The Mary E. Moss Academy program will relocate from its location in Crownsville to space in the J. Albert Adams Academy building in Annapolis for the 2015-2016 school year, Superintendent George Arlotto announced today.
The move will be accompanied by a renewed instructional focus for students in the Mary Moss program and at J. Albert Adams. The curriculum will focus around project-based learning with elements of the highly successful Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program heavily infused throughout all courses.
Mary Moss serves approximately 80 ninth-graders from throughout the county who benefit from an alternative educational setting. It operates in a leased building on the grounds of the former Crownsville State Hospital. The J. Albert Adams Academy serves about the same number of students in grades 6 through 8.
“We believe this approach will accomplish a number of things that will greatly benefit students,” Dr. Arlotto said. “First and foremost, it will provide students with an invigorating and exciting program of study that will contain elements of the AVID program from which so many children across our county benefit. Secondly, the relocation of Mary Moss will allow our ninth-graders enrolled in the program there to take advantage of more amenities, such as a gymnasium, than they are able to in their current building. All of this is designed to excite and energize students, enabling them to achieve greater academic success.”
Wendy Slaughter, currently principal at Mary Moss, will continue to oversee that program and also assume the role of principal at J. Albert Adams. Current J. Albert Adams Principal Shawn Ashworth will be reassigned to another comparable position in the school system, to be determined as vacancies occur.
Staff members at Mary Moss and J. Albert Adams will be invited to apply to positions created with the new structure and focus, and Ms. Slaughter will oversee that process.