Barack Obama Elementary opens in Maryland

WASHINGTON - The school is being touted as being an environmentally friendly "green" school...

Aug 23, 2010

The first school in the D.C. area named after the current president opens Monday morning as the school year begins in Prince George’s County.

Barack Obama Elementary School opens its doors in Upper Marlboro, Md., for the first time Monday. The school is being touted as being an environmentally friendly “green” school. There have been other schools named after President Obama in the country, but this will be a first in his own backyard in the D.C. region.

That’s just one of several new initiatives for Prince George’s Public Schools this year. The District also will open an all-male charter school in Upper Marlboro. Called Possibility Prep, the new school will emphasize math, science and engineering. Officials hope that the all-male environment will do away with many distractions and allow students to focus on their studies.

School officials are hopeful that this year’s opening will be free of the scheduling problems that plagued the first day of school last year. Last fall, thousands of students were late to class because of a computer glitch that made a mess of class schedules.

School superintendent William Hite said the problems have been fixed and student who enrolled by Aug. 9 will have their schedules Monday.

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