The Thomas Edison High School of Technology will be holding a Back-to-School Open House between 5:30pm and 7pm on Wednesday, August 17th. The school is attached to Wheaton High School and located at 12502 Dalewood Drive. The event will allow community members to join the TEHST leadership team for games, conversation, and school tours.
Anyone interested in joining the waitlist for one of the school’s programs for the upcoming school year (2022-2023) can click HERE to access the application page.
Nearly a decade ago, Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College and the Universities at Shady Grove – with its nine university partners – teamed up to launch a joint program in several high schools across the county to help make the dream of college and attainment of a bachelor’s degree more possible for thousands of students from historically underrepresented demographic groups. That program – ACES, which stands for “Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success” – has since served more than 7,500 students and in the past few years, some of the first bachelor’s degree graduates have emerged from university programs at USG.
Six of those graduates recently shared some of their perspectives in a series of “My ACES Story” video vignettes. Here are their stories.
With Americans struggling financially due to rising inflation and a year of community college nearly three times less expensive than a year at a public four-year college, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022’s Best & Worst Community Colleges, coupled with its state-by-state ranking of the Best & Worst Community-College Systems, Montgomery College was ranked 7th out of over 650 community colleges, coming it at 19th in the ‘Career Outcomes’ category, while Maryland was ranked 2nd in “States With the Best Community College System.”
Per the article: “Other than serving as an affordable, and in some cases free, option for education, community colleges have a number of attractive qualities. They often provide more flexible schedules, smaller class sizes and rigorous coursework. Some even go beyond two-year programs to offer four-year bachelor’s degrees. These qualities advantages appeal especially to students who need to balance their studies with other commitments, such as family and work.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has reached an agreement with the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) to provide a $2,750 financial incentive to special education teachers who are hired for the 2022-2023 school year.
“We are happy to be able to offer this incentive to help fill these critical positions,” said Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight. “We are working diligently to fill every position and be 100 percent staffed come the first day of school, especially for our most vulnerable students in special education.”
After seeing a similar Facebook group in Frederick County reach over 3,000 members, MCPS teachers Jennifer Wilson and Kate Stone decided to create a Montgomery County version that allows community members to “adopt” an MCPS teacher and support them buy purchasing items for the teacher off of the teacher’s Amazon wishlist. “People have always want to donate to teachers, so we just wanted to make it easier for them to be able to do it.” Wilson told us. In less than three days, the Facebook group has over 1,000 members with hundreds of gifts already donated to local teachers.
Here’s how it works: Teachers create and share their public wishlist in a post, making sure to include the wishlist link in a post. Teachers are encouraged to include information about themselves and the school they teach at. Community members then have the option to purchase one or more items from any wishlist they choose to support. Community members are encouraged to let the teacher know they purchased something from the wishlist. If they choose to, multiple people can adopt one teacher and one person can adopt multiple teachers. Everyone is encouraged to be nice to each other.
On Aug. 20, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Northwest High School will host a clusterwide event featuring activities, games, and MCPS and PTA resources. Learn more here.
On Aug. 21, from noon to 4 p.m., Rockville High School will host Rockville Day, a back-to-school bash also with activities and community partner support. Learn more here.
Students are heading back to school later this month with teachers reporting on August 22nd for Pre-Service. August 22nd-26th will serve as professional days for teachers. Prior to the first day of school for students, MCPS is holding a Back-To-School Fair at Westfield Wheaton, and most students will be returning to school on Monday, August 29th (Only Arcola Elementary School and Roscoe Nix Elementary School follow the Innovative School calendar). Below you will see important dates to remember for the 2022-2023 school year:
2022
Below you will see notes from the August 8th, 2022 MCPS media briefing regarding recruitment and staffing for the 2022/2023 school year. The full video of the meeting is also available below.
Dr. Monifa McKnight (paraphrased):
Jennifer Celotta is a Montgomery County native who was born in Gaithersburg and graduated from Wootton High School in Rockville in 1989. Since then she has gone on to become a very successful television producer, writer, and director, including directing six episodes of the popular Netflix series Cobra Kai that is a television series sequel to the original Karate Kid films.
Celotta has an impressive résumé that includes writing credits on popular television series’ like, Home Improvement, The Office, Abbott Elementary, Malcolm in the Middle, and a lot more, including directing three episodes of The Office.
MCPS currently has 247 full-time teaching positions and 60 part-time open teaching positions as the first day of school approaches (August 29th), according to the school system’s website. Last Tuesday, MCPS hosted a virtual informational session for job seekers to learn about available openings for the 2022-2023 school year. On Friday morning the Montgomery County Board of Education tweeted, “MCPS is looking for special education teachers! Do you know someone who would be a great fit? Encourage them to apply at mcpscareers.org“.
According to a late July post on the MCPS website, the school system offered the following information: MCPS is the largest and most diverse school system in Maryland. The district is seeking highly qualified professionals to join its workforce as classroom teachers and support professionals. The system is looking to hire for these critical areas:
The Maryland Department of Health issued a statement on August 2, which includes details about case counts, testing and vaccination strategy, and contact tracing efforts. As of that date, there were 129 confirmed cases of MPX in the state of Maryland. Information about the Montgomery County public health response is available on the DHHS website, as are instructions on pre-registration for vaccination for eligible individuals. County residents and medical providers can contact the Montgomery County Communicable Disease Control team at 240-777-1755 with questions about county services.
Below are links to more information about MPX, including how it spreads, symptoms, prevention and treatment. In contrast to the early days of COVID-19, we know more about MPX, how it spreads and affects humans, and about the available vaccines and treatments. Individuals at a higher risk of being exposed to MPX should be vaccinated, take additional precautions to protect themselves, and seek a medical provider’s advice if they are concerned for symptoms of MPX.