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May 8, 2025

Chestertown Spy

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Archives Education Ed Homepage

WC launches updated Diversity website pages By Heather Fabritz

April 7, 2025 by Spy Desk 1 Comment

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At The Chestertown Spy, we believe in the power of the written word to bear witness, to provoke thought, and to strengthen the bridge between generations. In this spirit, we are proud to introduce a new series of contributions from student journalists at Washington College—voices that carry the urgency and clarity of youth in uncertain times. Their experiences, reflections, and reportage are vital to understanding how national policies ripple through small communities, classrooms, and lives. 

After Washington College scrubbed all references to diversity, equity, and inclusion from its public-facing websites under pressure from the U.S. Department of Education, President Dr. Mike Sosulski announced that the College would be re-launching those pages with expansions.
In the email sent on March 26, he stated that the new version includes both WC’s diversity statement and a link to the recently adopted Washington Principles of Free Expression.
According to prior Elm coverage, the latter document uses the diversity statement as one of its foundational guides, ensuring that students respect each other even when they may have differing beliefs.
“Together, our values respecting diversity and free expression constitute the foundation of the WC liberal arts education and prepare our students to become citizen leaders,” President Sosulski said. “We are happy to launch this new site as a demonstration of our community’s beliefs, values, and standards.”
Although the recent orders from the Department of Education compelled the College to remove the pages temporarily, President Sosulski assured the campus that the administration’s commitment to publicly displaying diversity efforts remains strong.
“We believe in recognizing, respecting, and supporting individuals for who they are regardless of how they identify,” President Sosulski said. “The new Diversity and Free Expression at Washington College web pages make clear the strong support for our community and serve to inform others of our campus values.”
The webpage also features links to related resources, including Intercultural Affairs, affinity groups, disability services, and LGBTQ+ and religious resources.

Photo by Selena Francese. President Sosulski announced the new DEI website pages at a Q&A event on March 25.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Archives, Ed Homepage

MD Senate Panel’s vote on Blueprint bill straddles House, Administration Versions

March 22, 2025 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

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Senate Budget and Taxation Committee voted Friday for amendments to the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future that splits the difference between House and administration versions. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters

A Senate committee advanced parts of Maryland’s sweeping education reform plan Friday, splitting the difference between versions of the bill advanced by the House and the Moore administration and setting up a showdown in the waning days of the legislature.

The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee approved a four-year pause in the start of funding for teacher “collaborative time” — something the administration supports — but also voted to keep funding for community schools — something the House insisted on.

Senate Bill 429 still needs to be taken up by a second Senate panel, the Education, Energy and the Environment Committee, which is scheduled for Monday. That gives lawmakers just two weeks to approve a Senate bill and hammer out differences with the House before the April 7 end of the General Assembly session.

The so-called “Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act” was sparked by the state’s fiscal crisis and by the repeated call from local school officials for flexibility in the implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the sweeping 10-year, multibillion-dollar education reform plan.

Gov. Wes Moore introduced a bill that keeps the goals of the plan largely intact, but delays funding and implementation of some portions.

One portion is the proposal for an increase in teacher “collaborative time,” or time that teachers spend on planning, training and working with individual students, as opposed to time in front of a classroom. The Blueprint calls for teachers’ classroom time to be cut from 80% of their day to 60%; the administration bill would delay the start of that for four years, in part because it would require the hiring of at least 12,000 new teachers at a time when the state faces a teacher shortage.

The House rejected that plan, and set collaborative time to begin in 2026. But the Senate went with the governor’s version in what Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Guy Guzzone (D-Howard) called a “pacing” of the initiative.

“Whenever you don’t extend the full amount, if, in fact, you want to get to the full amount, by definition, it has to go out further,” Guzzone told reporters after the committee’s vote.

The committee did agree with the House version and rejected the administration’s call for a two-year freeze on funding for community schools, those located in low-income neighborhoods Sen. President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) has said such a delay would negatively affect students.

The Senate committee also agreed with the House to “hold harmless” funding for multilingual learners, students in poverty and those in special education — exempting those students from any per pupil funding reductions that might come down. The committee on Friday also added students at the Maryland School for the Blind, Maryland School for the Deaf and the SEED School of Maryland.

