hcpss

(13) 2020 Interview with Lorelei Loraine, Mt. Hebron High School, Columbia University

(13) 2020 Interview with Lorelei Loraine, Mt. Hebron High School, Columbia University

Ms. Lorelei Loraine graduated from Mt. Hebron High School in 2020. She will join Columbia University, majoring Economics and Mathematics.

She was on the Mt. Hebron’s Economics Challenge team, led by Mr. Vann Prime. The team won numerous awards on state and national levels, and worldwide. Here is HCPSS news update: https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/202…

She shared her feelings when she received her first college rejection letter. However, she learned lessons and moved on to the next round.

There are much more to learn. Please tune in.

Board Member Report 2020-9-10

Board Member Report 2020-9-10

Modified for publication.

This is the first board meeting since our full virtual education started. We have mixed feelings about it, doubt, uncertainty, disappointment and excitement. As a parent myself, I totally understand some frustrations from parents and also appreciate what has been done given the constraints. 

First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our students and parents, our teachers and staff,  and our community to take a fresh start for the new semester. September 10 was Teacher’s Day when I grew up in China. I always appreciate so much help I received from my teachers when I grew up. Students, parents, the community and the system showed gratitude to our teachers. 

It is especially difficult for our young learners, kindergarteners, first graders, students with special needs and high school seniors, students who are transitioning from one school to another. However, we are keeping to change, improve and adapt our work to help all students. 

Our school system keeps exploring ideas of bringing a small group of students into the classroom settings and provides much needed service for them, especially for students with special needs. The situation is unprecedented and we are working slowly but steadily on this. We must put safety as our highest priority. We are crossing the river while feeling the pebbles in the water. 

Second, I would like our staff taking the community inputs and feedback, reflecting on what we learn during this process, and thinking about our second semester ASAP. What is the criteria we can aim to reopen school safely, smoothly and gradually? 

Third, I know some of our parents’ confidence in our school system has eroded during our struggle to offer education services for our students while dealing with covid-19. We saw 300 less enrollment in kindergarten, more than 2200 withdrawals from our school system. How to regain parents’ confidence will be a challenge for us. 

Finally, we are entering Phase III recovery for the state and the county. However, we still need to keep vigilant until the covid-19 is under total control. Please keep wearing a mask and keep social distancing. The quicker we can keep the numbers down and covid-19 under control, the faster we can get back to the normal life. We are almost there.

Thank you.

Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2022 Capital Budget and FY 2023-2027 Capital Improvement Program

This is the first step in the annual capital budget process which will conclude with the approval of the Board of Education’s final Capital Budget in May 2021. The Capital Budget is submitted much earlier than the Operating Budget to accommodate deadlines associated with submission of the State Capital Budget.

The FY 2022 Capital Budget request totals $108,012,000, the FY 2023-2027 Capital Improvement Program request totals $363,556,000, and the FY 2022-2031 Long-Range Master Plan totals $821,657,000.

The Board of Education must approve the capital budget request state priority listing prior to its submission to the State by the October due date to apply for State funding for eligible projects in the FY 2022 Capital
Budget. A copy of the state priority list is attached.
The capital budget priority list is developed based upon criteria for State participation and assessed capital
needs presented in the Superintendent’s Proposed FY 2022 Capital Budget.

The document is attached here:

09-10-2020-FY22-Superintendents-Proposed-FY-2022-Capital-Budget-FY-2023-2027-Capital-Improvement-Program-BR-1Download

HCPSS SAT/ACT test center opens again

HCPSS school facilities will be available for the remaining Saturday administrations of the SAT/ACT. The schools registered for upcoming dates are as follows:

SAT Saturday Test Dates

  • September 26: Centennial, Glenelg, Oakland Mills and Reservoir high schools
  • October 3: Centennial, Glenelg, Hammond, Mount Hebron, Oakland Mills, Reservoir, River Hill, and Wilde Lake high schools

ACT Saturday Test Dates

  • September 12: Glenelg and Wilde Lake high schools
  • September 19: Wilde Lake High School
  • October 24: Wilde Lake High School

Here is the link.

https://help.hcpss.org/grades-testing/sat-act

(12) 2020 Interview with Bill Tong, Atholton High School

(12) 2020 Interview with Bill Tong, Atholton High School

Bill Tong graduated from Atholton High School in 2020. He will join Cornell University and majoring Finance.

