A Quick Look Into the New School Year

Welcome back Bengals to another year at Blake! We’re here at The Blake Beat to keep you up on all that’s new to look forward to.  

As we enter the new year, we’ll look back a bit and say goodbye to the year that was, which included our Basketball State Championship victory (certainly a highlight!) …and the safety incident in late April that led to restrictions on lunch that are staying in place (most certainly a lowlight). 

Mr. Adelekan enters his second year as Blake’s Principal and he’s looking to build on the positivity he brought last year.  When asked about what he’s most excited for, Adelekan responded,  “I want to see more students get involved in extracurricular activities, whether that be athletics, whether that be clubs, I want to really get a good understanding of what the students want, and hopefully be able to give them a few things that they want, so that this experience is valuable.”

New for staffing, we now have a Dean of Students at Blake. Mr. Jason Miller, was hired over the summer to lead mentoring programs for selected student groups. Check out The Blake Beat for a future feature detailing his role this school year.

Like mentioned above, the lunch rules we had at the end of last school year will remain in place.  This means students still won’t be allowed to order food or go outside except for the courtyards.

The biggest change–the one you’ve probably felt the most already–is the new phone policy.  With the new school year, the state of Maryland implemented a “bell to bell” ban on cell phones. This means students are not allowed to use their phones for the entire school day including class transitions and lunch. While the ban was supposed to be for the 2027-2028 school year, the superintendent of MCPS decided to implement it this year to work out some of the kinks and to ensure that staff enforces the new ban and to let students know what’s expected of them. 

Already, some students have been warned by staff to put their phones away during lunch. Mr. Adelekan thinks that the policy will be effective and the main purpose is “to really be present as far as like in the space that we’re in for students,” as well as to socially connect with new people and to interact with the people inside the building. Junior Cristina Costa said she understands why the policy was put into place, but “there’s a lot of loopholes and there’s a chance it won’t be enforced as strictly.” As for now, it’s a change we’ll all get used to…eventually. 

Frustrating some students, the Counseling Office informing them about schedule change guidelines; schedule changes should have been requested before the school year officially started, and switching classes will now only be considered for five reasons: completion of a summer course, an incomplete schedule, two classes in the same period, failure of completing a previous course that’s required for an advanced class, or a master schedule conflict. But students should remember that if they do end up switching their schedule, they’re responsible to make up any missing work from the class. Dropping a course may show up on your transcript and for seniors, if they drop a course, a notification of the course withdrawal will appear on their student’s midyear report sent to colleges. Students must also submit a form to request a schedule change. 

The first football game of the season is September 10th, a home game against Northwest. We can look forward to that and Homecoming Week and the Homecoming dance in early October. Check The Blake Beat for updates and info on what’s to come! 

Article written by TBB’s Elisa Reyes and Cindy Marroquin