The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page B1

THURSDAY 01.18.2007 baltimoresun.com maryland SCHOOL SHUTDOWN URGED Close Pimlico Middle, citywide education panel recommends POLICE RAPE TRIAL Testimony by sex crimes investigators in the trial of a city officer corroborates the accuser's account. PG 3B EHRLICH'S STAFF DEPARTS Top-level Cabinet secretaries who served in the former administration clear out their desks as Gov. Martin O'Mal-ley is sworn in. PG 5B OBITUARY ORIOLES WRITER James C. Elliot, a sportswriter who covered the Orioles for The Sun for nearly 20 years, dies at 84.

PG 6B school administrators participated in the community meetings that led to the recommendations, according to system officials. Committees in eight regions of the city studied the schools in their areas to determine their space and renovation needs. Each of those eight committees forwarded recommendations to a citywide committee, which voted on the plans last night. The city-wide committee's recommendations are the ones that will be sent to the school board. The citywide committee was appointed by the school board and has 44 members made up of a broad cross section of city residents, including elected officials, parents, students, teachers union representatives and others.

At last night's meeting, the committee considered a series of different options affecting city school buildings, many of which are old, dilapidated and inefficient to operate. sara.neufeldbaltsun.com dle and Canton Middle over the next few years. The recommendations, which grew out of a series of community meetings, will be presented to the school board Tuesday. The board will hold a series of public hearings on all proposed closings during the week of Feb. 10, before voting on the recommendations Feb.

27. It will be the second of three annual rounds of school closings in Baltimore. With space in city schools for 125,000 students but 85,000 enrolled, the board voted in the fall of 2005 to reduce the system's square footage by 15 percent over three years. At the time, the state was threatening to cut off money for school renovations and construction if the system did not start operating more efficiently. System officials say that by closing schools, they will have more money to spend on the buildings they have left.

Between October and December, more than 600 people including parents, teachers and BY SARA NEUFELD SUN REPORTER A Baltimore education committee recommended last night that Pimlico Middle School be shuttered this summer as part of the latest round of school closings in the city. Last week, the committee approved a recommendation to close Thomas G. Hayes Elementary this summer and to phase out Lombard Middle, Hamilton Mid Jewish religious school teachers have been exploring a topic rarely covered in class: God n. State gets 4 years to fix jail Accord with Justice sets up monitoring system on changes, could limit litigation O'Malley's first speech was too ordinary DAN RODRICKS Leora Pushett leads a session at the Center for Jewish Education, as teachers consider ways to articulate concepts of God for themselves and for children. Pushett said the pursuit was for "the statements of our theology." ELIZABETH MALBY SUN PHOTOGRAPHER Teaching the unknowable BY GUS G.

SENTEMENTES SUN REPORTER The agreement that Maryland prison officials reached with the U.S. Department of Justice this week gives the state four more years to make fixes at the Baltimore City jail, sets up a monitoring process for making improvements and could stave off costly litigation between the state and federal government. If the state hasn't "substantially complied" with the agreement after four years, the Department of Justice can pursue litigation, according to a memorandum made public yesterday. The department's investigation of the state-run jail began in 2000 and has spanned two gubernatorial administrations. State and federal officials have negotiated for years on how to best resolve problems that include poor health care and living conditions for adults and juveniles at facilities that include the city Detention Center and the Central Booking and Intake Center.

The state has made some costly improvements, such as a new air-conditioning system for the women's detention center and the hiring of a new medical contractor in mid-2005. Millions of taxpayer dollars are expected to be spent in such areas as fire safety and medical and mental health care. And new jails for juveniles and women are being considered. Civil rights advocates say that conditions at the jail remain a problem and that a lot of work still must be done. The agreement "could be a blueprint for a positive change," said Sally Dworak-Fisher, an attorney for the Baltimore-based Public Justice Center, a nonprofit group that is part of a long-standing lawsuit against the jail.

"It seems like it will depend on the commitment of resources and the good faith of the new gu-Please see JAIL, 5B center titled "Yom Iyun: Teaching G-d to Children, Teaching G-d to Ourselves." (Some Jews avoid spelling out "God" to avoid defiling the name.) "Unlike Christianity, Judaism is not a dogmatic spiritual tradition. You don't have to believe anything to be a Jew," Kushner said in an interview before the talk. Rather, actions are more important. "Christianity is a tradition of creed," he said. "Judaism is a tradition of deed." But this year, religious school principals asked for help talking about God.