The committee was more generous than either the House or the administration when it comes to Consortium on Coordinated Community Supports, a part of the Blueprint plan that deals with mental health, behavioral and other wraparound services for students. The House agreed with the governor that it should be cut from $130 million this year to $40 million in fiscal 2026, but senators want to cut the fund to $70 million next year and raise it to $100 million in fiscal 2027 and each year after.

But senators sided with the administration on “foundation” funding, or per pupil spending. Under the Blueprint, it was slated to grow from $8,789 per pupil this year to $9,226 next year, but the administration proposed reducing the growth to $9,063 next year and slowing the pace of growth for several years after. The Senate committee agreed, but the House voted to keep the original Blueprint funding levels.

With an eye toward looming cuts to the federal government, another Senate amendment made Friday would freeze funding increases if federal funds or revenue projections by the state’s Board of Revenues in December decrease by 3.75%.

Senate Majority Leader Nancy King (D-Montgomery), a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee, earlier this week defended delays in Blueprint goals for the time being.

“There’s a lot of good that’s already come out of the Blueprint, and a lot more that is going to come as we go,” King said Tuesday. “I don’t think it would be a bad thing if we just slowed it [collaborative time] down a bit.”

The Senate Education, Energy and the Environment will review, and possibly vote on, the other parts of the bill Monday that deal with teacher programs, initiatives and other incentives before sending it to the full Senate for consideration and then back to the House.

Del. Vanessa Atterbeary (D-Howard), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said during a press conference Thursday to announce a framework for the overall fiscal 2026 budget, that negotiations on the Blueprint are ongoing. But Atterbeary said she and Del. Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), chair of the Appropriations Committee, have made their positions “pretty clear.”

“Where we stand and where the House stands in … protecting those that are most vulnerable, particularly those in community schools,” she said. “So we’ll see what the Senate does, and we’ll link up with them and negotiate that in the days to come.”

By William J. Ford
Creative Commons License

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Filed Under: Ed Homepage, Ed Portal Lead

Wood Foundation awards $100K grant to Radcliffe Creek School

January 24, 2025 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

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: RCS student, Hazel Joiner, learning to spell through hands-on, multisensory instruction

Radcliffe Creek School (RCS) was recently awarded a generous grant from the Kathy and Jerry Wood Foundation to support needs-based scholarships for deserving students. The $100k grant award will remove significant financial barriers for area families who struggle to access the school’s individualized educational services, ensuring area children—who have learning differences such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD—can receive the academic interventions they rely upon to be successful in the classroom.

Each year, more than half of Radcliffe Creek’s student body receives some form of financial aid to attend the School. This year alone, over $526,000 in assistance has been committed to help families in need whose children learn differently. Head of School, Peter Thayer, explained, “Many of our students haven’t succeeded in traditional learning environments and need the small class sizes, daily interventions and customized instruction we provide here at RCS every day. However, accessing our services can be an enormous challenge for area families, who never expected to send their children to a private school. The generosity of the Kathy and Jerry Wood Foundation to provide this substantial support for scholarships will be a life-changing gift for many families. We are profoundly grateful to the Wood Foundation for making a Radcliffe education possible for these children.”

The Kathy and Jerry Wood Foundation, established in 2006, supports youth in attending nonprofit and educational institutions that aid in the intellectual, physical and moral development of American students. Through scholarship support, the foundation works to advance learning throughout the United States.

The foundation, based in Annapolis, Maryland, was also the area Kathy and Jerry Wood called “home.” Before their deaths, Jerry founded the Annapolis Sailing School and together, the couple transformed the school into the largest commercial sailing school in the United States. Later, the Woods established the sailboat show and the powerboat show, revolutionizing the boat show industry. For this work, the couple was credited with helping to shape the modern recreational boating industry and build broad recognition for the City of Annapolis as the “Sailing Capital of America.”

As the only K-8 school on Maryland’s Eastern Shore specialized in educating children with learning differences, Radcliffe Creek School (RCS) continues to stand out as a critical resource for area families. RCS students hail from eight counties, from Prince George’s County in Maryland to Sussex County in Delaware. To learn more about the immersive, individualized education program offered at Radcliffe Creek School, visit www.radcliffecreekschool.org or call 410-778-8150.

 

 

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Filed Under: Ed Homepage

KCPS Substitute Job Fair Saturday, Feb. 1

January 23, 2025 by Kent County Public Schools Leave a Comment

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Kent County Public Schools is seeking substitute teachers.

