MCPS District 3 Board of Education member Julie Yang visited WJ on Wednesday, Sept. 18 to meet and talk with students and staff and gain an understanding of daily activities and happenings in the school.
“I always want to know how things happen in the buildings, meet your new principal this year and also just check in, see how have things gone for the first few weeks of school,” Yang said. “One reason I come to schools is I want to see what is really working, evidence-based decision making.”
Yang, one of eight members on the MCPS Board of Education, was led on a tour of the school by Principal Nicole Morgan and members of the SGA and leadership class.
“When I go into classrooms, I am impressed to see how engaged people are, people are generally doing their tasks, engagement in learning,” Yang said.
Yang also mentioned observing lower cell phone usage among students and discussed how the Board is responding to the nationwide trend of cracking down on cell phones in classes.
“Right now there’s a lot of national attention, so I think this is gonna be an issue we are going to continue to discuss, engage with the students, parents and teachers to see,” Yang said.
Yang briefly observed different classrooms throughout the school including Symphonic Band, Piano, Honors Chinese, AP Psychology, Child Development, Algebra 1, AP African American Studies and The Pitch. In observing classes, Yang often asked teachers about dealing with the increase in class caps from last year’s budget, which happened after a $30 million budget shortfall in funding from the county.
Generally, Yang stated that in the future, she would oppose further increases to caps on classes, especially after observing a Chinese class with over 30 students and each student having only around a minute to practice speaking in front of the class.
Yang’s visit comes at a transitional time for MCPS as the district welcomes a new superintendent and changes to the school system. Since inaugurating Dr. Thomas Taylor in July, Yang stated that she was happy with Taylor and his vision for the future of MCPS.
“It has been really fantastic. In our meetings, I see he has a clear vision for our school system. The focus is very clear, so I’m very excited,” Yang said.
The Board next meets for a regular business meeting on Thursday, September 26.
“The number one priority, it has always been, is to make sure we can focus on learning,” Yang said.
