Panther Parents and Guardians

Welcome to the 2022-2023 schoolyear!!! The Pikesville staff hope you had a fun and relaxing summer with family and friends and are ready for a great year. We had a great first week welcoming the class of 2026 and reconnecting to our returning Panthers. Pikesville is fortunate to be fully staffed with teachers who are excited for the new schoolyear and ready to continue the tradition of Pride. Honor. Success. This year we welcome two new assistant principals- Dr. Otis Lee and Ms. Cheryl Scott. Both come to Pikesville with many years of teaching and leadership experience and are looking forward to developing strong relationships with the staff, students, and the community. Pikesville also welcomes Mr. Bradly and Ms. Ward to Pikesville as our new Panther Student Advisors. Both will serve as student mentors and assist students in making the transition to high school and navigating the terrain of being a teenager in 2022. Our students have been through a lot of change and uncertainty over the last three years. Having extra support in the building to assist in forming connections will make our school even stronger. We are excited to announce that we are expanding on our Pride. Honor. Success program this year. Pride equates to demonstrating behaviors that demonstrate pride in yourself and the school. Students will be recognized and celebrated throughout the year for demonstrating strong character in and outside the classroom. Helping fellow students with classwork, opening a door, forgiving a transgression, or just being kind, all need to be recognized and celebrated throughout the school. Honor is demonstrated through actions and service that make PHS a better school for all. This can be starting new clubs or initiating programs to support various student groups. Students may also come together to support our community in need, through food drives or holiday gift giving. Success is demonstrated in the classroom. Students demonstrate success through hard work academically. Students who continually work hard in the classroom, show up everyday on time, and persevere through academic struggle, will be celebrated throughout the year and recognized for their hard work. This will include student of the month winners by every PHS teacher and monthly celebration and recognition ceremonies. All three components of our Pride. Honor. Success program center on celebrating our students and growing our student’s leadership potential. We are also excited about our new Panther Senior Leader Program. This program provides seniors with leadership attributes an opportunity to assist underclassmen both academically and socially and serve as role models for the school. Look for their bright neon orange shirts throughout the building.

I feel very fortunate to be a member of the Pikesville High School community. This is a special place to be an educator and learner. The staff and leadership team appreciate the partnership we have with our parents and community and pledge to provide the support, encouragement, and resources for all students to demonstrate Pride. Honor. Success.

Panther Back To School Night- Thursday September 8th at 7:00 PM.

Please get involved- join our Panther PTSA and Panther Booster Clubs!

Eric

Dr. Otis Lee - AP

Ms. Cheryl Scott - AP

Lauren Gill - ELA

Conor Mulville - ELA

Marissa Clayton - WL

Alane Somlare - WL

Desvan Moddy - SC

James Simms - PE

Zoe Waddle - PE

Erika Nix - SC

Nick Anderson - STEM

Iliza Bartkowski - SP Chair

Isabelle Wheeler - SP

Abbey Monreal - VPA

Michael Bradley - SSA

Shannon Ward - SSA

I would love to welcome Ms. Marissa Clayton and Mr. Alain Somlaré to the Pikesville High School World Language Department. Ms. Clayton joins us from Perry Hall Middle, where she spent 7 years teaching Spanish Novice A to 6th grade students. This year she is teaching Spanish 1 and Spanish 3 - Language and Culture. Mr. Somlaré is brand new to BCPS, joining us by way of New York from his home country of Burkina Faso, West Africa where he taught French to middle and high school students. We are very excited to add their skills and experience to our team! Ms. Odar

Mr. Nick Anderson comes to us by way of Patterson High School. Mr. Anderson taught an array of Business classes at Patterson High from 2019 until this year. He is taking over three Foundations of Computer Science courses at Pikesville in addition to three Business courses.

We are happy to announce two new teachers to Pikesville High School will be joining the department for the 2002-23 School Year. We will share Ms. Lauren Gill with ELA and she will be teaching Theater Arts and leading the Drama Program. Ms. Gill is an alumnus of Pikesville High School and comes to us from Catonsville High School. Ms. Abbey Monreal comes to us from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where she finished her student teaching this past semester. Ms. Monreal will be teaching Chorus and Class Piano. In addition to her teaching credentials, she is also a composer/arranger. Her works are featured on her website: https://abbeymonreal.wixsite.com/composer/compositions. We are excited to add these two talented educators to the Visual and Performing Arts Department!

Ms. Zoe Waddell is a first year teacher! Zoe graduated from Loch Haven University of Pennsylvania in the Spring of 2022. Zoe has experience playing and coaching multiple sports. Zoe's "why" for teaching is that she wants to help students acquire accurate knowledge that will benefit them for life.

Mr. James Simms has taught in BCPS for 23 years. James has taught at several schools but most recently at Meadowood Education Center. James has coached multiple sports including numerous awards for track and field! James' "why" for teaching is that "it's all about the kids!" He enjoys being able to relate to the high school student and athlete.

Ms. Erika Nix​​​ joined the Science Department this summer after working 18 years for the Maryland Department of the Agriculture. She will be teaching Living Systems and Integrated Physics and Chemistry classes this year. We are excited to her her here at Pikesville and she is really looking forward to working with our students.

Ms. Isabelle Wheeler (Teletor) has officially joined the Pikesville staff; last year she filled a crucial need in World Languages as a long-term sub. This year she will be teaching our special education science classes. She is very excited to work with our special education students and share her love of science with them.

The Homecoming Dance will be held on Saturday, October 1, 2022, from 7pm-10pm.

Tickets will go on sale in the middle of September and are limited and on a first come, first served basis. They can be purchased using the online TicketSpicket app, so make sure to download that ahead of time. They will be ten dollars.