The Office of Human Resources will be holding a job fair for substitutes from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 1 at Kent County High School.

The high school is located at 25301 Lambs Meadow Road, Worton.

There are many opportunities for substitutes, including filling in for an absent teacher or helping out as a paraprofessional.

Substitutes must be at least 18 years old to work in the elementary and middle schools and 21 years old for the high school.

Kent County Public Schools also requires all substitutes to have a high school diploma or GED.

Learn more about becoming a substitute at www.kent.k12.md.us/Substitutes.aspx or contact the Office of Human Resources at 410-778-7135.

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Filed Under: Ed Homepage

Walls retires after 51 years

January 18, 2025 by James Dissette Leave a Comment

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Ginnie Walls is recognized by the Kent County Commissioners for her 51 years with Kent County Public Schools. Pictured are, from left, back row, Kent County Commissioners Albert Nickerson, Ron Fithian and John Price; front row, from left, Superintendent Dr. Mary Boswell-McComas, Walls and KCPS Director of Finance Alleesa Stewart.

Having started her career with Kent County Public Schools during the Nixon administration, Virginia “Ginnie” Walls retired this month after 51 years of service.

Walls was an administrative assistant in the school system’s Office of Finance. Among her responsibilities assisting with bookkeeping and payroll for KCPS’ nearly 500 employees.

“I started when I was 17,” Walls said.

For her decades of service Walls received accolades and proclamations from her coworkers and county and state leaders.

“Ms. Ginnie has been a pleasure to work with,” said Director of Finance Alleesa Stewart. “Her knowledge and expertise will surely be missed. We are proud to have met and worked with an outstanding person who stood proud to work for Kent County Public Schools for 51 years.”

Stewart said Walls’ tenure is “an amazing accomplishment that is deserving of honor and appreciation.”

Walls’ co-workers surprised her with a retirement dinner at the Chestertown firehall just before Thanksgiving.

“I’m very, very touched,” Walls said at the dinner. “I’m going to miss every one of you, but you all know my number.”

The finance team organized the dinner celebration that included current and former KCPS staff members and Walls’ family, some of whom flew in from Wisconsin.

“This is going down as one of the best days of my life,” Walls said. “Thank you all for coming. I just love everybody and I’m really touched by this.”

Ed Silver, a KCPS retiree, said it had been an honor to know Walls for so many years.

He spoke about the changes Walls experienced in her work since she started in 1973, when “probably everything was paper and pen” with carbon copies.

He described the incredible breadth of Walls’ knowledge about KCPS and those who worked for the system stretching back decades.

“You think about how things have progressed over 50 years and the thing is, Ginnie has been on the cutting edge of that in terms of technology and keeping things up to date,” Silver said, adding that her coworkers could always turn to her for assistance in using new systems.

Silver presented Walls with a citation from Gov. Wes Moore in honor of her dedicated and outstanding service and the professionalism, expertise and commitment she demonstrated throughout her distinguished career.

Dr. Mary Boswell-McComas, superintendent of KCPS was perhaps one of Walls’ newest coworkers at the dinner, having taken the helm of the school system in July.

Dr. McComas thanked Walls for welcoming her to KCPS.

“Please know that I will be forever grateful for the warm welcome,” she told Walls.

Dr. McComas presented Walls with a proclamation from Dr. Carey Wright, the state superintendent.

“Your tenure is an extraordinary achievement, and it is with great admiration that we recognize your contributions to Kent County and the field of public education,” the proclamation from Dr. Wright states.

On Tuesday, Dec. 17, Walls was recognized by the Kent County Commissioners for her 51 years with the school system.

“Fifty-one years, that’s a long time to work at a place isn’t it,” said Ron Fithian, president of the Kent County Commissioners.

Commissioner Albert Nickerson read the county proclamation and presented it to Walls.

“Such commitment and loyalty are admired and well respected by all those who have had the honor of working with her,” the proclamation reads. “We, the County Commissioners of Kent County, Maryland, thank you for your continued devotion, dedication and public service to Kent County and the community.”

Learn more about Kent County Public Schools and its dedicated staff at www.kent.k12.md.us.

