Prince George's County Public Schools

Prince George's County Public Schools
"Children come first."
Address
14201 School Lane Upper Marlboro, Maryland 20772
Information
School type	Public, School District
Founded	1899
School board	Verjeana M. Jacobs, Esq., Chair, At-Large Ron L. Watson, Ph.D., Vice Chair, At-Large Donna Hathaway Beck, At-Large Pat J. Fletcher, District 3 Heather Iliff, District 2 R. Owen Johnson, Jr, District 5 Rosalind A. Johnson, District 1 Linda Thornton Thomas, District 4 Amber P. Waller, At-Large Edward Burroughs, III , Student Board Member
Superintendent	Dr. William R. Hite, Jr., Ed. D.
Staff	19,174
Grades	PreK–12
Enrollment	128,356 (2009)
Campus	Suburban
Area	Prince George's County, Maryland
Website	http://www1.pgcps.org

Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) is a large school district headquartered in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, United States; the district serves Prince George's County, which is the most affluent county in the United States with a majority African American population.^[1][2]

With approximately 128,356 students enrolled for the 2009–2010 school year, the Prince George's County Public Schools system is the second largest school district in the state of Maryland, the third largest school district in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area after Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia and Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland, and the 18th largest school district in the nation.^[3] PGCPS operates at total of 200 schools with 133 elementary schools, 36 middle schools, and 24 high schools with 8 special centers, 2 vocational centers, and the Howard B. Owens Science Center, serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. This total of 200 schools includes public charter schools within the county. PGCPS is also home to the largest and second largest high schools (Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School and Northwestern High School), in the state. The school system currently transports over 90,536 students, daily, on its fleet of 1,335 GPS-equipped school buses, on 5,616 bus routes. PGCPS employs approximately 19,174 staff members, which includes approximately 10,000 teachers, and is overseen by the Maryland State Department of Education. The approved operating budget for FY2008–09 is just over $1.65 billion USD with a per pupil expenditure of $10,332.00. Average teacher salary ranges from $59,109 for teachers with a Bachelor's Degree to $80,967 for teachers with a Doctorate's Degree.

The district is headed by Superintendent William R. Hite, Jr., Ed. D.^[4] Howard A. Burnett, the former chief human resources officer of the school district, was interim replacement Superintendent through April, 2006.^[5] Dr. Deasy (the previous Superintendent) took office on May 1, 2006, and was the former superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Dr. Deasy accepted a position with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and started full-time work at the foundation, in February 2009.^[6]

In terms of racial demographics, African-Americans make up the majority of the system's students at 74.16%, followed by 17.38% Hispanic, 5.10% Caucasian, 2.93% Asian, and 0.42% Native American.

In June 2009, five PGCPS high schools were named in "America's Top Public High Schools" list by Newsweek magazine, for 2009.^[7][8] The list named the 1,500 top schools nationwide. It included Bowie High School in Bowie, Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Springdale, High Point High School in Beltsville, Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, and Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt. The schools are ranked on the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students in a school in 2008, divided by the number of graduating seniors, called the "Challenge Index". The schools represent the top 6 percent of all public high schools ranked in this way. Eleanor Roosevelt ranked the highest out of county schools at 372nd on the nationwide list, Oxon Hill ranked 918th, High Point ranked 961st, Bowie ranked 1,370th, and Charles Herbert Flowers ranked 1,445th.

In June 2009, the PGCPS became one of the first school systems in America, to name one of their schools after current President, Barack Obama. The new 792-student, Barack Obama Elementary School, currently under construction in Upper Marlboro, will open in August 2010.^[9]

History

Early schools in Prince George's County

This section requires expansion.

In 1899, the first High School was built in Prince George's County, at the northeast corner of Montgomery and Eighth Streets in Laurel, Maryland, and was named, Laurel High School.^[10]

Desegregation

This section requires expansion.

School Consolidation (SY2009–2010)^[11]

On March 26, 2009, the Prince George's County Public Schools Board of Education voted to consolidate eight under-enrolled schools in the county and expand magnet program offerings within the school system. This decision was made after a series of community briefings, public hearings, more than 2,500 survey responses, and additional public input.

