Anne Arundel superintendent discusses safety, funding threat, staffing shortages with schools set to open

On August 24 and 25, tens of thousands of students return to school in Anne Arundel County.

WJZ went to Annapolis to ask Anne Arundel County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell what he's prioritizing this school year and how he's addressing important issues like staffing, a federal funding threat, and school safety.

Addressing school safety

It's been more than six months since WJZ shared the frightening story.

A 7-year-old brought a loaded gun to school and fired it in a classroom where nine students were present, injuring his hand.

"Any opportunity that we have to try to figure out ways to enhance the security in our schools, we're going to do that," Dr. Bedell said.

Bedell says this school year the system will continue its pilot of the Open Gate non-invasive weapons detection system as it seeks to protect the district's more than 84,000 students.

 The AI-powered security tool is already in place in Virginia's largest school system:  Fairfax County Public Schools.

Focus on student achievement

In addition to school safety, Bedell told WJZ that he's focused on improving student achievement.

"We are on the verge here in Anne Arundel County of continuing to implement the high-quality curricula that we put in place with both math and reading, and probably the bigger one that you all probably have been hearing about is some of the work we're doing around middle school pilots, middle school reform, middle school redesign," he said.

This school year, Bedell says AACPS will continue a middle school pilot program at three schools in the county.

The leader of the state's fourth largest school system is also eager to see student performance improve in math and literacy and has high expectations as Maryland schools embrace the MSTAR statewide assessment and move away from MCAP, which Bedell views as flawed.

"I think the issue that we had with that test was that, um, it was an adaptive assessment that generated a higher percent of some of the most difficult questions that students would ever see," Bedell said.

A new term with some challenges

In June, the Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a second four-year contract for Bedell, who previously led the public school system in Kansas City; but his second run isn't without challenges.

The school system faces a legal battle with parents who allege AACPS staff concealed their child's gender transition.  The Trump Administration has also threatened to withhold funds over the district's gender identity policy.

We will work with our legal department, and we'll do everything to make sure that we are in alignment with what it is we're supposed to do.

Federal funding threat

Despite the federal funding threat, AACPS received a record $73.4 million increase in direct funding this school year, the largest in county history.

Part of the money will pay for 26 new special education positions, but Bedell says staffing is still a challenge.

"Teaching positions, general ed teachers, support staff, ELL support, bilingual folks, counselors, or bilingual specialists, counselor, psychologists, you name it," he said.

The school system says right now there are 30 teacher vacancies, 29 custodial vacancies, and 59 food and nutrition services vacancies.

County redistricting

This school year hundreds of students in Anne Arundel County will also attend new schools due to redistricting as AACPS seeks to address under enrollment and overcrowding.