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Public school district in Maryland, U. S.

The Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) is the school district that manages and runs the public schools of Howard County, Maryland. It operates under the supervision of an elected, eight member Board of Education. Jennifer Mallo is the chair of the board. William J. Barnes has been the acting superintendent since January 2024. The district operates 78 schools: 42 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, 13 high schools, and 3 special education schools/education centers. As of September 2023, a total of 57,633 students were enrolled. It is headquartered in the Columbia, Maryland census designated place; the facility has an Ellicott City mailing address. Howard County consistently earns high marks in school performance metrics such as test scores and graduation rates. It gets high percentages at all levels of the Maryland School Assessments. In 2007, Forbes magazine rated Howard County as one of the ten most cost efficient school systems in the United States.

The district includes the entire county limits.

94.05% for class of 2021. 4 year adjusted cohort.

In 1723, Maryland enacted a bill requiring a school in each county. Rev Joeseph Colebatch, Col Samuel Young, William Locke, Charles Hammond, Capt Daniel Maraitiee, Richard Warfield, and John Beale were commissioned to buy land and build schools in what was then Anne Arundel County. Ellicott City opened its first boys' school in the Weir building in 1820. In 1835, the state declared Ellicott's Mills a primary school district. In 1839, the Howard District of Anne Arundel County was formed. Early schools were funded and managed independently through towns, investors, the state and churches. Some early examples were St. Charles College, incorporated in 1830 near Doughoregan Manor, Patapsco Female Institute (1833) in Ellicott City, and Mount St. Clement (1867) at Illchester. By 1847, the Howard District operated 20 single room school houses. By 1853, the law required each school to have three trustees and one clerk appointed in one year terms by vote. In 1864, Maryland created the state board of education for public education, leaving counties to control their own school boards. Teachers' pay was increased to $100 per quarter. The Patapsco Female Institute was the first women's school to receive state funding. After the Civil War, single room schoolhouses within walking distance of communities were built throughout the county. In 1885, former Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll joined the school board along with J. T. Williams and John W. Dorsey. In 1894, Chairman Robert A. Dobbin and the remainder of the county school board were indicted for receiving money in excess of per diem. In 1905, corporal punishment was tested in the courts after Highland School teacher Cora Burgess was fined for whipping a student, an act that would be banned by the state 88 years later.

In 1922, the State of Maryland authorized $600,000 in bond sales for Howard County expenses. A cap of $60,000 was placed on school improvement expenses, and $540,000 was required to be allocated to road construction. By the mid 1920s some children rode to school on private produce trucks. In 1928, the first county school bus service started. During the period, 156 Rosenwald Schools were built in Maryland for teaching African American children. In Howard County, the five teacher school in Cooksville, the two teacher Guilford school was constructed, and the one room Elkridge school. Superintendent W. C. Phillips commissioned a more robust stone high school for Ellicott City with a cornerstone laid in November 1924.

Former Justice of the Peace and Coroner Stanley E. Grantham served as board president until World War II. In 1937, the school system dropped the practice of charging students for bus fare to its schools, as well as transporting parochial students. It also dedicated its first classroom in Savage for "backward" special needs students, and implemented its first modular classroom to hold students until repairs could be made to an unsafe school. Future commissioner and board member Charles E. Miller started his own bus service and vehicle sales to the county. In 1938, many single room school houses were sold to private bidders, and multiple elementary and high school projects were started, using 45% Federal Emergency Agency grants to reduce unemployment and set fair wages. In 1939, the county issued its first school bonds, borrowing $107,000 for construction of Ellicott City Elementary, Clarksville Middle, Clarksville High, and Highland Colored School. From this date to present, the county has maintained public debt interest expenses for school expansion. It also consolidated all insurance under one broker, W. Emil Thompson, a candidate for state senator.

