The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page B3

THE SUN MARYLAND THURSDAY11.30.2006 3B 13 charter schools sought in city CHARTER SCHOOL APPLICATIONS Applications received by the school board reflect a range of trends, philosophies 2 admit plan to cheat APG? supply company Each may be round, but the difference between golf balls and ball bearings was part of a fraud scheme that could bring 15 years in federal prison for an Aberdeen Proving Ground employee and a salesman for an industrial products company. The Army employee, Douglas Atwell, 51, of Port Deposit, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a bribery charge in a scheme that prosecutors say defrauded the Army of as much as $429,000. Atwell, a civilian who managed a "tool crib" at the proving ground's Aberdeen Test Center, used his government purchase card to order items through the salesman at inflated prices that were billed to the Army but might never have arrived, according to prosecutors. The salesman for Chicago-based Lawson Products, Wayne Silbersack, 65, of Forest Hill, also pleaded guilty to a bribery charge Monday.

He received more than $78,000 in commissions for the sales, prosecutors said. In exchange for processing invoices with inflated prices, Atwell received a Dell computer, falsely described on an invoice as "electrical assortment parts LP 5002," which included a mark-up from $1,973 to a shed disguised on invoices as a "large hardware assortment," which was marked up from $2,840 to and golf balls described as a "ball bearing assortment," marked up from $682.50 to $1,409. "It is disgraceful that a company salesman conspired with a government employee to engage in this scheme to defraud the taxpayers and line their own pockets, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.

Atwell and Silbersack face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 at sentencing next month. Sex with minor nets probation A Westminster mother of three received five years' probation after being convicted of having sex with one minor and giving alcohol to two other minors, according to court documents and the Carroll County state's attorney's office. Melissa Lynn Kozimor, 27, pleaded guilty in February to having sex with a 14-year-old runaway boy, and to providing two girls one 13 and one 14 with alcohol, said Amy Ocampo, an assistant state's attorney. Among the conditions of her probation detailed Monday, Kozimor cannot have contact with the victims, must complete a sexual offender treatment program and must register as a sex offender. She cannot have unsupervised contact with minors younger than 16 except her own children.

In December 2004, Kozimor allegedly tried to kiss the two girls as they played at her home, court documents stated. Kozimor took them to her home to drink and play, court documents stated. A few months later, in March 2005, Kozimor allegedly allowed a 14-year-old boy, who said he was a runaway, to stay at her home. That night, the two drank half a bottle of vodka and had sex, according to court documents, while her husband and children slept. ARIN GENCER Imagine Belair-Edison Public Charter School.

The school would be run by a national charter school operator, Imagine Schools. It would serve 408 pupils in prekindergarten through sixth grade in Belair-Edison. CM. Scott Academy. The school would serve 726 students in grades seven through 12, focusing on technical career preparation.

Its founders are from Ohio. Baltimore Lighthouse Charter School. This school eventually would serve children in kindergarten through 12th grade, with a curriculum focused on the arts. Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary and General Wolfe Elementary.

These two schools would convert to charters run by the Baltimore Curriculum Project, which operates three city charters. General Wolfe Elementary would change its name to Wolfe Street Academy. Both use the direct- instruction teaching model, which involves a highly structured school day. Independence School Local 1. This is a program in the Robert Poole Middle School complex in Hampden.

It serves 42 struggling high school students now, but would grow to serve 112. It does not rely on a prescribed curriculum and focuses on projects and internships. It is run by the Baltimore Teacher Network. Baltimore Freedom Academy. This city high school, serving 400 students, would convert to a charter school in the 2008-2009 school year.

It submitted its application too late to convert in 2007. Source: Baltimore City Public School System $11,000 in cash. sara.neufeldbaltsun.com The city school board is scheduled to vote Dec. 12 on the following charter school applications: Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy. The school would serve 300 middle school boys in East Baltimore, with an extended school day and school year.

