Windsor Mill Middle School

8300 Windsor Mill Road • Baltimore, Maryland 21244
Telephone: 410-887-0618 • Fax: 410-496-1308

Principal: Deborah Phelps
Assistant Principals:
JoAnn Rich and Kathleen Owens

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Deborah S. Phelps
Dedicated Educator, Proud Parent, and
Principal of Windsor Mill Middle School

Recognized as an innovative, energetic, talented leader and master teacher with nearly three decades of education experience, Deborah Phelps began her teaching career in Harford County Public Schools, assigned as a new Family and Consumer Science teacher at Havre de Grace Middle School, in 1974. Spending two decades as a teacher and leader in that school system, she assisted in the opening of North Harford Middle School and then later transferred to Southampton Middle School.

It 1995, Ms. Phelps pursued a teaching position in Baltimore County, teaching five years at Southwest Academy, as a science magnet teacher and team leader. During her teaching career in both counties she held many responsibilities including, but not limited to, the following: department chair, team leader, acting content leader, and co-coordinator of a Summer Institute. She also designed and implemented an interdisciplinary, award-winning nutrition and food science curriculum, created a state-of-the-art food science lab and was a member of a variety of school improvement committees.

In 2000, she moved to Loch Raven Technical Academy to become the Coordinator/Administrative Facilitator of the Health, Finance and Law Magnet. The following summer she was appointed summer school principal at Cockeysville Middle School, a centralized summer school site. From 2001-2005, she served as the Assistant to the Executive Director of Schools, for the Southwest area.

Her accomplishments both in and out of the field of education are many. She has been a BCPS Teacher of the Year Finalist, recognized for her outstanding contributions to the school system, twice named Maryland Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year and most recently was named Baltimore County “Baby Boomer of the Year, 2004.”

She co-chairs and has participated in public service announcements for the “One Campaign” for the Harford County Boys and Girls Clubs of America with Mrs. Vi Ripken and is a member of the Board of Directors for Maryland Character Education. She serves on the national advisory board for The American Students’ Fund, assists with the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse, at The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the Shock Trauma Medical Center, University of Maryland Hospital and serves as an education presenter, informative group dynamics and motivation speaker for multi-organizations throughout Maryland and the United States.

Throughout her nearly three decades in the field of education, Ms. Phelps top priority in the school house has always been that of teaching and learning -- the business of the school. Her role as the principal at Windsor Mill Middle School is to serve as a strong, visible instructional leader, promoting student growth as well as teacher growth; achievement being the top priority. She is a leader who possesses a commitment to lifelong learning and she plans to recruit and empower a staff that will implement and support a high quality, rigorous and equitable educational program that requires high expectations for all.

Effective and continuous communication is necessary in order to involve stakeholders in the decision making process and in sharing the responsibility of improving instruction. Ms. Phelps has the aspiration to instruct and inspire each and every student, teacher, parent, and community/business partner about making Windsor Mill Middle School, a world class school. She seeks a school in which students may work cooperatively and collaboratively in a safe, orderly, clean and pleasant environment; one in which time is devoted to each and every student in order to prepare them for our society, our world. Like all of Baltimore County Public Schools, Windsor Mill Middle School will have a results-oriented and data driven focus based on continuous growth within the school. Ms. Phelps believes that ….Every child is our child; we hold today and every day in our heart and in our hands.

A native of Allegany County, in western Maryland, Ms. Phelps earned her master degree in education management and supervision from Loyola College, in Baltimore, in 1998 and her bachelor’s degree of arts in education from Fairmont State College, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in 1973.

She is a proud mother of three children. In her spare time Ms. Phelps enjoys traveling the world, all types of sports--especially swimming-- and spending time reading and reflecting on life. Deborah has aspirations of writing her own book in the future.

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