Who exactly is Ms. Valentine? Though she became the new acting principal of Springbrook High School fairly recently, she has already started to make a mark within these walls. Through an interview with Ms. Valentine, the Blueprint learned more about her and her vision for Springbrook’s future.

First off, it’s important to note that Ms. Valentine is not completely new to Springbrook. She used to work here years ago as an AP and IB Signature Coordinator. She showed her leadership skills by having her AP and IB students recruit new students and have them share their experiences in the program. She was also the one who started the heritage week at this very establishment. 

In her years at Springbrook, she cherished the familial aspects of this school’s staff and students, and went as far as to call it “one of the diamonds in Montgomery County Public Schools.” She adds that though it has changed in many ways, the core strengths and beauty of Springbrook stayed the same.

As mentioned before, our principal worked as a coordinator for AP and IB classes, but what else did she do? Well for one, she was a general art’s teacher before she focused on being a photography teacher. She was even a counselor for some time where she helped ensure the graduation of many of her students and their success both career wise and in 4-year colleges. With all these jobs under her belt, Ms. Valentine realized that there was one thing she always wished she could do—create and shape educational programs around her. The limitations from her past jobs made her change her gears into becoming a principal where she could instill all her creativity and focus into opening new doors for programs that give students more exposure to new information and improving everything she possibly could around her.

Before coming to Springbrook she was the vice principal of Francis Scott Key Middle School for five years and because of that, she was able to follow her Francis Scott Key students into highschool. From freshman year to senior year, she feels so lucky to be able to see their growth.

“I’m not really here to change Springbrook, I just want to enhance and embellish the programs here. I mean, the teachers and staff have some amazing things going on. For example, the AOIT (Academy of Information Technology) program,” Ms. Valentine comments. 

Ms. Valentine notes that the AOIT program has recently gained a Distinguished Model Status for AOIT and Springbrook is the only school in the Montgomery County district to have it. She shares more positive news about the increase of AP and IB scores at Springbrook and she intends to bring more improvement because of her love and care towards the success of Springbrook and its community.