Youth Barriers Removed Institute. Run by a former city police officer, the school eventually would serve about 600 elementary and middle school pupils who are in foster care or otherwise at risk for academic failure. Meridian Academy. Founded by two former city principals, this combined middlehigh school would serve about 700 African-American boys in foster care. Baltimore International Academy.

The language immersion school in Hamilton would instruct about 490 pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade in Chinese, French or Russian. The applicant works at a French immersion school in Prince George's County. Baltimore Academy of Health and Biotechnology. This high school would be in Northwest Baltimore and serve about 480 students, emphasizing physical fitness and healthy lifestyles for students, families and staff. Students would attend gym classes daily and be required to participate in a sport.

Helping Others Prosper Through Education (HOPE) Charter School. Modeled after the Crossroads School, a charter middle school in Baltimore, HOPE would emphasize project-based learning. The school, in Federal Hill, it would serve about 400 high school students. The city spends the equivalent of about $11,000 per child in its regular public schools. Charter schools receive $5,859 per child in cash and the rest in services that the school system provides, such as special education and food.

Many of the schools want the being dramatic it takes my breath away," said Stokes, a former city councilman and mayoral candidate. The city's first charter schools opened in August 2005. Their results have been mixed. One, KIPP Ujima Village Academy, has the state's highest seventh- and eighth-grade math scores. The Baltimore school board is scheduled to vote Dec.

12 on the 13 applications 12 for schools that would open in the 2007-2008 school year and one for 2008-2009. Nationally, most charters open as new schools. But in Baltimore, some existing schools, including KIPP, have converted to charters. The new batch of applications would convert Dr. Rayner Browne Elementary, General Wolfe Elementary and the Baltimore Freedom Academy.

Many of the applicants focus on struggling children. Among them is the Bluford Drew Jemison Math Science Technology Academy, which would serve 300 middle-school boys. Anne O. Emery, who would head the board operating Bluford Drew Jemison, said Baltimore now has one all-boys school: the juvenile detention center. "If we look at the dropout rate, if we look at the incarceration rate, we have failed our young men," said Emery, an educational consultant and retired school administrator.

The school would be named after three African-Americans successful in math and science: astronauts Guion S. Bluford and Mae Jemison, and blood bank founder Charles Drew, who discovered how to store blood plasma. Pupils would be required to wear shirts and ties. For decades, the city's flagship high schools, Polytechnic Institute and City College, served only boys. Currently, the only single-sex school is the prestigious Western High for girls.

Stokes said Bluford Drew Jemison would offer many activities beyond the normal school day to keep boys out of trouble. Like many charter schools, it would have to raise money privately to offer the program it envisions. Meanwhile, the amount of public money that charter schools get is the subject of a lawsuit. The city school board is appealing a ruling by the state Court of Appeals that school systems must give their charter schools the same funding as other schools. BY SARA NEUFELD SUN REPORTER The Baltimore school board has received 13 applications from groups wanting to open charter schools, reflecting a broad range of educational trends and philosophies.

One stresses the arts, while another focuses on physical fitness. Some emphasize experimental and project-based learning, while others believe in a prescribed, back-to-basics approach. There's a proposal for a language "immersion" school that would teach pupils in Chinese, Russian or French. Two proposals would cater to children in foster care. An application generating significant discussion calls for an all-boys middle school with year-round classes, a 12-hour academic day and mandatory Saturday activities an attempt to keep a vulnerable population off the streets, while stopping short of creating a boarding school.

New federal regulations have made it easier to create single-gender classes and schools. The proposals highlight a wide-ranging effort by educators, parents and concerned residents to reach out to failing students in Baltimore, now home to 17 of the state's 24 charter schools. And they come amid a battle between the city school board and charter operators over how such schools should be funded. Charter schools public schools that operate independently under contracts with local school boards are supposed to foster innovation. In the Maryland suburbs, where academic achievement is higher, there have been fewer charter proposals.

