The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • A14

14 THE BALTIMORE SUN NEWS THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2013 Bittersweet day at closing schools KIM HAIRSTONBALTIMORE SUN PHOTO Tylynn Comedy, left, 17, an llth-grader from Cherry Hill, gets makeup help from her biology teacher, Ma. Victoria Melendres-Vaughn, on the last day of classes at Southside Academy. Video online Go to baltimoresun.com to see video of the last day of school at Southside Academy. SCHOOL, From page 1 for them." It's a farewell message that she shared with her staff, and one that is resonating with a half-dozen schools in Baltimore, where the last day of school Wednesday meant the end of an era "I'm wishing my students well," Gordon said with a sigh and a smile. "I told them to call me if they need me.

I know they're going to call." Wednesday also marked the last day for Carroll County's students; Harford County schools closed Tuesday. The end of the school year for other area systems, including Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel counties, is Friday. This school year, the Baltimore school system focused on plans to dismantle troubled schools in the hope of assembling thriving new ones. Four schools, Baltimore Rising Star Academy, Garrison Middle, Patapsco ElementaryMiddle, and William C. March Middle, closed Wednesday as part of the city's 10-year plan to upgrade facilities.

Southside and another high school, Baltimore Freedom Academy, closed because of the recendy revived emphasis by schools CEO Andres Alonso on shuttering low-performing programs. The fact that Cherry Hill, the neighborhood where Southside is located, also needs a new campus influenced the decision. The community's educational needs had long been neglected before the neighborhood fought for the school, which opened in 1998. Some Southside students worry that they'll be lost again. "It won't be the same," said Taylor Harvin, an llth-grader.

Taylor will attend New Era Academy, which shares a building with Southside, but she maintained that "no school has teachers like this. "The teachers really care about you when you need help," said Taylor, who transferred to Southside after her grades suffered at a much larger high school. "And at my other school, I never even saw my principal, and when I did, he didn't even say hi." Montez Smith, a Southside lOth-grader who will also attend New Era, said he was "mad" about the closing and agreed that he was nervous about getting the attention he needed. "At my other school, nobody really cared for me," Montez said. "Here, with a lot of teachers we started getting cool, and my grades started getting better." With lawmakers and vocal community members on their side, Southside publicly fought the 2012 recommendation to close the school.

The district relented and decided to keep it open one more year. "I had never seen anything like it before," Jeff Lordi, a teacher of two years, said of the community's rally to keep the school open. "They cared so much, and came out so strong. To stay was a no-brainer." In the year since, the school's staff was reduced by 50 percent, but about a dozen teachers decided to stay. About 100 students had dropped from the rolls since the year it was recommended for closing.

Those who remained grew closer, though, as the inevitable drew near. "It land of made for a positive experience because everyone who was here wanted to the attention they so desperately need, and where she would find a new job. "I couldn't focus on myself until I knew she was OK," said Sydnor, who had worked at BFA for one year and found a job at another school for next year. "I figured that if the school board decided this wasn't the best place for her, she would need to be at the best" Her daughter Pahge George was placed at City College, in what Sydnor called a smooth school-choice process for students. While Pahge is looking forward to the move, she harbors some resentment about what spurred it.

"Relationships are everything," said Pahge. "What they didn't show in the report was how a teacher could take a student who hated school, who didn't want to come, and now they're on the top of their class. It's just not right." That student, Pahge said, is her best friend, Shayna Ray. Shayna went from a "wild kid" to encouraging everyone to choose to go to City finding herself the only one who didn't get in and sent instead to the lower-performing Patterson High School. To cope with the disappointment, Shayna will apply the most important lesson she learned from BFA.

"I'm not accepting Patterson, I want better," she said. "City is better. If I don't get in, I know I tried my hardest. It's sad, but you just have to suck it up." The feeling is shared by staff members who also leave BFA. "The end of an era at BFA is bittersweet to me, full of accomplishment, disappointment and unfulfilled potential," said Corey Gaber, who had been affiliated with the school since 2007, the last two years as a teacher.

