The first PTSA Community Connections meeting of the school year began with a State of the School address from Paint Branch’s new principal Dr. Rogers, who seized the opportunity to discuss her vision for the school as well as student expectations and new privileges given to the students for this school year.

Held on September 17^th at 7 p.m. the Community Connections meeting began with Larry Edmonds, the current PTSA President, asking everyone in attendance introduce themselves. With around 45 parents filling the Principal’s Team Room eager to hear about the policies for their children’s school, the introductions took a few minutes.

Dr. Rogers began the address by explaining her entry plan from when she started at Paint Branch in July. In her PowerPoint Presentation, Dr. Rogers listed the four foci of her entry plan: relationship building, study and reflect, explore and exploit, and share Paint Branch with the community. She noted that part of her plan included talking to staff, students, and parents to find out their hopes for this school year. One of the requests she heard from students was to extend open lunch to juniors. This privilege is now available to students who are academically eligible and have parent permission. Another request that she said came from the students was for students to be allowed to listen to music in between classes. This request was also granted as a new privilege to students as long as their music playing devices are put away before entering the classroom.

After addressing her initial vision for Paint Branch, Dr. Rogers also expressed her hopes for a change in the way classes are taught. “We are shifting the way we are teaching. The shift is from teaching to learning,” she said. Dr. Rogers went on to note that this shift is to encourage critical thinking and not just memorization of facts. Many parents nodded their heads in agreement with Dr. Rogers’ philosophy that it is important to develop critical thinking.

During her State of the School address, Dr. Rogers addressed rumors that had spread amongst the students during summer vacation about changes in school policy such as the dress code, which Dr. Rogers reassured parents has not changed. She clarified that the dress code is not specific to Paint Branch; it is the MCPS dress code. A couple of parents chuckled when Dr. Rogers said, “Underwear is not to be worn as outwear.”

According to Dr. Rogers, the only change that has been made to the cellphone policy is that the first time a cell phone is confiscated, students can pick it up at the end of the day.  After a second offense, the cellphone must be picked up by a parent at the end of the day.  This differs from last year when cellphones could be picked up by a parent only on Friday afternoon.

Ultimately, The PTSA Community Connections meeting achieved its purpose of connecting the parent community with Principal Dr. Rogers.  Parents had the opportunity to ask questions, meet other parents and, most importantly, find out important policies and procedures for their children’s school.