King Jr. Middle School honors Renaissance Roll winners

High Point Choirheaded for festival

High Point High School’s Concert Choir qualified for the Maryland State Choral Festival based on its performance during the Prince George’s County’s Choral Festival that was held during the week of March 3 at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville.

The various components that are evaluated during the festival include: vocal technique, presentation style, and decorum. High Point’s choir performed three selections at the most complicated level. They received the highest score attainable for their vocal performance of ‘‘The Word Was God” by Rosephanye Powell; ‘‘There Will Be Rest” by Frank Ticheli; and ‘‘My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” by Moses Hogan.

The choir has spent the school year concentrating on developing its vocal skills in music that covers a broad spectrum of genres that include classical, spiritual, gospel, and jazz literature. In February, the choir traveled to Pennsylvania State University at the invitation of Dr. Anthony Leach to participate in an African-American Spirituals Workshop. Music teacher Ned Lewis won a grant from the Wolf Trap Educational Foundation. The grant is being used to hire two renowned clinicians to provide master classes and voice lessons to the choir students.

School board announces public hearing

The Prince George’s County Board of Education will be holding another public hearing for the public to provide input on proposed school boundary changes in Laurel and Beltsville.

The hearing will be at 7 p.m. on April 7 at Beltsville Elementary School, located at 4300 Wicomico Ave.

Parents, students and residents can speak at the hearing, but have to register beforehand. To register, call the Region 5 office at 240-264-1700 by 4 p.m. on April 7.

The board had previously held public hearings on two options, but this hearing will be the first time the public can provide input on a new proposal, Option Z.

Speakers at previous meetings were overwhelmingly against Option F. The board has replaced it with Option Z.

Laurel student qualifiesfor Maryland spelling bee

David Koolbeck, a sixth-grade homeschooler from Laurel, will be competing in the State Spelling Bee on April 4. Three other students, from Upper Marlboro and Bowie, also qualified for the state competition.

The competition will be held in the Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus, located at 800 South Rolling Road. State winners will then qualify for the national spelling bee, to be held on May 20 and 21 in Washington, D.C.

Greenbelt police get grant for truck safety programs

The Greenbelt Police Department received a $5,000 grant from the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance to conduct commercial truck inspections and to pay for several ongoing truck safety programs. Among these programs are Operation Airbrake, dedicated to improving commercial vehicle brake safety throughout North America; and Operation Safe Driver, a campaign to improve commercial and non-commercial driver behavior and performance through effective enforcement, education and awareness.

The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is a nonprofit organization that promotes an environment free of commercial vehicle accidents and incidents.

Poker Car Rally to benefit Kennedy Krieger Institute

Looking for a card game to get your motor running? The Kennedy Krieger Institute Poker Car Rally will be held at 9 a.m. April 27 at 9150 Bursa Road in Laurel. The game is an on-wheels version of traditional five-stud poker, and contestants will play for about three hours, covering roughly 100 miles of road in Howard and Baltimore counties in their cars.

The participation cost is $20 a hand, with all proceeds benefiting the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a Baltimore organization dedicated to helping developmentally disabled children and teens.

Free coffee and donuts will be available at the starting line. To pre-register, call 301-725-5590.

Stay healthywith hospital events

The Laurel Regional Hospital will be holding events in the coming weeks that will educate the public, provide preventive care and give residents a chance to help others.

A community forum will discuss Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a hard to treat form of staph. Guest panelists will discuss recent outbreaks of this form of staph in nearby communities, how to prevent the spread of the infection and how to identify an infection. The event will take place at 6 p.m. today in the J. Russell Jones Room at the hospital, located at 7300 Van Dusen Rd. There is limited seating, so call 301-497-7914 to RSVP.

The hospital, in conjunction with the Laurel Lions Club and the American Red Cross, are holding a blood drive from 2 to 8 p.m. on April 1 in the J.R. Jones Conference Room.

Walk-ins are welcome, but scheduled appointments are given priority. To schedule an appointment, call 301-497-7914.

Laurel Regional Hospital is holding a free prostate screening from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on April 5. The screening will be on the fifth floor of the hospital. Patients will receive a laboratory test and clinical exam. The first 50 men to register will be eligible for the screening. For more information and to register, call 301-497-7914.