Latest news with #BrunswickHighSchool
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
In new run for school board, Fletcher focuses on fiscal responsibility
After an unsuccessful run for school board last year, Frederick County Board of Education candidate Heather Fletcher said she needs 'every minute' of campaign time before 2026. Fletcher, a former air traffic controller at Joint Base Andrews, said she pulled her children out of Frederick County Public Schools in 2021 because 'I didn't feel like it was a safe place.' 'They weren't listening to the parents,' she said. 'They had no concern over the parents.' Fletcher ran for a seat on the school board in 2022, but lost in the primary. She ran as a write-in candidate in 2024 and lost again. She received 21,185 votes, or 6.42% of all votes cast for school board candidates in the election. Fletcher said after the COVID pandemic, she made it her full-time job 'to inform the public about what's really happening in the schools.' 'I feel like if they know, and they still choose to elect these candidates, and they are informed voters, then that's their choice,' she said. 'But I feel like there's been so many lies and so much deceit that the regular person might not be researching these policies and the curriculum and have no idea what's going on in these schools.' Fletcher said her biggest priorities for the school system were school safety, fiscal responsibility, academic excellence and parental rights. She explains her priorities on her website, She said it was not fair to students or staff members at Brunswick High School, who deal with 'asbestos tiles crumbling on their heads and a roof leaking,' because the school board's room in the FCPS central office underwent construction last year. The Frederick News-Post reported in 2023 that community members advocated to the Frederick County Council about asbestos in Brunswick High School. In 2024, the school board met virtually from late February to early May, with one in-person meeting in April. The construction was for 'modernization ... including the installation of new audio and video equipment, to replace dated infrastructure utilized since the building opened in 2010,' according to an FCPS Facebook post. Fletcher said the construction was 'just a humongous waste of our taxpayer money.' She said she would 'cut absolutely everything that wasn't down to bare basics' in the budget if she were elected. 'Get rid of everything that is not absolutely necessary to improve our test scores, to help our teachers out,' she said. Fletcher said she volunteers as a teacher's assistant and a substitute at her children's school. FCPS said in 2023, 17 out of 42 elementary schools, excluding charter schools, had more students than state-rated capacity, according to the 2024 Educational Facilities Master Plan. 'I would much rather pay to have assistants' helping with teachers and class sizes than pay administrator salaries, she said. She said teacher's assistants could help with overcrowded classrooms. Fletcher has been outspoken against a districtwide transgender and gender nonconforming affirmation policy. Policy 443 was created to 'prevent discrimination, stigmatization, harassment, and bullying of students who are transgender or gender nonconforming' and to 'create school cultures that are safe, welcoming, and affirming for all students.' The policy compels students, staff members and teachers to refer to students by their preferred names and pronouns. Fletcher said that part of the policy is unconstitutional. 'They cannot force speech,' she said. 'In Policy 443, it says that whatever pronouns somebody wants to use, that the staff and teachers have to use it. You are violating our constitution.' The policy also allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with a student's gender identity, and allows students to bunk with students of the same gender identity for overnight field trips. She said if a student does not feel comfortable using the girls' or boys' bathrooms, they can use a private bathroom. 'If they're LGBTQIA, they identify as whatever. ... I don't want any person harmed,' she said. 'Nobody should be bullied.' In 2022, Fletcher checked out around 20 LGBTQ books from a pride month display at the Brunswick Library, saying she was 'disturbed' and worried it would prompt 'age-inappropriate' questions from young children. She returned the books a few days later. For the 2026 election, four seats are on the ballot. Casey Day, Jess Douglass, Chad King Wilson Sr. and David Migdal have filed as school board candidates. Current school board members Karen Yoho and Nancy Allen have said they are not running again. Board President Rae Gallagher and Vice President Dean Rose have said they are unsure if they will run again. The deadline to file to run is 9 p.m. on Feb. 24, 2026. The primary election is on June 30, 2026, and the general election is on Nov. 3, 2026.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Yahoo
Portland mock trial team prepares for first national competition in decades
May 7—The case: A young investigative reporter is shot while working on a blockbuster investigation. The prime suspect: A wealthy real estate developer and true crime podcaster who may have killed before. The attorneys: Casco Bay High School students. This week, the group of eight is representing Maine at the 2025 National High School Mock Trial Championships — the first Portland students to do so since the 1980s. Mock trial is an extracurricular competition that combines legal analysis, public speaking and theater. All competing schools receive the same case and materials, including an indictment and witness statements, then work to build a case for both the prosecution and the defense. At the competition, they'll end up representing both sides over a series of head-to-head matches against other high school teams. There's no "correct" verdict — teams are scored on the quality of their arguments. Casco Bay came in second place at the statewide competition last fall at the Cumberland County Courthouse. When the first-place winner, Brunswick High School, had to drop out, Casco Bay became Maine's sole representative to the national competition, which begins Wednesday in Arizona. 