Board of Education, county and community officials recently reviewed capital improvement projects during a bus tour highlighting repair work at county schools. Superintendent Kimberly Hill hosted the morning tour on Aug. 20 to provide information about Charles County Public Schools’ (CCPS) Capital Improvements Program (CIP) and to share how projects are funded through multiple sources. First stop was at T.C. Martin Elementary School, a 570-student school that opened in 1967 and expanded in 2009 to include four new full-day kindergarten classrooms. Parking lot renovations completed this summer streamlined student and bus drop-off areas and provided bus and permanent parking spots. Read more…

Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) officially starts the 2015-16 school year on Monday, Aug. 31 as students in grades kindergarten through 12 report back to the classroom. Teachers at 36 schools will welcome back more than 26,000 students. CCPS has a back to school page on the school system website, http://www.ccboe.com/backtoschool2015.php that includes important information for students and parents. To prepare for the first day of school for students, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kimberly Hill sent a welcome message on Aug. 28 to all parents and staff to highlight the start of another year of teaching and learning. Dr. Hill Read more…

Thomas Stone High School was recently named a 2015 School of the Year award recipient by the Maryland Center for Character Education (MCCE) at Stevenson University. Schools are selected for recognition based on their efforts to promote ethical values and a caring school community, fostering students’ self-motivation, and engaging school staff, families and community members to help with character-building efforts. In place at Stone is Cougar PRIDE which serves as the foundation of the school’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) program that implements character education principles into the school community. Cougar PRIDE is the standard in which the school Read more…

Christine Wang, a freshman at La Plata High School, is the overall winner of the 2015 Charles County Fair art contest. Her artwork will be displayed as the cover of the upcoming Charles County Fair Guide. She was chosen last month as this year’s winner by the Charles County Fair Board and Charles County Public Schools. The following students were also named overall winners at their grade level in the art contest for their artwork produced during the 2014-15 school year. Emilee Belmore, kindergarten, St. Mary’s Bryantown; Alison Miller, first grade, T.C. Martin Elementary School; Tabitha Greer, second grade, Martin; Read more…

Several Charles County public schools were honored by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) on Friday, Aug. 14, for their Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program. PBIS programs incorporate school activities that focus on creating safer and more effective schools. Program elements include reinforcement of desirable behavior, use of tangible and social reinforcements, and clear and consistent response to behavioral violations. School-based PBIS teams are supported by school system coaches, usually school psychologists, who have expertise in functional behavioral assessment and system change. MSDE awards PBIS schools with one of three awards: Gold, Silver or Bronze. Twenty eight Read more…

The 2015-16 school year officially begins on Monday, Aug. 31 for students in grades kindergarten through 12. Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) expects to welcome more than 26,500 students this school year. Students enrolled in the prekindergarten and three-year-old programs start back on Tuesday, Sept.8. CCPS staff and teachers are preparing for the start of another school year and are finalizing services and programs for students and parents. Register your child for school Registration is currently taking place at all schools. Parents will need the following information in order to register their child for school: A physical examination by a Read more…

Seven Charles County Public high school students were selected to serve as broadcast anchors for original programming featured on the school system’s educational television stations – Comcast Channel 96 and Verizon FiOS Channel 12. These students will rotate anchoring episodes of NewsBreak, a show that highlights Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) programs, students and staff, as well as conduct interviews and research for other original programming. The anchors for the 2015-16 school year are: Morgan Abresch, junior, La Plata High School; Aaryn Baker, senior, Thomas Stone High School; Jaren Jamison, senior, Westlake High School; Jasmine Mitchell, senior, North Point High Read more…

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) presented a $272,000 incentive check to the Board of Education on Aug. 11 for energy-saving features incorporated in the design and building of St. Charles High School. St. Charles is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver school, opened in August 2014 and incorporates energy management features throughout the building. An all-electric building with four floors, St. Charles qualified for the $272,000 incentive from SMECO with an energy savings of 1,600 megawatt hours per year. According to SMECO officials, the savings are the equivalent of the yearly usage of 123 average residential SMECO Read more…

Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) is sponsoring a bus hotline for parents to call with questions about school bus routes. Call 301-932-6655 to access the hotline. The hotline is available Aug. 27-28 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parents can access bus routes through the School Locator feature available on the CCPS website. School Locator is designed to allow the public to enter an address and see which three schools – elementary, middle and high – an address is zoned for. It also indicates if the address is Read more…

The 2015-16 school year officially begins on Monday, Aug. 31 for students in grades kindergarten through 12. Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) expects to welcome more than 26,500 students this school year. Students enrolled in the prekindergarten and three-year-old programs start on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Dates for the coming school year are available on the CCPS website in the 2015-16 Parent Handbook/Calendar at http://www.ccboe.com/PDF/calendar/1516calendar.pdf. Students and teachers will receive a copy of the calendar during the first week of school. For additional back to school information, including orientation and open house dates and times, visit the system website at www.ccboe.com. Read more…