Robert Hurt was a Virginia state senator in 2009. He was elected to Congress in 2010, and will not seek a fourth term. [Photo via Douglas Graham/Roll Call Photos/Newscom]
Typically when a mid-career politician says he’s not seeking reelection, it means he’s looking at a run for higher office or is involved in a scandal. U.S. Representative Robert Hurt laughs when asked which prompted his decision to not run for a fourth term.
“I was first elected in 2000,” the Republican legislator says in a phone interview from Washington. “I was 30 years old. I never envisioned doing that as a career.”
He says leaving Congress is something he and his wife Kathy have been talking about for months. “Every year you serve, it’s more difficult to make a decision not to run,” he says.
And at age 46, “my desire is to look for other ways to serve,” he says.
Hurt’s first elected office was the Chatham Town Council. In 2002, he went to Richmond to the House of Delegates and in 2008, to the Senate. In 2010 he challenged incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello for the 5th District seat and won.
Gridlock in Washington is “frustrating,” he says, but was not the reason he decided not to run. “I hope with the new leadership, we’ll see more progress on that front with Paul Ryan,” he says.
On January 6, Hurt voted for the 60th or so time to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As for legislation not destined to be vetoed, he says, “I’ve always put forward legislation with bipartisan co-sponsors with a focus to create jobs.”
He cites the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act that he introduced last year, co-sponsored by Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, which has not made it out of committee.
Hurt serves on the House Financial Services Committee and says he’s looking for ways to make it easier for businesses to get capital and turn it into jobs, which is particularly an issue in economically hard hit Southside.
Since Hurt announced he was not seeking reelection, three Republicans—state Senator Tom Garrett, Bedford developer Jim McKelvey and conservative think-tanker Michael Del Rosso have tossed their caps into the ring. Hurt says he’s not endorsing anyone.
And while he says the future is an open book, he’s pretty sure it will include practicing law in Chatham.
Donald Trump has tweeted his objections about the affirmation that must be signed to vote in Virginia's March 1 Republican primary.
Photo: Amanda Maglione
Virginia has a history of parties requiring primary voters to affirm they’re loyal Democrats or Republicans. However, three African-American pastors who are Donald Trump supporters filed a lawsuit claiming the pledge required by the state GOP—“My signature below indicates I am a Republican”—will discourage minorities and the poor from voting in the March 1 primary.
Just ahead of absentee ballots going out, federal Judge Heather Lauck refused to issue a preliminary injunction January 14 to halt the pledge, a requirement Trump has loudly lambasted.
On December 27, he tweeted, “It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!”
“If someone refuses to sign the Republican affirmation, they can’t vote in the Republican primary,” says Charlottesville Electoral Board member Rick Sincere.
State code allows parties to use pledges, says Sincere, and both Democrats and Republicans have used them in the past.
At the polls on primary day, voters will be asked in which primary they want to vote, says Sincere. Once a voter has asked for a Republican ballot, “it’s a matter of public record,” he says.
Because Virginia has an open primary, there’s nothing to keep members of one party voting in another’s primary, says Geoffrey Skelley with UVA’s Center for Politics. In 2000, the state GOP “had a pledge for voters to sign promising to not participate in the nominating process of another party in the hopes of discouraging such behavior,” he says.
Reaction among city Republicans has been divided, according to Barbara Null, chair of the Republican Party of Charlottesville and co-chair for the Ted Cruz campaign in the 5th District. “This whole thing could be avoided if we registered by party in Virginia.”
“It’s not an oath,” says Albemarle County Republican Committee Chair Cindi Burket. “It’s an affirmation that people voting in the Republican primary are Republicans.” She says she’s telling party members it won’t inhibit their right to vote.
Bedford developer Jim McKelvey, who is the 5th District co-chair for the Trump campaign and a candidate for the congressional seat, is not a pledge supporter. “I simply think [the Republican Party of Virginia] is attempting to manipulate the system against a couple of candidates they don’t want,” he says. “I think we’ve got a couple of candidates that scare them to death.”
It’s tough to say whether the pledge will have any outcome on the primary in Virginia, says Skelley. “My understanding is that the pledge is not legally binding, so there’s little to stop someone who doesn’t consider herself a Republican from signing it and voting anyway,” he says. “However, it could dissuade some people from voting because they don’t want to sign something that might be viewed as a lie.”
Combat drama, 13 Hours, champions the American soldier while avoiding political overtures about the 2012 attack on American bases. Photo: Paramount Pictures
When news first broke that Michael Bay would be making theinevitable Benghazi movie, the(non-tinfoil-hat-wearing) world was of two minds. The most prominent reaction was groaning at two of today’s most tiresome utterances: Michael Bay and Benghazi. Those two references in the same sentence was reason enough to dismiss 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. And, of course, Bay made an aggressively apolitical yet patriotically charged movie about an elite group of gruff soldiers with wives and kids back home who are constantly proven correct over snippy, snide and specifically non- muscular politicians. It’s as much a sure thing as Tim Burton adapting another nostalgic intellectual property as an excuse to put Johnny Depp in weird makeup—you just have to expect it.