'ONE BIG PUZZLE' Jacob McNally is a math teacher and the faculty coach for the Casco Bay team. He first started overseeing mock trial at Deering High School and said the activity — which requires close reading, strategy and performing skills — typically attracts students who are interested in theater, law or just an extracurricular. The cases are intricate, involving more than 50 pages of detailed witness statements, exhibits and a convincing criminal indictment, which McNally said requires a real commitment from the team. This year, he said, a combination of great student leadership and attorney coaching propelled the team further than ever before. Jo Ellis is one of those student leaders and said her interest in mock trial is related to the complexity of the cases. "They're so meticulously thought out, the cases, that each little detail contradicts with another one or has multiple details stemming off of it, and you have to be aware of everything down to the date the witnesses gave their statement," she said. "And that's really fun for me, because it just feels like one big puzzle that you're putting together." Ellis, a senior, got involved in mock trial during her sophomore year because her brother and some friends were on the team. She'll be portraying a prosecutor at the national championships and said although the scale of this competition is larger than what the team has faced before, she knows Casco Bay is "100% putting its best foot forward." Fellow senior Maribel Creek has been a part of the mock trial team since her freshman year. At different points in the national competition, she'll be portraying the defendant and attorneys for both the prosecution and defense. Creek, who is also involved in theater, said performing the role of a witness comes naturally to her; it's just about playing a part. But being an attorney has been a fun challenge. "The reason why I've stayed in it so long is just because of the community. There's super fun, smart people in it," Creek said. "But I also like the debating, I like the arguing and I like having to think on my feet while also acting, I think that's fun." Kendall Shaughnessy, also a senior, said she's drawn to the intricacy, strategy and competition. "There's the public speaking aspect of delivering a speech, but then there's the live element element of objections, and you have to understand them and know how to respond and understand the facts," she said. "It has given me a lot more confidence in my ability to do those things, because those aren't really skills that I would exercise otherwise." MOCK TRIAL, REAL LAWYERS In addition to McNally, the team gets coaching support from local attorneys Richard O'Meara, Maria Fox and David Hillman. O'Meara, an attorney at Portland law firm Murray Plumb & Murray, has been coaching Maine mock trial teams for decades at Gray-New Gloucester, Falmouth and most successfully Cape Elizabeth, which he led to nine national competitions. McNally described him as the "Coach K of mock trial," a nod to Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary, former Duke University men's basketball coach. As the student attorneys practiced their arguments at a prep session Tuesday, O'Meara jumped in with pointers and objection strategies. "Two questions," O'Meara said, interrupting a cross-examination that combined a few points into one question. "Everyone on cross — the shorter the questions, the better they're going to be." O'Meara said he likes coaching mock trial because it allows him to sharpen up his own trial skills by teaching others. Coaching mock trial isn't about training the next generation of attorneys, he said, although sometimes that does happen. At the statewide mock trial competition last fall, Maine Supreme Court Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill made a plea to the young Mainers competing about the importance of legal careers. But O'Meara said the biggest goal is instilling confidence and analysis skills that students can apply to any career path. The Casco Bay seniors aren't necessarily considering careers in law — Ellis is headed to Vassar College in the fall and plans to study policy, Creek is taking a gap year to travel, and Shaughnessy is going to Oberlin College and is undecided on her academic path. But they all agreed that mock trial has increased their confidence and improvised speaking skills and their knowledge of the legal system. Casco Bay's team raised funds for its trip to Phoenix by soliciting from local law firms and attorney associations, who donated enough to cover the $15,000 price tag. "The fact that the Maine legal community made it so easy to do this was amazing," McNally said. O'Meara said Maine sometimes feels like an underdog at the national level because other states have more robust statewide competitions, which can be discouraging for the students. But he said he keeps telling them: "You can compete." "It's you, it's how well you're going to do," he said. "I try to pump them up, because they can do it." Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Brunswick High School teacher wins districtwide distinguished teacher award
A Brunswick High School English teacher has received the 2025 Charles E. Tressler Distinguished Teacher Award. Lydia Kowalski was surprised by Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson, Frederick County Board of Education member Karen Yoho and other school system officials with the award at Brunswick High on Tuesday. The Tressler award recognizes a teacher in Frederick County Public Schools who has had a significant impact on young people. The award is sponsored by Hood College and is named for a former Hood College faculty member "who encouraged young people to enter the profession of teaching," according to FCPS.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Frederick faces budget challenges from shake-up of federal workforce, contracts in limbo
FREDERICK, Md. () — A new fiscal year approaches for Frederick County, and an unsettled federal government landscape is presenting challenges to County Executive Jessica Fitzwater. The county executive's budget comes in at $981,919,496, but sudden turmoil from the new administration in Washington, D.C. may shift priorities for her fiscal strategists. Hagerstown hosts 2025 State of the City event 'So many of the decisions affecting federal agencies right now impact decisions we make right here in Frederick County,' Fitzwater said. In just the past month, Fitzwater said jobless claims have jumped five-fold. 'We're seeing an increase in workforce service who were either federal employees or federal contractors,' Fitzwater said during a press conference. 'They either lost their job or anticipate losing their job.' With that as a backdrop, the county executive is still managing a fast-growing region and proposes a new elementary school to accommodate close to 900 students. She also proposes renovations to Brunswick High School. According to Frederick County Schools' chief operation officer, Paul Lebo, there is a 'significant need' to address the schools' 'aging infrastructure.' Fighting climate change brings activists to Hood College conference Fitzwater has scheduled a public hearing on her proposed budget for Saturday. The County Council will hold a hearing on the spending plan on Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. at Winchester Hall, 12 E. Church St. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
