The Board of Education yesterday authorized Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) to provide a one-time $1,000 payment in two installments to active employees. Eligible employees include those covered by both the Education Association of Charles County (EACC) contract, as well as employees covered by the school system’s contract with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Also receiving the payment are CCPS food and nutrition workers and teacher substitutes serving in an official long-term substitute teacher assignment. Temporary employees and daily substitutes are not eligible for the payment. Superintendent of Schools Maria Navarro extended the payment to Read more…

A friendly competition between a men’s group and women’s group at a local church is benefitting Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) students. The Rev. Kenneth Stewart of Body of Christ Church in Waldorf, and his wife, First Lady Davita Gaines-Stewart, dropped off more than 100 new hoodie sweatshirts to Theodore G. Davis Middle School on Friday. Linda Stocks, pupil personnel worker (PPW) at Davis, was there to welcome them. It is a familiar sight — the Stewarts donating school supplies, food and clothing for CCPS students. “They just follow me from school to school,” Stocks said. She has known the Read more…

Effective Monday, Nov. 1, Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) will limit the capacity for indoor high school extracurricular activities, including athletics and performing arts events, to 50 percent. The new capacity limit will be controlled by ticket sales for events such as games and plays or productions. Each CCPS high school has a different capacity limit based on the structure of the school building, including size of the gymnasium, auditorium and bleacher seating space. The limit is in place to support safe indoor events for students, staff and community members. Questions about capacity limits for the different high schools can Read more…

The Board of Education of Charles County is holding an executive session meeting today, Thursday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m., at the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building in La Plata. Executive sessions are closed to the public as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act, Sections 3-305 and 3-103 of the General Provisions Article. About CCPS Charles County Public Schools provides 27,000 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 with an academically challenging education. Located in Southern Maryland, Charles County Public Schools has 37 schools that offer a technologically advanced, progressive and high quality education that builds character, equips for leadership Read more…

October 28, 2021 Dear Parents, Guardians and Staff: I wanted to update you about school bus transportation for today, Thursday, Oct. 28. This morning, 26 buses, which is about 9 percent of those contracted to work for Charles County Public Schools (CCPS), did not run. This translates to a little over 10 percent of routes for CCPS that were not serviced this morning. CCPS has 280 buses total that operate 718 individual routes on a regular school day. While these numbers mean many more buses were running this morning, we cannot be sure this will reflect this afternoon’s service. Please Read more…

  The Board of Education on Oct. 25 authorized Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) to negotiate a four percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union. Members of the CCPS negotiating team met with AFSCME leaders yesterday and the adjustment was approved through a memorandum of understanding. The adjustment is effective with the Dec. 10 pay period. The cost to CCPS for the adjustment is about $1.5 million. It is a one-time cost outside of the current fiscal year budget. The cost will be addressed as a reoccurring cost in future budget Read more…

Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) is experiencing interruptions in school bus services. For the past two school days, about 25 percent of the CCPS contracted school buses were not in operation on Charles County roads. This has led CCPS to ask parents and families to make back-up or alternative arrangements for their children to get to and from school. CCPS contracts with 26 independently owned bus companies with contractors who provide bus services for the school system. There are 280 buses that service a total of 718 routes in Charles County, as well as provide for out-of-county transportation of students Read more…

North Point High School students in Meladeh McKinnon’s organic chemistry class recently participated in the Bridging the Watershed — Watershed Watchdogs program. Gina McCullough of the Nanjemoy Creek Environmental Education Center collected water from the Piney Branch tributary in the early morning hours of Oct. 26 — the day of the activity. Students used samples from Piney Branch to determine the Water Quality Index which gives them a broader view of the health of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. They looked for dissolved oxygen, pH levels, turbidity, nitrates, dissolved solids and collected other data for analysis.  Bridging the Watershed Read more…

Chloe Wooden, a junior at North Point High School, recently won first place national and state titles in the Educators Rising National Competition. Educators Rising is a national student-led movement that aims to inspire high school and college students to serve their communities by entering the field of education. Wooden created her own children’s literature piece from start to finish and taught a lesson on it. To brainstorm the final product, she would sit and read the story aloud and then her original illustrations came to life on the pages. Wooden comes from generations of educators and found her passion Read more…

Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) high schools are bringing the drama this fall play season, as well as the romance and mystery. Slow down for Henry E. Lackey High School’s staging of “One Stoplight Town” 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 through 23. Written by Tracy Wells, “One Stoplight Town” is a story about people from a blink-and-you’d-miss-it town. But if you stopped for just a moment, you might see a young boy and girl fall in love, a cantankerous grocery store owner coping with change, a son returning home while a daughter thinks about leaving, and a handyman taking it all Read more…