 

 

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Filed Under: Archives, Ed Homepage

Morgan State professor fined for presenting himself as licensed architect

December 18, 2024 by Spy Desk 1 Comment

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The Baltimore Banner reported yesterday that Professor Dale Glenwood Green at Morgan State University was not a licensed architect and had forged his credentials. Green is well known for his work on the historic Hill neighborhood in Easton.

Read the full story here.

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Filed Under: Ed Homepage

My year in books, 2024 edition by Nancy Mugele

December 15, 2024 by Spy Desk 1 Comment

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If you are looking for some holiday gift ideas or winter break reading selections, here is my year in books.

There are so many reasons why being a reader is a lifelong gift you can give yourself. The more you read, the more your vocabulary grows, along with your ability to effectively communicate.

The reason I read is because of the healing power of books. Books feed our soul, transport us, make us laugh, help us feel empathy, and teach us about history, and each other.

In 2024, I read 39 books, both on my Kindle and in print. This does not include all of the wonderful children’s books I read aloud to Kent School students in Little School, Kindergarten and First Grade! And, fulfilling a lifelong dream in 2024, I published my own children’s book Jingles Goes to School, which every Kent School student received.

I enjoy reading historical fiction, and my Top Pick of the Year is The Women by Kristin Hannah. The Women is the story of a female nurse in Vietnam, but it highlights all women whose sacrifice and commitment to this country has too often been overlooked. A novel about friendship and patriotism, The Women is a story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage defines an era.

I also highly recommend James by Percival Everett. The National Book Award winner for fiction is a re-imagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, told from the perspective of Huck’s friend, Jim, an escaped slave. It is expertly written.

Finally, I also recommend Dear Madam President – An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri. Written by Hillary Clinton’s communication director, Dear Madam President is framed as an empowering letter to the first woman president, and to all women working to succeed in any field. The letter is filled with forward-thinking, practical advice for all women who aspire to leadership. I read it, uninterrupted, while travelling on an airplane, and then proceeded to give it right to my daughters.

Now, what shall I read to start the New Year?!

Historical Fiction

The Women by Kristin Hannah

James by Percival Everett

The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict

Becoming Madame Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki

The Briar House by Kate Quinn

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall

The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Marta Molnar

Fiction

Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

Yellowface by RF Kuang

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

After Annie by Anna Quindlen

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

Poetry

Small Craft Warning by Meredith Davies Hadaway (WAC) and Marcy Dunn Ramsey

Braided Creek – A Conversation in Poetry by Jim Harrison and Ted Hooser

Grace Notes by Naomi Shihab Nye, two-time Kudner Leyon Visiting Writer

Among the Many Disappearing Things by Meredith Davies Hadaway (WAC)

Biography

My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

Non Fiction

Dear Madam President – An Open Letter to the Women Who Will Run the World by Jennifer Palmieri

The River Runs North – the Story of Montana Moss Agate by Tom Harmon

The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

Rivers of the Eastern Shore by Hulbert Footner

Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo by Rebecca Walker

Morning Fuel by Rebecca Faye Smith Galli

Professional

Leading with Emotional Courage by Peter Bregman

The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer

How to Know a Person – The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks

This is so Awkward by Cara Natterson, MD and Vanessa Kroll Bennett, 2024 Kudner Leyon Visiting Writers

Thanks for the Feedback – the Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Reading For Our Lives by Maya Payne Smart

Trigger Points. Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America by Mark Follman

Nancy Mugele is Head of School at Kent School in Chestertown.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Archives, Ed Homepage

Slight increases on Maryland’s annual report card, but changes could be coming

December 6, 2024 by Maryland Matters Leave a Comment

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Baltimore City pre-K instructor Berol Dewdney, the 2022-2023 Maryland teacher of the year, uses an interactive video with her students at the beginning of the school day. File photo by Shannon Clark/Capital News Service.

Maryland’s 1,303 public schools saw slight gains on the state Department of Education’s annual report card, which rates schools on measures including academic achievement, school quality and progress in English language proficiency.

The report card, released this week, grades schools on a scale of one to five stars, with five stars going to schools that earn a score of at least 75% on a formula that measures overall school performance. The report said 91 schools earned five-star status in the 2023-24 school year, up from 85 schools the year before.

About 41% of schools received a four- or five-star rating last year, compared with 38% in the 2022-23 school year.

