Montgomery County students greeted by marching band, poms team for first day

KENSINGTON, Md. ( DC News Now ) — Students across Montgomery County got a warm welcome as they entered their school doors for the first day of school.

Albert Einstein High School students were greeted with sounds from their marching band and performances from their poms’ team, while kids at Pine Crest Elementary had a block party getting kids pumped up for the first day.

It was an exciting moment not only for students but also for their parents.

“I’m really, really excited. I’m relieved. You know, it’s time we were ready,” said Abby Davis, mother of two elementary students.

A brand new school year also comes with some new faces within leadership like Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor .

“I’m thrilled as a superintendent to be here to welcome our students and get to know them a little bit better,” said Dr. Taylor.

Montgomery County Public Schools ( MCPS ) has had many safety challenges over the past years including several bomb threats, on-campus gun possession incidents and ongoing hate graffiti. Most recently anti-Semitic graffiti and other vandalism were found at four schools last Monday .

Taylor said safety is a top priority and they’re making some changes.

“We’ve increased the number of security assistance that are going to be on staff with us. We are revising a lot of practices, protocols and systems that we have in place to provide a little bit more continuity between our 211 schools,” said Taylor.

Academics is also a top priority for Taylor that he plans to improve.

“We need to remind everybody that school should be a great place, a happy place, an engaging place. I think that the bottom line is always going to be academic excellence and achievement. Montgomery County has the capacity for even more academic excellence and achievement. But we also want our kids to grow up to be great adults and that’s going to be a really important metric for us moving forward,” he added.

Albert Einstein Principal Mark Brown Jr. shared he’s very excited about the start of the year. He’s focusing on supporting the students, teachers and staff with everything they need to make the school year successful. With the new change in leadership, he says he’s optimistic.

“We had a lot of challenges last school year for me. I’m ready to move on and I think Dr. Taylor is ready for us to move on as well. So we’re just excited about that and following his leadership and his vision,” he said.

MCPS is introducing a new transportation hotline to help address any concerns for students and parents.

“In case there are delays or issues that people want to report to us. We want to make sure that somebody answers the phone and can be responsive to them,” said Dr. Taylor.

This school year the school system also filled all their positions for bus drivers and 99% of positions for teachers.

“I challenge our students to get engaged, to find something that they’re passionate about and to lean into those passions and join a club, join a sport, find an extracurricular activity to be involved in to support your learning in school,” said Dr. Taylor.

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