Gaber recalled how he watched students grow from shy self-doubters to fierce advocates and powerful public speakers and mentors. But he also described a school recendy where students were increasingly in upheaval and staff experienced "a revolving door of school leadership and a complete lack of support from North Avenue until the fate of our school was already sealed." erica.greenbaltsun.com twitter.comEricaLG Mayor defends relationship with powerful state lobbyist LO BY I ST, From page 1 can't be heard. And here's the lobbyist who represents the developers, and clearly her voice is being heard." In an email, Harris Jones said she and Rawlings-Blake have been "friends since childhood." "Our children are very close friends," she said. "Our families went to the beach for that weekend and each family paid their own expenses. While I do not usually charge people who visit when I am at the house, Stephanie always insists on paying, as she did for Memorial Day weekend." An aide to the mayor said Rawlings-Blake stayed at Harris Jones' beach house for three nights.

The mayor's office provided a check signed by Rawlings-Blake that showed she paid $400 to rent the property. "One of the great things about Baltimore is it's Rawlings-Blake said. "When you grow up here, I have friends that are lobbyists, friends that are dentists, friends that unfortunately went the wrong way. I'm blessed to say that I have a lot of successful friends. My prayer is that I can maintain friendships with all of them." The beach trip came just days after the mayor officiated at the wedding of Harris Jones and her business partner, lobbyist Sean Malone.

Harris Jones and Malone were married at a large retail convention in Las Vegas before about 100 well-wishers, including some of Maryland's top government officials. Malone, a former top aide to Gov. Martin O'Malley, and Harris Jones are among the state's highest-earning lobbyists. Their company, Harris Jones Malone LLC, represents more organizations doing business with Baltimore city agencies than any other firm. In Annapolis, Harris Jones earned $942,695 in 2012 lobbying at the state level.

In Baltimore, the firm represents large companies including McDonald's, Verizon, Baltimore Gas and Electric and the developers of the "Superblock" project. The firm also represented the city's former speed camera vendor, Xerox State Local Solutions. While the firm's clients frequently win contracts, they don't always prevail. Last year, the city chose Brekford a Xerox competitor, to run the speed camera program. Another client, Dig-icon lost a $20 million information technology staffing contract Wednesday to a competitor, Telecommunication Systems Inc.

Rawlings-Blake was far from the only politician at the couple's May 21 wedding, which took place during the Global Retail Real Estate Convention, which is sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers. Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, several state legislators and a host of State House and City Hall staffers attended.

Guests included Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Sens. Catherine Pugh and Joan Carter Conway, and Del. Dereck Davis. All are Democrats.

In August, a list released in response to a public records request showed that Harris Jones received free 1st Mariner tickets from the mayor's office to see a concert by Jay-Z and Kanye West and a Harlem Globetrotters game. Rawlings-Blake said she sees nothing wrong with maintaining a close friendship with Harris Jones. The mayor said she followed all ethics rules and takes "very seriously the responsibility I feel to the people of Baltimore to conduct myself in an ethical way." "When I go to a restaurant, I pay the tab, whether it's a friend at the bar or someone I don't know," she said. "When I go to my friend at the dentist, I pay to get my cavities filled. If I go to get my nails done from a friend, I pay her, too." City Councilman Robert W.

Curran said he was confident the mayor's relationship with Harris Jones wouldn't get in the way of her professional duties. "She knows how to separate her personal life from her job," he said. Linda B. "Lu" Pierson, the chairwoman of the city's ethics board, declined to comment. City Council President Bernard C.

"Jack" Young also declined to comment. luke.broadwaterbaltsun.com twitter.comlukebroadwater be," Lordi said. Despite the district's assessment that the school's academic performance wasn't up to par, it had met state targets several years in a row for the number of its students passing the high school assessments. But Gordon acknowledged that some of the school's data, such as its 60th-percentile attendance rates, were "in the toilet." And she couldn't stand in the way of a promise for better opportunities for Cherry Hill. "I'm not in denial," she said.

"We had challenges." Other schools that closed Wednesday say data that the school system used to make its decisions did not reflect challenges they overcame. Baltimore Freedom Academy, a charter school, learned in March that this school year would be its last, when the board voted to deny its license renewal. Khalilah Harris, who helped open the school in 2003, said she left as executive director in April because she "could not watch something that I tried to build up be taken apart" BFA pushed back against the system's charter renewal report, arguing that the process was flawed and that the district viewed the school through a narrow lens. "Our school was punished for not playing the game to get students to pass these tests so that people could leave us alone and do the work that we should be doing, which is cultivating learning," Harris said. Still, she reflected on fond memories from the first open house in 2003 to the first graduating class in 2007.