Twenty Baltimore County schools earned five stars on this year’s report card, the most of any county. The county’s Eastern Technical High School received the most points in the state with 91, edging out the Academy of Health and Sciences at Prince George’s Community College and its 90.7 points.

Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said the county’s broad gains are “are evidence of the effectiveness of the targeted and comprehensive resources and supports we put in place to fast-forward student achievement.”

“We are encouraged by the growth our schools are making on key markers of progress and achievement,” Rogers wrote in a message to the school community. “We will continue to use multiple and frequent measures to evaluate student progress and assess where we need to intensify efforts to meet the needs of our students and bolster achievement.”

Montgomery County, the state’s largest school system, had the second-most five-star schools at 18, and about half of its schools scored either four or five stars. But the school system called the overall performance “disappointingly flat” in a statement, with schools receiving at least three stars increasing by less than 1%.

Approximately nine of Worcester County’s 11 schools received a four-star rating, in which schools scored at least 60 out of 100 points on the grading formula. Ocean City Elementary received five stars and Pocomoke Middle three stars.

“I continue to be in awe of our schools’ positive trajectory in Maryland’s accountability system,” Worcester County Superintendent Louis H. Taylor said in a statement. “Worcester continues to outperform our counterparts across the State, and today’s [Dec. 3] release is just another example of how we are delivering dividends on the investment our community has made in our educational system.”

The state began the star system in 2018 in response to the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The state released a second report card in 2019, but the reports were suspended in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although 83% of schools recorded at least three stars in the latest report card, compared with 80% in the previous report card, there could be changes to assess overall performance.

Superintendent Carey Wright announced in April the creation of a task force to assess student achievement after disappointing scores on the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, the state’s standardized tests known as MCAP. At the time of her announcement, only 47% of students in third through eighth grades scored “proficient” in English language arts and nearly 25% in math.

A graphic shows a slight increase in Maryland schools that received a five-star rating, the highest rating available, from 85 schools in the 2022-23 school year to 91 in 2023-24. Graphic courtesy of the Maryland State Department of Education.

With the current MCAP contract set to expire in December 2026, Wright said at Tuesday’s State Board of Education meeting that it’s time to either search for a new assessment vendor, or retain the same vendor “with new requirements.”

“There were a lot of questions that were being raised about the assessment itself,” Wright said. “I’m a firm believer in accountability, always have been. This task force moved with a great deal of speed to get this done.”

The task force presented a report Tuesday with options that include revising the current ratings system, creating a system that meets federal requirements and reflects state priorities, and refining the framework on career and college readiness, which is one of the priorities in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan.

“We reject the theory of action that simply reporting information and hoping that people make good decisions is complete,” said Chris Domaleski, the task force facilitator and associate director of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment based in New Hampshire. “We think a more appropriate theory of action is that these systems integrate with the kinds of treatments that change curriculum, instruction and support that really uplift students in the state.”

The board voted to accept the report and continue to review it and assess any possible future changes.


by William J. Ford, Maryland Matters
December 5, 2024

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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Filed Under: Ed Homepage

Middle School Moments Matter

November 21, 2024 by Kent School Leave a Comment

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Driving home recently from The 1911 Group annual Heads Conference in Princeton, New Jersey, I passed a billboard on the highway that read Middle School Moments Matter. It was an ad for a school I do not remember, but I have been reflecting on these words for the past week because of their simple truth.

While I believe that every moment matters in schools, it is particularly important to focus on the moments in Middle School. Middle School is the time when students grow and change rapidly, while navigating the awkwardness of puberty. And, while it might seem like a blur, the truth is, Middle School moments matter in ways that often aren’t fully understood until later in life. The friendships formed, the challenges faced, and the lessons learned during these years have a profound impact on who students become as individuals.

Middle School is the place where our students start to figure out who they are. It is the time they begin to test boundaries, explore interests, find passions, and begin to establish independence. These moments of self-discovery are crucial. Whether it is trying out for a sports team, joining a club, or simply figuring out how to communicate with others, each experience helps students learn more about themselves. Sometimes, students fail, but even those failures are valuable because they teach resilience and help refine a sense of identity. In this way, Middle School is truly foundational to adolescent development.

