Ida L. Polcari,
Montgomery County Public Schools, is the principal of Benjamin Banneker Middle School. Mrs. Polcari began her career in education in 1971, as a classroom teacher at Bells Mill Elementary School in Potomac, Md. From 1971 to 1978, in addition to teaching, she was a master teacher at the University Maryland's Reading Clinic in College Park, Md., where she was promoted to reading clinic administrator. In 1978, she was a reading specialist at Broome Middle School in Rockville, Md., and was promoted to interdisciplinary resource teacher. From 1981 to 1985, Mrs. Polcari continued as a interdisciplinary resource teacher at Julius West Middle School in Rockville, Md. In 1985, she was an interdisciplinary resource teacher and was promoted to acting assistant principal at Sligo Middle School in Silver Spring, Md. In 1988, she joined Benjamin Banneker as a secondary school intern and was promoted in 1989 to assistant principal. Mrs. Polcari assumed her present position in 1995. She holds a BS degree in elementary education and an MEd in early childhood education from the University of Maryland in College Park, Md.