Good News
MCPS school leaders were recently charged with reimagining Back-to-School nights to make them more accessible and engaging for families. This video features some of those initiatives at the Fairland Elementary School and Watkins Mill High School Back-to-School nights, as well as the Watkins Mill cluster block party on Sept. 14.
MCPS, County Celebrate Walk and Roll to School Day
Schools throughout MCPS celebrated Walk and Roll to School Day today (Oct. 4) to promote health and safer routes to for students to walk and bike to school. Brooke Grove Elementary School in Olney held a special event, joined by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation’s MCDOT’s Zeal the Safety Zebra and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue’s Sparky the Fire and Rescue Dog. The event included music, balloons, giveaways, police officers, firefighters, fire trucks and special visits from Montgomery County Councilmembers Gabe Albornoz and Dawn Luedtke.
Clarksburg, Whitman High Chorus Students Perform at World Culture Festival
Last month, 250 chorus students from Clarksburg and Walt Whitman high schools performed at the 2023 World Culture Festival. Nearly 1 million people from more than 180 countries are estimated to have participated in the three-day celebration of unity, diversity and peace on the National Mall. The event included 60 performances from more than 17,000 artists, musicians and dancers representing cultures from every corner of the globe. MCPS students opened the festival singing the national anthem with the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own” and the U.S. Army Chorus, followed by two original compositions fusing English and Sanskrit lyrics—Blessings Invocation and One World Family, and America the Beautiful – Vande Mataram with Grammy-nominated artist Chandrika Tandon.
Amy Vanek and Michelle Kim, choral music directors at Clarksburg and Whitman, worked to prepare the students for the festival within three weeks. Others who help to coordinate the students’ appearance included: Kanan Shah, MCPS’ World Culture Festival coordinator and occupational therapist at Infants and Toddlers, Emory Grove; Elaine Chang, director of partnerships; Amita Mongia, teacher at Garrett Park Elementary School; Randy Rumpf, fine arts supervisor; Katie Murphy, choral and general music coordinator, and Ed Owusu, principal at Clarksburg, and Robby Dodd, principal at Whitman.
Sherwood Baseball Team Earns Academic Excellence Award
Congratulations to the Sherwood High School varsity baseball program for earning a Team Academic Excellence Award from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). The team Academic Excellence Award honors high school and college programs coached by ABCA members that post a cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. Sherwood students were recognized for achieving a 3.48 team GPA.