To Celebrate American Education Week, First Lady of Maryland Kendel S. Ehrlich, MSDE and Comcast Unveil New 'PRIDE: Maryland Public Schools' PSA Campaign

To Celebrate American Education Week, First Lady of Maryland Kendel S. Ehrlich, MSDE and Comcast Unveil New 'PRIDE: Maryland Public Schools' PSA Campaign

Hundreds of Students, Parents and Community Partners Gather as Comcast Announces $1 Million in Support to Statewide PSA Campaign Featuring Maryland Public School Students, Teachers and Administrators

BALTIMORE, Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate American Education Week, First Lady of Maryland Kendel S. Ehrlich, State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick and Comcast today unveiled the new "PRIDE: Maryland Public Schools" public service campaign at a 10 a.m. press conference at Fallston Middle School before hundreds of students, parents and community partners. The "PRIDE: Maryland Public Schools" campaign is a statewide initiative that recognizes and applauds the outstanding accomplishments made by those attending and working for Maryland's Public School System. Comcast announced that it has added $500,000 in airtime and production to its existing gift of $500,000 to total $1 million.

"American Education Week is about celebrating our children and their accomplishments and what better way than to put them in the spotlight," said Dr. Grasmick. "The PRIDE campaign gives us an opportunity to share the many success stories in the public school system. We have had so much positive feedback from the campaign and are so grateful that Comcast is continuing its strong support."

The theme of American Education Week 2005 (November 13-19) is "A Strong America Starts with Great Public Schools," highlighting the importance of bringing together teachers, school staff, parents, students, and communities in a unified effort to build great public schools.

"This campaign really highlights the incredible accomplishments of our public school students and administrators. We salute Dr. Nancy Grasmick and her staff for all of their hard work in making our schools a better place for learning," said Brian Lynch, Area Vice President and General Manager, Comcast. "Comcast invests significantly in educational initiatives including wiring schools with high-speed Internet service, awarding millions of dollars in scholarship money across Maryland and so much more. The more we can do to support learning, the better our workforce will be in the future."

Featured in the unveiled PSA Campaign are -

Harford County -- Kelly Kundratic, an 11-year-old seventh grader from Fallston Middle School, was one of 12 students nationwide chosen to speak by telephone to scientists onboard the mother ship 'Atlantis' and its submersible 'Alvin' operating several hundred miles off the Mexican Coast in the Pacific Ocean highlighting quality science programs statewide.

View Kelly's PSA: http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/550167.wmv

Montgomery County -- Tracy Li, a recent graduate of Walter Johnson High, was honored by the Achievement Initiative for Maryland's Minority Students Steering Committee for championing and founding an organization to address needs of Asian American students. She is currently attending Harvard University.

View Tracy's PSA: http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/628429.wmv

Calvert County -- Timothy Ancarrow, a senior at Huntingtown High School, was a gold medalist at the National 2005 Skills USA competition where he represented Maryland with a new plan for workplace safety.

View Timothy's PSA: http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/811413.wmv

Worcester County -- Matthew Record, a second grade teacher and a "rising superstar educator," just completed his first year of teaching at Snow Hill Elementary School, a Title I and 2005 National Blue Ribbon School. He comes from a family of educators. His father is a principal of Snow Hill School and his mother is principal of Cedar Chapel Special School.

View Matthew's PSA: http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/311169.wmv

Wicomico County -- Melva D. Wright, the principal of West Salisbury Elementary School (2nd year), where Kindergarten students are reading up to a 2nd grade level.

View Melva's PSA: http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/483898.wmv

Last year's Comcast PRIDE PSA campaign included students from Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, and Worcester counties.

The announcement at Fallston Middle School represents just one component of the "PRIDE: Maryland Public Schools" campaign. MSDE continues this program throughout the school year through various communication channels to educate the citizens of Maryland about all of the outstanding accomplishments that our students achieve every day. For more information about the PRIDE initiative, log onto http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/.

The PRIDE campaign will highlight many amazing accomplishments of Maryland public school students. The 2004 - 2005 school year graduating class in Maryland was offered nearly half-a-billion dollars in scholarships and test scores improved in all 24 school districts. Students in Maryland led all other jurisdictions in the Middle States region in SAT scores and the State leads the nation in increased participation among students in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Additionally, there was a 132 percent increase in the number of AP exams taken by students in Maryland, which translates into students earning college credit and being more prepared for college coursework.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (http://www.comcast.com/) is the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 21.4 million cable customers, 7.7 million high-speed Internet customers, and 1.2 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable networks and in the delivery of programming content.

The Company's content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, The Golf Channel, OLN, G4, AZN Television, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One and four regional Comcast SportsNets. The Company also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.

Source: Comcast

CONTACT: Stephanie Offen, +1-410-568-8821, soffen@nevinspr.com, for
Comcast; or Linda Bazerjian, MSDE, +1-410-767-0488,
lbazerjian@msde.state.md.us

Web site: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/

Web site: http://www.comcast.com/

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