From saving on school supplies to the impact of federal cuts, the WTOP team is studying up on hot-button topics in education across the D.C. region. Follow on air and online in our series, “WTOP Goes Back to School” this August and September.
Allegany County Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano’s first day on the job was July 1.
For any superintendent, that’s a tight turnaround before the first day of school on Aug. 27, but Martirano had a particularly big job ahead in his western Maryland school district.
Martirano took on his new job months after catastrophic flooding struck Allegany County in May.
On the day the flooding hit, Westernport Elementary School’s first floor was inundated, and 150 students and 50 staff members had to retreat to the second floor. They were eventually evacuated from the building by boat.
One of the questions that arose as the new school year approached was whether Westernport Elementary would be ready to reopen for the first day of school.
“There’s a real, real tight-knit sense of community there, and the school is the hub of all the activities,” Martirano said.
It quickly became apparent, he told WTOP, that the community “wanted us to do everything that we could to open the school.” So, they will be holding classes on the top floors of the building as renovations continue.
The idea ahead of the first day of school was “to lead with love, care and compassion for our students who have been traumatized based upon the fact of being in the building that flooded, and they had to be removed by boat,” Martirano said.
He also said the teachers were deeply affected.
There is also an awareness of the need to address any anxiety staff or students across the school district may be feeling.
“If the child has issues outside the classroom, we want to be able to identify those and mitigate them as early as we can,” Martirano said. “We have our counselors, we have pupil personnel workers, we have psychologists, we have designated teams at each one of our schools to be responsive.”
Beyond the flood damage to Westernport Elementary School, Martirano said the school system is also looking to support teachers with materials for classes. He said members of the community have “really stepped up” to pitch on school supplies and other needs.
Every school has its own traditions when it comes to first day ceremonies. This year, the Frostburg State University’s mascot, the bobcat, is greeting the students at Westernport Elementary School.
Martirano explained that after the floods in May, the students were able to close out their school year on the Frostburg State University campus. So to have the bobcat visit on the first day of school makes the day “a real celebration,” Martirano said.
“The kids got to meet the bobcat in the spring, and they loved having him there, and so we just wanted to bring that back to them again this year,” Nicole McDonald, FSU’s assistant vice president for marketing and communications, said.
Asked if the mascot was available for an interview, McDonald politely explained, “The bobcat doesn’t talk.”
But she did say Bob E. Cat, as he is known on campus, is the embodiment of school and community pride and “just our genuine feeling of being a Bobcat at Frostburg.”
The link between the Allegany Public Schools and FSU is strong, Martirano said, in part due to the university’s history as a training ground for future teachers.
“Many of our young people are homegrown,” he said. “They graduate from high school here … obtain their teaching degree, do their student-teaching within our schools, and that creates a real pipeline for us.”
Martirano is part of that history: He grew up in Frostburg, graduating from Beall High School. He went on to serve as a superintendent in school systems in St. Mary’s and Howard counties and served as the state superintendent in West Virginia as well.
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