2-25-2026 10:11am

A History Of

Profiles in Excellence: Stoneleigh Elementary School celebrates Maryland Blue Ribbon by continuing to advance

The Morning Mile

They arrive fresh-faced and ready, trailed by parents. And as soon as the music begins, they take off running, each at their own pace, shedding their jackets as they go. The school day at Stoneleigh Elementary School officially begins at 8:45 a.m. but every school day that weather allows, dozens of children arrive as early as 8 a.m. to run as many laps as they can along a figure-eight path behind the school. After each lap, they pause so that their IDs can be swiped into a program that tracks the distance they’ve run. According to Carl Armstrong, one of the parent volunteers who coordinates the Morning Mile, many students have logged hundreds of miles. Jamie Meyers, mother of a Kindergarten student, adds, “They just love getting up and moving their bodies.”

This daily activity is in a way a metaphor for the school, its place in the community, and its never-ending quest to run, not walk, as far as it can in pursuit of excellence.

The morning mile on a November morning

Earning a Blue Ribbon

At the end of September, the Maryland State Department of Education announced that Stoneleigh Elementary School was one of seven schools statewide to be named a 2025 Maryland Blue Ribbon School.

The award recognizes schools for their academic performance on national and state assessments or for progress in narrowing performance disparities between different student groups. Stoneleigh Elementary was recognized for achieving both accomplishments and is the 27th BCPS school to be awarded Maryland Blue Ribbon status.

Principal Deidre Lynch identifies several factors that contribute to Stoneleigh’s excellence – dedicated and collaborative staff, high attendance rate, and a focus on data-driven instruction and interventions – but she begins with talking about the school’s unique geography.

“Our schoolhouse sits right in the middle of this community,” Lynch says. “Only seven buses bring students to our school; the rest of our students are walkers. It creates a real sense of community. Sixty percent of our parents walk their children to school, and you can see them drinking their coffees and chatting with neighbors.”

The community entrusts the education of its children to Stoneleigh, and Stoneleigh, Lynch says, “makes sure that every student has gains.”

Collaboration yields results

Assistant Principal Anjie Henry echoes the thought, “Our students are at the forefront of every decision we make, and we are always striving for continued improvement.”

Teacher Addie Howard, who has spent her entire career at Stoneleigh, says, “I think Stoneleigh's greatest strength is the dedication of the educators here. People are communicating with each other, collaborating on solutions, and trying to give every kid the best opportunities, no matter what.”

She continues, "That is the culture here. When people come into the building as new members of the staff, they become a part of it and the older staff members try to help and guide new staff members so the tradition continues. The community within Stoneleigh Elementary is driven to succeed. Not for the glory of the educators, but for the success of the kids.”

Howard’s assessment is amplified by Assistant Principal Heather Larson, who was the acting principal last year when the school applied for Blue Ribbon honors. Larson notes that school staff work together in professional learning communities that support every educator in increasing their effectiveness. She points to the use of data in identifying areas of focus and to the work of a “phenomenal” English Language Development teacher and reading specialist. The number of multilingual learner and Black students is growing at Stoneleigh. The demographics of the school of 656 students is now 72% white, 13% Black, 11% Hispanic, and 4% Asian.

Focus on English Language Development

“Our English Language Development teacher, Lindsay Schneider, is also a reading specialist,” Larson says, “and she does an amazing job helping students exit English Language Development. She had 14 students exit the program last year.”

Schneider says that a key to her work is building relationships with families and students working in partnership with multilingual learner liaison Michelle Hackshaw as well as working closely with classroom teachers and the reading specialist Stacy Argiriadi. “We use TalkingPoints all the time (a platform that translates messages),” Schneider says, “and we also send families YouTube videos to help support English Language Development and reading in English, and we ask them to read to their children in their own languages.”

At Stoneleigh, Schneider is currently working with students from more than a dozen countries as well as some students born in the United States.

Classroom scenes from November 2025

A culture of reading

Reading specialist Argiriadi lives in and was educated in the Towson area, having attended Rodgers Forge Elementary, Dumbarton Middle, and Dulaney High schools. She sees her role as a literacy leader supporting teachers in the school. “I support teachers as they work with striving readers,” she says. “I provide resources and co-plan. Another favorite part of my job is working with small groups of students, helping them close gaps.”

“With teachers,” Argiriadi continues, “I often lead them in data dives. We are not just looking at striving readers. We are also looking at how we can further advance students who are on or above grade level. We want to further advance even our high-achieving students.”

Reading, a foundational skill, is more than a school assignment at Stoneleigh; it is part of the culture. “Luckily elementary school students love reading,” says Colleen Ahearn, the school’s library media specialist, “and I feel strongly that a school library is not just a classroom. It is a space that invites students in.”

Students visiting the library media center

In years past, school librarians limited the number of books students could check out, Argiriadi notes, now there is no such limit at Stoneleigh. “Our library media specialist has also set up a little free library within her library,” she continues. “Students donate books from their homes, and other students can take those books to their homes and keep them.”

For the past four years, during the National Education Association’s Read Across America Week in early May, Stoneleigh hosts a Reading Fair. Each student who signs up to participate receives a trifold and creates a display about a favorite book. The result is something akin to a school science fair. On the day of the event, students and their families visit the displays with students jotting down books they might want to read and voting for their favorite displays. “The number of participating students grows each year,” Argiriadi says. “This year, close to 300 students participated!” That’s nearly 46% of the total student population.

Photos from a past Reading Fair

Stoneleigh students? Present!

Students show up for special activities like the Reading Fair and every day. “In 2023-2024, Stoneleigh was one of BCPS’ top five schools with the highest average daily attendance,” Larson notes. “Our chronic absenteeism rate is only 7.9%.” The national rate, meanwhile, is 23.5% according to the American Enterprise Institute.

