Baltimore County schools superintendent shares progress on safety, test scores and absenteeism

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Myriam Rogers says the district is progressing when it comes to safety, test scores and absenteeism.

However, she said there's still work to be done.

A month into the school year, Rogers and her staff are executing their plan to bolster the quality of education for Baltimore County students.

"We've been very pleased to see rigorous teaching across all content areas right from the very first day of school, highly engaged students, as well as enthusiastic leaders across schools and offices," Rogers said.

Addressing school safety

With school shootings, threats and fights on the rise this school year, including one in neighboring Harford County at Joppatowne High School, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski has put more than $800 million into helping Baltimore County Public Schools invest in better security infrastructure, more School Resource Officers and resources to care for students' mental health.

"My heart continues to go out to all of those who were impacted by the Joppatowne High School shooting, but it was a reminder that we need to be ever vigilant about supporting our staff members and parents and families and students," Olszewski said.

Rogers invited the community to what she calls a solution-oriented conversation around school safety at 6 p.m. Thursday at Catonsville High School. 

"For our schools, the technology that we're leveraging is omni-alert," Rogers said. "That's the AI overlaid on every single one of our cameras inside of school buildings as well as outside the school building and that's 24/7 365 days a year." 

Tests and absenteeism improvements

Baltimore County Public Schools has had the greatest improvement in the state at reducing chronic absenteeism and getting students into the classroom consistently. 

Rogers said the new MCAP test data results have shown significant improvement.

"For the first time in over a decade, BCPS students made gains on 13 of 16 English and math state assessment data points," Rogers said.

Bus camera safety program   

Baltimore County school leaders said that since August 26, more than 3,400 warnings have been sent to drivers who don't stop for school buses, which averages out to 160 drivers a day. 

After the warning period ends on Thursday, if drivers are caught not stopping for school buses, they will be on the hook for a $250 fine.