Magnet

Chambersburg Area School District families that want to learn more about a new career magnet school in the district can attend a forum Thursday evening. The forum is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. in Chambersburg Area Senior High School's auditorium. Serving grades nine through 12, the career magnet school is being built on the Franklin County (Pa.) Career and Technology Center campus off Loop Road. Construction on 21 classrooms, which will serve 500 students, is expected to be completed in July.

South Hagerstown High School will hold a magnet program/academies open house in the media center Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. Representatives from the Academic Leadership Academy, Academy of Finance, Maryland Teacher Academy and the Oracle Academy will be available to discuss the programs and admission requirements. A presentation will be followed by a question-and- answer session. The program is free to students and parents.

dank@herald-mail.com Washington County Public Schools' first magnet school program for academically gifted students has a school and teachers, and now it has students. Forty-five students were accepted into the gifted program, which will be part of the Fountaindale School for Arts and Academic Excellence, the school system said this week. Thirty-two of the students are from Fountaindale, Paramount, Potomac Heights and Pangborn elementary schools, which were given priority for acceptance into the program.

pepperb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - Their toes barely touch the ground as they sit in canvas rocking chairs writing poetry silently. A child grabs a dictionary without supervision, another fixes a printer and a third writes passionately, tucked alone at a corner desk, while their teacher all but blends among the petite students surrounding her. The Fountaindale School for Arts and Academic Excellence has begun its fourth month of business as unusual. The elementary school is the first magnet school of its kind in Washington County for academically gifted students.

"I had my child in the magnet program last year. I originally thought putting all the bright children together in a magnet environment was going to be a wonderful experience for my child. As it turned out, nothing could have been further from the truth. My child became the victim of this poorly conceived and badly implemented program. If interested in the program, you should speak with parents who are involved or have been involved. The children are hand-picked, but are the teachers?

WASHINGTON COUNTY ? As the parent of a Boonsboro Elementary School student, recent discussions about redistricting and moving the school's magnet program have affected Justin Hartings and his family. The research and discussions in which he participated during the past several months also made him take an interest in the decisions made by the Washington County Board of Education. Hartings, 36, who lives outside Keedysville, says his military experience and business background will help him make responsible and educated decisions as a member of the seven-member board.

5 Campus Ave. Boonsboro Principal: J. Scott Woods Phone: 301-766-8013 Fax: 301-432-4559 Web site: www.wcboe.k12.md.us/custom_pages/020/bes/index.html Start time: 7:50 a.m. Dismissal: 2:20 p.m. Grades: K-5 Date of construction: 1950 Age of building: 56 years Latest renovation: 1991 Size of building: 62,716 square feet State-rated capacity: 514 Projected 2006-07 enrollment: 545 From the principal: Q. What are the biggest challenges this year?

HAGERSTOWN A $1.1 million federal grant will allow Washington County Public Schools to create smaller learning environments at its two largest high schools. The school system received a five-year, $1.14 million Smaller Learning Community Program Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., announced Thursday. The money will allow Washington County school officials to establish smaller learning communities, such as magnet programs or academies, at North Hagerstown and South Hagerstown high schools.

BOONSBORO - Fourth-grade magnet students in Suzanne Sullivan's class at Boonsboro Elementary School are continuing to experience the sounds and tastes of a variety of countries from around the world, including Brazil, Egypt, Honduras, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Lebanon and Armenia. Recently, they learned about Italy. "Buon giorno! Come sta? Come vi chiamate?" asked Maria Pohulchuk, a parent volunteer speaker. With a few giggles, the students tried to answer with the correct responses.

A $1.1 million federal grant will allow Washington County Public Schools to create smaller learning environments at its two largest high schools. The school system received a five-year, $1.14 million Smaller Learning Community Program Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., announced Thursday. The money will allow Washington County school officials to establish smaller learning communities, such as magnet programs or academies, at North Hagerstown and South Hagerstown high schools.

South Hagerstown High School will hold a magnet program/academies open house in the media center Thursday from 7 to 8 p.m. Representatives from the Academic Leadership Academy, Academy of Finance, Maryland Teacher Academy and the Oracle Academy will be available to discuss the programs and admission requirements. A presentation will be followed by a question-and- answer session. The program is free to students and parents.

