Published on: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

By Peggy Dee

Best schools in USA

Gov. Martin O’Malley has pointed out that our schools are No. 1 in America for five years in a row. For the fifth year in a row, Education Week magazine has named Maryland’s public school system the best in our country. The governor said that all Marylanders should be proud. Even during tough times, and even while other states were scaling back their commitment to schools, we’ve chosen to make record investments in public education. Now, because of better choices and strategic investments, we can say again “Maryland is No. 1.”

New school

We look forward to a new school opening in our city in the fall. The 92,000-square-foot school will be located on Editors Park Drive. It will be home to 792 students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade. The two-story school will have classrooms, an art room, a music room, a cafeteria, a gymnasium and a media center. Take a drive along Editors Park Drive, and you will see the lovely new building.

Local Grammy-nominated musicians

Congratulations to two Hyattsville residents who have been nominated for Grammy awards: Stephen Wade and Peter Reiniger.

Wade, a musician, is nominated for Best Album Notes for the more than 44-page booklet that accompanies his third album, “Banjo Diary: Lessons from Tradition.”

Reiniger is nominated for two awards. He is up for Best Historical Album and Best Recording Packaging for his work on “Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection,” a compilation  album made for the 100th birthday of the 20th-century folk singer-songwriter most famous for his song “This Land is Your Land.” 

The Grammy awards will be held on Feb. 10. We will cheer for our “hometown boys.”

No snow!

Kudos and thank you to our Public Works Department, which so promptly treated our streets for the predicted snow storm of Jan. 17. We were so fortunate to have missed the snow.

Hyattsville history: 1964

When a new regional library on Adelphi Road opened in January, many citizens of Hyattsville feared that the Magruder Library on Farragut Street would be closed. Librarian Melba Martin announced that requisitions for new books had been cut, and there was often a wait for requests to be filled. Patrons were thus discouraged and would go to the new facility.