This past summer, Calvert High School welcomed a new principal, Ms. Andrea Young, into its administration for Calvert’s 2023-2024 school year.
Ms. Young, a former Northern assistant principal, hails this as her third year in the CCPS district and her first year as a head principal. Previous to her Calvert County experience, she taught and was an administrator for several years in Charles County Public Schools after teaching in Ohio. Ms. Young, a passionate and determined educator, has worked her way up the ladder and now finds herself at the top of it.
“Principal has always been my ultimate goal,” said Ms. Young. “I always knew I wanted to be an educator. and I have taught. But with my career goals and aspirations, principal was always at the top.”
As the new principal of Calvert High, Ms. Young would like every student to ask themselves: “What can we do to make sure that, number one, Calvert High School is achieving academically, and number two, that safety is at upmost importance?” Ms. Young is resolutely set on the rise of academics in the upcoming year and keeping open communication with students, for students. “I hope that we can have a good relationship where we can pull voices from various students; athletes, students who participate in band, the arts, from students who are high achievers, from students who even have a lot of referrals. We want to hear from everyone about how we can make this experience for everyone better,” said Ms. Young.
Under that umbrella of academic focus comes the most notable change at Calvert this year. The schedule.
“When one hour lunch works, it works well. But when it doesn’t, it doesn’t, and we have to recognize that,” said Ms. Young of the decision to change the schedule to remove the one-hour lunch. “We knew coming in, to our 10th, 11th and 12th grade returning students, this would be a huge, huge shift because you did have one hour to do as you pretty much wanted. ‘Why can’t we do what we want to do?’ But that goes back to how it wasn’t used, how we wanted it to be used, or how it was envisioned.”
Ms. Young went on to explain how the intervention period, also known as CAV time, is meant as a structured point in the day that allows students to receive tutoring and have time for extracurriculars while also allowing for a set structure to keep students and staff safe.
Whether or not these new implementations produce the envisioned goals is ultimately up to students, but Ms. Young seems up to the challenge.