Middle School is often where lifelong friendships are begun. These relationships, though they may be tested by growing pains, peer pressure, and drama, can shape our social lives for years to come. It is in Middle School where one often first experiences the complex dynamics of friendship – how to trust, how to forgive, how to work through conflict. These early social lessons make our students more empathetic, understanding, and capable of forming deeper connections which carries over into adult relationships.

Middle School is a time when students first encounter difficult situations: academic pressure, social struggles, and even moments of doubt about who they are or where they belong. The courage to overcome these challenges teaches students perseverance. Middle School moments matter because they build emotional resilience, and teach students how to navigate the ups and downs of life.

Middle School teaches the power of kindness and understanding. Students are learning to interact with a wider variety of people, often from different backgrounds and with different perspectives. It’s a time when they start to truly understand the importance of inclusion, empathy, and respect for others. These values can serve as guiding principles throughout their lives.

Middle School may seem like a small chapter in the larger story of our students’ lives, but it is a chapter that sets the stage for everything that comes after. The moments of joy, frustration, growth, and connection that are experienced during these years matter because they shape the adults our students will become, and give them the tools they need to navigate the world with confidence, empathy, and resilience.

To anyone looking back on their own Middle School years, and to our brave teachers teaching Middle Schoolers now – remember that these moments, big and small, matter more than we can imagine.

Nancy Mugele

Head of School
Kent School

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Filed Under: 7 Ed Notes, Ed Homepage

Radcliffe Creek School awarded grant to support students with ADHD and anxiety

November 20, 2024 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

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RCS students Addison and Emma using Sensory Resource items during instruction time with Mrs. Simon, English and Orton-Gillingham Teacher at Radcliffe Creek School.

Radcliffe Creek School (RCS) was recently awarded a grant from the Queen Anne’s County Mental Health Committee (QACMHC) to provide the School’s faculty and parent community with resources to support students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety in the classroom and at home. This grant will fund a new Sensory Resource Room at RCS, expand the School’s Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Library, continue the SEL program for older students, as well as support a full day of training with parents and teachers on ways to support mental health in neurodivergent children.

The new Sensory Resource Room at RCS will be filled with tools and equipment for teachers to check out for their classrooms as needed, helping students calm and regulate their sensory systems. When a child is in a heightened state due to an issue like anxiety, it can interfere with a student’s ability to be present in the classroom setting. Depending upon whether a child’s body is overly sensitive to sensory stimuli or seeking more sensory input, this equipment will help students regulate their bodies to be more available for learning. Debbie Cohee-Wright, a special education learning specialist at RCS, explained, “At Radcliffe Creek School, we recognize the needs of our students and how sensory integration will enhance their learning experience based off their own individual needs and strengths. The new Sensory Resource Room will enable our teachers to have the appropriate tools at their fingertips for ease and accessibility throughout their day.”

Equipment in the Sensory Resource Room will include noise-canceling headphones, weighted lap and shoulder pads, indoor hanging sensory chairs, bean bags, chair bands, fidgets, white noise machines and sound-absorbing wall panels. The integration of these resources will support students by addressing their fine motor skills, gross motor skills, social skills, cognition and play skills.

Additionally, this grant will allow the expansion of the School’s SEL library and continued SEL curriculum for older students, as well as a speaking event to be hosted for RCS parents and teachers in early 2025 with Dr. Vincent Culotta, an expert in mental health and neurodivergent children. Head of School Peter Thayer explained, “We remain grateful to QACMHC for their continued support of our school and for making these important educational and therapeutic mental health resources available to our parents, faculty and students.”

This is the second year in a row that QACMHC has awarded a grant to Radcliffe Creek School. “The Queen Anne’s County Mental Health Committee is excited to see Radcliffe Creek School utilizing the grant funds from us to reach the goal of maintaining their social-emotional learning program “Brain Talk” as well as faculty training, supplying the sensory room, and adding to their social-emotional learning library,” stated QACMHC President, Kelly Phipps. “The scheduled visit of Dr. Vincent Culotta to train faculty in helping students with ADHD and anxiety in the classroom will further enrich Radcliffe Creek’s program. The committee is proud to be a part of the school’s dedication in educating their students on achieving and maintaining sound, positive mental health.”

To learn more about the immersive, individualized education program offered at Radcliffe Creek School, as well as the school’s robust transportation program, visit www.radcliffecreekschool.org online or call 410-778-8150.

 

 

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 7 Ed Notes, Archives, Ed Homepage

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