The Board of Education of Frederick County (BOE) is seeking representatives to serve two-year terms on its Family Life Advisory Committee, starting July 1. The Committee needs one representative from the Brunswick school feeder area and one from any part of the county, as well as a healthcare professional and a student representative. A feeder area includes the high school and middle and elementary schools whose students will ultimately attend, or “feed into,” it.
The committee examines all instructional materials proposed for use in the Family Life and HIV/AIDS-prevention units and makes recommendations to the BOE. It also consults with the educators charged with developing, implementing and evaluating the program.
For an application and further information, please visit the BOE citizen-involvement section of the FCPS Web site at http://www.fcps.org/Page/231 or contact Judith Ricketts, 301-696-6850, Judith.ricketts@fcps.org.
Four high school students from Frederick County Public Schools were among the seven award winners, including Best in Show, in the 2012 Congressional Art Competition, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett’s district.
Jordyn Renn, from Governor Thomas Johnson (TJ) High, won Best in Show with the entry titled Overlook. Marcus Artusio, also from TJ High, won in the Computer Generated category with his entry Yellow Chevy. Caitlyn Miller, from Middletown High, won in Mixed Media with her entry Love of Flowers. Alison Dempsey, also from Middletown High, won in the Collage category (untitled).
Both TJ students are in Amanda McGrath’s Digital Photography 2 class. The Middletown students are in Chyril Ayotte’s art class.
Congressman Bartlett will present certificates to participants during a display of their artwork on Friday, May 18, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., at the Hagerstown District office building at 1800 Dual Highway, Hagerstown.
Urbana High School social studies teacher Norman Crosby is the Frederick County Public Schools 2012-2013 Teacher of the Year.
Mr. Crosby has served as Urbana High’s social studies department chair since its opening in 1995. He has hired, developed and mentored the department’s faculty, which has grown from two to 12 members. For many years, he was the social studies instructor for FCPS’ new teacher training workshops, and has served as the FCPS lead mentor for new teachers in social studies and UHS’s new teacher coordinator. Mr. Crosby is an Urbana High staff development facilitator using the Socratic Method and serves as a mentor teacher for Phase I and II student interns from Hood College.
The letters of recommendation in Mr. Crosby’s application packet describe him as passionate, inspiring, intelligent, a master teacher, and a highly valued member of the Urbana High community of educators. According to Urbana High principal Kathy Campagnoli, he “demonstrates the highest level of professional commitment and competency in his work…while making learning both engaging and exciting.”
Mr. Crosby earned his B.S. in History from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and his Masters Equivalency in History from Northeastern University. A member of Phi Alpha Theta, a professional society dedicated to promoting the study of history, he began his teaching career at Frederick High School in 1986, later joining Urbana High when it opened. Mr. Crosby was the runner up for the 2003-2004 FCPS Teacher of the Year Award and nominated for the Institute of American History’s National History Teacher of the Year Award (2011-2012) and Disney’s National Teacher of the Year Award (2000). He was recognized by local radio station Key 103.1 as Urbana High’s Teacher of the Year (2010) and awarded the Curriculum Supervisors Award for Advisor Academic Team (2001). He was named the American History Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Daughters of the American Revolution (2009) and Who’s Who in American Education nine times, most recently in 2011.
The Maryland Board of Education will honor Mr. Crosby and the winners from Maryland’s 23 other school districts at a state board meeting on May 22 and at a state-wide gala on October 5 at Martin’s West, Baltimore. Of the 24 local Teachers of the Year, one will be selected the Maryland Teacher of the Year and go on to compete for the National Teacher of the Year award.
Stephen Nikirk, a 5th grade teacher at Valley Elementary School, has been selected to receive the 2012 Charles E. Tressler Distinguished Teaching Award. Sponsored by Hood College, this award is presented each May to an FCPS teacher who has had a significant impact on young people.
