First there was the fire at George Washington Carver. As usual, St. Mary's Today had the pictures of the flames on its web site before anyone else was even aware of the event. Superintendent of Schools, Dr. John Martirano said he was looking at the photos in the wee small hours of the morning.

Southern Maryland Fire Marshall Chuck Dammann complemented the Bay District Fire Department for its skilled handling of the fire. Dammann said that the whole school might have burned had Bay District been less professional in its fight with the fire. If you know a Bay District volunteer, remember to thank him for saving the taxpayers plenty of dough and the children plenty of woe.

Let's not forget the swift response of the school system. From here it appears that the burned classrooms may be replaced by Monday morning. In one week the students may be back in their new regular classrooms.

Then there was the response of the students. On Thursday, their first day back to school after the fire, there was not a single referral issued in the school!

Finally, Fire Marshall Damann said that because of the nature of the fire, he doubted if anyone would have been injured even if the students and their teachers had been in the classroom. Brad Clements, Chief Administrative Office for the school system, confirmed that estimate, saying the teachers know to leave the room if they smell anything odd.

Other excitement included the approval of more detailed plans for Leonardtown Elementary School. The parking lot entrance from Church Street has been approved, leaving the teacher/public lot and the bus parking completely separate. This separation was a goal of the staff, and keeps the bus riding children away from cars, a significant improvement in student safety.

Plans to lower the level of arsenic in the water of several schools are being completed. Clements said staff has identified $166,000 in funds from the Green Holly AHERA project to be put against the $450,000 cost of new wells. That leaves $284,000 to be obtained from the Commissioners.

The school system likes to harp on the fact that the water is no different than it has ever been, the standards have changed. But the school system doesn't like to note that the change in standards has been in effect for quite a while. In fact, EPA first proposed the regulations around 1999. EPA took comments for months, reviewed the data one more time, then set the levels. When President Bush took office, he asked EPA to hold off on setting the levels until the National Science Foundation reviewed the science that led to the lower permissible levels. The National Science Foundation reviewed the data and later concurred with EPA. Then the new, lower levels were set.

Arsenic is not good for kids, and our students will be better off if they don't have to drink it. The money is in the budget will be used to drill new, deeper wells into the aquifer which does not contain arsenic.