In 1941, hospital owner and land developer Issac Taylor became board president. As early as November 1940, the board expressed concerns about selective service pulling away most of the male teachers for military service. The same year, gun lockers were installed in the Ellicott Elementary gym for the local guard, and the board terminated Norman Schussler for "unamerican" behavior and not wanting to serve his country. African American school teacher Effie Liggans Scott was released for working while pregnant. When conscientious objector Richard McCleary refused to salute the flag in class, the board made a policy to dismiss the student from school. By late 1944, school construction was at a standstill and there was a shortage of qualified teachers. The board focused on teacher bonuses and bus contracts.

At the war's end, Eleanor M. Cissel became the president of the board. Her family was active as school bus operators in the county, and Charlie Cissel taught at the Lisbon agriculture school. The state board of education mandated classroom sizes be reduced to 35 from 40 and the addition of a 12th grade. In 1946, future County Executive Omar Jones started as an Agriculture teacher. Physical education was funded for the first time in 1947, and the budget nearly doubled since the beginning of the war, without significant school construction or student population changes. In 1948, a single centralized county high school with busing was proposed, but the $1,000,000 cost was considered prohibitive. The only major program funded in the decade since the PWA money grants was the agriculture shop at Lisbon, which ballooned from $8,000 to over $18,000 in construction costs by 1949.

In 1949, John H. Brown became the board president. After 10 years without school construction, the county awaited legislation for bonds that could be paid off in the 20 year design life of the buildings, leaving the county without debt by 1969. A single central high school design was modified to one that would serve three districts, and plans for additions to Clarksville, Libson, and West Friendship were made at an estimated cost of $875,000. Newspaper publication of the school budget was refused, and replaced with a mimeograph supplied on request. This was also the first year that the school board met with representatives regarding the combined impact of schools with water, sewer, and roads. Four colored and one white schools without water were funded for new wells. School buses and drivers were inspected for the first time. The board expanded to four members in May 1949 with the addition of Norman H. Warfield, and a new position of County Superintendent was created and given with Warfield's vote to John E. Yingling. In 1949, future land developer and County Executive Norman E. Moxley was hired in a new position as chairman of the school building commission. The school board remained self elected by its own four members with one year terms. By 1952, the first major subdivisions were started in Ellicott City, prompting the League of Women Voters to express concern. The school board noted that there was plenty of land in the county for schools, just little funding for new buildings. The planning board provided the first listings of building permits to the school board showing growth rates nearly doubling in three months. School salaries were raised to a base of $3,000 a year, and the student to teacher ratio was lowered to 33. In 1953, Maryland expanded the loans for new schools to $514,000, and driver's education classes began. In 1955 Charles E. Miller was elected president of the board. In 1956 football was expanded from six man to eleven man teams, with games to be played at Howard High School. Maryland governor J. Millard Tawes appointed Gertrude Crist to the school board in 1959.

In 1962, Senator Frank E. Shipley bypassed the state school board nominating commission recommendation of Fred Schoenbrodt, and installed Clifford Y. Stephens. The school board proposed an ambitious $3 million expansion of Howard High, and administration buildings funded by a 6% increase in property taxes for anticipated growth. In October 1963, Stephens was indicted for price fixing milk and died soon after in an automobile crash. His death reduced the school board to two people, and there was a lengthy board process to recommend a replacement candidate to the governor. Senator James A. Clark Jr. recommended a change. The school board expanded to five members in 1964, all chosen by the governor (J. Millard Tawes): James Moxley Jr, Fred Schoenbrodt, Gertrude Crist, Austin Zimmer, and Edward Cochran. In 1965, the county implemented a .25% transfer tax to fund new schools and parks, netting $70,000 in its first nine months. The school board estimated 39,600 pupils by 1980, missing the mark by 15,000. In May 1966, the Howard County Citizens Association confronted Howard Research and Development for using 700 acres of school property bought by the county at market rate to count as part of the 3200 acres of open space promised for the Columbia development plan. Rouse comprised slightly by not including school buildings as open space in calculations, and donating land for schools not already purchased with a "maintenance fee" for the transfer. In 1966 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed. Howard County shared $75,000 in title III planning grants with Caroll County, and $110,000 in Title I grants for 466 students who qualified for low income family education. Councilman Norman E. Moxley's Normandy Insurance was awarded an insurance contract for BOE vehicles. The Central Maryland News and Times requested that the county stop its closed door policy on school board meetings. Meetings remained closed, but controlled press releases were resumed. A foundation recommended the school system start using a centralized computer based education system, and another recommended outdoor classrooms. In 1967 Howard County attempted to consolidate its offices in Ellicott City. The board of education declined, and offered to relocate to the recently vacated Harriet Tubman School Building. County commissioners approved the formation of a community college. In 1968, Thomas M Goedeke was selected from Baltimore County to become chief of public education, serving until 1984, replacing 42 year veteran John E. Yingling. Future county executive Edward L. Cochran became head of the school board.