Less visible, yet still present, was the optimistic view that this was the movie Bay had been waiting to make his whole life. He’s done elements of this kind of story well in the past; say what you want about any of his movies, but the man knows how to shoot the American military in action. And we saw glimmers of hope in 2013’s Pain & Gain, a deplorable film on the whole but not completely dismissable for its terrific performances and occasional wit.
The truth about 13 Hours is somewhere in the middle. This is not Bay’s secret masterpiece, nor is it the predictably awful fare that we have come to expect. The film tells the story of the September 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi by militants on two American bases of operation: an above-board consulate hosting Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and a covert CIA base. The film is primarily from the point of view of the soldiers (John Krasinski, James Badge Dale, Pablo Schreiber and others), who are hired hands and have no personal or political attachment to any particular diplomatic goals or the host country of Libya.
The defenses of both locations are weak, relying on the help of untrained or unreliable local militias. Making matters worse is that the head of CIA operations for the base (David Costabile) has little respect for the soldiers or their collective warzone experience, dismissing every concern they raise for either political or possibly personal reasons. As the attack commences and gradually escalates, bureaucracy is sidestepped as the soldiers take over, defending the CIA base from infiltration after the official consulate had been lost and with it the life of Ambassador Stevens.
Bay treads very carefully to avoid infusing the film with a specific political message, never mentioning either President Barack Obama or then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This is admirable yet futile, as any film on the subject will be inherently political. Neither conspiracy theorists nor defenders of Clinton will have their minds changed about the events, and both will likely become more trenchant in their stances after viewing. But there is an inherent distrust of government and a somewhat troubling worship of people who bleed red, white and blue as their only qualification.
It’s fine that the film views the government as being wrong and the soldiers as being right, but unexplored are the many occasions in history in which immediate deployment would have been exactly the wrong move. Everything in 13 Hours boils down to a premise that soldiers are nice people who love their families, while politicians are weaselly and have a troubling lack of American flag tattoos. Whatever your point is, you can make it without all that.
Once the action begins, Bay’s direction comes to life. Boxed in by four walls and enemies that seemingly come from all sides, the battle is as much survival horror as it is action, rivaling American Sniper’s stunning, terrifying battle sequences. Both sides of Bay are on full display here: the one who loves action and the soldiers who put themselves in harm’s way for our safety, and the one who hates anything and anyone who might be perceived as intelligent. If anything, 13 Hours shows that we shouldn’t give up on Bay just yet, but here’s hoping he hires a second director to handle dialogue and characterizations for his next outing.
With so much going on in the executive branch, it's easy to neglect what's happening in the General Assemblyl as the session hits its . midpoint. File photo.
Ah, January in the capitol, when Virginia’s legislators swarm in from all corners of the commonwealth for the annual General Assembly session, bringing along the petty grudges and crackpot bills they’ve managed to generate over the previous year.
And every year we sit in anticipation, just waiting for the next intemperate floor speech or ill-considered legislative proposal that will, once again, make Virginia into a national laughingstock. (The high-water mark for this sort of thing was, of course, 2012’s forced transvaginal ultrasound debacle, which earned our humble Assembly months of mocking comedy-show coverage.)
But even before Virginia’s senators and delegates could push through the swarm of lobbyists and find their seats, the session was already mired in controversy. On the Senate side, reporters discovered that their customary perch on the chamber floor had been removed by Majority Leader Tommy Norment, and that they were now banished to the upper gallery. When asked about this and other rule changes, Norment—who has apparently never heard the old adage “never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel”—smiled slyly and said, “What new rules?”
Meanwhile, over in the House of Delegates, the Republican majority had to take the unusual step of closing out a months-long special session before gaveling in the winter session. The purpose of the fake session was to keep Governor Terry McAuliffe from using his recess appointment powers to keep Justice Jane Roush on the Supreme Court (he did it anyway). Republicans, who claim they have no problem with Roush herself, are almost certainly going to replace her simply because they object to the way she was appointed.
And then, with all of these unseemly preliminaries out of the way, it was on to the big show! The first order of business for us, of course, was to scan the reams of submitted legislation to figure out which bill or bills would become notorious as the year’s stupidest piece of proposed law.
There were, as always, many contenders (barring sex offenders from owning Kids First license plates, criminalizing referee-punching, limiting the crime of “brandishment” only to those who point a firearm at someone with “the intent to induce fear”), but this year’s idiotic idea award has a clear winner: Spotsylvania Republican Delegate Mark Cole, who introduced a bill mandating a fine for schools that allow any student to use a bathroom or locker room that does not match his or her “correct anatomical sex.” Besides the reprehensible homophobia and bullying of transgender students inherent in this proposal, the real-world effect of such a law would require that school officials inspect the genitalia of any child who wanted to use the bathroom—not exactly the family values scenario we imagine Delegate Cole was going for.
