Dr. Nancy Grasmick Comes To Eldersburg

Oklahoma Road Middle School was recently received the distinguished honor of being named a Blue Ribbon School in the state of Maryland. This is a great honor as there were only 6 schools in the entire state that received honor this year.

I received word that Dr. Nancy Grasmick, the State Schools Superintendent, was coming to the school to congratulate the school. I decided to "work from home" for the early part of the day, then venture over to the school to snap a few pictures and hear what she has to say.

I arrived early enough to get a seat in the bleachers, which would allow me to get a picture of her. Had I gotten there a little bit later I would have been sitting behind the middle school students and I would not have been able to see over their heads. Yes, most middle school students are taller than me now.

She's totally looking at me in this picture isn't she?


Dr. Grasmick was led into the school from behind me in her little delegation of dignitaries. She then walked down the center aisle of the gym up to the podium. Also in the delegation were current Carroll County Schools Superintendent Stephen Guthrie, School Board President Jennifer Seidel, School Board member Gary Bauer, School Board member Virginia Harrison, Carroll County Director of Middle Schools Barry Gelsinger, and Executive Director for Partnerships and for the Maryland State Department of Eduation Darla Strouse.

After some preliminaries from the delegation, a video presentation, and some kind words from Principal Hood, Dr. Grasmick got up and gave her short speech. There are 735(?) students at Oklahoma Road Middle School (ORMS). Did you know that 135 students at ORMS have straight A's this year? I bet there are not 135 students in Baltimore City that have straight A's. But all in all it was a nice presentation.

I only have 2 criticisms - Dr. Grasmick talks like a Kindergarten teacher. Every word is slow and deliberate and nurturing. That is perfect for 5 year olds. Perhaps not so much for adults and 11-14 year olds.

My other criticism is the video presentation by the school. The person that created the presentation was not a grammar specialist. And there were plenty of missing words. Check it twice dude. You'll eliminate most errors by rereading your work.

Here is Carroll County Public School Superintendent Stephen Guthrie. He's a very charismatic man. I could see him moving up in the chain of command:


My pictures are not that great. I was using my longer lens, but it certainly wasn't the 15-30,000mm that I want to get. It was the 55-200. It'll have to do.

I was hoping they'd have a question and answer session and I'd get to ask Dr. Grasmick if she's retiring on her own free will or if Martin O'Malley took her into the back alley (the same one that we suspect O'Malley took Doug Duncan into when O'Malley ran against him for his first run at Governor) and made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

Everyone who follows Maryland politics knows that Marty and do not get along. I think it is because she doesn't play politics and didn't want to blow sunshine up his sphincter, which basically makes her a thorn in his Irish side. There was even a rumor that she was going to be a running mate of Bob Ehrlich when he was running either the 2nd or 3rd time.

So while Dr. Grasmick is considering this her "Tour of Excellence", I think we can also call this her farewell tour. I wonder if the next State Schools Superintendent will actually care as much about education rather than making the Liberal Governor look good. I somehow doubt it.

Carroll County Public Schools & the Census

I received one of the AlertNow Messages from Carroll County Public Schools today. You would expect emails from the CCPS to be in good form, would you not? I know that I'm not perfect, but sometimes stupid things just jump out at me. And this message has 2 of them:


Remember April 1 is Census Day. Take 10 minutes to fill out your 2010 Census form and mail it back. If 100% of households mailed back their forms, taxpayers would save $1.5 BILLION dollars. Let's all do our part and mail back our forms!


First, saying "$1.5 BILLION dollars" is like saying 1.5 billion dollars dollars, isn't it? That's why Al Gore invented the dollar sign - so that we wouldn't have to type dollars at the end.


Second, how will returning the Census form save $1.5 BILLION? "Thank goodness, Larry. All 100% of the people returned the form. That will save us $1.5 billion." "What do you mean, Elmer? $1.5 billion to do what?" "Not sure, Larry. But we saved it! Now we can use that money to save even more money in the healthcare system!" "That doesn't make sense, Elmer." "Stop asking questions, Larry, and go back to work."

You'd Be a Fool If...

you thought Bob Ehrlich was not going to decide sometime in the future if he will decide on running for an office or not.

if you thought that Obama's new healthcare plan actually covered all Americans. It only covers about an additional 10-20 million more Americans, many of whom already have access to health insurance via their spouse.

you believe the government when they say that inflation is under control.

you think that the Chinese aren't going to control our economy in 20 years.

you think I'm going to lose 15 pounds by the time I go on vacation in July.

you think I don't enjoy watching hockey on my new 52" HD television with 16 speaker-sound.

you think the Orioles will do any better than last place this year.

you think I can get my 2 year old to bed before 10pm.

you think everyone loves those GEICO commercials.

you think that Dr. Pepper is better than Mr. Pibb.

you think John Sarbanes loves being a Congressman. He's got higher offices in mind. Hopefully we can do something about that. Preferably in a 14th story building in a law firm rather than an office in Congress.

you think that the University of North Carolina will be horrible again next year.

you think that John Edwards will ever be elected to office again after cheating on his wife while she was battling cancer.

you think that Comcast will eventually stop raising their rates faster than the rate of inflation.

you think we haven't had enough of Kate Gossling, the Duggars, and Lindsay Lohan.

you don't think this is the most horrible season of American Idol.

you don't think Martin O'Malley will run for U.S. Senate after Babs Mikulski retires in 6 years.

you think 'moving Maryland forward' means anything other than Democrats getting their way.

you don't think that Black Pepper Jack Doritos were the best snack food ever made.

you don't think that Winthrop University's men's basketball team is the most awesomest mid-major in Division I.

you don't think some physical education teachers in Carroll County Public Schools don't have anger-management problems.

you think I'm impressed that your kid is on 'travel'.

you think I don't like chicken.

you don't think I'm wrapping up this post so that I can go to bed.