Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent addresses parents' concerns
BALTIMORE - Dr. Myriam (Yarbrough) Rogers is preparing for her first school year as Baltimore County returns to school on Monday.
She told WJZ she is excited to get the school year started.
Dr. Rogers addressed a number of topics that parents have voiced concerns about ahead of the school year.
The new county schools superintendent began her career in education as a chemistry teacher in 1996.
Dr. Rogers returned to Baltimore County in 2020 after working in educational administration for nearly two decades.
As the school year prepares to start next week, there will be more than 750 new teachers in classrooms, across the county.
Dr. Rogers says that BCPS is nearly 100 percent, saying there are just 200 vacancies remaining, as of the beginning of the week.
"For comparison, last year we opened the school year with over 380 vacancies, and the year before that, we were at about 306 vacancies," Dr. Rogers said.
School safety is a concern among many parents.
Dr. Rogers spoke about new technology that will be used in Baltimore County Public Schools this year that will alert authorities within seconds if any types of firearms are seen on school grounds.
"Some of what the research has shown is, in a lot of cases, when there have been horrific instances, every second and minute counts," she said. "You have people who are either frozen in the moment or people assume someone else has called 911. This system allows us to not make any assumptions about who has called, and it also allows us to connect to our emergency response professionals right away to support our students."
Dr. Rogers takes over as superintendent after Darryl Williams did not seek a new contract.
In a letter to the board of education last summer, members of the County Council of Baltimore County voiced their concerns about low teacher morale, disciplinary problems in schools and on buses and an overall declining in student achievement.
Those are all challenges Dr. Rogers says she is ready to face.
"I am confident in team BCPS's commitment and ability to move forward in a positive way," she said.
