As summer approaches, Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School can proudly reflect on another successful school year. The Golden Eagles continue to thrive with Steve Skeen at the helm. Finishing up his sixth year as principal, Skeen remains focused on the school’s vision that “Mount Royal students will unlock their individual, exceptional abilities in order to choose how they will make the community and world a better place.”
To meet this vision, teachers and staff foster an environment that prioritizes academic excellence while recognizing the value of enriching activities such as art, music and recreational sports that inspire pride within each student for themselves, their school and their community. Perhaps most importantly, the school has social workers, therapists and counselors on staff to support students and give them the tools they need to succeed.
This multi-pronged approach is clearly working. Test scores continue to improve year over year in core subjects. At the same time, the school’s basketball and flag football teams won championships this year and dozens of Mount Royal students received high honors (including first place!) at the city-wide science fair held at Morgan State University.
School ended June 13, but Mount Royal will still be bustling this summer. The school will host the Ingenuity Project Summer Camp for the second year in a row. Mount Royal is one of only four schools in the city to offer the Ingenuity Project, which attracts bright middle school students from across the district. The program’s mission is to prepare and launch the next diverse generation of nationally competitive STEM leaders in Baltimore City Public Schools.
At BHCA’s June meeting Skeen, Towson-raised and North Carolina-educated, said enrollment at the school has grown from 715 in 2008 to 800 today: 450 in middle school and 350 in K-5th grade. “We’re outperforming Roland Park,” he said. Describing middle school as “about exploring,” Skeen said the school offers band and vocal music, theater, Spanish (with high school credit) and art programs, apart from rich academics.
He said 30 students ages 4 to 12 arrived this year from Afghanistan when the U.S. military withdrew from that conflict. The school offers English to new learners and has attracted Spanish-speaking students, as well. Skeen called Mount Royal’s Parent Teacher Organization “amazing,” and said the school’s growth going forward may be limited by space issues. One-time federal pandemic funding for public schools has enabled Mount Royal to acquire new lockers, furniture and equipment.
For more information about Mount Royal and its Parent Teacher Organization, please contact Kim Canale at president@mtroyalpto.org.
–Ellen Molino
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