A decrease in enrollment can leave school administrators with tough decisions regarding personnel due to a loss in staff allocations.
The situation seems to have occurred at Sherwood High School with music teacher Mike Maddox, but not without a fight from local parents and students.
When it comes to electives in high school, students are able to choose what they’d like to participate in. This could vary from year to year, leaving a teacher whose elective has low enrollment out of luck (the teacher in the department who faces the loss of position is often the teacher with the least amount of teaching experience in the county).
A petition started by Diana Weinrich, encouraging parents to urge their students to elect to take music classes at Sherwood High School, has gained over 1,600 signatures in just a day.
Parents and students alike are leaving comments in support of Mr. Maddox and the music department at the high school. Some of the public comments can be seen below.
The featured photo of our article and the petition is of an event that is big part of what the music department does at Sherwood High School. For over 50 years the music department and students put on a show known as Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival– an original musical production that has been a proud Sherwood tradition since 1971.
After managing to put together a special online production of Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival, the school will have a live show again starting next week.
The full petition can be found here.
“We are facing a cut of our music classes and music program at Sherwood High School. Due to low enrollment, the administration is planning to cut Mr. Maddox from the music teaching staff at Sherwood. Please help us show Sherwood and MCPS that Mr. Maddox and the music program(s) are an important part of the Sherwood curriculum.
Encourage your children to elect to take music classes – guitar, chorus, etc., at Sherwood. Tell MCPS and Sherwood HS how much you value the role of music in the school and in the community.
Keep Rock-N-Roll Revival alive!
If enrollments don’t increase, Mr. Maddox’s position is slated to be eliminated starting this Fall 2022. Please encourage your kids to enroll in music classes at Sherwood HS. We must stop the termination to keep music alive at Sherwood HS.
Please sign our petition, write to the school, write to the School Board.
Steve Atwater was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame last night, having to wait a year due to Covid postponing last year‘s ceremony. The hard-hitting safety was one of the most feared players in the NFL during his time as a player.
Atwater won two Super Bowls in 10 seasons with the Broncos before finishing his career with the Jets in 1999. After his pro career came to an end, he lived in Georgia where he coached his two oldest sons youth football teams and started a real estate company.
In January of 2012, Atwater moved to Montgomery County. His youngest son, Paris, was a student at Sherwood High School where he played football, and Steve joined the Sherwood staff as defensive backs coach while he lived in Brookeville.
He only coached in MoCo for one season, but the impact of a future NFL Hall of Famer coaching local student-athletes is still talked about nearly a decade later.
