Brad Young
Frederick County School Board

(4/2020) As everyone knows the Governor has shut down all Maryland School buildings through April 24th. He will reevaluate at that point about whether buildings can re-open. I have been asked by many if we are going to re-open or not. I want to be clear that at this point it is in the Governor’s hands. Frederick County Public Schools did get the approval from the State Superintendent of Education, Dr. Karen Salmon to begin distance learning on Monday March 30th.

The school system will be getting information out to parents and students on how this will work. It will be a combination of some online work and some work that will be given out in packets to students. Everyone is asking how long the school year will be. We do not know for sure at his moment as we are waiting on further guidance from the State as to whether they will waive part of the 180-day requirement for the school year. The first 2 weeks off were partly covered by 8 snow days that were left in the calendar. We will issue updates as soon as we have more information.

I have been getting many questions about proms, spring sports, graduations and other school events as to whether they will happen or not. It is way too early to make those decisions, but I would say that they are looking doubtful. What I can say to all our Seniors is that we are going to do everything possible to hold graduations even if delayed or in an alternate format. We realize how important the graduation ceremonies are to our students and their families.

I want to thank all our FCPS staff for working hard through this closure to make the best of a bad situation. To our custodians who have worked hard to sanitize our buildings and make sure they are clean if we can reopen. To our bus drivers and aides for cleaning the buses and delivering food. To our teachers for staying engaged with students. To our administrators for keep parents and students informed and developing plans for their schools. To our central office staff for coordinating a lot of fast-moving pieces. To all our employees for showing great care for students, families and the community!

And finally, to our food service workers who quickly developed plans to feed our students who are not in schools. We are now serving meals in 18 locations around the county. To date over 10,000 meals have been served.

For those in the Thurmont, Sabisivvile, Rocky Ridge and Emmitsburg area, "to go" breakfasts, lunches and suppers can be picked up from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Jubilee Foods parking lot, Emmitsburg; Thurmont Elementary School Parking Lot, Thurmont; and, the Discovery Shopping Center Parking Lot (Goodwill Store), 8425 Woodsboro Pike, Walkersville.

Look for the bright yellow school buses. Lunch sandwich options at community-based sites include turkey and cheese, ham and cheese, Italian combo, and wow-butter, an all-natural nut-free peanut butter substitute.

Update on Sabillasville Elementary

At the Board of Education’s regular meeting on February 26 the Board heard the Superintendent's report on closure of Sabillasville Elementary. The public had the opportunity to make comments on the recommendation and many showed up and made comments. The Board then discussed the subject and I made a motion to keep the school open for the next school year. The motion also included that we would study options for the school further and come to a decision by December 31st of this year as to the school’s future. The motion passed 7-0. The Board will begin working on a committee to explore options. Because of the school shutdown, we are in a holding pattern until this is over. We will work on forming a committee to begin work probably in June. If you have interest in serving on that committee, email me at Brad.Young@FCPS.org