Early education was not available for African Americans in Howard County. In 1872, Maryland state law required the creation of at least one school for each district with over 15 school age colored children. The Howard County school system was segregated since the law, funding four teachers using rented rooms in 1873. Dedicated schools began with the building of the Ellicott City Colored School in 1888. Worn school books were provided from white schools. In 1917, colored schools operated 7 months by state law. In 1936, Cooksville became the first school to offer an 8th grade curriculum. This was expanded to four years in 1939, but only offered at single school. In 1938, African American teachers petitioned for equal salaries, and Superintendent S. E. Grantham and the commissioners felt they could not allow an additional $7,500 in expenses, ending the effort. In 1940, a Federal Court mandated equal salaries, which led the board to offer an extra month's pay if the teachers' union would not litigate against them for equal salaries. In the urgency following the Pearl Harbor attack, teachers from all races trained together on First Aid for the first time. The racial equity less apparent when the board announced in September 1942, that students seeking clinic aid for syphilis could only use colored buses, because using a white bus was considered improper. By 1949, the Cooksville School had 79 students for one teacher. In 1952 Howard County operated 8 elementary, two junior high, and three high schools for 3,790 white students. There were 9 "colored" elementary and one high school with 976 students. The school board recognized overcrowding, and noted that colored students would soon be requesting modern indoor bathrooms like other schools in the county. In 1954, segregation was outlawed by the supreme court in Brown v. Board of Education. With clear direction from the supreme court, the school board, which included future county commissioner Charles E. Miller, delayed action. In November 1955, a citizens' committee on desegregation was formed and asked to report its findings in 1956 for the 1956–1957 school year. The NAACP wrote the board asking why they were not following the Supreme Court decision and county PTA organizations disagreed with the county's plans to continue segregated bus service to future integrated schools. In July 1957, the Maryland Court of appeals threw out a residential legal effort to block the Supreme Court's authority on county integration plans. On July 13, 1963, the board of education put together a plan to desegregate schools, which was put into effect in November 1963 with a plan to continue partial segregation until 1967. The chairman of the NACCP education committee Robert H. Kittleman, threatened demonstrations if the school board would continue segregation past 1964. The bounty's official plan to eliminate segregation was approved by Francis Keppel, the United States Commissioner of Education, in July 1965 days before the passage of desegregation requirements in the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965 which helped finance new town of Columbia. Howard County eliminated one class of segregated students a year, taking 11 years to implement integrated classes.

With the development of Columbia, the school system shifted its emphasis on neighborhood schools. The school board faced complaints of children from new developments in Columbia being districted in outlying underutilized schools because the developer promised a "Columbia School System" in its sales marketing. In 1972 the Office of Civil Rights questioned the lack of African Americans in administrative positions. Dr. Goedeke responded by saying there was a lack of qualified applicants, and that African American teachers who ran colored schools prior to integration were "teacher principals" or "teachers in charge" who were not qualified as administrators under present day considerations. In 1974, school budgets produced a surplus of $200,000 from bond investments that were returned to the general funds. Future County Executive Charles I. Ecker was brought on as superintendent for Howard County schools, serving until 1989. In 1976, arbiter Robert I. Bloch ruled that the school selection board had improperly used race and non professional factors in the review of Charles Griffin for pupil personnel supervisor. The county opened the first conjoined elementary school and middle school with Dasher Green Elementary and Owen Brown Middle. Wilde Lake High School was the first high school in Columbia to open (1971) and Wilde Lake Middle School was the first middle school to open (1969).

