Thursday, August 28, 2008

Classes resumed Tuesday for more than 138,000 students and about 12,000 teachers in Montgomery County public schools.

School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast kicked off the year at Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, one of 10 middle schools entering a county-wide reform initiative this year. One result of the effort is a substantial increase in the number of classrooms with state-of-the-art technology designed to promote interactive learning between students and teachers.

Weast said an unexpected surge of primary-grade schoolchildren would probably push county-wide school enrollment to 1,200 or more beyond last year's total of 137,717 -- ending a five-year span of stagnating numbers.

Over the summer, school officials said, more than 4,400 teachers, administrators and support professionals received a total of 32,000 hours of training. The system's 650 new teachers received a weeklong orientation this month, and 60 new bus operators were trained to be ready for the first day of school.