Lakelands Park Middle School | |
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Location | |
1200 Main Street Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878 United States |
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Coordinates | 39°6′53.8″N 77°13′55.4″W / 39.114944°N 77.232056°WCoordinates: 39°6′53.8″N 77°13′55.4″W / 39.114944°N 77.232056°W |
Information | |
Type | Middle school |
Motto | Purposeful, Measurable, Successful |
Established | 2005 |
School district | Montgomery County Public Schools |
Principal | Deborah R. Higdon |
Grades | 6–8 |
Enrollment | 980 (2012–2013) |
Student to teacher ratio | 15 (2012–2013) |
Color(s) | Blue and Silver |
Mascot | The Falcon |
Rival | Ridgeview Middle School |
Publication |
The Falcon Times, The Falcon Flier |
Website | montgomeryschoolsmd |
Lakelands Park Middle School is a public middle school located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States. Managed by Montgomery County Public Schools, the school educates in grades 6-8. The school was named after Lakelands Park, which is adjacent to the school. With its premises used regularly for community events, the school has a high local profile.
Deborah R. Higdon became the school's principal, in August 2009, taking over from the original principal Joseph Sacco.
Lakelands Park Middle School was built in 2005 to resolve overcrowding in other schools in the county, as a result of a unique collaborative effort between the Montgomery County Board of Education and superintendent Dr. Jerry Weast, at a cost of $21 million. The building is 153,588 square feet (14,268.8 m2), and includes three floors, a full-size gym, auxiliary gyms, three computer labs, and rooms for art, music and technology. The media center has a collection of more than 18,000 print and non-print materials, including books, magazines, videos, DVDs and CD ROMs. The Research Learning Hub includes 32 networked computers.
The school set ambitious academic targets, including 100% of the students reading at or above grade level by the time that they leave the school. However, the school was soon placed on the state watch list due to poor results.
Following the decision of the Montgomery County school board to allow cell phones in schools other than high schools, in August 2007 Lakelands was one of four selected to trial this arrangement.
After students graduate from 8th grade, the high school they go on to depends on the elementary school that they attended. Students move to Quince Orchard High School if they went to Brown Station or Rachel Carson elementary schools and those who went to Darnestown Elementary School go on to attend Northwest High School. If students went to Diamond Elementary School, they either attend Quince Orchard High School if their home is south of Great Seneca Highway or Northwest High School if their home is north of Great Seneca Highway.
Lakelands Park has teams, that compete against other schools, in boys' and girls' softball, boys' and girls' basketball, boys' and girls' soccer and coeducational cross country. The City have constructed a synthetic turf sports field, at a cost of just under $950,000, in the adjacent Lakelands Park. The sports field opened in October 2014. Initially there was no public access but, in May 2015, it was announced that the field would be available to the community on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Student Sara Mercer has been selected to represent the United States in China at the 2016 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships.