Students at two North County schools will see a new face in the principal's office when school starts next week.

Alberta "Byrdie" Ricketts takes over the 169-student Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Parkton. She replaces Sr. Helen Wiegmann, who was hired in 1999 to get the school up and running. She retired in June.

Stacey Durkovic is the new principal at Prettyboy Elementary School, following the retirement of Carolyn Grimsley, who was there for 15 years, seven as assistant principal and eight as principal.

All North County schools have made some changes since closing their doors in June. Here are the highlights.

Carroll Manor Elementary -- The Baldwin school is seeing a drop in enrollment, most likely due to the slow real estate market, said Principal John Kroh.

The school will open with about 325 students, about 20 fewer than last year, he said.

The school will open with two new teachers, one for kindergarten and one for second grade. Kroh said the building's sprinkler system was upgraded over the summer while drainage work required part of the parking lot and pavement to be torn up. Both have been repaved.

The school will hold a tea for new parents Aug. 22 from 3 to 4 p.m. An open house for all families is from 4 to 5 p.m.

Fifth District Elementary -- Upperco's 76-year-old school got a facelift over the summer. Principal Carole Quental said the school has a new coat of paint both inside and out and new floors in the office and on the first floor.

"I'm really excited for the community to see the school," she said. "A lot of areas are painted with our school colors, hunter green and a wheat or straw color."

The school has a new assistant principal. Andy Quinn was assistant principal at Oakleigh Elementary, in Parkville, before coming to Fifth District. The school has new teachers in kindergarten and first grade plus a new math teacher in fourth and fifth grades.

Fifth District will open near its capacity of 280 students, and added a third first-grade class. There are two classes in each of the other grades.

New students and first-graders are invited to see the school on Aug. 22 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

Hereford High School -- Level 1 Chinese will be offered this year to grades nine and 10, said principal John Bereska. The program is intended to grow over the years, with Chinese eventually being offered at levels 2 through 5 as well as Advanced Placement.

Bereska said the school is projected to open with 1,410 to 1,420 students.

"We are at maximum capacity. We are using every classroom every minute of every day," he said.

He said a feasibility study is being done to determine Hereford's future needs. Solutions could include more trailers, an addition or a new high school, he said. Major renovations were done at Hereford 15 years ago.

The school is welcoming 15 new staff members this year, including new assistant principal Joe Jira, formerly assistant principal at Randallstown High School.

Bereska said the agricultural and technical education departments have been combined. New department chairman Larry Roberts will teach heating, ventilating and air conditioning. Heather Schaefer teaches agricultural classes.

"Our ag program is going to grow by leaps and bounds," he said. "And HVAC is the Cadillac of career programs, where kids will be able to go into jobs immediately."

Hereford Middle School -- A two-year renovation project is expected to be completed in October, said principal Cathy Walrod. In fact, trailers parked in front of the school and used as classrooms are already gone.

The school's expected 1,020 students, who have just 30-minute lunch periods, should be able to move through the cafeteria lines faster now that a fourth line has been added, she said.

There has been an addition to the curriculum as well. Chinese is now being offered to two seventh-grade classes. The Chinese language teacher, Mei Stem, will also teach at Hereford High.

Walrod and Bereska visited China for two weeks in July.

Jacksonville Elementary -- Like its neighbor, Carroll Manor, Jacksonville is experiencing a drop in enrollment. Principal Debbie Glinowiecki said the 15-year-old school will open with about 540 students, down from the 552 students it had when school closed for the summer in June.

Jacksonville is offering five first grades, and has four new staff members, including new teachers in first and fifth grades. A part-time technology position has been upgraded to full time, she said.

Jacksonville's open house for students and their families is on Aug. 22 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

"People line up in the parking lot early for the open house," she said. "It's great they're so excited about school starting again."

Our Lady of Grace -- Byrdie Ricketts was retired for a few hours last month. She retired as a first-grade teacher at Fifth District Elementary School after 39 years with the county school system on July 1. Later that same day, she started as principal at Our Lady of Grace.