Not to be outdone, Cole’s fellow delegate Rick Morris used his valuable floor time on opening day to give a speech for the ages. He began by incongruously praising the Black Lives Matter movement (Morris is a well-known religious conservative). But then he quickly clarified that he didn’t mean the movement “that calls for the killing and injuring of our law enforcement and the destruction of our cities. …I rise for the original Black Lives movement.”
What followed was a long-winded, rambling diatribe that equated America’s “national sin” of slavery to abortion, repeatedly invoked the stalwart Republican “a-bo-lutionists” who apparently single-handedly ended slavery, and helpfully explained that “if you are okay with the harvesting of the body parts and tissue of those murdered children then your soul is walking with Satan.”
And yes, in case you were wondering, there was a hearty round of applause as Delegate Morris returned to his seat. And so it begins.
Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.
Americana party music leader Robert Earl Keen ventures into the bluegrass field at the Jefferson on Thursday. Photo: Darren Carroll
It’s rare to catch musician Robert Earl Keen’s name in print unaccompanied by the word iconic. As with the archaic bestowal of knighthood’s Sir, the ubiquitous presence of the adjective testifies to supreme achievements. And while, in most cases, such an affixation is worth little more than its ability to inspire an ironic chuckle, in Keen’s case it’s pretty much spot-on.
With 18 albums under his belt (including three Billboard chart-toppers), perpetually successful tours, numerous awards, songs covered by Lyle Lovett, George Strait, The Highwaymen, Joe Ely, Nanci Griffith and the Dixie Chicks, as well as the album Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions (February 2015) presently holding down the No. 2 spot on Billboard’s bluegrass charts, Keen has proven himself to be an icon.
In advance of his show at The Jefferson Theater on January 21, C-VILLE Weekly talked with him via phone about his latest album, songwriting and the creative process.
C-VILLE Weekly: Your newest album, Happy Prisoner: The Bluegrass Sessions, is a pretty big departure from the style you’re most known for. What inspired you to take that leap and make the album?
Robert Earl Keen: I’ve been listening to bluegrass forever. I love it. And I feel I’m somewhat locked into it. Frequently enough, my own songs are formatted—not really instrument-wise, but verse/chorus-wise—like a bluegrass tune. It’s an affinity that developed over time, and I wanted to do something that reflected the depth of that feeling.
So, when I decided to do the album, I was working on the title and thought to myself, “I want something that’s unique and sounds original.” But at the same time I wanted it to reflect [all of the above]. It made me think about how my kids used to wear these crazy pajamas that had horizontal stripes, and my wife and I would call them the “happy prisoners.” That’s how I feel about bluegrass—like I’m a happy prisoner of bluegrass.
You didn’t write any of the songs on the album, and a good number of the covers are traditional standards. How did you approach the arranging process? Did you make a lot of alterations?
I worked with the band on this and, yeah, there were a lot of changes. Like, when we did “Poor Ellen Smith” and really made it soulful, adding some suspended chords that I thought really supported the lyrics. But there was other stuff, like The Stanley Brothers’ “The White Dove” that we did just solid and straight.
With Happy Prisoner I wasn’t out to reinvent the format. I mean, I love to do that, but at the same time, the risk is you just don’t do the song justice. So, as with my own [arrangements], I tried to think in terms of what would work for each song. Like, some things I’d say, “We’re going to keep this one nice and sparse.” Other things, “This one’s going to be really in-your-face.”
It was a fun process. I couldn’t be happier with the how the record turned out.
So many of your original songs tell vivid stories about unusual characters. Can you talk about where those stories come from and the process of setting them down?
It really varies with me. [Inspiration] can come from something small. Sometimes it’s me seeing some kind of scene or scenario in my imagination and then taking it on from there literally. An example would be the song “Gringo Honeymoon,” [which] is pretty close to a journalistic telling of an exact story.
But I think every good piece of fiction stems from a true story…that all stories come from some kind of point of truth. It just depends on how much your imagination kicks in. So I try to get a range. Sometimes it’s being as imaginative as I can, sometimes [it’s] trying to write down exactly what happened, because—to [risk] be[ing] cliché—in some instances truth is stranger than fiction.
Regardless, I always feel like I have this inner need to have some kind of wrap-up…some sort of dramatic ending. I like drama—in movies, books, songs, any kind of narrative. So, yes, that’s almost always my intention.
There’s another prevalent narrative strain in your songwriting concerning dead-end scenarios and relationships where things just don’t work out. What’s the attraction?
