Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts

Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts is located in Dundalk, Maryland and is part of the Baltimore County Public School system.  It is a magnet school for art, music, and theater.  The enrollment of the school is 1483 students.  Approximately 100 of these students are in the magnet program the remaining students are enrolled from the neighboring community.  The school was built in 1963 and originally created to hold a student body of about 1300.  Patapsco uses a 4 period day, semesterized schedule and each class period is approximately 90 minutes. We are currently over capacity and therefore have stretched our learning community to 13 outside trailers.  We have about 99 faculty members 9 of which are Patapsco High School graduates who have returned to teach.  This large number of returning students speaks volumes about the caring, family atmosphere that is the Patapsco High School community.

The community of Dundalk is located about 2 miles from the Baltimore City line.  The community is made up of hard working families.  Many of the families originally moved here to seek employment with the now defunct Bethlehem Steel. The community is very supportive of the school.  We have parent involvement in the music and athletic booster clubs, as well as, a thriving PTA. 

The Patapsco Physical Education program is unique in that our goal is to be inclusive and make physical education available to all students and faculty.  We infuse this inclusiveness in several ways.  We structure our classes to be inviting and welcoming, create lessons that are exciting and relevant to current fitness trends.  We provide our students with a variety of activities that allow them to find an activity that suits their needs and is enjoyable.  Our department encourages students to maintain an active healthy lifestyle through modeling this behavior on our own lives.  All the teachers in our department are actively pursuing their own personal fitness goals through participation in sports, marathons, weight lifting and other fitness pursuits. 

Our department also extends our inclusiveness to the after school hours.  We offer after school opportunities for students to pursue their personal fitness through Archery Club and Fitness Clubs.

Our department consists of 5 members.  4 teachers in this department teach Physical Education and 1 teaches all Health Education.  All 5 teachers played intercollegiate sports, including lacrosse, basketball, football, and ice hockey.  All teachers in the department have coached at Patapsco.  Currently, the teachers in the PE department coach JV Football, Varsity Badminton, Varsity Basketball, JV Basketball, JV Wrestling and Varsity Tennis.   The staff members in this department are very dedicated to the students and their success both in school and in life.  This staff is also dedicated to their personal health and serves as great role models for our students.