"Very early on, we felt like we were engaging in raising children," Harris said. As a staff member and a parent of a BFA student, Rashawna Sydnor's concerns were threefold as the end of the year drew near. She worried about her daughter, who will have to graduate from another school next year, her students, who could be deprived of Area braces for possible derecho Storm preparation Make sure cellphones and other portable devices are fully charged and have spare batteries. Prepare a disaster supply kit with bottled water, nonperishable food, a first-aid kit, portable radio and flashlight with extra batteries, toiletries, prescription medicine, a change of clothes and bedding. Keep some cash available in case ATMs are not working.

Have copies of important documents such as home and property insurance policies, driver's licenses, health insurance cards, etc. Know where to meet family members if your home is not safe. Text loved ones so that calls for emergency agencies can go through. Source: Maryland Emergency Management Agency DERECHO, From page 1 with the ground already saturated from several inches of rain from Monday's storms and Tropical Storm Andrea last week. "It's a very potent storm system," said Erik Pindrock, a meteorologist with "The reason we're using rather strong language with the forecast is that for this time of year, we typically don't see a storm system with pressures this low." The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, which monitors severe weather across the nation, was calling for a 45 percent chance of severe weather in Central Maryland and on the Eastern Shore.

That is among the highest odds the center assigns to storm risks, particularly in this region, at this time of year, and a day in advance. The atmosphere is particularly unstable because of a jet-stream pattern more common in the winter or early spring, Pindrock said. Cold air from Canada is streaming farther south into the United States, where it is meeting warm, moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday that it was readying for potential widespread power outages.

The utility went into storm mode, placing all employees on call to be devoted to tains, but the risk was more likely for the Ohio Valley on Wednesday, Pindrock said. Derecho storms involve organized, severe squall lines that travel hundreds of miles, and are named for the powerful straight-line winds they pack and the straight path the squalls take. In the June 29, 2012, derecho, temperatures above 100 degrees fueled a volatile clash between hot, humid air and cool, dry air in an approaching cold front. In addition to the power outages, the storm was blamed for at least three deaths in the region. The National Weather Service's forecast discussion for today also cautioned of "a significant severe weather episode" this afternoon.

Models suggested that a strong system of low pressure would move eastward across Pennsylvania as a cold front approaches from the west across the Ohio Valley, the discussion said. The severe weather outbreak would be the second this week. The weather service confirmed a fourth tornado in the region during Monday's storms on Wednesday afternoon. It was rated EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the lowest intensity rating, and touched down in Woodbine for three minutes about 7 p.m. Monday.

The tornado sheared off and twisted tree trunks and branches and destroyed a two-car garage, with maximum winds of 80 mph. The weather service Tuesday confirmed three other tornadoes, in Baltimore, Baltimore County and St. Mary's County. Monday's storms also brought several inches of rain and widespread flooding. More than 3 inches of rain, or nearly a month's worth, fell in downtown Baltimore in the span of a few hours.

That came on top of an inch or two across the region from Tropical Storm Andrea on June 7. Overnight storms were expected to bring up to 1 inch of rain, while the second round of storms today may bring another 1 to 2 inches, prompting the flash flood watch. After storm risks subside, the cold front moving through is expected to bring a pleasant weekend, with high temperatures in the low to mid-8 Os, low humidity and partly cloudy or sunny skies Friday through Sunday. sdancebaltsun.com twitter.comMdWeather SLEEPYS storm-related outage restoration around the clock. It also was arranging for extra crews from other areas, if needed.

Customers criticized BGE after last June's derecho for the slow pace of outage restoration. Some were without power for a week. BGE attributed the delays to the storm's suddenness and the breadth of the damage it wreaked, which delayed the arrival of crews from elsewhere to help. The Maryland Transportation Authority, meanwhile, readied for potentially heavy winds on the Bay Bridge, closing two-way operation during the evening rush hour Wednesday so that workers could remove painting tarps. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency urged residents to charge cellphones, stock up on disaster supplies and have emergency plans ready.

Officials in the National Weather Service's BaltimoreWashington forecast office were watching thunderstorms firing up in the Midwest late Wednesday and monitoring whether they might strengthen enough to cross the Appalachains overnight, meteorologist Kevin Witt said. Maryland faces the risk of a derecho if the storms successfully transit the moun Our Lowest Sealy Prices Ever! Posturepecfc 399 75 Queen Set Firm. Li st 0599 1-800-SLEEPYS (753 -3797) or visit sleepys.comsealy.