Whether it’s been an educational challenge, praise for student achievement or even questionable state legislation, Cheryl Bost has usually had a few words to say about it.

But Bost, an elementary school educator for 35 years who has served since August 2018 as president of the Maryland State Education Association, won’t be heard from so much come this August. That’s because she will retire from the education profession after July 31.

“I love teaching. I love my union work. I love being an advocate and speaking up for all the students and educators. It’s been fun,” Bost said in an interview Tuesday.

But stepping back doesn’t mean stepping away: On Tuesday morning, Bost could be seen in  a video with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), endorsing Alsobrooks in her race for U.S. Senate against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in November.

In an interview later in the day, Bost recalled that Hogan called the teacher’s union “thugs” during his time as governor, when he vetoed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future legislation in 2020. The legislature overrode the veto the following year.

“Larry Hogan, as governor, never worked with educators. He never met with the union. He vetoed the Blueprint,” Bost said. “If it was about public education, Larry Hogan was opposed to it in all shapes and forms.”

Her comments hours after a state Board of Education meeting in downtown Baltimore, where Bost has been advocating for teachers at least once a month. The topic Tuesday was an update on college and career readiness (CCR) standards, one of the priorities in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.

Although Bost said she supports the state’s college and career readiness goals, she noted that some of them were set prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She summarized how proposed additional CCR resources, such as smaller class sizes, school counselors meeting with families and having an “all hands-on deck is great. It is not reality.”

In terms of school counselors, Bost said that while the American School Counselor Association says Maryland public schools have an average of 319 students for every one counselor, “I can tell you in some of the high schools with 2,000 students, that’s closer to 500 or 600 students per counselor,” she said. “So, those things are still impacting implementation.”

Before Bost finished her testimony at Tuesday’s board meeting, she introduced Paul Lemle and Nikki Woodward, who will begin their tenures Aug. 1 with the state teacher’s union as president and vice president, respectively.

Lemle is a national board-certified teacher who teaches social studies at Reservoir High School in Howard County. Woodward is a 25-year educator in Montgomery County who is the teacher’s union’s vice president in that jurisdiction.

As for Bost, she plans to take a vacation out of state and just relax.

“I’m taking a couple of months to do nothing and see what the next adventure might bring,” she said.

Car dealerships around the country are the latest victims of a cyberattack.

Hackers went after a company, CDK Global, that makes software used by car dealers both here in the U.S. and in Canada.

It started last week and fallout continues to be felt Tuesday.

Peter Kitzmiller is the president of the Maryland Automobile Dealers Association. He joined WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer to talk about it.

President of the Maryland Automobile Dealers Association Peter Kitzmiller talks with WTOP’s Shawn Anderson and Anne Kramer about the CDK cyberattack affecting car dealerships around the country.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Shawn Anderson: So when did car dealers in Maryland first realize that something was wrong and what transactions or issues have come as a result of this cyberattack?

Peter Kitzmiller: So I think we were we were made — or the dealerships were made — aware at like 2 a.m. last Wednesday. So it’s already been almost a week now. And so it’s had a pretty significant impact right off the bat. I mean, we’re like every other business, everything’s run by computers, processing your new car, used car purchase, making your appointment in the service department, communicating with customers — all those things, even the phone systems were impacted.

I think the biggest issue was, in Maryland, when you go to buy a car, the dealership provides either with a part tag or a temporary tag. All that is done electronically through the dealer management system, like CDK. That was an issue, but we’ve been working with MVA and so that part of the transaction, we can absolutely get you tags now. And that’s not going to be an issue going forward.

Anne Kramer: What has been the toughest part? I mentioned about going old school, some dealerships are. Is that what you’re seeing in Maryland, with some of the dealerships here, they’re having to use pen and paper?

Peter Kitzmiller: Absolutely, that is part of it. Some of those things are going to have to go back, you know, 30 years ago. And again, transmitting information to a lender on behalf of a customer, all those things have been a little bit, have been made more complex, because we don’t have the system back up and running yet. But I do want to tell everyone that if you’re considering buying a car, you’ve been working with the dealership, absolutely they’ve got workarounds — they’re going to make it work.

If you haven’t been contacted as quickly as you normally would, or you’re having a harder time making a service appointment. That’s where that impact is going to be felt. But again, I certainly would encourage everyone, if you’ve been looking at a car online or whatever, don’t hesitate to go into the dealership because we are coming up with workarounds.

Shawn Anderson: How much of a financial impact though has this had on dealerships in Maryland over the past few days?

Peter Kitzmiller: I don’t think we could put a number on it yet. There’s no question it is going to have a financial impact. I think it’s going to be pretty significant. Car dealerships are very cash intensive businesses, a lot of employees and, you know, you go a day when you can’t transact any business, there’s going to be a cost associated with that.

Anne Kramer: Peter, has every car dealership in Maryland been impacted by this?

Peter Kitzmiller: Not necessarily. So there’s really two categories of people that have been directly impacted. If you’re one of the dealerships that used CDK for what we call DMS or your dealer management system, then yes, you’ve been significantly impacted. Then there’s a subset of electronic commerce called CVR. If you use them, they’re a subsidiary of CDK. So they have been impacted as well.

So the dealers that have CDK as their primary dealer management system has been impacted the most, but every dealer has probably had some issue because they work together, they work with various vendors that are across platforms, but it’s primarily those dealers that use CDK. Again CDK was one of the biggest players in the industry. I think they have 15,000 dealership rooftops across the country. So they’re certainly a very, very significant part of the industry.

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EDGEWOOD, MD — A firefighter was taken to the hospital after injuring a hand while battling a fire at the Village of Lakeview Apartments.

The fire broke out shortly after 7 p.m. June 24. The two-story apartment building, located at 1851 Edgewater Drive, had smoke and fire alarms but they didn’t activate, according to the Maryland Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Around 20 firefighters with the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company took five minutes to gain control of the fire, which was limited to the outside of the building. Residents discovered the fire, which the fire marshal’s office says was set by a juvenile who was lighting four boxes of air filters on the ground. That caught the window on fire. The building sustained $1,000 in damage, the fire marshal reported.