Queen Anne’s County High School will be sending two students to Certiport’s Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office-the World Championships, competing against 32 other countries in Las Vegas, NV in late July.

The QACHS students who will be representing the United States were selected from more than 250,000 students who attempted to reach this goal from universities, community colleges, and high schools throughout the United States.  Of the six U.S. Finalists selected to compete, two students, Heather Plocinik and Emily Peet are from Queen Anne’s County High School.

Mr. Dennis Macy, chairperson of QACHS’ Business Department, says, “What is amazing is that QACHS had placed more students in the Semi-Finalist and Finalist categories than any other educational institution in the entire country for the past two years.  This also marks the second consecutive year that we have sent someone to the World Championship round.  It’s a great opportunity for these students to measure their skills against the very best in the world.”

Dr. Carol Williamson, Superintendent of Schools, said when informed of the student’s accomplishments, “I’m so impressed with what you have accomplished in your program. It is such an honor for our students to represent the United States at the Worldwide Competition.”

The following QACHS students have been selected as the U.S. Finalists for the 2012 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office, and will be competing in the World Championship round in Las Vegas:

Microsoft Office Word 2007 Finalist

Heather Plocinik, Queen Anne’s County High School, MD

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Finalist

Emily Peet, Queen Anne’s County High School, MD

The following QACHS students have been identified as the U.S. Semi–Finalists for the 2012 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office:

Microsoft Office Word 2010 Semi–Finalists

Breana Guarnera, Queen Anne’s County High School, MD

Microsoft Excel 2010 Semi–Finalists

Lauren Jacquet, Queen Anne’s County High School, MD

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Semi–Finalists

Emily Peet, Queen Anne’s County High School, MD

For more info contact the QACPS Office of Public Info: Jeff Straight at 410 758-2403 x148 –Jeffrey.straight@qacps.org or Kathy Easter at 410 758-2403 x198 kathy.easter@qacps.org

CENTREVILLE The county’s last two public budget hearings at the Liberty Building on Tuesday, May 22, and at the new Sudlersville Middle School on Wednesday, May 23 offered citizens an opportunity to critique and lobby for changes to the current proposed budget.

With a looming June 12 deadline to strike a final budget, major changes to the proposal as a result of comments made during the hearings are unlikely, although not impossible.

“We’ve asked people to come up here, we’ve asked you to participate in this,” Commission president Steve Arentz said. “There’s probably very few meetings that go on that one of us doesn’t say ‘Come up here, hold us accountable, participate.’ If you have opinions, if you have ideas, do it. Please, don’t (just) come up at budget time. … This is a year-round thing. These things don’t just happen today. I encourage you all to get involved in what’s going on in the county. There may be differences in how we proceed, but there is no more money coming in right now and we don’t know how we’re going to get more money. I really applaud the fact that these guys were able to handle that.”

The commissioners plan to hold their eighth and final budget workshop of the fiscal year Tuesday, May 29, at 9 a.m. in the Liberty Building.

“This is the worst part of my job, and that’s trying to figure out what to do with declining resources,” Commissioner David Dunmyer said.

Under the proposed budgets, the property tax rate for Queen Anne’s County would remain at $0.8471 per $100 of assessed value rather than increasing by 1.5 cents to the constant yield rate of $0.8621 per $100. Overall assessments in the county have declined by 1.7 percent, corresponding to the increase in the constant yield rate. The FY 2012 income tax rate of 3.20 percent will also remain unchanged in FY 2013.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Williamson addressed the commissioners at all three hearings to emphasize the importance of properly funding education. Education accounts for 42 percent of the FY 2013 expenses under the current proposed budget.

“We have an awesome teaching staff and administrative staff and that may be the reason you’ve assumed there hasn’t been much impact (from the $4.5 million cut in county funding to the Board of Education last year),” Williamson said. “No one wants students to suffer when there are budget cuts. We’ve cut everything we can to protect the classrooms. Over the last four years we’ve consistently ranked among the bottom three in the state regarding cost per pupil. We have fewer staff, fewer materials and significantly less technology, yet we expect teachers to perform at the same or better level than those in the rest of the state.”

Allison Kern, last year’s local Teacher of the Year, said she was surprised by the low turnout of teachers and parents at Tuesday evening’s meeting and investigated on Wednesday at her school.

“They felt that they had done it last year, they had fought for their students, they had told you exactly what they needed to provide the best education and what these students needed and you didn’t listen,” she said. “You furloughed them. You didn’t support them. The students didn’t get what they deserved this year.”

Kern’s efforts yielded more educators Wednesday, although not all commented during the hearing.

“They all care and every one of them could speak for more than three minutes to tell you how much the cuts have hurt their students,” Kern said of the teachers. “The students that did not receive pre-K this year will not get a second chance to have a head start. You took that from them, and we might not know until they’re in third grade and they sit down for their first state assessment how low and how far we have fallen as a county.”

story by GREG REINBOLD