I think the only way you can tap into some kind of an emotional well is to always be putting yourself into the situation. Even with the smallest of relationships, I think there’s this inner need to have some kind of touchstone or some sort of connection with that other person. And many, many times you just barely miss it.
Those sleepless nights where you can’t figure out what’s going on, and you spend hours and hours trying to work it out—like, “Where did I miss that connection?” or “Why did it dissolve?” or “Why didn’t it come to its fruition?” That sort of stuff is great material for a song. I actually think about those kinds of scenarios more than I do any other kind of narratives. Those experiences fascinate me because it’s something everyone has to live with; it’s a part of life.
Check out tracks from Robert Earl Keen online at c-ville.com/arts.
Wastewater will be discharged from the Bremo Power Plant in Fluvanna County. Photo by Robert Llewellyn
The State Water Control Board officially approved Dominion’s permit to dump wastewater into two Virginia rivers January 14.
The wastewater will come from coal ash pits at the Bremo Power Station on the James River and the Possum Point plant on the Potomac River. The board took two separate votes, tallying 5-1 for each permit.
In a previous C-VILLE report about the Bremo Power Station in Fluvanna County, Dominion spokesperson Dan Genest said as soon as the permit was issued, the company would start building two treatment facilities on the property. All wastewater will be treated before it’s discharged, he said.
The Department of Environmental Quality had previously issued the permit, but allowed public comment until December 14.
“We are disappointed that the board voted to approve a lax permit that fails to protect the health of the James River,” says Brad McLane, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville. “We are seriously considering an appeal of the permit.”
Alt-country rock trio plays makes a stop on its final tour at The Southern on Thursday. Photo: Publicity photo
Nashville trio Those Darlins tops off a rock ‘n’ roll groove with alt-country flair on its final tour before a permanent hiatus. The group started out covering Carter Family tunes on traditional mountain music instruments such as the washboard, and became known for its saucy songwriting and versatility within the rock genre. Its 2011 album, Screws Get Loose, is notable for its garage-rock style, and 2013’s Blur the Line leans into classic rock territory.
Thursday 1/21. $10-12, 9pm. The Southern Café & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Mount Eagle Farm has had “many unexplainable occurrences of activity,” including cabinet doors knocking, sounds of footsteps and reported sightings of apparitions. Photo by Mina Pirasteh
A 324-acre historic farm in Albemarle County will be adopted into the county’s Acquisition of Conservation Easements program, which will permanently protect the land from any future development. But perhaps a bulldozer isn’t the only entity the property needs protection from.
The Twisted Paranormal Society, a Virginia-based ghost hunting group, took two trips to Mount Eagle Farm in 2014, at the request of a current owner, Debbie Kavanaugh. In case files on the TPS website, the group says owners of the 12-room plantation home have experienced “many unexplainable occurrences of activity,” including cabinet doors knocking in the kitchen, sounds of footsteps coming from the second floor and reported sightings of apparitions, with the most notable evidence being the report of an owner waking up to a man standing over a baby’s crib in the room. When he approached the figure, it allegedly vanished.
The main dwelling at Mount Eagle was built in 1850, according to the National Register of Historic Places, and though many families have come and gone, it was once inhabited by Charles L. Lewis and his wife, Lucy Jefferson—Thomas Jefferson’s sister. The house has been vacant for several years.
Lyle Lotts, a TPS member who edits the footage captured by the team, says Mount Eagle Farm will be featured on episode four of “The Twisted Realm,” a DVD series that will debut in the next couple of weeks.
On the first trip to Mount Eagle, investigators heard a loud moan coming from somewhere inside the house, and during the second investigation, “a lot of stuff happened on the second floor and the basement,” Lotts says. Aside from that, he’s not giving away any spoilers.
Carol Sweeney, a current owner of the property, says she’s felt the presence of a spirit in her home.
“I always just feel something,” she says.
Sweeney says she’s “very, very pleased” with the way ACE coordinator Ches Goodall handled the acquisition. “Not that I’m against development,” she says. “I just feel like once a farm is gone, it’s gone forever.”
Goodall says Mount Eagle is one of the best easement acquisitions the county has ever made—and that paranormal history is not considered when selecting a property to enroll in the ACE program.
“I guess I heard Mrs. Sweeney joke about the ghost in the old house,” says Goodall. “But having ghosts in haunted houses is not one of the criteria we use to rank and score a property for conservation value.”
The property at Mount Eagle Farm was the second-highest scoring applicant in the program’s history with 72 points. Any property that scores at least 20 points is eligible for consideration.
Mount Eagle was particularly attractive to the ACE program because 6,900 feet of the property lines the Rivanna River, 9,000 feet adjoins other easements, 1,000 feet fronts Route 53, which is a major entrance corridor, and it has about 250 acres of fertile bottomland, according to a county release.
