Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 6 May 2016

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From YouTube: “Building the Future” Book Available

Description

Learn about the rich history of Baltimore County schools, captured in pictures and stories, in this book authored by a retired BCPS art educator.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm ellen kobler., baltimore, county public schools', rich and storied history.

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Has inspired longtime educator, farrell maddox to capture.

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The moments in a new book, called, "building, the future.".

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He's here with us today to tell us all about it,, along with debbie phelps, executive director of the education foundation for baltimore county public schools.. Thank you both so much for joining us. thanks for having us. debbie,, please let people know about the education foundation, --.

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What it is and what you do for the school system.

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You know, back in 1992, the education foundation of baltimore county public schools was founded., we are a 501(c)(3) and it was under the leadership.

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Of our superintendent in 2012 that I became the first leader of the foundation.

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And our mission vision is to mobilize the community.

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To support public education in baltimore county., so we have an amazing, outstanding school system.

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So we want to bring our partners in to be able to partner with us.

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To what I say, "to enrich,, to enhance, and to extend".

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The regular academic setting that is so high with expectations that we have.

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We have a trifecta of how we support our schools.

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One is we support them through district-wide initiatives,.

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Such as our personalized learning environment, our world language acquisition, --, which we have spanish in fifth grade --, as well as our mentoring partnership, that we look at in baltimore, county.

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For our young, ladies and men., our second part of our trifecta is that for our 21st century instructional initiative, grants.

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And we allow students, -- schools -- to apply for grants up to 2,000 dollars.

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They are reviewed by a panel of judges throughout our community.

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And we were very happy this year that that's been a growing, growing number over the past six years.

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Our last part of our trifecta is to award scholarships for post-secondary education, --.

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Being able to provide resources to our students throughout our county,.

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To be able to go in community college, trade, schools,.

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And as well as universities and colleges.

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So,, it's to expand a little bit beyond what the system itself can do,.

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And I was picking up a couple key words: there: grants, scholarships.

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We're talking about the foundation raising funds.

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Absolutely. tell us how this beautiful book that mr. maddox has created ties into that.

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You know,, when you take a look at our deep,, rich history,.

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That we have in baltimore county and in our baltimore county public schools, system,.

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This book is a commemorative book to acknowledge.

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All the years of history, -- 293 years of history.

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And it was this man sitting beside me who took it on as a project and a hobby.

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And what he did was capture all the years of history.

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Within our school system- and he awarded this book to the foundation.

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And it is something that we have embraced as part of his legacy.

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As a leader in our school system. also to be able to raise money, -- again, for scholarships.

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But ellen, the money that we're raising with this book is going for scholarships for elementary,, middle, and high school students.

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To be able to allow elementary and middle schools to be able to explore experiences that they may have in the heart.

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That they want to do later on in their life, -- go to music camp, art camp,, whatever it might be.

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Very nice. all right,. Let's talk to the author.- the book is absolutely gorgeous..

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Farrell, tell us a little bit about what inspired this creative endeavor.

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So I think it goes back to 1993.

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And I went with my grandmother for a weekend, [indistinct],.

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And we went to visit the school and the home where she grew up.

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And watching her climb over the fence.

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And seeing that lovely little schoolhouse,, which was filled --.

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It was a barn at that time --, but I just planted that in the back of my mind,.

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How wonderful the history and having worked for baltimore county.

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For all of these years- and I also went to baltimore county schools.,.

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So chase elementary, middle river, junior high, and perry hall high.. I wanted to do something to give back and I knew what debbie was doing.

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So I wasn't sure how I would go about it at first.

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And I started searching for photos.

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and when I would visit schools as part of my job,, I would ask if they had anything.

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and suddenly, people were helping and more and more information was coming. My way.

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so, it just started to grow and build and,.

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You know,, it all started with that. Little school house.

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and I met wonderful people along the way..

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Isn't that neat?.

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And you talk about the photographs., let me show -- in the book.

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I don't know if the screen is quite wide enough,, but I love this old-time panoramic photo of cockeysville elementary school.

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What is that? is that the whole student body?

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it's the dedication of the building in 1926.

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And the wonderful story behind this photo is that on christmas, morning,.

