by Tori Newby ‘22

A total of 17 staff members were informed in late February that they would not be returning to Sherwood next fall. For the 2022-2023 school year, Sherwood is losing three teachers each in the ESOL and Career and Technology Education (CTE) departments, two each in English, math, science, and counseling, and one each in music, social studies and special education.

The abnormally large number of teacher cuts is due in part to the decline in the student population at Sherwood. Five years ago, Sherwood had just under 2,000 students, and this year, the population is approximately 1,770 students, according to Principal Tim Britton. Next year’s projected enrollment is 1,775 students.

MCPS accounts for each school’s population size and gives principals the number of teachers allotted for the following school year. Which departments must lose teachers is based on course enrollment, and within those departments, the teachers with the least seniority in MCPS are involuntarily transferred to another school in the county.

“[I] feel very powerless … I’ve never seen this much of a drop in one year,” said Britton, who has been working as an assistant principal and principal for 22 years. “It’s unfortunate.”

The large number of teacher cuts is likely due to the increase in class sizes that the county is pushing for. This year, many class sizes have fewer than 25 students, according to Britton, and he noted that the county wants classes to have 30 to 32 students each next year. Classes at Sherwood will average 30 to 31 students next year.

The enrollment in electives also may impact the staffing cuts to a specific department; for example, if a particular department goes from offering 10 sections of elective courses one year to five the following year, that essentially represents one teacher in the department since teachers teach five periods per day. The effect of electives on staffing is particularly important in departments such as music, art, and CTE in which most or all of the offered classes are electives that students choose to take.

However, the number of offered electives for a school year also can have an impact on a large department like social studies. Students are required to obtain only three social studies credits to graduate, and the department is better able to maintain staffing if it attracts students to take its electives.

A contributor to the overall decline in Sherwood’s population are the changes to the ESOL program. Prior to the 2019-2020 school year, schools in the Northeast Consortium (NEC)–Blake, Springbrook, and Paint Branch–sent students to Sherwood for ESOL. However, according to ESOL resource teacher Laura Bernard-Sanchez, the NEC has since stopped sending new ESOL students to Sherwood in order to allow them to attend their home-base high school.

Students still in the program at the time are allowed to stay and graduate from Sherwood, so the Class of 2023 will be the last graduating class with ESOL students from the NEC. At the peak of the program around five years ago, Sherwood had 280 ESOL students, while this year it has 130, and that number will be 50 next school year.

English teacher Samantha Ager has been at Sherwood for ten years, but as one of two English teachers with the least seniority in MCPS, she will be involuntarily transferred next school year.

“You don’t want a principal to be able to cut whoever they want,” said Ager in regard to MCPS’s seniority-based policy. “But when you’re someone like me, [and] you’ve been here for as long as I have been, it kind of stings a little more.” Ager will be teaching at Quince Orchard next year.

Sherwood will undergo several other staffing changes for the 2022-2023 school year. Staff development teacher Anne Taylor is coming to Sherwood from Ridgeview Middle School to fill the staff development position, currently held by internship coordinator Catina Wist. The staff development job has shifted to a full-time position, so Wist will shift her full focus to internship and CTE students instead.

Resource counselor Elizabeth Giffen has decided to step down in her position as department head, and although she will remain in the counseling department, counselor Kelly Singleton will assume the position of resource counselor.

Similarly, world languages resource teacher John Falls is resigning from his leadership position. Music, which has been a part of the physical education department under resource teacher Marc Thomas’ leadership for several years, will be joined with the world languages department next year. Music teacher Johnathan Dunn will assume the position of resource teacher for the now-joint world languages and music department.