This process of expanding opportunities for students began in June 2008. The Board of Education directed the school district to conduct a comprehensive review of school enrollments in September 2008. Recognizing that some schools were significantly under-enrolled, the Board of Education sought to offer more educational opportunities in historically under-served areas of the county, relieve overcrowding where possible, and improve operating efficiencies. The Board of Education used constituent feedback to refine the proposal made by Interim Superintendent Dr. William R. Hite, Jr. earlier this year, and reduced the number of schools to be consolidated to eight (8) instead of 12. The plan still relieves overcrowded schools, identifies space for new academic choices, and expands successful programs. The school district’s next step will be to solicit public input on what new or expanded programs communities would like to see in their schools.

In January 2009, the Interim Superintendent presented the Board with the first of four phases in a proposal. Phase I was approved with the following components for the 2009–2010 school year:

• No high schools are affected by Phase I.

• Eight (8) schools will be consolidated and students will be reassigned for the 2009–2010 school year. The following schools will be closed (permanently) starting with the 2009–2010 school year: Berkshire Elementary, John Carroll Elementary, John E. Howard Elementary, Matthew Henson Elementary, Middleton Valley Elementary, Morningside Elementary, Owens Road Elementary, and G. Gardner Shugart Middle School.

• Five (5) schools will convert to Kindergarten through Grade 8 (K-8) programs: Andrew Jackson Middle School, Samuel P. Massie Elementary School, and William W. Hall Elementary School, will enroll students in grades K-8, while Henry G. Ferguson Elementary School and Eugene Burroughs Middle School, will become one combined PreK-8 school with the Talented & Gifted (TAG) Magnet Program from Henry Ferguson carrying over to the newly combined school and expanding to include grades 7 & 8.

• Benjamin D. Foulois Elementary School will be converted to a K-8 Creative & Performing Arts magnet center for the southern end of the county, replicating the current program at Thomas G. Pullen Arts Magnet School.

• Concord, Dodge Park, District Heights, and Oakcrest elementary schools were removed from the list of potential schools to be closed/consolidated.

• Twenty-nine (29) temporary classrooms will no longer be in use at the affected schools.

• Communities will make recommendations on what new magnet programs they want for their schools (i.e. Foreign Language Immersion, Montessori, etc.).

School Lists

PGCPS High Schools

All high schools in Prince George's County operate with a "comprehensive" model, as their base. All students are assigned to a high school based on an "attendance area". Magnet Programs operate as a "Program-Within-A-School" model, where the magnet serves as an alternative program---in addition to the main comprehensive program---and students from outside the regular attendance area of the high school are enrolled and accepted into the magnet, either through continuity (automatic continuation from a middle school magnet program to the high school level equivalent) or more commonly, through a "Magnet Lottery", where students apply for a magnet program and are granted acceptance through a random drawing. Enrollment into the Center for Visual and Performing Arts is through audition only. Some high schools have also implemented a "Smaller Learning Community" model, where they offer anywhere from two or more Academy Programs, which effectively breaks a school down into several smaller schools within the school, by allowing students to essentially declare a major (such as a student attending a college or university would do) through career academies such as "Arts, Media, & Communication" or the "National Academy of Finance", for example. Larger high schools have more academy program offerings. All high schools in the PGCPS operate on a staggered school day schedule, where some high schools start as early as 7:45am and end as early as 2:25pm, and other high schools start as late as 9:30am and end as late as 4:10pm. All high schools operate on an alternating A/B-day block scheduling system, where one group of classes are taken on "A-Days" and a different group of classes are taken on "B-Days", and the cycle repeats. Most high schools have between three and four lunch shifts, depending on enrollment and eating accommodations. The only exception is Eleanor Roosevelt High School, which has adopted a modified hybrid block schedule in which both traditional single period courses and double period (block schedule) courses, are integrated.