Anne Arundel County, for example, has one application pending. Howard County and Baltimore County have none. Carl Stokes, a co-founder of the proposed all-boys middle school in Baltimore, presented grim statistics at a public forum Tuesday night as he made the case that something different must be done to save the city's adolescent males. He said more than 50 percent of fifth-grade boys at East Baltimore elementary schools are passing the state math test. But by the time those boys are in eighth grade at surrounding middle schools, the pass rates are in the single digits.

"It's so stunning and I'm not Finksburg woman assaulted Sun reporters Anica Butler, Gina Davis and John-John Williams IV contributed to this article. Malls, shmalls try 'Main city says Prizes, events offered to lure shoppers A Finksburg woman was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into her home about midnight Tuesday, authorities said. The victim, who lives in the Pheasant Run development off Old Westminster Pike, was treated at Carroll Hospital Center and released. The sheriffs office is seeking a suspect who is described as a tall, thin man wearing dark clothing and a black ski mask. Anyone with information is asked to call Sgt.

Eric Helm at the Carroll County Advocacy and Investigation Center, 410-386-3640, or 1-888-399-TIPP. Numerous Finksburg homes have also been burglarized in the past few weeks. Two Westminster residents suspected of several residential burglaries in Finksburg were arrested in Baltimore County on Tuesday. LAURA MCCANDLISHj Howard reports sex cases Howard County police are looking for two men involved in separate sexual incidents Tuesday. In the first case, a man driving a gray car exposed himself to a 32-year-old woman walking near her home about 9:30 a.m.

on All Saints Road at Lyon Avenue in North Laurel. The man propositioned her, followed her in the car and then exposed himself, police said. About 3 p.m., a man driving a black car approached several middle school pupils on Cradlerock Way in Owen Brown Village, Columbia, and called one 13-year-old girl over to the car, asking for directions. Police said he suddenly reached out window and fondled her. She ran back to Cradlerock School and reported the incident.

The driver was described as a man in his late 20s with a thin mustache and short hair. LARRY CARSON BDC's Main Streets program. At yesterday's event at The Markets at Highlandtown, City Council President Sheila Dixon, who will become mayor in January, related a personal example of how the local shops provided a dress she could not find anywhere else. Dixon said that she and her daughter were traveling throughout the East Coast looking at colleges and stopping off at malls to look for a dress for the junior prom last year. They did not find one until they visited an Eastern Avenue shop, according to Ruffin Brown, Dixon's executive director.

The "Miracle on Main Street" event, hosted by former Baltimore Ravens player Michael McC-rary, also featured a two-minute BY DOUG DONOVAN SUN REPORTER Baltimore business boosters want holiday shoppers to forget the malls in White Marsh, Tow-son and Columbia and try the city's "Main Street" shopping districts in Highlandtown, Pigtown and Fells Point. The Baltimore Development Corp. kicked off two weeks of promotion yesterday for its nine "Main Streets" shopping districts by unveiling events, discounts and prizes aimed at attracting shoppers to historic neighborhoods. "We're trying to remind people that we have unique shops," said Mary Pat Fannon, director of the Shawana Tyler of Highlandtown, rolls through a two-minute "Supermarket Sweep" at The Markets of Highlandtown. AMY DAVIS SUN PHOTOGRAPHER shopping spree for Highlandtown resident Shawana Tyler, Fannon said.

Shoppers can sign up in one of the 800 participating businesses to win prizes such as a new car, a luxury cruise, airplane tickets and $1,000 gift baskets. Santa will appear at several events, and on Dec. 2 World Figure Skating Champion Kimmie Meissner will host a tree lighting in Fells Point. doug.donovanbaltsun.com State trooper strikes, kills pedestrian in Carroll Yesterday's numbers and recent drawings. 410-230-8830 VIRGINIA MARYLAND Day Daily 168 915 Witnesses say man had been drinking before he attempted to cross Route 140 Day Daily Day Cash 5 Night Daily Day Pick 4 4840 02 05 2427 33 Night Pick 4 2151 03 1420 26 31 06 2123 2425 3412 353 Night Cash 5 Win for Life, Nov.