Bill talked about his experience, starting from convincing his Middle School friends to continue his passion on the environment and education with Bioma Project, which was reported in the Baltimore Sun: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland…. Quoted: The group, now in high school, started putting aquariums in elementary and middle school classrooms the following year — along with sharing their 40-page curriculum — to inspire younger students to become the future caretakers of the natural world. The teens have worked with 900 students at 29 schools, 20 of which have already indicated they will continue with the project, in which aquariums stand in for local stream ecosystems.

Bill shared his formula on how to evaluate opportunities whether he should take it or not, which helped him to navigate and success in high school. There are more for you to tune in.

(11) 2020 Interview with Cooper Stepke, Marriotts Ridge High School(2019)

(11) 2020 Interview with Cooper Stepke, Marriotts Ridge High School(2019)

Today we are going to interview Mr. Cooper Stepke. He graduated from Marriotts Ridge High School in 2019. He is attending Cornell University and majoring Industrial and Labor Relations.

Cooper shared his experience balancing among standardized tests, sports, academics and college applications. He also shared how to plan out his courses in the high school to make high school life easier. Sports and clubs helped him to learn people skills and team spirit.

There are more for you to tune in.

(10) 2020 Interview with Jessica Bu, River Hill High School

(10) 2020 Interview with Jessica Bu, River Hill High School

We are crossing another milestone. The interview comes to the tenth episode. We are interviewing Ms. Jessica Bu. She graduated from River Hill High School in 2019, and is studying at New York University, majoring Economics and minoring Film Production. She shared the difficult time when she lost a friend in her senior year and changed her mindset about the world. She also talked about the difficult time while transferring from another school system into HCPSS. Music and choir played a big role in her high school life. There are many more for you to tune in: cross-country sport, FBLA, student government position, accelerated growth, inclusion, diversity, racism, etc. There is one sentence from Jessica which really reckons with me: life is not linear. We are not able to pre-design our own life trajectory and just follow it. Instead, we put out our heart and effort, and move forward with dedication.

(9) 2020 Interview with Adya Joshi, Howard High School

(9) 2020 Interview with Adya Joshi, Howard High School

In this episode, we are interviewing Ms. Adya Joshi. She graduated from Howard High School, and will join University of Maryland, College Park, majoring computer science. She shared her research experience on cryptography, published a paper and presented her result in a conference where she was the only high school students! Her intern and research experience helped her to college application and major selection. There are more to cover. Please tune in.

(8) 2020 Interview with Erik Jacob, Marriotts Ridge High School

(8) 2020 Interview with Erik Jacob, Marriotts Ridge High School

In this episode, we are interviewing Mr. Erik Jacob. He graduated Marriotts Ridge High School in 2020. He will join Howard Community College, majoring game and simulation design. Erik shared his most difficult moment when he lost his grandfather in his senior year. Erik also shared his fight with the school system to receive support for special education (autism spectrum disorder). Eventually he received the support and thrived. He fitted in clubs and became the president of his school’s gaming club. Erik demoed his 3D printers live (multiple) and used those printers to help Covid-19 relief effort.Erick talked about his long love with computer game, video games since age of four. This will impact his love for gaming, even his selection of college major. Please tune in for more.

(6) 2020 Interview with Allison Alston, Reservoir High School

(6) 2020 Interview with Allison Alston, Reservoir High School

We are interviewing Ms. Allison Alston, who graduated from Reservoir High School. She will join University of Virginia and major Global Study. Allison was a student board member of Howard County Board of Education (SMOB) during 2019-2020. Allison shared her academic challenges during the senior year and the whole high school period, and how to overcome them. She has a very diverse extra-curriculum activities (smob, deltas scholar, black student union, chamber orchestra, choir, girl varsity lacrosse, French honor society, Science honor society, etc). Do you want to hear how she managed all of them? As a student board member, she talked about the challenge to fit in the adult world and tried her best to represent all students at a higher level. She also shared why she chose UVA and her major. It was interesting to realize things happened with a reason, and sometimes, maybe just a coincidence. There are much more for you to tune in.

(5) 2020 Interview With Tess Yu, Howard High School

(5) 2020 Interview With Tess Yu, Howard High School

This is our fifth episode, a small milestone in this series. Ms. Tess Yu graduated from Howard High in 2020 and will join Johns Hopkins University in the fall, majoring economics. Tess shared her secret in high school: time management, even missing some homework is acceptable to balance some priority. She has presided over the Achieve Success Together (AST, https://achievesuccesstogether.org/) program, a tutoring program, for over four years now. The AST program offered free tutoring to students in low income families at many HCPSS schools. The tutors are HCPSS high school students. What is her favorite class? How to handle cyberbullying? What is her career goal? Please tune in this episode.