PGCPS Intermediate Schools

Intermediate schools are referred to as "Middle Schools" in the PGCPS system, and operate as either Grades 6–8 middle schools or Grades 7–8 middle schools. Grades 7–9 Junior High Schools were phased out in the mid-1980s. Recent efforts have been made to convert most middle schools to the more popular Grades 6–8 model. Issues in the past such as over-enrollment, lack of classroom space, and funding, had made it hard to convert all middle schools to a Grades 6–8 configuration, but with increased funding and the addition of new middle schools, the transitions is slowly being made. As of SY2008–2009, exactly half of the PGCPS middle schools, have gained the sixth grade. Most middle schools in Prince George's County operate with a "comprehensive" model, as their base. Most students are assigned to a middle school based on an "attendance area". Most magnet programs operate as a "Program-Within-A-School" model, where the magnet serves as an alternative program---in addition to the main comprehensive program---and students from outside the regular attendance area of the middle school are enrolled and accepted into the magnet, either through continuity (automatic continuation from an elementary school magnet program to the middle school level equivalent) or more commonly, through a Magnet Lottery, where students apply for a magnet program and are granted acceptance through a random drawing. Almost all middle schools have a whole-school "Signature Program" that includes a specialized program of instruction which is the foundation of the schools comprehensive program. All middle schools in the PGCPS operate on a staggered school day schedule, where some middle schools start as early as 7:45am and the end as early as 2:25pm, and other middle schools start as late as 9:30am and end as late as 4:10pm. All middle schools operate on a modified block scheduling system, where some classes meet for as long as 70-minutes, daily. In a cooperative effort of the county government, Board of Education, and the Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), some M-NCPPC community centers are physically connected to middle schools, throughout the district. The unique community park/school centers currently features shared use areas which include: a gymnasium; multi-purpose room; exercise/fitness room; dance room; arts and crafts room; computer lab; offices; storage areas; patio area; and restrooms. There are tennis courts and unlighted fields located, on-site, at select centers.

PGCPS Dedicated Magnet Schools

Dedicated magnet schools are offered in the PGCPS system, at the PreK-8th grade, elementary and middle school level, only. Dedicated magnet schools are "whole school" programs and differ from traditional comprehensive schools, as (1) all students at the school are enrolled and receive instruction in the magnet program and (2) traditional attendance areas for assigning students to a school are replaced by much larger geographical attendance zones, usually split between North county (areas North of Central Avenue) and South county (areas South of Central Avenue). Currently, whole school, dedicated magnet programs are offered through the Creative and Performing Arts, French Immersion, and Montessori magnet programs. Students receive specialized instruction that varies from the typical comprehensive program, offered at most other schools. Students are selected for the magnet programs through Magnet Lottery for the French Immersion nad Montessori programs and also for the Creative and Performing Arts program at the elementary school level, and acceptance into the Creative and Performing Arts program is through audition, only, at the middle school level.

PGCPS PreK-8 Elementary/Middle Schools

Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8 schools are essentially combined elementary and middle schools, facilitated in one building. The elementary school usually starts at Pre-Kindergarten and ends at Grade 5 and the middle school starts at Grade 6 and ends at Grade 8. These schools usually offer a slightly enhanced standard of learning and studies have suggested that students have benefited from being in one continuous facility from Kindergarten through 8th grade, without having the disruption having to attend a brand new school, for the middle school years.

PGCPS Elementary Schools

Elementary Schools in Prince George's County operate in several configurations, ranging from Pre-K (Head Start) through Grade 6. Most elementary schools operate under a Kindergarten through Grade 6 configuration, and lack a Pre-Kindergarten/Head Start program. More recently, with boundary realignments to ease overcrowding and with the opening of newer and larger schools and increased funding, several schools have changed to a PreK-6th grade configuration while others have added a Pre-Kindergarten, but dropped the sixth grade, to change to a Pre-K through Grade 5 school. The sixth grades from those schools were added to the elementary schools feeder middle school. In a cooperative effort of the county government, Board of Education, and the Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), several M-NCPPC community centers are physically connected to elementary schools, throughout the district. The unique community park/school centers currently features shared use areas which include: a gymnasium; multi-purpose room; exercise/fitness room; dance room; arts and crafts room; computer lab; offices; storage areas; patio area; and restrooms. There are tennis courts and unlighted fields located, on-site, at select centers.

External links

• Prince George's County Public Schools

References