Lawrence E. Schmidt at portrait unveiling 12/15/2015
The Baltimore County Board of Education honored former board president Lawrence E. Schmidt with the unveiling of his portrait at its board meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Education Support Services Building on Greenwood Campus. Schmidt, a principal of Smith, Gildea & Schmidt, LLC, served as president from 2011 through 2014.
Under Schmidt’s guidance, Baltimore County Public Schools experienced the successful transition of a new superintendent and the implementation of the S.T.A.T. program, a multi-year transformation of BCPS into a complete 21st century technology learning environment to prepare globally-competitive graduates. A product of Baltimore County Public Schools, he also oversaw the building of several new schools and additions.
During Schmidt’s tenure, Baltimore County Schools received the following recognitions:
- Sean McComb of Patapsco High School & Center for the Arts named National Teacher of the Year 2014 – the first in BCPS history.
- More than half of all BCPS traditional and magnet high schools were named among the nation’s top high schools.
- 14 schools were named among the top nine percent of high schools in the nation by The Washington Post (April 2014).
- 11 schools placed among the 2,000 on the “America’s Best High Schools” list created by The Daily Beast/Newsweek magazine (May 2013).
- Five schools listed on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best High Schools” list, including two ranking among the 500 best high schools in the nation (April 2014).
- Recognized by Education Week for having the second highest graduation rate among the nation’s largest school districts (June 2013).
- Recognized by the Schott Foundation for having the fourth highest graduation rate for African American males among the nation’s large school districts (September 2012).
- Twenty schools recognized as Maryland Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence, 16 named National Blue Ribbon Schools.
- Led all Maryland school systems in earning the lion’s share of national 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, among the most prestigious high school arts recognition programs in the nation. In all, 165 BCPS students from nine high schools earned awards in the program. County students took home about 37 percent of the total number of awards – 330 of the 899 – presented statewide.