Outside guest forms are available in the main office and are due by the close of business September 23, 2022.

Any questions should be directed to one of the Student Council Advisors, Mr. Goodman (egoodman@bcps.org) or Mrs. Johnson (hjohnson4@bcps.org)

For the 2022-23 school year, through a partnership with the College Board, Baltimore County Public Schools will provide free PSAT and SAT tests to select grades on specific dates.

· The PSAT/NMSQT will be offered free of charge to all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders on Wednesday October 12, 2019. The test administration will occur in school on October 16th. No make-up exams will be offered if a student misses this test day.

o Calculators will only be provided to the 11th graders; students in grades 9 & 10 may bring in their own calculators for use on the PSAT test.

· The SAT test will be offered to free of charge to all 11th graders in school on April 25, 2023. No make-up exams will be offered if a student misses this test day.

Test prep for these assessments are available through a number of sites. The College Board and Khan Academy have developed a partnership to give personalized help based on past test results. Please take advantage of these FREE test prep options (click on the links below).

· CollegeBoard

· Khan Academy

· Kaplan

Weekend Test Administrations

Pikesville does not host weekend test administrations, students are encouraged to test at other local test centers for the weekend test administrations.

· SAT Test Center Search

· ACT Test Center Locator

The SAT Test

Here are a list of weekend SAT Test dates (students must register online for these test administrations).

The ACT Test

Here are a list of weekend ACT Test dates (students must register online for these test administrations).

· Free online ACT Test Prep (click on the link).

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me, efilosa@bcps.org

Gerard Filosa

SAT Coordinator

Dear Pikesville Families,

My name is Christal Higgins, and I am the proud new AVID coordinator. I am so excited to serve the Pikesville community in this capacity.

Pikesville High School offers a premiere four-year college preparatory course, Advancement Via Individual Determination, AVID, to students in the academic middle. AVID is an international nonprofit that prepares students for admission to four-year colleges and universities. Students take an AVID elective course during the regular school day throughout all four years of high school that provides them with the skills needed to be successful in advancing academically with the goal of attending college. For more than 35 years AVID has been instrumental in preparing students for success in higher education.

The core component of the AVID Program is the AVID elective class, which supports students as they challenge themselves in more rigorous classes. Students are taught study skills, note taking, time management, writing and research skills, while being immersed in a college-going culture. The class also includes tutoring sessions that are led by upper classmen and college students and provides support for success in the academically rigorous curriculum. Additionally, the AVID class provides access to information about colleges and universities through field trips, guest speakers, college tutors, scholarship opportunities, and college admission requirement information.

Pikesville High School AVID has been a highly certified AVID site since 2003 and as of 2019 one of only two AVID National Demonstration Schools in Maryland. The PHS AVID class of 2022 earned over $4 million in scholarships and grants. 100% of PHS AVID scholars in the class of 2017 were accepted to four-year colleges and universities.

AVID recruits’ students who are motivated to do well and who are serious about their academic future. Whether your child participated in AVID or not in middle school, we invite him/her to apply online at https://forms.gle/1fp2iiGH5sqG5woL8.

Application process:

● Apply online

● Interview via GoogleMeet

● Decisions sent home

All information shared on this form will be used for recruitment and selection of AVID students and will be held confidential. If you have additional questions, please contact me at cwhittington@bcps.org.

DURING CLASS:

You must get a pass from your teacher from that period and then give me your pass and sign in when you arrive. (These will be rare instances determined by your teacher!)

DURING LUNCH:

If you do not want to eat in the cafeteria first, you can just come to the library and sign in. If you want to eat in the cafeteria first or get lunch from there, you will need a pass. You can see Mrs. Meltzer at the start of lunch to get the pass. Then, sign in when you get here. Please make sure it’s your lunch period :) Violators of this will not be able to use the library during lunch. EATING IN THE LIBRARY WILL ONLY BE ALLOWED IF IT IS NOT A PROBLEM- MEANING NO TRASH AND CRUMBS LEFT BEHIND. Only the 1st 20 students will be admitted in for each lunch. The arrival time cut off times for each lunch are:

A lunch: 10:55

B lunch: 11:45

C lunch: 12:30

Before and After School: Every morning at 7:00 (provided the student got a pass the day before from Mrs. Meltzer) Every Thursday from 2:30-3:30 (except for 1st Thursdays)

It’s been a busy 1st week in the library! Here’s library usage statistics from the 1st 4 days:

281 student check-ins! (mostly during lunch) 36 books have been checked out in the 1st 4 days! See full report here 8 eBook/audiobooks have been checked out!

Our first Sit for Lit is Friday September 9th during 1A. Sit for Lit is 20 minutes twice a month when students can self-select reading material and read! We know independent reading time is crucial is developing strong readers and life-long learners. Students can bring in a book from home, a library book, choose an eBook or audiobook from our online catalog or choose to get caught up on current

events. Our full Sit for Lit calendar is posted below. Please remind your students to be prepared to read on these days!

For any questions, please message jmeltzer@bcps.org

It is time to make it official! Schedule your 2023 Formal Yearbook picture NOW. Appointments are now available for your senior picture dates.

The sample appointment card attached has available dates and times as well as the sitting fee pricing information. CLICK THIS LINK https://prestigeportraits.com

We look forward to seeing you at your appointment!

The Pikesville Pawdcast is excited for its third season. If you have a student who loves to talk and is interested in journalism, audio production, and broadcasting, this could be the club to join. If you have any questions about it, contact Mr. Smith (gsmith6@bcps.org) or Mr. Goodman (egoodman@bcps.org) Don't forget to check out our previous seasons anywhere you listen to podcasts.