Clarksburg enrollment up as Damascus drops

Both high schools aiming to increase academic challenges

Teachers, staff, parents and students met before the school opened in fall 2006 to create a vision for the school they are implementing one step at a time over the first three years.

In its first year, the school concentrated on relationships, with teachers working to help students get to know each other.

Last year, the school concentrated on scholarship, with teachers working to increase the number of students taking honors and advanced placement courses.

This year, teachers will help students discover their own leadership abilities.

"All of our children have the capacity to lead," Koutsos said.

Some are more visible in their leadership, while others can lead quietly by example, he said.

Teachers will continue to work on scholarship, aiming to increase the percentage of students taking the SAT to 80 percent, Koutsos said. Teachers will be registering students in homerooms for the school system's free online preparation course, he said.

"We've identified students who haven't taken or registered to take the SAT and will talk to them and their parents about taking it," Koutsos said.

Clarksburg is also offering more advanced placement courses and expanding its technical trades' computer courses. An introductory engineering course will be offered for the first time. The school's internship program is also expanding.

The school continues to grow, with 1,650 students registered by Friday and new students registering every day. Four portable classrooms have been added. The biggest change will be in the senior class, which at about 380 students is more than 120 larger than last year's class.

Clarksburg has added new teachers to handle the growth, Koutsos said.

New English teachers are Shannon Grigsby and Devon Tehrani. Grigsby was a long-term substitute teacher at Clarksburg last year.

Kelley Cedillo is the new English for Speakers of Other Languages teacher, Teresa Gaspar is the new math teacher, Jack Hopkins is the new physical education teacher, Debra Ambush and Karen Bell are the new art teachers, and Claire Kunkel and Kyle Landefeld are the new social studies teachers. Ambush is returning after a year at another school.

The science department has three new teachers – Kathleen Bettinger, Brendon Friedman and May Shlash. The foreign language department has four new teachers – Vilma Najera, Maritza Aguilar, Gabriella Grayson and Ian Yarmus. Najera will chair the department.

The special education department has six new teachers and six paraeducators. Teachers are Erin Dombrowski, Mary Pat Jordan, Kathy Pittman, Paul Ranno, Brian Sunderly and Jaime Marchese. Paraeducators are Eric Estrin, Virginia Neal, Craig Shields, Andrea April, Lora Caretto and Caleb Frick.

Dana Henderson is the new school counselor.

Back-to-School Night is Thursday starting at 6:30 p.m.

At neighboring Damascus

Damascus High School is still working to increase enrollment in honors and advanced placement courses, as well as working to ensure that 90 percent of the students earn C's or higher so they can participate in extracurricular activities, Principal Robert Domergue said.

"We believe if students are earnings A's, B's or C's, they're earning and we'll have fewer discipline problems," he said.

Damascus is one of the county schools that will receive white boards this year. The boards will allow teachers to display video clips and get instant results to quizzes.

The boards will be in four classrooms by mid-year, Domergue said. Math, social studies and science will each have one classroom featuring the technology and the fourth classroom will be centrally located and available to all teachers, he said.

Damascus will be a little smaller this year, but not so much smaller that it lost staff. Recent enrollment was at 1,425, or about 25 students fewer than finished the last school year.

Damascus welcomes several new and one returning teacher this year.

Don Cleveland returns to the art department after a year at Northwood High School in Silver Spring. Rob Hyman, Rebecca Paulson and Deborah Randolph are joining the math department, John Pisanic joined the physics department, Stephen Slatcoff is in the special education department, Eric Wallich is the new football coach and will teach physical education, Travis Swiger is the media services technician and Amanda Griswold is the new social studies teacher.

Back-to-School Night is Sept. 18 starting at 7 p.m.