Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Yarbrough discusses transition report

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore County Schools Superintendent, Dr. Myriam Yarbrough, spoke Tuesday morning to give an update on the school year so far and discuss her transition team's final report. 

Succeeding Dr. Darryl Williams, Superintendent Yarbrough was appointed in June.  She previously served as BCPS Deputy Superintendent. 

Baltimore County public schools say they've seen modest progress in student test scores as they look to improve student success across the district.

In July, Yarbrough said improving academic achievement and preparing students for college were among her goals for the school year.

With a tight budget in mind - Yarbrough also focused on student testing with 'MCAP' where she highlighted modest progress in English Language Arts, but less progress than they would like to see in math at some schools in the district.

Yarbrough's goal is to create one standard of success.  

"We do see some schools that we want to have conversations with their leaders and leadership teams and their teachers to find out what some of those promising practices were," Yarbrough said.    

On Tuesday, she said that the district has made gains in English Language Arts (ELA) with the implementation of a new language arts curriculum, HMH into Reading.  

Yarbrough also discussed school safety.  

"For us, we have started off the school year making sure that we have communicated to everyone what our expectations are," Yarbrough said.

Those expectations are clearly laid out in an updated code of conduct that responds to documented incidents at Baltimore County schools over the last two years. 

Rogers also acknowledges the district-wide use of an artificial intelligence weapons detection system, Omni Alert, to prevent shootings of any kind on school grounds.

"Every second counts, so this decreases those seconds to make sure that we are in communication with emergency personnel right away, and it also follows camera by camera, so that when or if, hopefully we never have this, emergency personnel will respond, it will tell you where the emergency is exactly," Yarbrough explained.

The deployment of Omni Alert has started in high schools and will eventually be rolled out to middle and elementary schools.

You can view the full Transition Team report here.