The St. Mary’s Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual State of the County Public School System luncheon Wednesday, Nov. 17 at the last event it will host at the closing-soon JT Daugherty Center. Current commissioners and commissioners-elect attended along with School Board and business leaders.
Superintendent Dr. Michael J. Martirano offered a presentation featuring key points from the schools’ annual report and answered a few audience-submitted questions afterward.
Martirano shared that SMCPS is the top school system in Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) with a rating of 98.95 percent on Maryland School Assessment (MSA) tests. In addition, the schools boast highly qualified and effective teachers and retain relatively small class sizes, with no more than 23 students per class, on average, in any grades.
With an overall graduation rate of 89 percent, Martirano says while this is higher than those across the state and country, “We can and must do better.” Chopticon High School set the curve with a 94.3 percent rate of graduates, while Great Mills High School ranked lowest of the three at 81.33 percent.
The superintendent said the schools’ STEM Program, “is so robust right now,” explaining the variety of technology-based career fields, beyond engineering, that the program focuses on. Martirano said the program has become a model for the state and said he hopes to keep promoting the use of effective technology in the classrooms. “We have 217 Smart Boards in front of our students right now.”
Martirano was proud to comment on the energy conservation efforts of SMCPS and told the crowd about Project Sunburst, a plan to install solar panels at George Washington Carver Elementary which will produce 80 percent of the school’s energy.
The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office was acknowledged for their efforts to make the schools safer, by supporting ant-bullying initiatives and increasing officer presence in all the elementary schools, as well as Middle and High schools.
Martirano addressed the overcrowding problems, saying recent growth has Leonardtown Elementary “bursting at the seams.” He said he would seek approval from Public Works to progress with plans for the second new elementary school in Jan. 2011 and said he hoped to explore “non-traditional ways” to address overcrowding in the high schools.
With budgets expected to remain tight or possibly face further cuts in the approaching years, Martirano said the school system is making several “intentional efforts” to handle the challenges. Martirano said emphasis on cost savings within the $1.77 million budget by emphasizing energy conservation and by freezing, not cutting, positions is to help ensure the schools can make the necessary ends meet.
The issue of teacher pensions has been tossed around often at the state level and as, Martirano pointed out to someone asking what would be cut if necessary, a large portion of the budget already dedicated to teacher salaries and benefits. Taking on the full-expense of pensions is a worry for both the school and the county government.
Martirano said he is a “proponent of a longer school year and
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