Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, Board of Education President Nancy J. King, County Council President Blair Ewing, and County Council Education Committee Chair Michael Subin this week participated in ceremonies welcoming more than 1,100 new teachers to Montgomery County Public Schools.

The New Teacher Welcome ceremonies took place on Monday, August 27, at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda. Because of the large number of new teachers, two separate ceremonies were held.

Teachers have been hired from 32 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and Spain, but more than half come from Maryland. Less than half of the newly-hired teachers (47 percent) are new to teaching.

The new hires are approximately 16 percent African American, four percent Asian, three percent Hispanic, 0.4 percent Native American, and 77 percent white. This diversity range is very similar to figures in previous years. Females comprise almost 80 percent of the new teachers hired this year.