September 25, 2024 Staff and Community Update: Highlights from the Superintendent’s September 2024 Press Conference
Watch the Press Conference
Dr. Myriam Rogers held a media availability today, September 25, to discuss the first month of the 2024-2025 school year and share important safety reminders for the BCPS community.
First Month of the 2024-2025 School Year
- Team BCPS is about one month into the new school year, and it has been a strong start for our 111,000 students and 20,000 employees.
- The superintendent and her leadership team have visited schools throughout the county and have seen rigorous teaching in all content areas and highly engaged students and staff.
- The work we have seen over this past month is a direct result of the efforts of school-based, central office, and support staff who are working relentlessly to move our system forward. All staff—across schools and offices—have started this school year with shared vision and renewed focus.
- As we continue our implementation of our evidence-based English language Arts and Illustrative Math curricula, implement a new curriculum for multilingual learners, pilot secondary literacy curricula, and provide robust professional development for all staff, we will continue to closely monitor student data to make certain that we are meeting the needs of all students and addressing gaps in performance.
- BCPS is moving in the right direction. Recent MCAP data released by the state show that BCPS students made gains on 13 of 16 English and math state assessment data points. Equally important, BCPS made the greatest improvement in reducing chronic absenteeism across the state of Maryland with an overall decrease of 6.3 percent and improvements in all zones, at all levels, for all student and service groups.
- Not only are we seeing positive trends with key academic data, but we’ve also started the year with exciting awards and recognitions for our staff and schools. BCPS Teacher of the Year Stephanie Gerhold was named a finalist for the 2024-2025 Maryland teacher of the Year, Meghan Anderson, a Parkville Middle School paraeducator was named Maryland Education Support Professional of the Year, and Chapel Hill Elementary School was named a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School. Chapel Hill was noted by the National Blue Ribbon program as one whose staff and community demonstrate an intentional focus on what each student needs to grow academically and socially-emotionally each year. Congratulations to Ms. Gerhold, Ms. Anderson, and the Chapel Hill Elementary School community!
- Dr. Rogers looks forward to sharing updates throughout the year on the progress and accomplishments of Team BCPS students, staff and schools.
Safety Reminder
- Student learning is our core purpose. We know that a critical component of creating the most optimal learning environment for students includes ensuring their physical safety and social-emotional well-being. While we are off to a strong start academically, it is important to note that across the nation, we are seeing a concerning trend in dangerous and disruptive student behavior. We want to make it clear to all members of our community that disciplinary action has and will be taken against students who violate the BCPS Code of Conduct.
- These disturbing behaviors include threats of mass violence, possession of weapons on school property, fighting and physical attacks, and recording or streaming disruptive and dangerous incidents. As outlined in our Student Handbook and in the Code of Conduct addendum that was shared with the Team BCPS community yesterday, students who engage in these behaviors will be subject to all legally allowable consequences including, but not limited to, suspension and expulsion.
- BCPS is grateful for the strong partnership with the County Executive and his team, the Baltimore County Police Department, School Resource officers and other county agencies to keep our students safe.
- The system has made significant investments in infrastructure and other safety measures to bolster efforts. As we work to address the physical safety needs of students and staff, we are simultaneously addressing the social-emotional needs of our students by providing access to expanded mental health resources and comprehensive behavioral services.
- We call on all members of Team BCPS to join us in this effort to foster safe, supportive and welcoming learning environments. Join us for a solutions-focused conversation tomorrow, September 26, at 6 p.m. at Catonsville High School.
- Dr. Rogers thanked County Executive Johnny Olszewski for his leadership and unwavering support. The county executive has made significant investments in BCPS that have enabled us to put several initiatives and programs in place to support student safety and well-being.