While school administrators credit teachers and their pupil personnel worker, they also emphasize timely communication with families. “We use all the systems available through BCPS to communicate with families, like School Messenger, to reach our families,” says Lynch. “Beyond that we issue a weekly joint message with the PTA, and each teacher sends home a monthly newsletter that shares what they’ve covered and what’s coming up.”

This is an idea that Lynch brought to Stoneleigh from her stint as an assistant principal at Honeygo Elementary School. “Having the newsletter come directly from the teacher helps families feel more connected,” Lynch said. “We have added quotes from students to highlight their perspectives, too.”

The communication between home and school is a two-way street at Stoneleigh. “There is a strong sense of partnership and collaboration, both among staff and within the community/families,” says Henry.

“Relationships are important, and we want everyone to feel that they belong and have a voice. I think you can feel that as soon as you enter the building!” -Assistant Principal Anjie Henry

Parents step up

“We have a very strong PTA,” Lynch notes. “It’s very supportive of the school. Our PTA president Brittany Claridge is phenomenal, very collaborative.”

Now in her second year as PTA president, Claridge says that she and her husband, graduates of Harford County Public Schools, are firm believers in public schools and “the diversity of experiences” they offer. “It is a blessing and a privilege of mine to work with the PTA at Stoneleigh. It’s a lot of work, but we know that the school needs and values our support.”

Claridge says that she and her husband, parents of two, moved to Stoneleigh because of the school’s reputation for excellence and their expectations have been met and exceeded. “Stoneleigh has a community of educators who care and go the extra mile to support students,” she says, “and a lot of really committed families who want to ensure that the school succeeds… I work in higher education, as executive director of student life at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and we talk there about the importance of knowing students by ‘name and story.’ I see that across the board here. Teachers know the students, participate in evening school events…. I’ve even had teachers come to my kids’ ballet performances outside of school.”

More than half of students’ families and all classroom teachers are members of the PTA.

“We want to create a better experience for our kids beginning with supporting our teachers,” Claridge continues. “This fall, our annual Stoneleigh Derby fundraiser raised $38,000 net profit, and we were able to take a good look at the needs in our classrooms. We now have a $200 fund for each class and can reimburse teachers $250 for their expenses. We always have a $1,000 fund for miscellaneous school needs like replacing the nurse’s ice machine or extra disinfecting wipes for the front office. And we have been able to help the school buy a poster machine, books for the library, and equipment for the school’s TV studio.”

“We do a lot of work in PTA thinking about diversity,” Claridge adds, “not just racial and ethnic diversity but also social-economic and other types of diversity. We look for potential barriers to participation and success and think about how we can be more conscientious. For example, if we are hosting an event that is likely to be crowded and loud, our DEI committee will designate a sensory safe space for those who might benefit from it.”

While PTA membership is a recommended $10 per caregiver, starting two years ago, the PTA added a waive fee option. And while most PTA-sponsored events are free, the organization often provides scholarships for activities that have associated fees.

Beyond that the PTA is active in the school as volunteers for activities like the Morning Mile, theater programs, and even helping in the lunchroom and shelving books in the school library.

Grade 5 students on the job

Older Stoneleigh students also step up to contribute to the school’s success.

“Our fifth-grade students apply for jobs they might want to do around the school,” Larson explains. “These ‘jobs’ are generally before or after school, such as helping out in the library, gym, art room, being a school safety guard, and working on the TV crew.”

Vocal music teacher Jacob Schleger coordinates the TV crew as they produce the morning announcements. So many students were interested that he has two rotations of students. The first group of students will complete their service in January, and the second group will work through the end of the school year.

The morning announcements crew

“The morning announcements crew is a made up of a group of student leaders who help start each day on a positive note by demonstrating teamwork and professionalism,” Schleger says. “These students rotate between operating cameras, microphones, and broadcasting equipment while also delivering important school news and updates by gaining hands-on experience learning what it is like to run a real live TV newscast. The announcements crew works to inspire the younger grades by modeling the Stoneleigh School Pledge each morning. Whether they're speaking on camera or running equipment, they demonstrate respect, trustworthiness, responsibility, and safety, oftentimes speaking to the younger students about what these values look like in action. Developing skills like these empowers students to become stronger communicators, thoughtful team members, and leaders, allowing them to be positive role models within the school community.”

In addition to helping students contribute to the school and develop skills and confidence the jobs enable students to form connections to teachers beyond the classroom.

The SKITTLES initiative comes to Stoneleigh

Another burgeoning initiative that will foster these student-teacher connections is SKITTLES – Staff Kindly Investing Time to Lift Every Student. This teacher-student mentorship program is an initiative Lynch first instituted at Relay and Honeygo elementary schools. At Stoneleigh, special area teachers coordinate the program and have recruited 25 teachers and administrators to participate.

Each mentor is asked to “check in” with their mentee at least once each week, and SKITTLES organizers plan to host special events at least once or twice a year. “The mentees are not all kids who have behavior issues,” says physical education teacher Matthew Berkey. “These are students who have a wide range of challenges.”

With SKITTLES, Stoneleigh takes another step forward in its now 95-year history of pursuing excellence. When the school first opened in 1930, Mary B. Hipsley was its first principal, a position she held for the school’s first 28 years.

She’d be happy to know that the school continues to evolve and excel and that her portrait now hangs in a front hallway. Moreover, at the end of each year, Stoneleigh selects and honors two students with Hipsley Awards for their character and academic achievements. So she is still a part of a tradition of excellence destined to continue long into the future.