The Board of Supervisors established the ACE program in 2000 in response to growth and urbanization. With the addition of Mount Eagle Farm, the program has protected almost 9,000 acres of land.
Students at The Village School, an all-girls private middle school. Photo: Amanda Maglione
It took two men with a vision to create an all-girls village
On the Tuesday before winter break, a spirited debate has broken out in Jamie Knorr’s sixth-grade history class at Village School, the all-girls middle school he and Proal Heartwell founded two decades ago. A few of Knorr’s students have just delivered their soliloquy, a dramatic discourse based on a character from Rosemary Wells’ Red Moon at Sharpsburg, which they spent several weeks preparing.
“One thing I’ve been thinking about,” Knorr says, “is I’m not clear why we have grades. The deal is, if everyone does what’s asked of them, and does the best she can do, why, on this assignment, is there anyone here who would be upset by not receiving a grade?”
Several hands shoot up, and Knorr points to Ella. “I kind of want to get a grade,” she says. “I know everyone would get an A, so it wouldn’t be meaningful, but I still want to get one.”
“The grade itself doesn’t matter,” counters Penelope. “But I would like to talk to you and get an idea of how I did.”
“It would be awful if you didn’t put a grade on our report card!” an outraged Kayleigh says.
“But you’d have my comments,” Knorr says.
“On this we should have a grade,” insists Julia. “I like your comments, but I feel like it would be so annoying if this didn’t count for more.”
“But you’ve accomplished so much, and you did a good job,” Knorr says. “You have that internal gratification. You did a great job. You feel great. Isn’t that the reward?”
“I understand that,” says Laurel. “But on our report cards, it’s nice to have something that shows our achievement. Even with your comments, we don’t know if we would have gotten an A or a B.”
On it goes—until a bell signaling the end of class rings. But instead of gathering their belongings and heading for the door, the 11- and 12-year-olds continue to make their cases for why grades do or do not matter. Finally, with a broad smile, Knorr tells the girls it’s time to get a move on: “I don’t want you to be late for math class.”
Wanna be startin’ somethin’
“A lot of what I try to do is just get the kids to relax and trust in themselves and their instincts because they are talented and creative,” says Proal Heartwell. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Knorr and Heartwell met more than 20 years ago when both were teachers at Charlottesville High School. Heartwell had been teaching English for a decade, but says he wanted “to be in an environment that I had a little more control over.” A place, he adds, where the decisions weren’t made by people who were the furthest removed from the classroom. He and Knorr both enjoyed—and wanted to continue—teaching, but they envisioned doing it at a school that was run by teachers.
The pair’s research showed most families were happy with their elementary and high school experiences, but middle school was another story. It “felt like a forgotten area, and when [students] came to CHS, there were a lot of bright kids who lacked certain skills,” Knorr says. “Many were not strong writers or critical thinkers. They sometimes weren’t able to express themselves verbally.” Knorr and Heartwell thought they might be able to fix this if they opened a school where every teacher had the same children for grades five through eight. Not only would students develop academically, the pair reasoned, but teachers would instill in them confidence, self-reliance and the ability to speak up in class.
The initial reaction to Knorr and Heartwell’s plan was lukewarm. There were already plenty of good schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle, friends and colleagues reminded them.
“That’s why teachers don’t start schools,” Knorr says with a laugh. “People rolled their eyeballs at us.” But it was 1994, and Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls had just been published. In the book, which would sell millions of copies and spend more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list, Pipher, a psychologist, claimed we were living in a culture that “limits girls’ development, truncates their wholeness and leaves many of them traumatized.”
“On a pragmatic level, we needed a niche, something unique to Charlottesville,” Heartwell recalls. “There was a lot of discussion then about gender inequality in the classroom, and we had the opportunity to address that by being a single-sex school. We were convinced that a single-sex environment would allow [girls] to be who they are and focus on learning and risk-taking. We wanted to create an environment where kids could be most successful.”
For the school to succeed, the two men determined they needed 30 students in fifth and sixth grades in the first year. “We opened with 15,” Heartwell says with a smile. Their operating budget was $60,000, but enrollment doubled each year for the first four years, and the school has been fully enrolled since.
“The kids who came that first year were the pioneers who helped us create the traditions and the rules,” Heartwell says. “They taught [two former high school teachers] what a reasonable amount of homework is.”
For their part, Heartwell taught English, Knorr history, and both men taught P.E. They hired part-time math, science, music and drama teachers. They also hired a Latin teacher, and, to this day, some parents ask them, “Why Latin? Why not a modern language?”
“It’s not just about learning Latin,” Knorr explains. “Latin is something that reflects the spirit of the school—they’re both about challenging the girls and allowing them to experience their own power of thought. Latin is not easy, but everyone is in the same boat, everyone has to do it.”