Prior membership in the school board was by selection. In 1982, William Manning became the first African American elected to the 118 year old school board. In 1984, each school was supplied with 23 45 Apple IIe computers, starting the first education efforts in programming.

In 1992, Superintendent Micheal E. Hickey proposed a $250 million plan to expand the school system by 15 schools. By 1993, the school board voted to delay school construction and look at construction cost savings.

In 2006, Howard County set a health policy, limited birthday celebrations to once a month, and banned home baked cookies or cakes with cream filling.

In 2012, the county partially outsourced support for children with autism to the Linwood Center. In 2013, the common core system was implemented. Also known as "Race to the top," the common core curriculum was implemented to help students understand and solve problems on their own. In 2014, the school computer systems are targeted by a cyber attack. Later that year, the Howard County based One Maryland Inter County Broadband Network won a service contract for network services. In late 2014, the board approved early retirement options for teachers with over 15 years of tenure, with a projection of 594 employees leaving the system. In 2015 the superintendent suspended citizen review of the yearly budget relying on the Zero based budgeting process. In 2017, the construction of the newly rebuilt Wilde Lake Middle School was finished. It was the first net zero energy school in Maryland, and the biggest in the nation.

In 1964, the developers of Columbia, Maryland, envisioned an independent year round school system for its residents. A portion of the land bought by Rouse corporation was provided at no cost to the school system to build schools to accommodate the impact from the development. Howard County remained in control of the school system. As Columbia reached its maximum planned capacity, developers turned to the eastern portion of Howard County served by public water and sewer for infill development opportunities. The Howard County School system increased substantially in size, but development in the county outpaced the number of seats available for students. In 2006, an adequate public facilities ordinance (APFO) was enacted. It temporarily limited development in elementary school districts only which were over 120% capacity. It still allowed developers the ability to proceed with projects three years after submittal regardless of overcrowding. To keep up with demand, the school system developed a method of regular redistricting, moving students to western schools with more capacity. The school system revived the concept of portable trailers in the early 1990s, increasing to 50 units in 1995, 217 by 2013, and 238 in 2014. Year High Schools Junior High Schools Elementary Schools Total Schools Students Budget $ per student (adjusted to 2013)184720 (single room)20$3900 ($111,423 Inflation adjusted to 2013)1877$1,989.48 (segregated), $488.67 (colored)1900CombinedCombined70 (Grades 1–11 single room)55 (segregated), 15 (colored)3,019$41,666.49 ($979,680.19 Inflation adjusted to 2013)$3241929CombinedCombined$123,9321936CombinedCombined$161,63119413 (segregated), 1(colored)No Jr. High3,469$290,0001947 3 (segregated), 1 (colored)No Jr High6 (segregated), 8 (colored)183,619$520,00019523 (segregated), 1 (colored)2 (segregated) 8 (segregated), 9 (colored)234,776$1,043,107.00 ($9,162,533.80 inflation adjusted to 2013)19683 2013,00019756 723,992 19788112645 +1 VoTech +1 special needs 25,606$46,100,00019808 1025,228

