SISTER JOYCE
PLAY BALL!
Packed funeral for longtime St. Jerome principal PAGE 3
New year, new leaders at local schools byÊ SusieÊ CurrieÊ andÊ PaulaÊ MinaertÊ
Nearly a quarter of Prince George’s County’s 198 schools are getting new principals this year, due largely to budget cuts that led to slashed positions and staff buyouts for the new fiscal year. In Hyattsville, Northwestern High School and Hyattsville Middle School, as well as the private Concordia Lutheran School, will have new leadership when they open this month.
Back to the old, old ball game: The Mid-Atlantic Base Ball League plays by 1860s rules at Magruder Park. PAGE 12
BUSBOYS & POETS
Crowds flock to the Hyattsville location of this famed restaurant for food and fun. PAGE 6
Hyattsville Life&Times
Vol. 8 No. 8
Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper
HL&T wins national awards byÊ SusieÊ Currie
NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL At Northwestern, Jerome Thomas stepped down as principal in June following health problems earlier this year. He is now an assistant principal at Bowie High School (which is also getting a new principal). He’s being replaced by Edgar Batenga, a High Point High School graduate who worked his way up at that school from substitute teacher to award-winning coach to assistant principal, a post he held for six years. For the last five years, he’s been assistant principal of Columbia’s Long Reach High School, which, he said, has similar demographics to Northwestern but “around 300”
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PRINCIPALS continued on page 11
SAVING THE DAY
More pictures of National Night Out on page 5
Many vacancies among city staff ByÊ PaulaÊ Minaert
Hyattsville Life & Times PO Box 132 Hyattsville, MD 20781
august 2011
Two key positions in the city staff – assistant city administrator and director of parks and recreation – became open with the recent departures of Vincent Jones and Steve Yeskulsky. The city has seen a fair amount of staff turnover lately. It has had two parks directors and two treasurers in the last two years. It has not had a director of code enforcement since October 2009; Senior Inspector Chris Guinta serves as act-
ing director. Communications Manager Abby Sandel is serving as acting director of recreation and the arts. Two other key positions were created in this year’s budget, meaning that out of a total of 11 senior staff positions in the city administration, four are currently open. The two new positions are a chief information officer to provide information technology support to administrative staff and the police, and a human resources manager. The city council was sup-
posed to discuss engaging a recruiting firm to help with the hiring at its Aug. 1 meeting. But that discussion, and all council business, came to a halt when the council unexpectedly had to cancel the meeting for lack of a quorum (see “Council Absences”, p. 3). City Administrator Gregory Rose said that the increasing size and complexity of the city organization – it now has about 100 employees – means it needs greater expertise to manage things like human resources. Council member Tim Hunt (Ward 3) pointed out that the police department in particular has acquired some new programs and technology, such as Safe City and the CAD system, that require more IT support. STAFF continued on page 11
The Hyattsville Life & Times was one of three Maryland publications to win awards in the National Newspaper Association’s 2011 Better Newspaper Contest. Winners were notified by e-mail on July 19, and will be recognized at a reception next month in Albuquerque, N.M. It was the first year HL&T had entered the contest, and it came away with two awards in its division. Executive Editor Paula Minaert’s editorial from October 2010, “What’s the definition of ‘neighbor’?” took second place in the Best Serious Column category. Judges called it “thought provoking [and] well done.” Chris McManes, who wrote this month’s piece on vintage base ball at Magruder Park (see p. 12), earned an Honorable Mention for Best Sports Feature Story or Series with his March 2010 piece “Stags go out with a bang as exalted coach looks on.” Judges said the article, about the last basketball game played in the old DeMatha gym, combined “lots of info and history in a thorough piece.” The contest drew 2,042 entries in several divisions. Judging was performed primarily by active community newspaper editors and publishers and retired university journalism professors. Established in 1885, the National Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s community newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country.
Included: The August 10, 2011 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section