Laurie Duncan, in her 11th year as Village’s Latin teacher, says learning the language “gives the students a key to their own language and unlocks doors to others. That all the students share this language also engages them more deeply in this intellectually rigorous, culturally enriching project.”
Asked about the school’s name, Knorr says, “We were way ahead of Hillary Clinton. We liked the linkage to the Jeffersonian idea of the academical village. And within a village, we take care of each other.”
In starting their Village, now the oldest all-girls middle school in the country, “it wasn’t just Proal and me,” Knorr says. A lawyer in Heartwell’s family stepped up, and Knorr’s wife, Nancy, is a CPA. A sister-in-law is a graphic artist and there’s a brother-in-law who’s a contractor. Knorr’s friends and family lent the pair $400,000 so they could buy the building the school now occupies at 215 E. High St.
“We watched our expenses, and we went year-to-year,” Knorr says of the early days. “Instead of saving money, we paid our teachers as much as we could possibly afford. It was always a concern that we did not have any fall-back.”
What they did have, though, was downtown Charlottesville: Village School didn’t need a library because a fine public one was two blocks away. McGuffey Park, Lane Field and the Key Recreation Center all served as the school’s gym, and students took art classes in the Old Michie Building, a former printing plant that was turned into a community arts space in the late 1980s. They volunteered every Tuesday at Christ Episcopal Church’s Loaves & Fishes and learned to dance at a studio above Hamiltons’ at First & Main. “Our location was attractive, and it continues to be,” Heartwell says. “I find it odd when schools don’t have a direct connection with their neighborhoods. Charlottesville is so rich in resources.”
In February 2015, the school paid $737,500 for the building next door on Third Street, which, when renovations were completed last fall, gave them another 3,300 square feet of space that is used for math, English and enrichment classes.
The ‘it’ factor
Head of School Eliza O’Connell is also Village’s P.E. teacher. “So much of what is important in life can be learned pushing yourself and participating on a team,” she says. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Casey Kerrigan, the mother of two Village School grads and a current sixth-grader, callsKnorr and Heartwell “true visionaries.” She says the time her older daughters—one in college at Oxford, the other recently accepted early action to Yale—spent at Village School “will always be the most significant four years of formal education they’ll ever have in their lives. We’ve witnessed that Village School gives its graduates this ‘it’ that’s hard to quantify, or even verbalize.”
Kerrigan says an all-girls middle school was appealing because research showed “that in mixed-gender schools, girls are called on less, receive less feedback and generally display lower self-esteem. We had been hearing the mantra that the middle school years are difficult for either gender, and that just getting through those years was sufficient. Then we met the Village School faculty, who are devoted to turning [that time] into a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunity.”
“Middle school can be a really awkward and difficult time for girls,” says Claire Wiley, a Village School alum who’s now a senior at Northwestern University. “Looking back, I feel like being around other girls I was close with, who were also going through the same things, made the whole experience much more comfortable. … I think my time in middle school was much easier than it would have been if I hadn’t attended Village School. I’ve had conversations with people my age who say that middle school was the worst time of their life, and I was lucky to have this not be the case.”
Eleanor V. Wilson, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, says the middle school years are when girls—and boys—are especially vulnerable as they are developing their sense of self-worth during these years. “In many ways,” she says, “if students aren’t given chances to develop their sense of self during this age span, problems may follow them into high school and beyond. Self-confidence that is encouraged at this critical time for both boys and girls is central to their becoming successful adults, no matter what path they may follow.”
And although many educators agree that girls tend to be overshadowed academically by boys in the classroom, Wilson says there can be drawbacks to same-sex education because separating boys and girls may “slightly influence social interaction with others. Also, some studies have shown that girls actually strengthen their sense of self-confidence when placed in academic dialogue with boys.”
In 2014, The Atlantic ran a piece titled “The Never-Ending Controversy Over All-Girls Education,” which quoted a Science piece co-authored by eight scholars who claim single-sex schools might actually reinforce cultural attitudes about gender differences and abilities, and leave both sexes unprepared to negotiate egalitarian relationships. Co-education, they say, gives girls and boys the opportunity to learn positive skills from each other. The authors also wrote that success at single-sex schools may have nothing to do with gender makeup, but rather with the characteristics of the students who enroll: Are they academically advanced to begin with? Does their socioeconomic status give them an educational leg up?
Eliza O’Connell, who was hired last summer as Village’s first head of school, has little time for questions like these. “Our goal is to give girls a voice, to engage curious learners and graduate students of the highest character who have a deep love of learning,” she says. The mother of three daughters, O’Connell says the school offers two things: a strong academic program and a single-sex academic and social experience “that just isn’t found in many schools. These are some of the most impressionable and vulnerable years of a girl’s life,” she says. “If girls come out of middle school confident and well-prepared, the sky’s the limit.”