Mr. Nikirk recently learned he was this year’s honoree when the FCPS “Prize Patrol,” led by elementary instructional director Dr. Keith Harris, visited him at Valley Elementary. School administration, staff, students and parents, along with Mr. Nikirk’s wife and daughter, were present to congratulate him.
Mr. Nikirk began his career as a teacher with Frederick County Public Schools in 1971. His first assignment was teaching 5th and 6th grade at North Frederick Elementary. In 1986, he joined the staff of Valley Elementary School; the same school where he did his student teaching 15 years earlier.
Valley principal Tess Blumenthal and parent Susan Kaltenbaugh nominated Mr. Nikirk for this award. Ms. Blumenthal shared that “Mr. Nikirk has truly had a significant impact on hundreds…maybe even thousands of young students! Former students continually come back to visit him in person at school or virtually on Facebook and e-mail.”
The nomination package contained numerous anecdotes from former students as to how Mr. Nikirk inspired them to love learning and, in some cases, become teachers themselves. Former student and current Valley Elementary colleague Becky Sommerville commented, “The thing I remember most about Mr. Nikirk was his passion. He definitely impacted the way I teach.”
Mr. Nikirk earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Shepherd College, graduating as a McMurran Scholar. He completed graduate work at Hood College and holds an Advanced Professional Certificate.
The late Samuel Eig of Gaithersburg, MD, established the Tressler Award to recognize Dr. Tressler, a Giles professor emeritus of early childhood education who taught at the college from 1964 to 1990. Dr. Tressler chaired Hood’s Education Department for 18 years and served on the school’s graduate school council for 12 years. Hood College will formally present Mr. Nikirk with his award during its graduate school commencement on May 19.
Future Link 2012 is coming this spring, with more than 400 local high school students expected to attend the STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – event at Frederick Community College on Thursday, May 31.
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, president Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III will deliver the keynote. Afterward, students choose from more than 30 career-development workshops. Local professionals will present the workshops related to arts, media and communication, business, construction and development, consumer services, engineering, environment and agriculture, health and biosciences, and human resources.
The Frederick County Business Roundtable for Education, Frederick Community College, Frederick County Public Schools, Fort Detrick, the Frederick County Business Development and Retention Division and the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce coordinate Future Link. This is the conference’s fifth year. Because of the wide variety of choices, each student will be able to attend three 30-minute focus sessions in addition to the keynote.
Frederick County Public Schools is running two important Family and Community Involvement surveys beginning Wednesday, May 2.
The first asks parents and guardians how satisfied they are with their children’s schools. Finding out whether families feel welcome, approve of the learning environment and are satisfied with how they are kept informed helps FCPS measure progress and identify areas for improvement. Responses will help schools plan for family and community involvement in the coming year.
The survey starts May 2 when parents will find versions in English and Spanish on the FCPS Web site: www.fcps.org. Responses are anonymous. The questions take about 15 minutes to complete online. Schools also have a limited number of paper copies in both English and Spanish.
On Wednesday, each elementary and middle school will send home a flier about the survey. High schools will display posters. All parents and guardians subscribed to FindOutFirst e-mail will get the survey link via e-mail. It will also go out via Twitter.
The second survey is for school-based staff with teaching certificates. It asks FCPS employees to rate overall satisfaction with the school’s efforts to ensure that families and community members are full partners in creating a positive learning climate for all students.
This is the fifth year FCPS has conducted the survey, now administered in alternate years. The survey will close Wednesday, May 16.
Marita Loose, executive director of Communication Services for Frederick County Public Schools, recently became the only two-time winner of the regional Mariner Award. The Mariner Award honors outstanding professionalism and integrity in school public relations and contributions that advance school communications in and beyond the local district. It is given annually to one member from the four-state region of the National School Public Relations Association’s Chesapeake (CHESPRA) chapter, which includes DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
Since joining FCPS in 1996, Ms. Loose has developed comprehensive award-winning communication plans that involve families and community members in public education and recognize student and employee achievement. Under her leadership at FCPS are those who work to design the school system’s publications and coordinate printing, produce television programming, maintain the Web site, provide communication training, manage the FindOutFirst e-mail system, write articles and news releases, handle crisis communication and coordinate employee recognition and other significant FCPS events. She achieved the rigorous University Accreditation Board’s Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) in 2003.
