Clarksburg High School (Maryland)

Clarksburg High School is a public high school located at 22500 Wims Road in Clarksburg, an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system, Maryland's largest public school system.

Feeder patterns

Rocky Hill MS (6-8) (shared with Damascus High)*

Cedar Grove ES (K-5)*

Little Bennett ES (K-5)

Clarksburg ES (K-5)

Gibbs ES (K-5)

Wilson Wims ES (K-5)

Neelsville MS (6-8) (shared with Watkins Mill High)*

Fox Chapel ES (K-5)

Daly ES (K-5)

Stedwick ES (K-5)

Enrollment

Increasing enrollment forced Clarksburg to install four portable classrooms for the 2008–2009 school year. These portables house two English teachers and two math teachers. The first four portables are located on a parking lot, outside of the main gymnasium, near the back athletic fields. Four more portables were installed for the 2010–2011 school year. These next three classrooms were installed atop two blacktops paved for basketball near the student parking lot (on the opposite side of the school as the initial relocatable classrooms). The social studies department currently occupies these second round of portable classrooms. More recently, for the 2011-2012 school year, Clarksburg was forced to install two more portables, overtaking yet another blacktop. These newest portables house two additional English teachers. The Art, Science, and Technology departments cannot be relocated to the portables due to specialized lab equipment in their classrooms. Subjects currently being taught in relocatable classrooms are geared more towards upperclassmen, including AP Calculus, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, Law, and AP Literature.

Name

Clarksburg High School is the name that the MCPS Board of Education announced for the "Clarksburg area school" after a recommendation from the school's PTSA. The name won out over the following:

• Wilson Wims High School - a tribute to the founder of the Clarksburg community
• John G. Clark High School - a tribute to the Harvard psychiatrist
• Sandra Day O'Connor High School - a tribute to the Supreme Court Justice

Faculty

A list of teachers and staff can be found, along with e-mail addresses, at the Clarksburg HS School-o-dex Staff Directory Page. Clarksburg currently classifies its staff into the following departments: Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, Technology, English, Foreign Languages, Health & Physical Education, and Music & Art.

Each year the students nominate and staff select a handful of teachers to receive the PTSA "Leader of the Pack in Education" Award. Previous winners include:
2008: Mr. James P. Koutsos, Founding Principal; Mrs. Catherine Ulicny, AP Biology Teacher; Mrs. Sally Kelley, Administrative Secretary
2009: Mrs. Jacqueline Bragg, AP Biology Teacher; Mr. Michael Oakes, AP Language Teacher; Mr. Rob Burke, AP History Teacher
2010: Mr. Mark Bowie, AP Calculus Teacher
2011:
2012: Ms. Sarah Costlow, Signature Program Coordinator

Students

Clarksburg has a diverse student population, with students from many cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Many Clarksburg graduates go on to renowned post-secondary schools, including The University of Maryland, College Park; The University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Yale University; New York University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Cornell University; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; The University of Michigan; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; The University of Pennsylvania; Williams College; Princeton University; Georgetown University; University of California, Berkeley; and Harvard University;.

The student body of 2014-2015 was 24.3% Non-Hispanic White, 17.8% Asian, 28% African American, 25.6% Hispanic/Latino, less than 5% American Indian, less than 5% Pacific Islander, and less than 5% of Mixed Race.^[1]

School Day

The Clarksburg High School instructional day runs from the Warning Bell at 7:40, the Class Bell at 7:45, and the Dismissal Bell at 2:30. Classes run approximately 47 minutes on an average day with 5 minute transition time. A complete bell schedule can be found here (PDF)

Lunch

The typical lunch period for students runs about 34 minutes. Students are not allowed to leave the campus during lunch, nor are they permitted to visit cars without a pass. While many students eat in the Cafe, students may also eat in the hallways or in supervised classrooms. While not a place to eat, students are also allowed to spend their time in the media center or computer labs.

Graduation

Clarksburg High School seniors have graduated at the Knott Auditorium on the campus of Mount Saint Mary's University since the school's opening. This differs from most MCPS schools, which hold their graduation at DAR Constitution Hall. For the first six years, students selected school staff as their graduation speakers: Mr. Lannie Seymour (AP World History Teacher), Mrs. Jacqueline Bragg (AP Biology Teacher), Mr. Michael Oakes (AP Language Teacher), Mr. Jeremy Spoales (Sociology Teacher), Mrs. Kate Ulicny (AP Biology Teacher), Mr. Jeffrey Sullivan (Athletic Director) respectively. The administration and senior graduation coordinators have announced to the senior class that they wish to keep a staff speaker for the coming years due to budgetary constraints with bringing in outside speakers.

Web Site

The Clarksburg High School web site is housed on the Montgomery County Public Schools web server called the 'MCPSWeb' and is maintained by the school's student web team as well as by teacher sponsors and webmasters Sarah Costlow and Stephen Sell. Its URL is http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/clarksburghs and can be accessed via http://www.chsmd.org.

Athletics

Soccer

The boys' soccer team, coached by Jeremiah Spoales, won the state championship for the 2009 season. The girls' soccer team is coached by English teacher Christina Mann,^[2] a former Montgomery County standout soccer player who went on to play Division I NCAA women's soccer at North Carolina State University.

