TOWSON, MD. – During the months of April through June, Baltimore County Public Schools continued to earn recognition for its students, schools, and staff. National awards included system-wide excellence in music education, digital citizenship, and communications.

“Looking back on the 2017-2018 school year, I am simply amazed by the depth and the range of talent demonstrated by our students, staff, and schools,” said BCPS Superintendent Verletta White. “I look forward to leading our BCPS family toward even more achievement as we begin the next school year.”

Awards earned ran the gamut from academics and teaching to character education, leadership, community service, safety, robotics, JROTC; the literary, visual, performing, and culinary arts; and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

International, national, state, and regional highlights are included below.

Student Honors

• Leo Sheingate and Katharine Doggett (George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology) won first and second prize respectively in the international 2018 Jack London Foundation Writing Contest.
• Seven BCPS graduates from five schools were awarded scholarships in the first three rounds of awards from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation: Justin D. Ciemian and Tyler T. Honeywell (Hereford High); Malachi M. Fowler (Perry Hall High); Abhinav S. Khushalani and Megan Zhang (Dulaney High); Albert J. Ko (Western School of Technology); and Mckenzie Patrick (Franklin High).
• A band featuring Joshua Bell (Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts) and Daniel Ginsburg (Franklin High) was featured in a PBS Celebration of Music contest.
• Abegya Berhanu (Pikesville High) was selected as one of only 34 recipients of the 2018 Alexander Hamilton Scholars Award.
• Artwork by three BCPS students was included in the 24 pieces selected for the Maryland Art Education Association’s spring art exhibit. The students were: Helen Delgado Pineda (Owings Mills High); and Morgan Savage and Aaron Taule (Pikesville High).
• Madison Wood (Overlea High) was selected from 1,000 applicants to be a speaker at the AVID Summer Institute. (AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.)
• Guiliana Datnoff (Pikesville High) is one of four winners of the national 2018 BB&T Student Blog Contest.
• Yara Daraiseh (Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts) has been named one of only 100 LEDA Lead Scholars.
• Eight BCPS students were awarded Leaders and Achievers® Scholarships from the Comcast Foundation of Comcast NBCUniversal: Afkar AlWakil (Randallstown High); Delaram Doorandish (Dulaney High); Cydney Ellis (Pikesville High); Joan Maingi (Milford Mill Academy); Savannah McShane (Western School of Technology); Jennifer Nguyen (Owings Mills High); Alyssa Perna (George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology); and Savannah Taylor, (Kenwood High).
• The Mid-Atlantic Foundation for Safety and Education awarded three BCPS students with 2017-18 Outstanding AAA School Safety Patrol Awards: Waverly Iriarte (Villa Cresta Elementary); Jayda Morgan (Perry Hall Elementary); and Marissa Ricketts (Woodbridge Elementary).
• Composer and conductor Adrian B. Sims (Catonsville High) was named one of two winners of the prestigious national 2018 MakeMusic Young Composers Contest, for his composition Force Field.
• Trey Wooten (Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts; Sollers Point Technical High) was on the three-person team that created the winning ice cream at this year’s TIC Gums Ice Cream University.
• Bassoonist Vincent Igusa (Towson High) and oboist Kara Poling (Franklin High) are among the 106 musicians selected for the sixth annual National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.
• Max McKenna (Catonsville High) earned one of three first place awards in Maryland’s Letters About Literature contest sponsored by the Library of Congress and Maryland Humanities.
• Ashley Hajimirsadeghi (George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology) was awarded a National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship for 2018-19 by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
• Mason Miller-Breetz (Towson High) was awarded his second National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. With his 2018-2019 scholarship, he will be studying Hindi in India for 10 months.
• Emma Boone (Grange Elementary) earned a third-place finish (for girls in her age group) at the WSSA 2018 Mid-Atlantic Regional Sport Stacking Championship and will participate in the AAU Junior Olympics Sport Stacking Championships this summer.
• Myla Abernathy (Arbutus Middle School) has advanced to the USA Track & Field Region 3 Junior Olympic Championships, to be held this summer.

Staff Honors

• Erin O’Toole-Trivas, principal of Parkville Middle, and Susan Ellerbee, multi-media magnet teacher at Randallstown High, were named Region 2 Principal of the Year and Region 2 Teacher of the Year by Magnet Schools of America.
• Douglas H. Handy, director of career and technology education and fine arts, will be honored with the Jim Hanneman Memorial Award for the Association for Career and Technical Education Region I.
• Brandon Oland, communications specialist, was appointed regional membership officer (Maryland) of the Chesapeake Chapter of the National School Public Relations Association.
• Kelly Carlson, a theatre teacher at Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts and director of its Troupe 2891, was one of three educators to receive an Inspirational Theatre Teacher Award from the International Thespian Society.
• Florence Falatko, a Grade 5 mathematics teacher at Cromwell Valley Elementary Magnet, is one of only 104 teachers this year to receive a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

School Honors

• The Franklin High Marine Corps JROTC program was named one of 15 schools (out of 270 Marine Corps JROTC programs) in the nation to qualify for the prestigious 2018 MCJROTC National Drill Championships.
• Fifteen Baltimore County schools have been named 2018 Maryland Green Schools by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education.
• The Rams Horn news magazine, a publication of Randallstown High’s multi-media magnet program, won first place honors in the American Scholastic Press Association 2017 – 2018 magazine competition.
• A team from Hereford High finished fifth in the VEX Robotics World Championships.
• BCPS students earned high marks at the State’s MESA (Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement) Challenge. Eastern Technical High student teams were the overall high school winners. Among middle schools, Deer Park Magnet teams placed second and third. Among elementary schools, the Hebbville student team placed first in the Effective Communication Challenge.
• Ascend Education awarded Lansdowne Middle a 2018 Gold Medal for its efforts to support all students in succeeding in mathematics.
• Eight Baltimore County schools made U.S. News & World Report’s “Best High Schools” list, and two schools earned “gold medal” status under the magazine’s ranking system. In addition, five BCPS high schools appeared on the magazine’s list of best magnet schools in the nation, and two appeared on the list of best STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) schools.
• Glyndon and Warren elementary schools in Baltimore County were named 2018 National Schools of Character by Character.org.
• George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology was one of only 17 schools in the nation to receive an Exemplary School designation from the Arts Schools Network.
• Dundalk Middle will be certified as an AVID Schoolwide Site of Distinction for the 2018-19 school year. (AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination.)

System Honors

• BCPS was named one of the Best Communities for Music Education by The NAMM Foundation for the 13th consecutive year, and the 14th year overall.
• The BCPS grade from Healthy School Food Maryland increased from a C- in 2016 to a B in 2017.
• BCPS has been recognized by Common Sense as a Common Sense District for the third year in a row for taking a whole-community approach to preparing its students to use the power of digital media to explore, create, connect, and learn in safe and responsible ways.
• BCPS earned six 2018 communications awards from the National School Public Relations Association, including two of the contest’s highest honors for the Team BCPS blog and the Growing Up Digital website.

The fourth quarter closed out a year of excellence for Team BCPS, including continuous recognition during the first, second, and third quarters.