Ms. Loose won her first Mariner Award in 2008, having served as CHESPRA’s president and vice president. She launched the chapter’s e-newsletter, coordinated regional conferences and shares her expertise at national conferences and in publications.
According to an FCPS colleague, “Marita is an advocate for her staff, and places her trust in us to do the job well…She listens without interrupting, she leads without interfering, and she writes and speaks from the heart, even when that is really difficult to do.”
Amidst a standing ovation, CHESPRA president Tim Bullis presented Ms. Loose with the award, which represents a ship’s compass, symbolizing excellent leadership in setting a positive direction for the school public relations profession.
Urbana High School’s Dr. Suzanne Dashiell Elder is the statewide Tech Council of Maryland’s 2012 STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—Educator of the Year. Principal Kathy Campagnoli says she was inspired to nominate Dr. Dashiell Elder for the award to recognize the passionate commitment, innovation and expertise that she brings to the school’s Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate biology and chemistry students.
Dr. Dashiell Elder has taught at Urbana High School for the past nine of her thirteen-year teaching career. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in physiology and neuroscience from Rutgers University and her Master of Science and doctorate degrees in medical pathology from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She worked at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Disorders as a research scientist. This experience has greatly benefitted the quality of education she delivers in her classroom, according to Principal Campagnoli. Rather than presenting a “cookbook” lab where students are told what question to study, what procedure to follow, what data to collect and what questions to answer, Dr. Dashiell Elder regularly develops creative, inquiry-based labs for her science students. She gives students appropriate information, the principal says, to stimulate their curiosity to design, perform and evaluate their own labs.
Dr. Dashiell Elder has earned her school $4,000 worth of Vernier lab-ware equipment and enrolled the school in the NIH Donation Program that procured the school over $50,000 worth of computer and lab equipment, most which Urbana High used to create a new STEM lab. She annually administers the Biology Olympiad test and collaborates with peers to help organize the school’s STEM Career Day. Her coordination of the Maryland Biology Lab (MdBioLab) visit, field trips to the Science Tech Center in Baltimore, field trips with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and to ANOVA Hospital to directly observe open-heart surgery are only a few examples of her emphasis on providing rigorous and relevant learning experiences for our students, says Ms. Campagnoli. Dr. Dashiell Elder also celebrates student achievement as the founder and advisor of the UHS Science National Honor Society chapter and the UHS Science Academic Team.
The Tech Council of Maryland’s (TCM) annual awards celebration is one of Maryland's largest and most prestigious, bringing over 900 technology, biotechnology, government, academia and supporting businesses together. According to its Web site, the TCM is the largest technology trade association in the state with more than 500 members and representing 250,000 people in Maryland and the region. The Council also serves the tech and biotech community through the MdBioLab program, which features a mobile bioscience laboratory that visits Maryland high schools to teach science literacy. More about TCM is online: http://www.techcouncilmd.com.
Next week is prime time to show appreciation for local teachers, cafeteria workers and school nurses! May 6-12 is National Teacher Appreciation and School Nutrition Employee Week. May 8 is National Teacher Day, and May 9 is National School Nurse Day.
This year’s Teacher Appreciation Week theme is “Great Public Schools for Every Student.” The National Education Association (NEA) invites the public to send online thank you notices to teachers via http://www.teacherthankyoucard.org. Or you can nominate a classroom superhero: http://classroomsuperheroes.com.