Around Baltimore, about 4,000 children receive supplemental education at congregational schools housed at synagogues, according to Please see GOD, 2B cal or modern Hebrew. But at the request of principals of Jewish schools, the center an agency of The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore this year has organized a series of workshops and training sessions to help teachers better express their understanding of God and spirituality. Ultimately, the center's staff members hope that the exercises will help the instructors when students raise questions of their own. Judaism does not require adherence to specific doctrines, said Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, the San Francisco-based author of books about Jewish spirituality. He addressed nearly 400 educators at a recent conference organized by the Jewish education BY LIZ F.

KAY SUN REPORTER Jewish educators around Baltimore are studying an unusual topic this year: God. Teachers often shy away from discussions of God or defining beliefs at Jewish day schools and supplemental classes offered by congregations, said Lawrence M. Ziffer, the executive vice president of the Center for Jewish Education in Park Heights. "Most other religions have a lot of God talk," Ziffer said. In Judaism, however, "that almost never happens on a communal level." Instead, religious education usually covers areas such as holidays, rituals and liturgi MARTIN O'MALLEY gave a very ordinary inaugural address yesterday, but it was blessedly short, and that counts for something.

It was the coldest day of the year, and I'm sure everyone assembled in front of the State House sighed when the new governor ended his rap at about 1,400 words, with 206 of them devoted to thank-yous. Still, in every important speech, there should be at least one memorable line. This had none. My eyes started to glaze at the part about George Washington resigning his command. Next time maybe O'Malley should sing, or he could hire a better writer or perhaps he could just explain, once and for all, in his own words, off the cuff, why he wanted to be governor in the first place.

Was it because polls showed he could beat Bob Ehrlich, or was it because he wants to bring a more progressive, activist-style of leadership back to the executive branch? You almost get that message from O'Malley, but almost is not enough. He hasn't quite nailed it yet. O'Malley is speaking to a population that does not remember the New Deal and barely remembers the Great Society. If you are in your 30s or 40s today, the major political themes of your time were written during the Reagan Revolution: Government bad, greed good. You were presented, several times over the years, with government as the enemy of capitalism instead of the vigilant watchdog of the public interest.

O'Malley is a 44-year-old Democrat nearly 20 years younger than Bill Clinton but we're still not sure what kind of Democrat. (He's been called a "loony left-wing liberal" on talk radio, but that hardly fits a man whose time as mayor of Baltimore was marked by zero-tolerance crime-fighting and thousands of street-corner arrests of dubious legitimacy.) Hopefully, O'Malley isn't the baloney-progressive, middling, poll-watching Clinton kind. Hopefully, he won't be taking all his cues from the Democratic Leadership Council, which in the Reagan era Please see RODRICKS, 5B "EDUCATORS ARE AWARE WE'RE LIVING IN A SOCIETY THAT'S TALKING ABOUT GOD ALL THE TIME." LAWRENCE M. ZIFFER, CENTER FOR JEWISH EDUCATION Naval official rejects Mid's appeal Student expelled for failing running test must repay $127,000 BY BRADLEY OLSON SUN REPORTER A top Navy official has rejected the appeal of a local Naval Academy midshipman who was kicked out for failing a running test by 20 seconds, exhausting his options for readmission and forcing him to repay the $127,000 cost of his education. ing the Annapolis military college.

Shannon, who was expelled in April, six weeks before graduation, said yesterday that he and his family will fight the military's attempts to recoup the money. "When I got the letter, it was hard, because it meant the end of everything I wanted to do in my life and everything I stood for," he said. "But we're still trying to hope for the best, that someone will step in and help us find a way out of this." A talented football player who also attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School for a year, Shannon is the first to admit that the physical rigors of life as a Please see SHANNON, 8B Waiving Frank Shannon's financial obligation "was not in the best interest of the United States," Navy Assistant Secretary William Navas wrote in a Jan. 4 letter. "Based on the evidence, the U.S.

Naval Academy provided you ample opportunity to meet the minimum physical fitness standards required of each midshipman," Navas wrote. "Your multiple physical fitness failures over your U.S. Naval Academy career, including the last one, justified your disenrollment." He also denied Shannon's request to repay the government through service in the enlisted ranks, where Shannon served for two years to achieve his dream of attend Frank Shannon's final time on the 1.5-mile run was 20 seconds too long. KIM AIRSTON SUN PHOTOGRAPHER OBITUARIES 6B POLICE BLOTTER 3B LOTTERY 3B WEATHER 8B.