(4) 2020 Interview with Hunter Craig, Reservoir High School

(4) 2020 Interview with Hunter Craig, Reservoir High School

Mr. Hunter Craig graduated from Reservoir High School and will join Howard Community College, majoring social and political science. Mr. Craig has been very active in HCPSS and the community. He was involved in Howard County Association of Student Councils, more commonly known as HCASC. He was in the State Legislative Affairs Committee. He testified more than five times in front of the BOE. He took initiative to help combat covid-19, to work in the mental health care community, also to raise awareness because of the death of George Floyd. He talked about his struggle entering high school because of switching multiple schools and the moment to find his position in academics, club and school. He plans to finish HCC, then go to a law school, continue to get involved in the local community. His advice to high school students: just do it.

(3) 2020 Interview with Judy Zhou, Centennial High School

(3) 2020 Interview with Judy Zhou, Centennial High School

In this episode, I am interviewing Judy Zhou, who graduated from Centennial High School and will join Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. In this interview, Judy shared about her high school experience on political campaign, community service, launching her seminar to educate the community on US government, the secret to build a good relationship with counselor, the need for HCPSS to have a diverse and inclusive curriculum.

(2) 2020 Interview With Robin Robinson, River Hill High School

Live now: I am starting a youtube channel by interviewing HCPSS graduates.

In the second episode, Ms. Robin M Robinson, graduated from River Hill High School in 2018. She is a junior in Harvard University, studying statistics and economics. She played volleyball in RHHS and continue to play club volleyball. She practices taekwondo for more than 10 years. She talked about her challenges in high school. She appreciated the peer pressure for excellence. She emphasized the importance to have a good relationship with teachers. She also advices trying to be well rounded in the high school. She shared some experience while her guidance counselor was not aligned with her ambition in college application, she listened to herself and applied to Harvard University and got accepted. She also shared her experience as a bi-racial child and felt uneasy in the school, advocated for more education for our students at young ages. For the college life, she felt a little uneasy when she changed from pre-med to other career path. However, she feels there are so much to do and so many possibilities for her. She said: don’t worry about making friends in college. You will have new friends, even though you had more freedom in high school.


If anyone wants to be interviewed, please contact me. Thanks.

Final 2020-2021 HCPSS School Model

Today, the board discussed the 2020 fall plan again. The board voted to keep the first period and second period virtual. Because of the delay of school start time, the school will be virtual until the end of January 2021. This is not an easy decision, but we have to keep the safety of our students, parents, teachers and staff in the highest priority. We hope this will create a sense of stability and peace of mind for the school system.

There will be future discussions when the virtual learning should be transitioned into a blended model under which kind of conditions in the future.

I talked about the difficulty created by the 4×4 model for AP tests and no built-in recess time in the agenda.

I talked about the distant learning model, how to improve the education quality, how to make it sustainable ( digital learning center concept), etc. I asked the superintendent to create a system structure for future online education too. For example, at any given day, around 5-10% substitute teachers work in the school. They may take advantage of the online resources we created now.

There were many other discussions related how to improve the quality of distant learning.

Here is some document for your reference.

Board-Meeting-7_16_20-FinalDownload

The board extended the first stage of one period of virtual learning (in the document) to two periods.

(1) 2020 Interview with HCPSS graduate, Megan Li, Marriotts Ridge High School

I am starting a youtube channel by interviewing HCPSS graduates.

In the first episode, I interviewed Ms. Megan Li, who graduated from graduated from Marriotts Ridge High School and will join University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School this fall. She shared her experience about college application, AP courses, debate team, FBLA, even materiality leave policy in the USA. Her advice for high school students is : take initiative. For the future, she wants to research the social impact of business. She hoped HCPSS would provide a more diverse curriculum. She volunteers a lot and loves to give back to the community.

If any other students want to share their experience, please contact me. Thanks.

HCPSS 2020 Fall Reopen Discussion

Here are three documents for you. Decision 5,4,3 passed by the board. The superintendent will come back later with the removal of Digital Education Center and a revised plan. Updated: 2020-07-09 22:30.

The first two are the superintendent’s recommendation on the fall schedule.

Fall-Reopening-Report-7_9_20Download
Supporting-Document-for-7_9-BOE-MeetingDownload

The second one is from Howard County Educator Association (HCEA).

HCEA-Reopening-final-hsDownload