Here are nine things to know for Thursday, Oct. 27. You will find information about the district’s efforts on electric school buses, recent progress on student literacy and mathematics, national principal month upcoming live music experience for students, high-performing student musicians, and some reminders about how to get information about closures and inclement weather.
Montgomery County Public Schools
The 22nd Annual MCPS Latin Dance Competition will be held on Monday, November 21 at The Music Center at Strathmore (5301 Tuckerman Ln) in Bethesda. Sixteen schools will compete in 7 different categories that include salsa, cha cha, and bachata. The event is open to the public and tickets go on sale November 1. Additional details below courtesy www.strathmore.org:
“The annual MCPS Latin dance competition has been taking place at the Music Center at Strathmore since 2010 and is the culmination of Montgomery County’s elite high school Latin dance program which started back in 1999 at Seneca Valley High School. The main objective is to strengthen the social emotional well being of our students and promote health, exercise, and unity through Latin dance education. Students compete in the Junior and Senior categories showcasing their choreographies in Duets/Partner: Salsa, Chacha, Merengue, Bachata, Jack and Jill, Parent/Student, and Best in Show (Group). This event is not presented by Strathmore.”
Manchester Valley (4-4) at Poolesville (7-1) – The Falcons overcame the injury bug to stage a 2nd half comeback to beat Kennedy 13-12. RB Tyler Shefter rushed for 99 yards and 1 TD in the win. The win pretty much locks Poolesville in as the #1 seed in the 2A West region. Manchester Valley of Carroll County visits to close out the season. Prediction: Manchester Valley by 8
Einstein (2-6) at Northwood (0-8) – The Titans lost to Blake 28-18. As a team Einstein rushed for 159 yards and 2 TDs. The Gladiators lost to Rockville 38-6. Prediction: Einstein by 35
For the first time since 2019, James Hubert Blake High School hosted the MCPS Marching Band Showcase. During the Oct. 22 event, nine high school and 10 middle school bands performed everything from disco and Latin music to Billy Joel music and ‘80s hits. Performing high schools were: Clarksburg, Seneca Valley, Watkins Mill, Paint Branch, Col. Zadok Magruder, Damascus, Albert Einstein, Montgomery Blair and Blake (video below).
All the middle school bands performed together, playing the national anthem to kick off the event. Students from Parkland, Silver Spring International, Francis Scott Key, Takoma Park, Robert Frost, Thomas W. Pyle, William H. Farquhar, White Oak, Sligo and John Poole middle schools participated. The grand finale included all bands performing Thriller by Michael Jackson.
The Montgomery County Board of Education approved the design plans for Crown High School back on March 24, 2022. The $180 million high school will be located in the undeveloped 30 acre site that is adjacent to Crown Neighborhood Three and is located at the intersection of Fields Road and Omega Drive (photo of exact location below). The school is expected to open in the fall of 2027.
The new school will relieve crowding at Gaithersburg, Northwest, Quince Orchard, Thomas S. Wootton and Richard Montgomery high schools. According the presentation from earlier this year, the school will be a five story building that will utilize onsite renewable energy sources such as solar panels and geothermal energy. The City of Gaithersburg was able to secure the site as part of the negotiations related to the Crown Farm Annexation Agreement X-182 on August 7, 2006.
MCPS is hosting a hiring fair from 8:00 a.m.– 2:00 p.m. on Monday, November 7, at the Division of Maintenance and Operations, 8301 Turkey Thicket Dr., Building A, First Floor in Gaithersburg. Per MCPS:
MCPS is looking for highly qualified and highly skilled people to join its workforce as support professionals. Walk-in candidates will have the opportunity to participate in a pre-screening process. Those who qualify will be given a hands-on skills assessment to become pre-qualified for open and future positions. Supervisors will be on hand to discuss the various job positions and how they support MCPS.
With Halloween almost here, it’s the perfect time to watch some scary movies. Did you know that the first installment of the Blair Witch franchise, The Blair Witch Project (1999) was primarily filmed right here in Montgomery County?
In the indie supernatural horror, three film students camp in the fictional Black Hills Forest of Burkittsville, Maryland in October of 1994 to film a documentary on the local legend of the Blair Witch. Mysteriously, the trio vanishes, leaving behind hours of footage to be discovered a year later by University of Maryland anthropology students. What the viewer witnesses is this purportedly real home video style footage.
School District on Track to Have 326 Electric School Buses in Three Years and an Entirely Electric School Bus Fleet in 10 Years
Per MCPS: Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), one of the nation’s largest school districts, and Highland Electric Fleets (Highland), the leading provider of school bus fleet electrification-as-a-service in North America, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the country’s single largest deployment of electric school buses at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda.
1. Quince Orchard 8-0 (LW 1)
The Cougars overcame a rocky start to dispatch rival Northwest 41-6. RB Iverson Howard ran for 85 yards on 10 attempts and 1 TD. With the victory Quince Orchard clinched the #1 seed in the 4A West Region. They will travel to Clarksburg on Friday to close out the regular season.
MCPS sent out the following messages to all employees regarding Covid-19 leave being restored:
Dear Colleagues,
A STEAM Festival Showcase will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Northwood High School (919 University Blvd., West). MCPS and educational partners will showcase opportunities for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) with hands-on activities and demonstrations. This event is free and open to all MCPS families and students of all ages.
The keynote speaker is Tina C. Williams-Koroma, the founder and CEO of TCecure, a cybersecurity and intelligence company providing security architecture, engineering, assessment, training, and consulting services to businesses. She is also the founder of CyDeploy, a technology company that helps organizations confidently make security changes to their systems and better protect its assets. Williams-Koroma is a Maryland attorney who also holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s in management. She will speak at 11 a.m.