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I called a friend of mine that I was having dinner with, dixie cook.

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And her mom and dad had both taught in baltimore county.

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And I said, "do, you have any photos that you could bring or any stories?".

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And she said, "let me look.", and she brought me that photo.

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And it was eight inches by forty inches long and it was beautiful.

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And she said, "you can have it.".

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So it's in my home,, but just looking at all of those faces.

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And the rich history that goes with that story of that school opening.

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It's no longer a school,. It's a senior center now.

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But the building is still there and still in use.

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But I just thought it was a beautiful,, beautiful, photo., nice., well 293 years of history in this book.

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Debbie,, let people know how, through the foundation,.

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They can get their own copy.

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You know, every page of that book tells a story.

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Of our history of baltimore county., and when you look at purchasing this book,, it comes on two platforms.

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First of all,, the first 100 run of this book was numbered.

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It has a raised, embossed logo of our school system on it.

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It is signed by all five of our living superintendents,.

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Which is very special to us.

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by being a legacy leader,, you become a member of the greenwood society.

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And you receive the signed copy of this book.

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And also a beautiful rendering of a student's interpretation.

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Of baltimore county called,, "endless opportunities." we're very happy to be able to sell the first hundred copies at $1,992,.

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The year we were founded,, one thousand nine hundred ninety two dollars.

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And that also enables the businesses to be able to be part of everything that the foundation does.

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The other books that we sell -- same content, different cover;.

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Not numbered and not signed by a superintendent -- is sold for 150 dollars.

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I mean, that's the cost essentially of two yearbooks, for example.

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Absolutely.- and this covers the whole 293 year, history of the system.

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Every page tells a story of our school system.

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and we're really honored to be able to sell that through our headquarters.

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In towson at the jefferson building., you can go online to our website and find out about it there as well.

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You can call in., we will deliver., but we are very happy to be able to spread this legacy.

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Of farrell maddox and our school system throughout our entire county, --.

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And really our state.

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Farrell,, let's talk about some of the stories.. You mentioned the featherbed elementary school pig farm controversy way back when.

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In 1957,, the school was built beside a pig farm.

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And the smell was so bad coming into the building that the county took the farmer to court to try to close the pig farm.

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And it was a funny story and it's in the book..

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I hope people will read it. and it just talks about how the judge said, "no, the pigs will stink.".

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But it ended up that the county bought the property from the farmer.

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And that was how they resolved the smell of the pigs.

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What is the oldest school in the history of the county.

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And then, what's the oldest, that's still open? so, in 1723,, the state of maryland, said every county.

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Must have a school central., so laurel lee schoolhouse would have been the first one, which was in the perry hall, area.

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and the oldest building that we still use.

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Is the randallstown elementary school.

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Okay, and what schools did you go to and your family?.

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Chase elementary -- and one of the special things --- and I didn't realize this as I went to chase --, my father went in the very first year that it opened.

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And a little fun story about chase -- when they finished the building, they finished in december.

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And they took the two schoolhouses that fed to it, put them on buses.

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And drove them to this new building on december 22nd.

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And said, "merry christmas!".

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Isn't that cute? all right, and there's stories in here about windsor mill,, which ms. phelps opened.

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I was the principal, right in 2006., so we're very proud of that., but also the book, ellen,. It is inclusive of our most recent school in baltimore county. That's built,, lyons mill.

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And we have several schools that are going to be under construction, -- that are under construction., so we're looking for the second edition.

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so,. We just to make sure that we're, including everyone..

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I think one of the proudest moments is when someone comes in to purchase it and they go to their school and they start telling stories.

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Ah,, that's wonderful. for people who want to get a copy of this fabulous book for themselves,.

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Give the quick pitch here.

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I'd say: you're going to call our education foundation at 443-809-8962.

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You can go on our website,, which is up on the screen, as well as stop by the jefferson building to our headquarters at 105, west chesapeake, avenue.

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All right, well, thank you very much. and farrell,. Thank you for the years of dedicated effort that went into creating this beautiful book.

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Thank you, and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county., don't forget,! You can find out more about how to get your copy of the "building. The future" book at education, foundation,.

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Bcps.Org, and please connect with baltimore county government.

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On facebook and twitter. we'll see you next time.

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