Today Village School has 78 students enrolled in grades five through eight. They arrived from 14 different elementary schools, and the majority of them will go on to a public high school. There are between 32 and 38 “qualified” applicants for 20 places in each year’s fifth grade class, O’Connell says. All prospective students and their parents are interviewed, and every applicant takes the Woodcock-Johnson intelligence test. Following the end-of-January application deadline, the school’s entire full-time faculty of eight meets to “figure out” the incoming class, O’Connell says. “It isn’t about 20 girls who are exceptional at one thing; it’s about the strengths and weaknesses of 20 girls who will thrive together.”
Tuition for the 2016-2017 school year is $14,214, plus an annual $1,000 book, technology and activity fee. The school has a “very modest scholarship program,” says O’Connell, who has worked in development and marketing and sat on a variety of local boards, including the Virginia Discovery Museum, Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA and the Senior Center.
“In a perfect world, our tuition would never increase,” she says, adding that creating a stronger scholarship program is “an absolute priority” for her.
Asked how the girls transition from the school’s small, nurturing environment to larger public and private high schools, O’Connell says the academic part is relatively easy, but socially, it’s a big change. “Honestly, most of the girls are ready and excited for the opportunity and diversity that awaits them. They are not afraid to ask for help or get involved.”
For Claire Wiley, the transition to Albemarle High School, with an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, “wasn’t exactly easy, but it was one I wanted to make. After spending four years in a small school, I felt ready to make the leap.”
Heartwell says feedback from high school teachers is positive. “They tell us our kids are good writers, they’re organized and they’re comfortable with adults because they’re so used to the give-and-take and interaction with adults here.”
The next generation
Laurie Duncan, in her 11th year of teaching Latin at Village, says one of the best things about the school is that it “builds this amazing, supportive camaraderie” among the girls. Photo: Amanda Maglione
Knorr and Heartwell are both in their 60s (66 and 61 years old, respectively), which means they’ve begun to think about the future of Village when they retire. Hiring O’Connell, who spearheaded the purchase of and fundraising for the new building, allows them to do less administrative work and focus on teaching.
Twenty years in is “a natural time for the school to consider the next chapter,” says O’Connell, who, in addition to serving as head of school, has taught physical education classes at Village for two years.
“Nobody can imagine [Knorr and Heartwell] not being here,” she adds. But stepping back from administration “gives them the energy to stay and teach longer.” She sees her role as “remaining true to the pillars that Jamie and Proal created, which includes giving teachers freedom to teach what they are passionate about—real learning comes from having a passionate teacher.” O’Connell also does not “want to change the fundamentals of the school. I want to expand and go deeper where we have already been successful [as well as] create a network for our alumnae to promote each other and to be a voice for girls schools nationwide.”
It’s a chilly, gray January morning, and the girls in Heartwell’s seventh-grade English class are printing out final versions of their five-page “essay of inquiry,” which requires them to ask a question that doesn’t have a definitive answer and come up with their own conclusions. Heartwell tells his students that each of them will read aloud the first paragraph of her essay today. The student-selected topics range from “Where do superstitions come from?” and “What is art?” to “Can we really trust our brains when making a split-second decision?” and “What are the next steps in artificial intelligence—will robots one day take over the world?”
When it’s Libby’s turn to speak, she tells the class that her essay looks at how the stereotypes of princesses have changed our perceptions of girls. “The blue and pink divide,” she says.
“Are there any Disney princesses that are good role models?” Heartwell asks. “What about Belle? She likes to read books!”
“And Snow White is very kind,” says Libby, adding that her essay deals primarily with the physical proportions of princesses and how they affect young girls’ body images.
Heartwell points to Cordelia, who says her paper looks at the advantages and disadvantages of Title IX, the 1972 law that required gender equity for girls and boys in all education programs—including athletics—that were federally funded.
“The point you make about coaching,” Heartwell says. “What did you find out?”
“Before Title IX there were more coaching opportunities for women,” Cordelia says. “After Title IX, pay went up, and a lot of the coaching jobs went to men. Women were allowed to play sports but not coach.”
Now in his 31st year of teaching, Heartwell credits the energy and the age of his students for his longevity in the classroom. “They’re at a nice age and are not necessarily jaundiced about school,” he says. “I also have the opportunity to teach them for four years, so I get to know them well and I can challenge them in a non-threatening way that you have when you have a good rapport with your students.”
Heartwell says the girls are also willing to try things and take chances, “and they understand that things don’t always work out. Sometimes you fail, and this is a good environment for that to happen.” He likens what he does to something poet Wallace Stevens said: “You never write the perfect poem, only the poem that’s less wrong,” Heartwell quotes. “Well, we’re just trying to be less wrong.”
