Mid-Year Roundup

Dear MCPS Students, Families and Staff,

We have crossed a big milestone in our 2022-2023 school year—the halfway point. Student report cards went home earlier this week and, while report cards are an essential measure of how our students are doing, the work of MCPS is about so much more than grades. This Mid-Year Roundup will highlight some of our work, which reflects our collective commitment to learning.

So please join me in reflecting on the exciting work and challenges from our first semester.

The First Week of the 2022-2023 School Year School Was Awesome!

We began the school year by hosting nearly 10,000 people at our annual Back-to-School Fair. The first day is always a celebration, and this year we opened with nearly 160,000 students, with our theme of “All Together Now, All for Our Students, Staff and Community.”

This year’s priorities are:

I witnessed intentional instruction, deep engagement in our classrooms, and energized staff and students. It was refreshing to see positive energy in our schools. Central leadership fanned out across the district to ensure our year was getting off to a fabulous start.

The Gaithersburg school features 99,893 square feet of learning space and opened with Prekindergarten–4th grades, with 5th grade coming in the 2023–2024 school year. The facility has a Linkages to Learning program, a partnership with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and other non-profits to integrate health and social services in school, and a number of environmentally sustainable features, such as LED lighting and high-efficiency HVAC machinery.

MCPS Began the School Year 99 Percent Staffed

Staffing for teachers, administrators and support professionals, including bus drivers, remains very competitive. Human resources recruiters traveled the country to visit colleges, universities and hiring fairs; locally, the district took part in a number of job information sessions and fairs. It was an immense amount of work to find, hire and train the staff we needed.

FY 2024 Recommended Operating Budget Released Features Key Investments to Focus on Math, Literacy and Staff

The recommended $3.15 billion proposed operating budget is an 8% increase over last year and will continue efforts to raise student academic performance, especially in math and literacy, and makes key investments to support staff recruitment and retention.

MCPS Celebrates Largest School Bus Electrification Project in the U.S.

MCPS and Highland Electric Fleets, the leading provider of school bus fleet electrification-as-a-service in North America, unveiled the country’s single largest deployment of electric school buses in October. Replacing the diesel bus fleet with electric buses brings MCPS one step closer to its pledge of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2027 and 100% by 2035. Learn more.

Teaching Technologies for the Future.

MCPS held a Teacher Device Showcase, a hands-on opportunity for teachers to test new technology to support science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning.  Teachers also tested over 50 different devices under consideration for future technology acquisition, then completed surveys to provide feedback on the devices and features most important to them.

Important Technologies for the Future

MCPS is working to incorporate important technologies for the next school year, including:

• Know Where My Bus Is / Mobile App
  This technology is a mobile app that will allow parents to receive timely information about the location of their child’s school bus.
• New School-to-Home Communication System
  MCPS staff members are meeting with families, staff and students to gather requirements for the next generation of school-to-home communications tools. Many choices will allow for two-way communications via text, email and phone and so much more. This work is being done now in preparation for the next school year.