Christina Hammer-Atkins, Washington County's 2012-13 Teacher of the Year, has been named a finalist for Maryland Teacher of the Year, the Maryland State Department of Education announced Wednesday. Hammer-Atkins is a second-grade magnet teacher at Boonsboro Elementary School, which is a magnet school for global awareness and world languages. She was named county Teacher of the Year in April at a recognition dinner at Fountain Head Country Club north of Hagerstown. Hammer-Atkins is one of seven finalists for the 2012-13 Maryland Teacher of the Year, according to a news release from the state education department.

Aubrey Sparks isn't your typical teenager. She was 14 when she started as a student at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va., and has just finished her third year there, majoring in philosophy and political science and minoring in peacemaking. She's a voting member of the private four-year women's liberal arts college's Student Senate, even though she won't be old enough to vote in this November's presidential election. Aubrey was going into her junior year of college before she was old enough to get her driver's license last summer.

Chambersburg Area School District families that want to learn more about a new career magnet school in the district can attend a forum Thursday evening. The forum is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. in Chambersburg Area Senior High School's auditorium. Serving grades nine through 12, the career magnet school is being built on the Franklin County (Pa.) Career and Technology Center campus off Loop Road. Construction on 21 classrooms, which will serve 500 students, is expected to be completed in July.

There were different kinds of commands that echoed Thursday across the rolling hills of Antietam National Battlefield. "Quiet down! Don't Smile! Ready? Action!" shouted Tanner Barnett, an eight-grade student at E. Russell Hicks Middle School in Hagerstown. Dressed in a red battle frock like the one worn by Confederate Gen. A.P. Hill, Barnett was directing one in a sequence of films that magnet students at the school researched, wrote and produced. The educational event, known as "Of the Student, By the Student, For the Student," was hosted by the nonprofit organization Journey Through Hallowed Ground.

Many volunteer fire and rescue companies might have placed the $42,973 in expenses that did not fit into specific operating expense categories into a bucket called "Miscellaneous. " But Smithsburg Emergency Medical Services went beyond requirements of the county's reporting forms, which list 13 categories of operating expenditures, including miscellaneous. That form also provides lines for capital expenditure items, such as buildings and equipment, and includes a miscellaneous capital line.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2012-13 Magnet Program in Washington County Public Schools. The program is offered at Boonsboro, Emma K. Doub, Fountaindale and Williamsport elementary schools and Boonsboro, E. Russell Hicks and Springfield middle schools. Application packets are available from any elementary and middle school, from the Office of Advanced Programs, 820 Commonwealth Ave., Hagerstown, or from the county school website at www.wcps.k12.md.us, according to a school system news release.

South Hagerstown High School Principal Richard P. Akers has been promoted, and the man taking his place at one of the county's largest high schools last worked for Baltimore City schools. The Washington County Board of Education unanimously approved personnel moves during a meeting Tuesday afternoon that included Akers' promotion to acting director of secondary education and the retirement of his predecessor, Dave Reeder. Reeder retired as director of secondary education, effective July 1, to take a job as superintendent of Camp Hill School District, southwest of Harrisburg, Pa. Akers will earn $126,699 in his new position this fiscal year, according to Donna Newcomer, director of human resources and professional learning.

Students at Williamsport Elementary Magnet School for Mathematics, Science and Technology held a reading and math initiative this past school year, according to Lori A. Ridgely, student achievement specialist. Teachers met with students on a monthly basis to set individual goals for reading and math. Students could work on their goals during school with teachers, as well as at home with parents/guardians. When students reached their goal, they earned an incentive. Each month the incentive changed (for example, free recess, board games and electronic day)

A Washington County pilot study of a wastewater treatment additive called BioMag has confirmed the magnetic mineral could save the county millions of dollars and inspired other jurisdictions to consider it as well, a county official reported Tuesday. The pilot study, which ran from July 2009 through June 2010, was conducted at the suggestion of the Maryland Department of the Environment, said Julie A. Pippel, director of the county Division of Environmental Management.  MDE officials had recently been introduced to the new technology and asked Washington County to study whether it could reduce the costs of upgrading wastewater treatment plants to comply with the state's new Enhanced Nutrient Removal standards, she said.