Ricketts, a parishioner at Our Lady of Grace who lives in Manchester, has been involved with the school since its inception. But she was always behind the scenes as a member of the committee that decided to open a school in 2000 and as chairwoman of the school council.

"This just feels right, and I don't want this to sound conceited, but I believe the good Lord wants me in this job," she said. "This allows me to meld together my love of children, community and God."

Ricketts has taught kindergarten plus first, second and third grades, and holds a master's degree in educational leadership.

"I can understand where the teachers are coming from, and I'm a team player. When a decision doesn't have to come directly from me, it'll come from the team."

The school, which has students in kindergarten through eighth grade, will start a three-year process to be named a Maryland Green School. Students will start recycling paper when school begins.

She hopes to increase enrollment, since the school is built to accommodate more than its current 169 students. "This school has so much to offer -- good facility, teachers, people, programs, technology and a solid curriculum," she said. "Our families are very satisfied, and word of mouth is the best recommendation we can get."

Prettyboy Elementary -- Principal Stacey Durkovic is a former special education teacher and assistant principal who recently earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the College of Notre Dame. She started with the county school system in 1997 at Gunpowder Elementary School, in Perry Hall, where she taught special education. She went on to be a special education mentor in the system's northwest area before spending five years at Timber Grove Elementary School in Reisterstown as assistant principal.

"I've always wanted to be a teacher," she said. "And as much as I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to be an administrator, too."

Durkovic lives in Perry Hall with her husband, Pedrag, who is a native of Croatia, and their 3-year-old daughter, Maja. Pedrag teaches physical education at Kenwood High School. The two met while attending Goucher College.

She started at Prettyboy on July 1 and soon discovered she would have to add another kindergarten class because of high enrollment. The school will open with 457 students, slightly over its projected enrollment. It will have four kindergarten classes and four in first grade. There will be three classes in the other grades.

Five new staff members have been hired. Two new instructors will teach kindergarten; one, first grade, and one, fourth grade. The other new faculty member will be a part-time resource teacher.

The school's septic system has been worked on this summer, and crews have drilled percolation holes to find an appropriate place to install new drain fields, she said.

Seventh District Elementary -- The Parkton school will open with three classes in every grade. It is projected to have 409 students this year, and is expected to open with about 390, said principal Leslie Brooks.

All classroom teachers are returning, but there will be a new special education teacher and a new language teacher.

The building was spruced up over the summer, with carpeting torn up and replaced with tile. The sprinkler system was also upgraded.

The school hosts its annual "Sneak a Peak at Your Seat" on Aug. 22 from 1 to 2 p.m. New students can arrive at 12:30 p.m. for a tour of the school.

St. James Academy -- The private school in Monkton that serves kindergarten through eighth grade will open Sept. 3 with a near-capacity enrollment of 360, said Betty Legenhausen, who is starting her 22nd year as head of the school.

Students in middle school will participate in an International Baccalaureate program, designed to give them a global awareness as they merge their classroom knowledge with real world experience, Legenhausen said. Middle school teachers have already been trained in the new curriculum.

As part of the program, all seventh-graders will be given laptop computers for use at school and home.

St. James will also offer a new middle school chorus in addition to its drama and instrumental music classes.

The school has hired Kathy Barber as director of communications, a new position.

While the school doesn't open until after Labor Day, its store opened Aug. 13.

"It's always wonderful to see such fresh, shining faces come in to buy supplies, excited about the coming school year," Legenhausen said. "They can't wait for school to begin."

Sparks Elementary -- "It has been an uneventful summer, thankfully, and we're all set to go," said principal Sharon Kearney. "The teachers have already been in, getting their rooms ready."

The school, which has four portable classrooms in trailers, will start a few students shy of 500. Kearney said its largest class from last year -- 106 fifth-graders -- is being followed by its smallest class, only 76 in fifth-grade this year.

The school has four classes in each grade, with the exception of three in fifth grade.

One of the portable classrooms will be used exclusively as a science room this year, she said.

Sparks offers a "Take a Peek at your Seat" to all students Aug. 22 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

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