Village people
$4,500: Tuition for the 1995-1996 academic year
99: Percent of girls who start in fifth grade and graduate in eighth grade
16: Number of years the school has published Jambalaya, its student literary journal
1: Number of Village School grads to win the $30,000 Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship
0: Number of girls who have been turned down by the Math Engineering and Science; Environmental Studies; and Health Sciences academies at Albemarle, Western and Monticello high schools, respectively
“It all starts with teachers,” says Jamie Knorr. “Learning is a personal relationship, and you have to love what you do.” Photo: Amanda Maglione
13: Number of different colleges and universities that students from Village School’s Class of 2010 attend:
UVA: 4
Bates: 2
Yale: 2
Cornell: 1
Middlebury: 1
New York University: 1
Oxford: 1
Stanford: 1
UCLA: 1
Vassar: 1
Virginia Tech: 1
Williams: 1
William & Mary: 1
45: Number of miles Head of School Eliza O’Connell runs each week
Ryan McLernan started out on painkillers and his addiction escalated to heroin use. His goal now is to repay his parents for legal expenses and rehab.
Photo Mina Pirasteh
Ryan McLernan admits he’s an addict. But he’s adamant he never sold drugs until another addict—a confidential informant for the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force—asked McLernan if he could help him score. McLernan did, and, six months later, he was indicted for distribution of $50 worth of heroin.
The 22-year-old Western Albemarle High graduate was in Albemarle Circuit Court January 13 facing a felony charge and possible five years in prison. The jury deliberated for a little more than an hour before coming back with a not guilty verdict in a case that shines a spotlight on opiate addiction in the area and how JADE uses junkies to set up other junkies.
McLernan was already struggling with addiction in 2014 when he met Taylor Magri, who worked with his roommate in a Crozet restaurant. Magri testified he came to Charlottesville to get clean. “It didn’t pan out that well,” he said on the witness stand. He started using again and selling drugs to make money and keep using.
In April 2014 Magri was busted for selling synthetic LSD and marijuana. Facing three distribution charges, he entered into a contract with JADE: If Magri set up nine people, buying drugs from them two to three times each, two of his distribution charges would be dropped and the other reduced to a misdemeanor, said defense attorney Janice Redinger.
“It was a deal he could not turn down,” said Redinger. “He asked everybody for heroin.” And because he’d only been in the area a year and a half, she said, “It’s doubtful he knew nine drug dealers.”
One thing Magri did know, according to Redinger, was the addict mindset. “He knew how to prey on addicts. He makes it known to Ryan he needs him. He said he was feeling sick.” And sniffles for a heroin addict, she said, are a sign of withdrawal. “It feels like every bone in your body is being crushed with the worst flu ever. All Ryan wanted to do was help.”
Detective Matt McCall with the Albemarle County Police and JADE, who took part in a prostitution sting last February in which those busted could become confidential informants and buy drugs multiple times in exchange for having their misdemeanor charges dropped, testified that he wastraining to make controlled purchases of narcotics on October 14, 2014.
He met with confidential informant Magri, code named Pickford, searched him, wired him for audio and visual recording and gave him $50 to make the buy from McLernan in Crozet. McCall said he and another officer, Detective Joe Smith, strategized with Magri on how to get McLernan to make the deal so he could be filmed handing off the smack and receiving the cash after he told Magri he’d leave the drugs in the console in his car.
The prosecution showed a poor quality video of the deal that took a few seconds, and it was only by freezing the images that one could make out the transaction.
JADE typically makes multiple buys with its confidential informants before making an arrest.
“Shortly after this operation, McLernan wouldn’t return communication from the CI,” said Detective Smith, who acknowledged JADE did no further investigation into McLernan’s alleged drug dealing.
Six months later, McLernan, who was then living with his parents, getting treatment at a methadone clinic on Pantops and attending Narcotics Anonymous, was indicted.
Magri, who still faces charges in April, said he had set up 10 people and would say whatever he had to to get people to sell drugs to him. Judge Cheryl Higgins cited that testimony in allowing entrapment to be included in the jury instructions.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elliott Casey had the last word to the jury: “This is a dirty business, selling heroin.”
The jury apparently agreed, but not in the way the commonwealth intended, and came back with a not guilty verdict around 9:15pm. The jury believed the deal was entrapment, said a juror who refused to give her name. “I was the last to go with that,” she said.
Her advice to law enforcement: “They need to go after the dealers,” she said. And get better video equipment.
McLernan crumpled after the verdict was read. Later, he said he’s been on methadone trying to stay clean with the stress of a five-year prison sentence hanging over his head.
And despite being set up by Magri, he said, “I’m terrified JADE could retaliate” and put him in jail.
“They don’t look at me like an addict who needs help,” he continued. “They look at me like a felon who needs to be in jail.”
“I know that JADE has brought down big enterprises,” said Redinger after the trial, “but this isn’t doing anything but making a bunch of junkies felons. We ought to be better than that. This is the war on drugs on steroids.”
JADE’s Lieutenant Joe Hatter did not return calls from C-VILLE.
