Crime Site

The Examiner had an article this a.m. discussing the Crimereports.com Web site. It's interesting to look at with a detailed map and description of the crime. Very up to date. Keep in mind that the Bel Air police department is not participating, so no reports from that force are listed, only the Harford County Sheriff's Department and the Maryland State Police.

Starbucks

Received a report that a Starbucks, complete with drive-through, will be opening in the space next to the mattress store on Constant Friendship Blvd. We are personally happy about this, as quality of Target Starbucks has gotten pretty bad. Don't know how/if all the recent closings of Starbucks will affect this plan.

Lipstick on a Pig

I previously linked to the glowing press release sent out when the MSA test scores came out for Haford County. And now that we're back from sunning ourselves/trying to stay out of rip currents and we've actually seen the test scores for ourselves, we just keep thinking of the phrase, "that's like putting lipstick on a pig." When HCPS talked about the great improvements! in test scores, we guess we were expecting a bit more. You know, improvement that didn't resemble failure.

The math scores for 8th grade at Edgewood Middle School averaged 39.9 for all groups. For African Americans that was 29.9, for white students, 48.0 -- all groups were below 50. Compare that to Bel Air Middle, where all 8th grade groups averaged 85.3 for math, and no group finished below 50.

Some will blame these scores on transient students, broken homes, blah blah blah. These students are not receiving the same education as other parts of the county. We are paying the same taxes as the people in Bel Air, and living a stone's throw away from the Patterson Mill district where 8th-grade students averaged an 80 in math and 92 in reading.

Are we at TAA the only ones angry about this. If one more administrator or Edgewood Community Alliance member says "it's not that bad," we are going to scream. Admit there's a problem and fix it. We're not idiots.

To see the Harford County breakdown
click here

Harford County Favorites

Thanks to all who voted in the last poll. Every place got at least one vote with Harford County Public Library netting the most. Abingdon Target and Rocks State Park tied for second.
Don't forget to vote in this week's poll!

MSA Results In

The Maryland State Assessments are Harford County School officials say there was significant improvement in scores all around. Unfortunately, the mdstatereportcard.org site hasn't been updated yet. What does the rise in scores for Edgewood Middle mean -- is it off the No Child Left Behind watch list yet?
Read the official press release here.

School Board Shake-up Part 2

Gov. O'Malley named the new Harford County school board members this afternoon -- and ignored the recommendations from the "nominating" committee created by the Harford County Council.
The Sun has this quote from Richard Slutzky, who created the temporary committee.
"In the end, this validates the concerns of Harford County citizens that we have no process and that we have a need for an elected board of education," he said. "The reality is that in three administrations, three different governors, whatever the procedure was in Harford County, there are occasions when the recommendations are overruled, ignored and denied. People need to elect their Board of Education. This validates the whole issue."
To read The Sun article click here.
Also note that one of the new school board members was endorsed by a special interest group that was the only group to lobby against the elected school board bill last session, joining board member Mark Wolkow in saying an elected school board would be "too political."

School Board Shake-up

Harford County School Board Vice President Salina Williams resigned last night, effective immediately. It seems she was not going to be reappointed, so decided to quit right away. The Examiner hints it was all political. Gee, we thought the current system was not political at all. That's what we keep hearing from the current school board.
You can read The Examiner's article here.

For Sale

It's official. Country Kitchen is closed and is sporting a brand new for sale sign out front.
Can a good restaurant please buy it? We'd personally vote for Eat N' Park.

Wine World meets Cake Love

We here at TAA love the weekly Wine World e-mail newsletter. It not only talks about events and tastings, it also highlights the history of wine and other beverages. This week's e-mail announced that Warren Brown, founder of CakeLove Bakeries and star of The Food Network's "Sugar Rush" will be at the store at 1 p.m. Saturday.
He's going to bring some sweets and also copies of his new book that will be available for purchase/signing.
To find out more, visit the store's site mywineworld.com

Sky blue, grass green

Friday's Aegis contained the most unsurprising article I've ever read, that realtors, county officials, just about everyone is advising the New Jersey BRAC transplants to avoid Edgewood.
I especially liked the county's hedge that they advised people to go to the state of Maryland's Web site to view test scores. It's all right there -- the schools are "not meeting expectations" in bold letters.
This had the potential to be a good article, but in our opinion at TAA, it was marred by the reporter's reluctance to clean-up the quotes of the realtor from Edgewood who was quoted. While the realtors in Bel Air, Fallston, Forest Hill, etc., benefit from the poor schools across 1-95 by inflating home prices in those school districts, this poor realtor (a phrase I don't think I've ever used before) is fighting against TPTB who are in collusion with the realtors. The reporter shared the realtor's use of "ain't" which was entirely unnecessary. It distracted from his valid points about the trouble he's experiencing. While some are reaping the benefits of poor schools, many (not even counting the children) are not.
As former reporters here at TAA, we know it is common to clean up quotes. If David Craig uses the word "ain't" or Jacqueline Haas misplaces a pronoun, it will not appear in print. We knew reporters who relished making their subjects appear stupid. Most of these subjects were politicians who could take it. The realtor, who was passionately defending the schools in his area and using the word "ain't" in the process received an unnecessary jab from the reporter -- "see, the schools are failing, the realtors can't even speak correct English!"
In our naive days when we first moved here four years ago, we really thought that BRAC would bring about a change in the school district. Certainly the high-tech new residents wouldn't stand for subpar schools. And then here at TAA we realized that they wouldn't stand for subpar schools in Fallston, Bel Air and Forest Hill. Keeping the "desirables" on one side of I-95 and the "undesirables" on the other seems to be working for someone. That article had a chance to highlight that, but instead it decided to highlight poor grammar.

Brawl at the School Yard

Just heard about this on WBAL-TV. The graphic was "Abingdon Brawl."
To read the details, click here:
Brawl
Surprising!