Monday, June 23, 2025

Summer Food Service Program begins today

To reach as many children (ages 2-18) as possible, the Summer Food Service program, managed by the BCPS Office of Food and Nutrition Services, offers several ways to access free summer meals Monday, June 23 – Friday, August 15.

• Summer Meals TO-GO: Families can register to pick up summer meals at Carroll Manor or Kingsville elementary schools or Hereford High School. Each week, registered families can pick up boxes containing five breakfast meals and five lunches per child. 

• Organized program sites: Summer programs (including camps, day cares, sports teams, and religious groups) can register to have free breakfast and/or lunch meals delivered to their sites in Baltimore County. Last year more than 300 programs participated. Registration is required, and participating programs must serve at least 25 children per day. 

• Baltimore County Public Library branches: Sixteen branches of Baltimore County Public Library will serve free lunches each weekday. These meals must be eaten on site. The list of participating branches and their mealtimes is listed online.  

• BCPS Summer School: All students attending summer school will receive free breakfast and lunch each day. No registration is required for these meals. Summer school will take place from July 7-31, Monday through Thursday.

BCPS holds 28th Annual Safe Schools Conference

The 28th Annual Safe Schools Conference was held on June 17 at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology. More than 500 administrative, athletic directors, and support staff participated. The theme of this year's conference was “Safety Starts Here, Success Follows,” and the keynote speaker was Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler of the Harford County Sheriff’s Department.

In addition to several BCPS staff members, speakers included Scott Shellenberger, State’s Attorney for Baltimore County; Captain Brian Edwards, Lieutenant Kathryn Greenbeck, and Sergeant Alexandra Crabbs of the Baltimore County Police Department’s (BCPD) Behavioral Threat Assessment Team; Detective Christopher Hodnicki, BCPD Criminal Intelligence-Homeland Security; Chief David Bycoffe, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Baltimore County government; Stephanie Gonzalez, human trafficking program manager, and Tania Araya, director of programs, TurnAround, Inc.; and Tonya Green-Pyles, harm reduction program manager, Baltimore County Health Department.

More photos of the event can be found on Flickr.

Video and photos capture the excitement, reflection of the end of the school year

A new video captures the end of the school year at Windsor Mill Middle School and Woodbridge Elementary School. Several photos from the last day of school can also be found on Flickr.

Villa Cresta Elementary sends students home with books for summer reading

WMAR-TV recently aired a news story about the annual Summer Book Shop at Villa Cresta Elementary School. Using more than 5,000 books donated from the Maryland Book Bank and local families, library media specialist Jennifer Hartman transforms the school library into a bookshop. Each of Villa Cresta's 600 students selected up to five books to take home for the summer or to keep forever.

Daylan Jones and Stephen Jones

BCPS-TV team wins local Emmy Award

BCPS-TV producer/editor Daylan Jones and videographer Stephen Jones earned a local Emmy Award in the Education/Schools – News category for "Why I Teach – Abigail Karey."

The 67th Emmy Awards/National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter awards presentation took place on June 21.

Each week this summer, colleagues in the Baltimore County Public Library Collection Department will put together a list of some of their favorite book recommendations. The recommendations will be shared on the BCPS website, blog, and social media. The blog post is available in English and Spanish.



Please remember to stop by your local library branch to participate in the summer reading program, have them put together a Be Surprised Bundle for you, and take part in their many activities.

Everyone belongs in Team BCPS!

Southwest Academy invites students to stay in touch over the summer

Southwest Academy Magnet School for Science and Engineering has invited its students to take home a "Lucky Duck" for the summer and then to post on social media or email to the school photos of their summer activities. The photos will be posted in a Flickr album.

Every summer since 2018, BCPS has invited its students, teachers, and staff to share stories about their summer activities and adventures on the BCPS blog. The invitation to contribute to the Summer Stories series is extended again this year. To submit a blog post or suggest a story idea, please write to communications@bcps.org. We want to know about your summer jobs/internships/externships, vacations, creative projects, competitions, camps, and more!

Talkspace support for high school students fully accessible through the summer

As summer begins, BCPS wants to remind parents that Talkspace support remains fully accessible — anytime, anywhere for BCPS high school students.

Talkspace Go is an especially great resource during the summer. It offers self-guided support on topics like managing stress, navigating friendships, setting boundaries, and improving sleep or motivation, all through expert-created videos, journal prompts, and learning paths. Students can log in anytime via their phone, tablet, or computer and get help on their own terms.

for your viewing pleasure

"New Human" by Bradley Guevara, George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, is featured in the 37th Annual High School Art Exhibition, on display at The StarTUp at Towson University through Monday, June 30. This artwork was named 1st place in the awards sponsored by Azrael, Franz, Schwab, Lipowitz & Solter, LLC; and 3rd place in the James B. Laubheimer & Henry Jones BCPS Scholarship Awards.

Excerpt from artist statement:

Interesting Roman ideology as if technology was given to their period, similar behaviors would become identical to those of today's human. Cell phones direct faces downwards to compositionally devote an intense influence to old master copies mocking a modern life; a distracting real world is preoccupied with an attached social platform as the "modern day Roman." Clay works and cardboard as raw materials to convert geometric features to technological conveniences: game consoles and charger cords as a physical attribute to the human body; clenched and held on for bare life, with distinction of a lost phone terrorizes the man felt unguarded. A reliance over a practical purpose.

mission moment

from The Education Foundation of BCPS

The 11th Annual Clean Green 15: Litter Challenge Celebration

A new Mission Moment blog post described the 11th Annual Clean Green 15: Litter Challenge closing ceremony held on June 12. The event was hosted by The Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools, Inc., in partnership with the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability and the Baltimore Community Foundation,

During the ceremony, $42,000 in grants were awarded to participating schools. The blog post lists the many schools that were honored and more photos from the event can be found on Flickr.

Upcoming Board and community advisory group meetings

All are welcome to attend

Board of Education meeting

Tuesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m.

Microsoft Teams

This special virtual meeting is being held to discuss personnel matters only.

Board of Education meeting

Tuesday, July 8, at 6:30 p.m.

BCPS headquarters/Greenwood, 6901 N. Charles St., Building E, Towson 21204