Say Good-Bye to Paint Branch High Before Old Building Is Demolished

MCPS built a 340,000-square-foot, $81 million building for Paint Branch High School. Students will move into the new building next school year.

June may be the start of the summer, but it's also a time for endings. With the end of the school year on June 12, Paint Branch High's 40-something year old building will be demolished. A new 340,000-square-foot, $81 million replacement is slated for completion this August.  Current and former students are invited to say good-bye to the old building this Saturday, June 10. It will be the last time anyone will be allowed inside the building and visitors will be able to take photos, visit old classrooms and lockers and purchase mementos.  The school will hold an auction for the two murals on the old building, both late 1980s nature-themed images to be sold to the highest bidder. Commemorative bricks and plaques will also be sold. All …

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Patti

3:23 pm on Sunday, June 10, 2012

The old facility will be torn down because the land occupied will be used for the ball fields and stadium for the school. During construction, all games have been played away, since there have been no fields for 2 years. It will be one more year before the fields are done, once the building is demolished. And, by the way, the building will not be torn down until later this summer once the …   more ›

Paint Branch Principal Wins Leadership Award

Jeanette Dixon was awarded the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award by the Washington Post.

Paint Branch Girls' Basketball Host Students From Congo

The Paint Branch Varsity Girls’ Basketball Team hosted a clinic with twenty student-athletes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on January 16th.

Paint Branch Basketball Teams Raise $3,500 For Cancer Research

Boys and girls basketball teams collected “coins for cancer.”

Each year, twice a year, students, parents and staff at Paint Branch High are encouraged to support cancer research, because, as Athletic Director Heather Podosek put it, “Cancer touches everybody’s lives, unfortunately.”  This spring’s fundraiser, a double-header girls and boys basketball game against Blake High, raised about $3,500 in student contributions and silent auction purchases, the highest amount in the four years since Podosek began the event. “For our teams, it was about ‘it’s more than a game,’” she told Patch. “It was about character education and it was about caring about something bigger than yourself. That’s something I feel very strongly about as an athletic director that we need to continually give those kind of aspects …

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Paint Branch HS Education Foundation Awards Grants

More than $2,000 given to enrich five groups at Paint Branch High School.

On Monday, Dec. 12, the Paint Branch High School Education Foundation awarded grants totaling $2,300 to five different PBHS groups. The groups’ interests range from music and fitness, to cooking, photography and reading. In a time where school budgets continue to shrink, organizations like the Paint Branch Foundation can have a significant impact on the student’s lives. The Paint Branch High School Educational Foundation, Inc. was founded in 2007 and has been raising funds to make the awarding of mini-grants and college scholarships possible. “We try to provide, within our limited budget, funding opportunities for our students and staff that are not typically covered by the regular school budget, said board member Patti Twigg. “Shrinking …

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Paint Branch Teacher Honored with Teaching Tolerance Award

Tracy Oliver-Gary one of Five National Award Winners.

Montgomery County Graduation Rate Tops State Average

Maryland is using a new formula to calculate high school success.

The state has implemented a new formula for determining graduation rates, and Montgomery County Public Schools has a higher percentage than the Maryland average, according to a report released Friday. Using the new formula, MCPS graduated 86.2 percent of its students, above the state average of 82 percent. Calvert County had the highest rate in the state, graduating 91.7 percent of its students under the new formula. "However you calculate the graduation rate, Montgomery County is doing well and is outperforming public schools across the state," Board of Education President Christopher Barclay said in a statement. "However, we will not be satisfied until every student in our schools is graduating on time and ready for college and the …

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Reports: Paint Branch Girls Volleyball Coach to Retire

Nicole Fithyan is leaving to spend time with her infant daughter.

The young volleyball players of Paint Branch High received a bit of shocking news this week, according to the Gazette. Seven-year coach Nicole Fithyan (nee Shields) will retire from coaching the team. Fithyan wants to spend more time with her infant daughter, Lily, born over the summer. “It’s hard and it’s emotional to stop coaching,” Fithyan told the newspaper. “I told the girls I believe in them 100 percent, but its now my time to spend time with Lily. I don’t get that back with her.” Diane Burns, the co-ed coach, will coach for the rest of the season. The girls volleyball team scored a win over Poolesville High on Tuesday.

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Photos: East County Schools Honored by Maryland PTA

The Paint Branch High community went home with three awards.

Four public schools in East Montgomery County were recognized for the combined efforts of staff and students at Maryland PTA's President’s Dinner and Awards Celebration.  Paint Branch High in Burtonsville went home with three honors. Principal Jeanette Dixon won Educator of the Year, an award that acknowledges faculty members who build relationships among parents, communities and schools.  Parent Don Hauprich won the Dad 4 PTA Award, which is given to an exemplary male member of the PTA. (Hauprich will serve as the school's PTA president during the 2011-12 school year.) Paint Branch also won a Membership Award for increasing participation by at least 10 members. Benjamin Banneker Middle, Greencastle Elementary and Jackson Road Elementary …

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Schools in East County Get a Face-Lift Over the Summer

Both Cannon Road Elementary and Paint Branch High will move into new buildings next year.

While Montgomery County students get a bit of rest during the hottest months of the year, construction crews are hard at work on their various campuses. At least four schools in East Montgomery County are getting a face-lift this summer, while two are about midway through construction of new buildings. Both Cannon Road Elementary in Colesville and Paint Branch High in Burtonsville will move into new buildings next year.  According to a spokesperson for HESS Construction + Engineering Services, the Gaithersburg-based company chosen to build both facilities, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is spending $18.6 million to construct an 83,377-square-foot campus for Cannon Road Elementary. Students were moved to a temporary building on Old…

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