More than 100 French Immersion sixth, seventh and eighth grade students from Silver Spring International Middle School participated in the state visit of French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron. First lady Dr. Jill Biden invited the students to participate in the visit. Students and the first ladies, both educators, toured Planet Word in Washington, D.C., and enjoyed a poetry reading. Some students had the opportunity to greet and engage with them over an interactive book device in the library.


MCPS Superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight will deliver a presentation on the Fiscal Year 2024 Operating Budget at 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 19 at Northwest High School. The public will be able to watch live on the MCPS website, MCPS-TV YouTube channel and MCPS-TV channels in English and Spanish. There will be opening comments from Scott Smith, principal at Northwest and Karla Silvestre, president of the Board of Education. The presentation from Dr. McKnight will outline the goals, priorities and investments planned for the FY 2024 school year.


What is illicit fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a prescription medication for pain that is 50-100 times more powerful than morphine. The type of fentanyl driving overdose deaths is illegally made and sold in the form of powder, pills, liquid, or nasal sprays. Other drug products like marijuana, cocaine, heroin or illegally sold pills thought to be prescription medicine may be laced with illicit fentanyl, without the knowledge of the user.


Kamie Crawford, a 2010 graduate of Churchill High School, has just announced that she’ll be the host of the latest season of Are You The One?, which will air exclusively on Paramount+ after 8 seasons on MTV and a 3 year break. Crawford is no stranger to MTV, as she she served as part of a panel of rotating hosts for the second part of season 7 of the television series Catfish after Max Joseph’s departure from the series. In 2020, she became the permanent co-host of the MTV series.

On July 24, 2010, just weeks after graduating from Churchill High School in Potomac, Crawford represented Maryland in the Miss Teen USA 2010 pageant where she made history by being the first contestant from Maryland to win the title. While at Churchill, Crawford was the captain of the Varsity cheerleading team. She was selected into the medical program for the Congressional Student Leadership Conference at Georgetown University. In September 2010, Crawford enrolled in classes at the New York Film Academy while taking some core classes at a local college. She graduated from Fordham University in 2015 with a degree in communications and media and began a career in television and hosting.


Shortly before kickoff of Thursday night’s Maryland 4A state championship football game at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman noticed that he’d received a text message from former Quince Orchard High School football star Johnny Hodges. “He wants to know where he can get a livestream of the game,” said Ashman to his companions at the 50-yard-line as they prepared to watch QO defend its state title against C.H. Flowers High School of Prince Georges County. 

That Hodges, a 2019 QO graduate and cocaptain of the 2018 championship team, would still want to watch a team of players who weren’t even at QO when he played, isn’t all that remarkable when you think about it. Hodges’ loyalty to his former coaches and the QO football program runs deep. Neither is the fact that of all the people he might contact to find out where to find a livestream, he’d choose the Mayor of Gaithersburg. Ashman’s love of QO football as a parent of two QO alums, including a former football player, is well known throughout the community.


A letter (available below) was sent home to the Silver Spring International Middle School community on Thursday, December 8th, detailing an incident involving a BB gun accidentally discharging and striking a student in the leg during the school day.

According to the letter, a 7th grade student showed a BB gun to a friend when it accidentally discharged and struck her friend in the upper thigh. There were no injuries, as the student was examined by the school nurse following the incident, and the BB gun was confiscated by school security. Montgomery County Police and Montgomery County Public School Systemwide Safety reported to the school to investigate the incident. Full letter below:


Additional Staff Members Will Support Districtwide Communication Priorities

Per MCPS: In order to provide more robust system-wide media relations, proactive storytelling, news, crisis communications and marketing services, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has added several new positions to the Communications Department in the Office of the Chief of Staff.


In the images below you will see the Montgomery County 4A Coaches All-County Selections (as chosen by the 4A coaches in Montgomery County). Honorable mention defense, honorable mention offense, second team all-county defense, second team all-county offense, coaches of the year, first team all-county defense, first team all-county offense, offensive player of the year, defensive player of the year, and player of the year awards can be seen:


MCPS Press Release: At its Dec. 6 business meeting, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved the school year calendar for 2023-2024. The calendar is responsive to community input by offering limited instructional disruptions and highlights the system’s continued investment in our employees by including six professional development learning days. Highlights for the 2023-2024 school calendar include:

The calendar maintains 182 days of instruction, including 6 built in contingency days within the school year. These dates are in addition to holiday closures required by state law, which are noted on the calendars linked below:


97.1 WASH-FM is searching the DMV for the area’s best school choirs to ring in the holiday season! Per WASH-FM: The top choir from each division will win up to $5,000 towards their schools’ music program and be invited to perform at The Washington Ballet’s The Nutcracker at The Warner Theatre 12/17. The Top 3 Choir Finalists for elementary/Middle School have been announced and they include two schools in Montgomery County– North Bethesda Middle School (MCPS, Bethesda), and St. Andrew Apostle Catholic School (Private, Silver Spring). You can listen to each choir at the times listed below and vote for your favorite.

Wed 12/7:  10:00am hour, 6:00pm hour| Thu 12/8: 9:00am hour, 3:00pm hour


View More Stories