MCPS

Shannon McKenzie, child development teacher at Clarksburg High School, was named the 2023–2024 MCPS Teacher of the Year during a celebration at BlackRock Center for the Arts on April 24. She will now go on to compete for Maryland Teacher of the Year.

An educator for 23 years, she has been teaching in MCPS for seven. She previously owned and operated a private preschool for 16 years, and worked in the Preschool Education Program (PEP) program at Germantown Elementary School. In only her second year at Clarksburg, she has rapidly grown the Child Development program, more than doubling enrollment in the second year. Forty-one students were enrolled in Child Development courses the first year; by the next year, 95 students enrolled. The Clarksburg program—the Coyote Pups Preschool Program—serves 12 families.

The TowerCares Foundation offers an annual college scholarship program for STEM and foreign language linguistics majors. The scholarship is open to high school seniors and college freshmen, sophomores and juniors who attend an accredited two- or four-year college/university full-time.

This year, the foundation will award up to 30 $5,000 scholarships. Additional consideration will be given to children/dependents of active duty military and veterans from all branches of the armed forces, including reserve and guard units. Learn more. The deadline to apply is Monday, May 15.

All secondary students were eligible to vote in the SMOB election and 55,598 students cast ballots. Mr. Saeed received 70 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Mr. Yoseph Zerihun, a junior at Springbrook High School, received 30 percent. The SMOB election was held on April 19 through an electronic ballot that all students received in their MCPS email; students were encouraged to vote during a class lesson.

The celebration will also recognize the MCPS Rising Star Teacher of the Year, the Dr. Edward Shirley Award for Excellence in Educational Administration and Supervision winner, the Supporting Services Employee of the Year, the Community Champion for Children, and the inaugural R.A.I.S.E. Champion of the Year.

The Board of Education has approved the following administrative appointments:

• April Lealia Key as Chief of Human Resources and Development

Per MCPS: The results are in! Sami Saeed, a junior at Richard Montgomery High School, has been elected the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) for the 2023-2024 school year. Mr. Saeed’s term begins on July 1, 2023.

All secondary students were eligible to vote in the SMOB election and 55,598 students cast ballots. Mr. Saeed received 70 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Mr. Yoseph Zerihun, a junior at Springbrook High School, received 30 percent. The SMOB election was held on April 19, 2023 through an electronic ballot that all students received in their MCPS email and were encouraged to vote through a class lesson.

Last week, MCPS sent a community message addressing school safety. “I am writing to update you on the measures we have taken to ensure the safety of our students and staff in our schools. As a follow-up to our community letter, we have been working diligently to implement concrete actions focusing on resources, expectations, and community engagement.” The full letter can be seen here. Additional information on Increased Security Staffing can be seen below:

“We have allocated a 1.0 permanent substitute to all high schools to address increased staff absences. We have also deployed security substitutes to schools with higher security absences and more significant security needs. At the elementary level, in addition to the cluster assigned Community Engagement Officers (CEOs), MCPS security assistant rovers are available to support as needed when safety incidents arise.  We have requested 10.0 additional security assistants in the FY2024 budget and are reviewing the process to allocate security staff within our schools.”