Students, staff prepare for first day of school

For many Howard County students, the upcoming school year will be one of new programs, new principals, new teachers, new schools — and perhaps all of the above.

Schools open Monday, Aug. 29, and students are wrapping up their last days of summer in anticipation of the 2011-2012 academic year, the first year in which minority students are in the majority.

While final enrollment numbers are still uncertain, school officials are projecting more than 50,000 students will attend county schools this year. At the start of school last year, 50,993 students were enrolled in county schools.

While some things remain the same — student lunch prices hold steady at $2.50 in elementary schools and $3 in middle and high schools, for example — many other changes face students and faculty members as they return to classrooms in the county's 73 schools.

With the new school year comes new policies, including two recently approved by the school board, one to protect the rights of homeless students and the other to curb gang activity, as well as new programs. Among the new programs is a two-year pilot program to teach a semester each of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese at Laurel Woods Elementary and Waverly Elementary.

It is the first time world languages are being taught at the elementary level. If the program is deemed a success, it will be gradually implemented in all county elementary schools.

New name, new faces

At the Board of Education meeting June 9, deputy superintendent Mamie Perkins announced the annual flurry of transfers and promotions among the county's assistant principals and principals. While more than 20 of the county's elementary, middle and high schools will have new assistant principals or principals, two will welcome two first-time principals.

James LeMon, former assistant principal at Hammond High School, was promoted, effective July 1, to the position of principal at Wilde Lake High School. Also effective July 1, Tricia McCarthy, former assistant principal at Bollman Bridge Elementary School, is principal at Deep Run Elementary School.

While the two principals at Cradlerock School both retained their positions — Jason McCoy as principal of Cradlerock Lower, and Jennifer Peduzzi at Cradlerock Upper — their schools each have new names. As of the 2011-2012 school year, the Cradlerock School is once more a separate elementary and middle school: Cradlerock Elementary School and Lake Elkhorn Middle School.

Completing construction

Besides new people in charge, many schools also will have a new look, thanks to construction projects.

Additions at Bellows Spring Elementary and Northfield Elementary School are complete, while renovations at Hammond elementary and middle school are expected to be finished by the first day of school. Renovations at Mt. Hebron High School's main entrance and lobby are set to be finished by the first day as well, with all construction scheduled for completion by December.

Parking lot and road work at Mt. Hebron, Thunder Hill Elementary School, Centennial High School and Burleigh Manor Middle School is set to be finished before Aug. 29. The new traffic light on Centennial Lane, which will change the way drivers enter and leave the parking lots at Centennial High and Burleigh Manor Middle, is scheduled to be activated this week.