Students, teachers, staff prepare for new school year

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006

by Marcus Ngbea

Staff Writer

Marecya Burton, a sophomore at Bowie High School, is adjusting her schedule in preparation for the start of the new school year on Monday. No longer is she staying up until 1 or 2 a.m., and sleeping in until noon, now she gets to sleep earlier and arises around 6 a.m.

‘‘I’m starting to get in that mindset that when I get up I take a shower and don’t mess around,” Burton said. ‘‘When the school year starts if I mess around I’ll miss the bus.”

Burton is just one of the thousands of students, administrators teachers and support staff in Bowie that are making preparations for the 2006-2007 school year. While students like Burton are gathering supplies and teachers are putting together their classrooms, principals such as Jerenze Campbell of Whitehall Elementary School are reviewing policies with staff and setting up classroom assignments.

Benjamin Tasker Middle School eighth-grade science teacher Emily Meny said that she began preparing mentally for the upcoming school year three weeks ago.

‘‘The curriculum is pretty much set but before the school year starts I look at how I want the room set up,” Meny said.

Meny said that Principal Karen Coley prepares the staff and administrators well before the school with welcome back meetings that introduce staff, department heads and school policies.

‘‘For this upcoming school year I’ll have all my equipment for the first quarter,” Meny said.

To help the students adjust back to the school routine Meny said she starts her classes in a rigorous manner.

‘‘The school starts with what we expect from the students,” Meny said.

This will be Whitehall’s second year and Campbell is looking to focus more attention on special education reading for this year’s Maryland School Assessments testing.

Campbell said to improve that area he has hired two certified special education teachers and two para-professionals.

‘‘We met [Adequate Yearly Progress] but those numbers were lower than expected for Whitehall,” Campbell said. ‘‘The numbers were not to our standards.”

Whitehall Elementary’s student body was 90 percent proficient in math and 87 percent in reading.

‘‘There has been a stronger interest from the community in our school and I think the test results have something to do with that,” Campbell said.

In addition to more special education resources, Campbell said he is planning to establish a special learning group, where teachers will conduct studies and research what strategies and methods work best for the school.

Email Marcus Ngbea mngbea@gazette.net.