Track and field

The 2006–2007 outdoor track and field team had a very successful season with the boys ending with 4 wins and 1 loss for the regular season and the girls' team ending their regular season with 3 wins and 2 losses. It also sent many athletes to the Maryland State Championships despite the lack of a senior class. The 2007–2008 outdoor track and field team had another very successful season with the boys ending with 6 wins and 0 losses for the regular season and the girls team ending their regular season with 6 wins and 0 losses. The 2008-2009 boys indoor track team finished second in both the Montgomery County Championship and the 2A Region Championship. The 2008–2009 outdoor track team ended the year with an undefeated 6-0 record once again. Both the boys and the girls won the division. In the County Championship, the boys placed second while the girls placed third. The boys won the 2A West Region while the girls placed second. In the state competition, the boys finished first and became the school's first-ever state championship team. The 2010-2011 girls indoor track team took third at the county championship, and second at the 3A West championship. The 2010-2011 girls took second at the 3A West Championship while the boys finished third. The 2014-2015 girls indoor track team took first place in the county, 4A West championship, and 4A State championship meets. The 2015 girls outdoor track took also took first place in the county, 4A West championship, and 4A State championship meets.

Cross country

In the 2007–2008 cross country season the boys' and girls' teams became Division III Champions with records of 5-0.

Field hockey

While scoring goals has been a problem for Clarksburg the past few seasons, the Coyotes have been known for their stingy defense—not this year. The Coyotes scored eleven in their first five games led by junior Katie Bertrand (forward/midfielder) with five goals and five assists. Among the top scorers in the county, Katie scored four goals and had three assists closing out the final game in September, earning Athlete of the Week honors at Clarksburg and receiving Honorable Mention. "Katie Bertrand is one of my most experienced players," says Head Coach Sissy Natoli. On the first real crisp, cool day of fall, Bertand finished off the game, scoring with a late goal on September 29 as Clarksburg won its second in a row, defeating Watkins Mill, 4-0, at the Coyote Canyon. In that game, Olivia Pond had the game’s first goals Herietta Lee also scored in the first half. Pond and Bertrand had second half goals. The match at Wooton gave the Coyotes their first win of the year. They defeated the Patriots, a state semi-finalist last year, with just a few minutes in the second overtime. Zeona Walker-Latney, a junior forward/midfielder, scored both goals with assists from Bertrand and Anna Hackett, another junior forward/midfielder. "We have been playing good hockey but couldn’t seem to pull out a win, so it was a great effort by my kids, stepping it up and pushing for our first win," said a patient Coach Natoli.

Activities

APPS program

One of the new programs that has been established is the APPS Program, which stands for Advanced Placement Power Scholars Program. Members are required to take a certain amount of Advanced Placement classes, even 9th grade members. This program was modeled after Walter Johnson High School's APEX Program. By the end of a member's graduating year, they will have fulfilled an amount of at least 6 AP classes and taken the respective exam distributed by the college board for each class. The sponsor of the group is Signature Program Coordinator Sarah Costlow. The standard pathways of AP Classes include:
Social Studies: Government, US (9) → History, US (10) → History, World (11) → Psychology / History, European (12)
Science: Biology/Physics (11/12) → Chemistry (12)
English: Language (11) → Literature (12)
Math: Statistics & Calculus AB/BC (11→12)

The Program most often includes a Capstone Project, in which students design and test experiments dealing with issues important or interesting to them or their group.

The Advanced Placement courses offered at Clarksburg includes: Language, Literature, Government, US History, World History, European History, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Science, Computer Science, Calculus AB/BC, Statistics, Studio Art, Music Theory, & Spanish

CHStage

CHStage is the award winning drama department at Clarksburg High School under the direction of Mrs. Michelle Meyer. Two shows, at least one a musical, are produced each year and have included Tarzan, Once Upon A Mattress, The Little Princess and in the 2015-16 school year, Honk, and The Little Mermaid. Each year CHStage attends theater festivals throughout Maryland, and has won awards at every festival they have attended since 2008.

Honor Societies

Clarksburg offers students the chance to participate in the National Honor Society (NHS), Science National Honor Society, Spanish National Honor Society, Tri-M Music Honor Society, International Thespian Society, and the National Art Honor Society.

The Howl

The Howl, Clarksburg High School's student-run newspaper, is produced by a small but growing group of student writers and editors. The paper comes out with an average of six issues per year.

InvenTeam

The Clarksburg High School InvenTeam is one of 16 high school teams in the nation to receive grant funding from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The team presented its TorchCord invention at the March Madness for the Mind event in the National Museum of American History, part of the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance's 13th annual meeting in Washington, DC. The team also traveled to MIT for the Lemelson-MIT EurekaFest event in 2009 inventing a pressure-sensitive illuminated computer cable. Sarah Debelius Costlow, Signature Program Coordinator and Paul Koda, Science Teacher sponsored the team.^[3]

Marching band

The Clarksburg High School Marching Band, with 65 members, made a trip to Shanghai, China to perform in a parade for the Shanghai Tourism Festival at the beginning of the 2009–2010 school year, under the direction of Mr. Charles 'Chuck' Orifici.

References

External links

• The Paper's Website