A lead teacher at Montgomery County Public Schools’ (MCPS) Curriculum for Agricultural Science (CASE) called the program’s elimination “short sighted” and asked the district to try and increase enrollment instead.
For the past four years, this program has been offered at Sherwood High School. Last week, teacher Glenn Miller appeared before the Board of Education (BOE) to ask that the program be continued.
According to an MCPS spokesperson, the program was discontinued because students were not signing up for the second year of the course, which was needed to be certified.
“The number of students signing up never exceeded five students after the first year,” the spokesperson told MCM. Therefore, she said, it didn’t make financial sense to continue the program.
However, Miller told BOE members, “I must challenge the idea that MCPS made a genuine effort to support its success. Over the past four years, despite my repeated advocacy, MCPS has failed to develop a vision for growing CASE.”
He said that only this school year did the district work to open the program up to students not in the Sherwood cluster.
That increased enrollment, he said during the BOE meeting, adding, “If that small change made a difference, imagine what real investment—promotion, transportation assistance, and better scheduling—could achieve.”
According to Miller, “MCPS is abandoning these students mid-pathway, disrupting their educational and career goals. Rather than cutting CASE, I urge MCPS to sit down with me and explore real solutions to strengthen enrollment. If MCPS truly values Career and Technical Education, it must foster it—not abandon it.
The program covers the agricultural industry and exposes students to careers in sustainable farming, food production and environmental science, according to Miller.
