A New Year, a Great Many Changes

The additional pre-kindergarten classes have made the program available to all children who turn 4 by Sept. 1, who live within school district boundaries (or are homeless) and whose families meet state income guidelines.

Deasy has presented a plan to open dozens of small, specialized schools over several years; the school system is still determining how those schools would work. The schools would be part of an effort to improve academic performance, give parents choices in their children's education, lure students from private schools to the public school system and keep others from leaving or dropping out.

The schools would offer pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade education, and each would have no more than 300 to 400 students. Located in nontraditional settings or unused wings of schools, they would use a variety of education methods: single-sex instruction, language immersion, specialized courses in different fields.

This year, there also will be an intensified focus on middle school, viewed by educators as the critical link between the very different environments of elementary and high school. In June, Deasy presented a plan to have each of the county's 30 middle schools offer a "signature program" that would bolster academic rigor. Although some of the programs will be familiar -- such as the French immersion, Montessori method and fine arts programs -- others will be new, such as a mid-level International Baccalaureate program and lesser-known programs called Achievement Via Individual Determination and America's Choice.

Finally, the effects of Deasy's reorganization of high school education will begin to be seen this year. High schools thus far were distributed into five geographic regions along with the rest of the county's schools, but this year they will be in a group of their own called the "high school consortium," which will allow closer coordination among the schools.

Deasy's plan to have academies at each high school offering specialized programs -- in science, business, the arts and other fields -- is still in the works, but the expanded AP courses will be on offer starting Monday.

Although this school year will be marked by several differences, many things will remain the same. Deasy said the school system has followed a "massive internal checklist" to get prepared: The books are in, the bus routes have been tested, the teachers trained, and every cafeteria is ready to serve students.

"This is more of a stressful and busy time for us, just making sure that everything is ready to go," said John C. White, a school system spokesman. "But I think everybody's getting excited."