29 Pick 4 1687 Pick 4 5621 1415 2426 3918 05 08 30 32 33 39 302-736-1436 Play 4 1255 Play 4 1727 01 15 30 32 33 34 Night Daily 866 Bonus Match 5 Multi-Match, Nov. 29 DELAWARE Day Daily 262 Night Daily 592 Multi-Win, Nov. 29 WEST VIRGINIA 972 Daily 4 3313 02 10 14 17 20 25 Daily 3 Cash 25, Nov. 202-678-3333 1441 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Day Lucky 573 D.C. 4 do, 21, a native of Michoacan, Mexico, had lived and worked in Westminster for about three years.

No charges were filed against Cpl. Carlos Bustos, a five-year veteran. After an independent review by the Howard County state's attorney's office, that case has been closed. Rakes was a graduate of Owings Mills High School, worked construction in Finksburg and had a 17-year-old daughter who lives in Hanover, said Carl Blizzard, Rakes' stepfather, who lived with him in Finksburg. Rakes was heading to another friend's house at the time of the accident, Blizzard said.

Iaura.mccandlishbaltsun.com "It is an infrequent occurrence, but unfortunately police officers spend a lot of time behind the wheel," Shipley said. "Pedestrian error continues to be a significant factor in traffic fatalities." Without first activating his emergency lights, Derr had been following another trooper to a reported burglary near Westminster. Derr has been a state trooper with the Westminster barracks since March 2005. Police are awaiting autopsy results and are continuing an investigation. In September, an on-duty Carroll County sheriffs deputy fatally struck a bicyclist who was crossing Route 140 in Westminster late at night.

The victim, Mario Garcia Saiga- NEW JERSEY Pick 3 325 Pick 4 4614 Night Pick 3 710 Pick 4 0711 Cash 5 06 1430 3137 Pick 6, Nov. 27 02 12 13 16 20 34 Derr, 22, was treated for minor injuries and is recovering at home while on medical leave, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman. Rakes had been drinking throughout the evening and had gotten into a fight with his brother, witnesses told police. Rakes then left his Finksburg home with a friend to walk along an unlit median on Route 140 just past Sandymount Road, police said. When Rakes ran into the westbound lanes of Route 140, Derr tried to swerve but was unable to avoid striking him, Shipley said.

Derr's police cruiser traveled across the median and struck the embankment on the eastbound side, police said. D.C. 4 6380 01 12 17 19 28 17 19 20 23 26 3605 Night Lucky Rolling Cash 5 Daily 6 BY LAURA MCCANDLISH SUN REPORTER A Carroll County man who ran across Route 140 near Finksburg about midnight Tuesday was struck and killed by an on-duty state trooper in his police cruiser, state police said. It is the second fatal accident involving a police officer on patrol in Carroll County this year. Randy L.

Rakes, 38, of the 2100 block of Baltimore Blvd. in Finksburg was pronounced dead at Carroll Hospital Center shortly after 12:30 a.m. yesterday. The driver, Trooper Dale A. PENNSYLVANIA 877-282-4639 MULTISTATE GAMES MegaMillions, Nov.

28 07 14 2441 5607 Powerball, Nov. 29 02 08 09 12 1925 Hot Lotto, Nov. 29 10 21 27 32 3701 MegaMillions: There was no winner for Tuesday's jackpot. Tomorrow's drawing is worth an estimated $40 million. Day Daily 436 Big 4 7068 Night Daily 498 Big 4 7513 Cash 5 03 10 22 30 35 Lucky for Life, Nov.

27 03 18 20 26 3436 Match 6, Nov. 28 03 16 20 29 33 37.