COMMUNITY UPDATE
July 01, 2021
Dear MCPS Community:
Here are five things you need to know about the June 29 Board of Education meeting and what’s ahead for the MCPS community this summer and fall.
1.The 2021-2022 school year will begin on August 30, with all schools returning to in-person instruction at 100 percent capacity five days a week. Watch this video to learn more about the fall 2021 vision for schools.
2.Mask guidance from the 2020-2021 school year will continue through the summer. Students and staff participating in summer programs are required to wear face coverings in school buildings; outdoors, mask wearing is not required, but is highly recommended and up to the individual. Tentative mask guidance for the 2021-2022 school year will be provided in August.
3.The deadline to apply for the Virtual Academy is July 2. We encourage all families who feel the program would be a good fit for their child to apply and to provide any available supporting materials. All applications will be reviewed and responses will be provided on a rolling basis.
4.MCPS will provide a new social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum for students beginning in the fall. Staff have begun to receive training on the new SEL curriculum—the Leader in Me. The curriculum fosters a holistic approach to education, empowering educators with effective practices and tools to teach leadership to every student; create a culture of student empowerment; and align systems to drive results in academics. Implementation will be phased in over three years, beginning with these schools this fall.
5. MCPS elementary and middle school summer programs begin July 6, either in-person at the local school, in a special program, or through the MCPS all-virtual program. More than 53,000 students are participating in MCPS’ summer programming. For programs starting next week, families will receive details about what to expect in their emails by the end of this week. If you do not receive a confirmation for in-person programs at your school, please contact your child’s school. For the all-virtual program, if you do not receive a welcome message by the end of the day on July 2, please email CentralSummerMS@mcpsmd.org (middle school) or CentralSummerES@mcpsmd.org (elementary school).