, has had
inquiries about the book being made into a motion
picture.
• Kimberly “Kimmie” Meissner, a freshman at Fallston
High School, won the 2004 United States Women’s
Junior Figure Skating gold medal during the national
championships held in Atlanta, Georgia on
January 11. Ms. Meissner, 14, had won the Novice
National title the year before. Ms. Meissner had compiled
third, second, and first place finishes in international
junior competition last year and will take part
in a series of similar events as a member of the US
National team this year.
AWARDED - Last February, the Board of Education
• Brothers Derek Blake Fine and Keith Randall Fine
of Harford County presented ‘Kimmie’ Meissner with
shared a Troop 238 Eagle Scout Court of Honor on
a certificate honoring her achievement on the ice.
January 3. Derek is a 2000 graduate of Harford
Technical High School where his brother was a 2004 senior. Derek earned Eagle Scout status on June 1, 2000;
and Keith received his Eagle Scout designation on October 2, 2003. Derek, a senior last year at the Coast Guard
Academy, is an award-winning athlete and student; while Keith, an equally recognized athlete and student,
recently received his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
• Leah T. Grothe, a 13-year-old Fallston Middle School eighth grader in 2003-04, was awarded a first place in
the state writing contest, middle school division, sponsored by the State of Maryland International Reading
Council (SoMIRAC). Ms. Grothe wrote a free verse poem entitled Guardians.
• Don E. Jones was chosen the Harford County Public School Facilities Management Office Employee of the Year
for 2003. Mr. Jones, 50, works in the Department’s Electrical/Air Conditioning & Refrigeration section, and has
been employed by HCPS for 24 years.
• Robert “Bob” Rinehart, an eighth grade Social Studies teacher at Southampton Middle School, was named by
the Civil War Preservation Trust as the nation’s Civil War Teacher of the Year, based on his “extraordinary dedication”
in involving his students in efforts to raise money to preserve Civil War battlefield sites. Mr. Rinehart’s
students raised more than $1,700 last school year and are on their way to achieving their $3,000 goal for the
Highlights & Honors
PROUD - Kiera McKenna of Wm.
Paca/OPR Elementary displays the
$5,000 facsimile check she received
as a top scholarship winner in the
2003-04 school year. Mr. Rinehart was invited to go to Nashville,
Tennessee, April 24th, to receive his nationwide honor.
• Southampton Middle School and William S. James Elementary
School were named recipients of the 2003 ARC Northern Chesapeake
Region’s Inclusion Program awards. The awards were made in recognition
of dedication to inclusion practices in the public setting.
• Kiera McKenna, a 2003-04 fifth grader at William Paca/Old Post Road
Elementary School, was one of the nation’s top winners in the “Dare to
Dream/Expect to Succeed” program carried on by the BrainStorm USA
company in which scholarships, computers, software and other prizes are
awarded based on essays written by students concerning their dreams for
the future. Parents of the students are required to document how they
intend to help their children achieve the dream. Kiera won a $5,000
scholarship to be invested for use in her future college plans.
• Two-thirds of the Harford County Public Schools will receive either
cash awards or certificates for having shown significant improvement
most recent ‘Dare to Dream’ contest. and/or outstanding achievement in the first year of the Maryland School
Assessment program. The schools receiving cash awards netted between $2,926.82 and $4,000; while those
high schools (which are not eligible for cash awards in the program conducted by the Maryland State
Department of Education in conjunction with the Federal No Child Left Behind initiative) which qualified
received certificates. The 33 HCPS schools to receive recognition (66 percent) is far greater than the 40 percent
of all schools in the state which will receive money or certificates.
• A volleyball sent to Iraq by the Bel Air High School girls JV volleyball team last fall found its way to Lt. Vincent
Jackson of the 101st Airborne, serving at a US Army base outside of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Lt.
Jackson made a pledge to himself that he would keep the ball with him throughout his final four months in the
war-torn country and return it safely to its donors. The US Army officer, stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky,
fulfilled that promise on March 22nd, as he returned to ball to the team during an emotional reunion in the Bel
Air High media center. The volleyball will be prominently displayed in the school.