The NEA also recommends a variety of other ways that parents, businesses and community members can celebrate the work teachers do. Ideas include running congratulatory messages on electronic or storefront signs, billboards and banners, offering teacher discounts and inviting teachers to enjoy a before- or after-school salute with refreshments.
Teacher Appreciation Week started when Eleanor Roosevelt, lobbied by Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge, persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day in 1953. Decades later in 1985 the NEA voted to join the National PTA in appreciating teachers the first full week of May.
Teaching lessons of a different sort, child nutrition employees share nutrition tips, prepare healthy school meals and offer friendly greetings all in a day’s work. Following numerous federal, state and local regulations to ensure safe and healthy school meals, they manage financially self-sufficient programs and are trained sanitation and food-safety experts. FCPS Food Service workers also use their creativity to make the cafeteria a fun, educational and welcoming place.
FCPS employs about 3,000 teachers and funds about 150 fulltime-equivalent food service positions. School nurses are employed by the Frederick County Health Department.
By uttering the words, “Wait a minute. This doesn’t seem right for my daughter,” Nikki Moberly began a journey of advocacy that resulted in big change for a small group of students. Her work has earned her the 2012 Comcast Parent Involvement Matters Awards (PIMA) for Frederick County, and she is now a semi-finalist for the statewide award. A collaboration between Comcast and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), PIMA recognizes parents and legal guardians for their exceptional support of public education.
The parent of a special needs student who attends Rock Creek School, Ms. Moberly identified challenges with the manner in which standardized testing is administered to children with the most severe and profound disabilities. In 2009, she began addressing these issues, first with the local school system. Realizing that the testing was administered under No Child Left Behind and implemented by the MSDE, she spent the next few years making trips to Annapolis. She even met with Melody Musgrove, Director of the Office of Special Education for the US Department of Education. Her hard work and determination paid off in June of 2011, when MSDE updated its Alt-MSA Handbook to include the very medical exemption she had advocated for.
Tricia Dutton nominated Ms. Moberly for this award. “Though Nikki was originally motivated by advocating for her own child, she realized that her daughter was the spark that lit the flame of change that could benefit many children across Maryland…even if the change did not come to fruition in time to benefit her daughter.”
In a letter supporting Ms. Moberly’s nomination, Senator David R. Brinkley wrote, “Nikki has made an invaluable impact on the lives of the most vulnerable students in Maryland. Her leadership and courage are rare. She is a passionate and articulate advocate.”
“She has provided a voice for parents who felt overwhelmed, teachers who were frustrated, and children who, quite literally, have no voice of their own,” according to Elizabeth List, a teacher at Rock Creek.
Ms. Moberly also serves the Frederick community as a Frederick County Workforce Development board member, Women’s Giving Circle Grants Committee member, and Hospice of Frederick County volunteer, among other roles.
MSDE and Comcast will recognize Ms. Moberly and 23 other semifinalists at a special celebration on Friday, May 18. The statewide winner will be announced during the awards ceremony.
Stephen Nikirk, a 5th grade teacher at Valley Elementary School, has been selected to receive the 2012 Charles E. Tressler Distinguished Teaching Award. Sponsored by Hood College, this award is presented each May to an FCPS teacher who has had a significant impact on young people. 
Marita Loose, executive director of Communication Services for Frederick County Public Schools, recently became the only two-time winner of the regional Mariner Award. The Mariner Award honors outstanding professionalism and integrity in school public relations and contributions that advance school communications in and beyond the local district. It is given annually to one member from the four-state region of the National School Public Relations Association’s Chesapeake (CHESPRA) chapter, which includes DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. 
By uttering the words, “Wait a minute. This doesn’t seem right for my daughter,” Nikki Moberly began a journey of advocacy that resulted in big change for a small group of students. Her work has earned her the 2012 Comcast Parent Involvement Matters Awards (PIMA) for Frederick County, and she is now a semi-finalist for the statewide award. A collaboration between Comcast and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), PIMA recognizes parents and legal guardians for their exceptional support of public education. 