The county operates 42 elementary schools. Name Enrollment Principal History Modular ClassroomsCityHas Prek?GreatSchool Rating (as on September 20, 2020)Atholton Elementary School387Robin MalcottiOpened 1961, named after the nearby early 1700s Athol manor house of rev James MacGill 3Columbia7/10Bellows Spring Elementary School762Julie SchrueferOpened 2003, named after the Thomas Christian farm "Bellow's Spring".5Ellicott City8/10Bollman Bridge Elementary School663Connie FowlkesOpened 1988, named after the nearby Savage Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge2Savage3/10Bryant Woods Elementary School l335Danielle Shanks ForneyOpened 19684Columbia5/10Bushy Park Elementary School788Kristian RutledgeOpened 1976, named after Dr. Charles Alexander Warfield's 1771 slave plantation "Bushy Park"0Glenwood9/10Centennial Lane Elementary School628Tracey AlbrightOpened 19735Ellicott CityYes9/10Clarksville Elementary School634Michael CaldwellOpened 19641ClarksvilleNo9/10Clemens Crossing Elementary School522Michelle LeaderOpened 19793ColumbiaNo8/10Cradlerock Elementary School487Aricka PorterOpened 1976 as Dasher Green Elementary. Operated as "The Cradlerock School" from 2003 to 2009, Renamed to Cradlerock Elementary in 2011.3Columbia3/10Dayton Oaks Elementary School788Adrienne Williams McKinneyOpened 20060Dayton9/10Deep Run Elementary School601Nigel LaRocheOpened 1990, named after the Deep Run branch of the Patapsco River5Elkridge5/10Ducketts Lane Elementary School662Molly CarolandOpened 20130Elkridge5/10Elkridge Elementary School779Kelley PowellOpened 19924Elkridge6/10Forest Ridge Elementary School 626Trish LannonOpened 19925Laurel6/10Fulton Elementary School772Tanisha BurksOpened 19970Fulton8/10Gorman Crossing Elementary School540Deborah HolmesOpened 1998, named after Senator Arthur Pue Gorman.2Laurel7/10Guilford Elementary School462Stephanie Barber WehrmanOpened 19545Columbia5/10Hammond Elementary School597Heather MoraffOpened 19711Laurel7/10Hanover Hills Elementary SchoolTroy ToddOpened 2018HanoverHollifield Station Elementary School710Amanda WadsworthOpened 19976Ellicott City5/10Ilchester Elementary School 668Lauren BeamanOpened 19962Ellicott City9/10Jeffers Hill Elementary School 421Maisha StrongOpened 19742ColumbiaNo7/10Laurel Woods Elementary School540Connie StahlerOpened 1973 as Whiskey Bottom Road Elementary2Laurel6/10Lisbon Elementary School553Debra AnoffOpened 19761Woodbine9/10Longfellow Elementary School418Vanya JacksonOpened 19708Columbia5/10Manor Woods Elementary School 647Kelli JenkinsOpened 19941Ellicott CityNo8/10Northfield Elementary School 672Cathleen LopezOpened 19681Ellicott CityNo7/10Phelps Luck Elementary School540Ed CosentinoOpened 19727Columbia5/10Pointers Run Elementary School 776Shawna HoldenOpened 19919Clarksville9/10Rockburn Elementary School 667Elizabeth YankleOpened 19931Elkridge0/10Running Brook Elementary School 405Gillian SpiveyOpened 19703Columbia5/10St. John's Lane Elementary School597Daniel NotariOpened 1954 – Built by Windsor Construction for $235,985.006Ellicott CityNo7/10Stevens Forest Elementary School333Katie CarterOpened 19725Columbia4/10Swansfield Elementary School 528Anthony EspositoOpened 19724Columbia3/10Talbott Springs Elementary School 443Leslie HarmonOpened 19737Columbia6/10Thunder Hill Elementary School 368Sonia HurdOpened 19701ColumbiaNo7/10Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School 544Tiffany TreslerOpened 19980Ellicott CityNo10/10Veterans Elementary School 788Alexcia ReddOpened 20077Ellicott City6/10Waterloo Elementary School594Sean MartinOpened 19644Columbia8/10Waverly Elementary School 675Rachel Edoho EketOpened 1990. Named after the George Howard slave plantation, Waverley3Ellicott City9/10West Friendship Elementary School 396Debra O'BryneOpened 1925 as the West Friendship Consolidated High School0West Friendship9/10Worthington Elementary School 516Robert BruceOpened 1976 next to the New Cut landfill.1Ellicott City9/10