Author: Charlottesville Tomorrow

Students at Buford Middle School are now learning about science, technology, engineering, and math in four state-of-the-art labs that feature 3D printing capabilities. The ribbon-cutting ceremony last week kicked off the Buford Engineering Design Academy, a $1.4 million, 9,600-square-foot renovation at Buford.

It also tagged Buford as the first public school in Virginia to become part of the Commonwealth Engineering Design Academies (CEDA)—a laboratory school that is a partnership between the University of Virginia, Charlottesville City Schools, and Albemarle County Public Schools.

Last summer, Buford students and faculty worked with UVA’s Curry School of Education and School of Engineering to design curriculum for the program. The new classrooms, which feature video-conferencing technology, will allow UVA education and engineering professors to participate in and observe instruction. Teachers using the new labs will meet with Curry and Engineering school faculty regularly to fine-tune operations.

In the coming years, CEDA will expand to include Charlottesville High School, as well as Albemarle County’s Jack Jouett Middle School and Albemarle High School.

Charlottesville-based VMDO Architects designed the new-look labs that feature indirect and solar lighting, giant touch-screen monitors, and moveable lab tables designed to promote student collaboration.

Director of Sustainable Design Steve Davis said the project pushes back against older classroom designs that resemble factories.

“Now when you talk to teachers and educators you hear a lot more emphasis on…collaborative learning, hands-on learning,” Davis said. “What it means is that the spaces and furnishings we need to support that radical change in how we teach and educate have to change.”

Both school divisions are talking about enhancing learning spaces. But during a learning spaces conversation at a September Albemarle County School Board meeting, Board Member Pam Moynihan urged her colleagues not to lose sight of the teacher’s role in student learning.

“Technology is great, a contemporary learning environment is great, but the teacher and that person-to-person individual communication is still what is going to engage that student the best,” Moynihan said.

Curry School professor Christopher Hulleman said that designing collaborative work spaces can work well because of the students’ social natures, but that doing so requires teachers to know their students’ personalities.

However Libbey Kitten, science coordinator for Charlottesville City Schools, feels that focusing too much on collaboration can skew the fact that it’s been a part of education for years.

“We’ve always had to communicate and we’ve always had to collaborate and perform critical thinking,” Kitten said, noting that students now have multiple ways to receive direct instruction. “The piece that’s different is technology.”

While Kitten doesn’t think schools can replace face-to-face interaction with technology, she thinks Charlottesville’s blended model will benefit the students.

“I think if we put it in front of the kids and watch them,” Kitten said, “we’ll learn from that.”

Charlottesville, Albemarle teachers pen digital mapping book

Two local teachers have written a book that will help educators teach history using digital mapping technology. Albemarle High School teacher Chris Bunin and Walker Upper Elementary School teacher Christine Esposito have co-authored Jamestown to Appomattox Court House: Using GIS to Teach US History.

The workbook, which offers teachers 30-45 minute activities that incorporate digital mapping into middle school U.S. history classes, is the result of a 2006 Teaching American History grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

“One goal is getting critical workforce skills in the hands of students well before they need them,” Bunin said. “GIS is one of the leading areas of need in the industry, and history is where students are looking at the most maps, so we need to get them looking at digital maps.”

Topics covered in the book include maps of the Constitutional Convention, the election of 1860, and the United States’ first census, in 1790.

The book, which is being published by Dallas-based Carte Diem Press, is due out in January 2014.

BULLETIN BOARD

Clark Elementary 5K: On Saturday, October 12, Clark Elementary School will hold the Buzz by Belmont 5K run. Participants who have yet to register are asked to do so by 7:45am. The race, which starts in front of Clark, will begin at 8am. For more information, visit www.clark5k.org.

Charlottesville PTO Meetings: Clark, Monday, October 14 at 5:30pm; Burnley-Moran, Greenbrier, and Jackson-Via all begin at 6pm on Tuesday, October 15; Venable, Tuesday, October 15 at 5:30pm.

Johnson PTO Fall Carnival: On Thursday, October 10 at 5pm, the Johnson Elementary School PTO will hold its fall carnival. For more information, call the school at 245-2417.

Albemarle Parent-teacher Conferences: On Thursday, October 10, from 4:30-7pm, the Community Public Charter School and Albemarle High School will hold parent-teacher conferences.

Katy Compel, Assistant Principal, Baker-Butler Elementary 

How do you balance respecting your school’s history and culture while educating young people for the future?

Baker-Butler has such a rich history and culture. I believe that embracing our past while focusing on our future is the only way to ensure that we remain the best school we can be. We have so many unique aspects to our school, such as the sculpture park, that tell a story through history but also look forward to the future and what the world will expect of our students.

Buford science teacher Sarah Edwards talks to a student during a lesson about temperature.

Nearly 100 parents and students came together at Albemarle High School last week for a discussion about historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

University of Virginia Associate Dean of Admissions Valerie Gregory stressed that college preparation should start in middle school, when students should begin taking advanced classes to prepare them for more challenging high school courses in the future.

Other topics included the historical significance of Greek organizations on HBCU campuses, as well as cultural differences African-American students will face at an HBCU.

Albemarle High School teacher Wes Bellamy said attending an HBCU has the potential to instill a sense of cultural pride in a young person.

“When you get to go somewhere and see individuals who are just like you and are achieving,” Bellamy said, “whose parents are doing well and you learn in your textbooks and readings that you come from a very rich lineage…it exudes through you.”

Albemarle High School will take interested students to an HBCU fair in February.

Promise Gala supports higher education

At the third annual Promise Gala last week, donors, scholarship recipients, and community members came together to raise funds for the Charlottesville Scholarship Program (CSP), a fund that makes financial gifts to help low- and moderate-income citizens further their education.

The program, which has provided 82 scholarships to date and is currently assisting 30 people, was established in 2001 when citizens called for City Council to invest a $250,000 budget surplus in the city’s future.

Adults, city schools graduates, and city employees are eligible for the partial scholarships that usually increase each year and renew until a student graduates. In addition to the financial support, board members also mentor recipients during their tenure in school.

This year the CSP honored Charlottesville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins with the Russell M. Linden Promise Award, which honors a community member who helps create opportunities for Charlottesville’s students to build futures for themselves.

Meriwether Lewis Elementary School named a Blue Ribbon school

The students at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School have outperformed their peers across the state, garnering recognition last week from U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes K-12 public and private schools that demonstrate high academic performance or significant gains in student achievement.

“I am enormously proud of our teachers, students and parents for their wonderful engagement with our school, for their enthusiasm for learning, and for the high personal standards they set for achievement,” Meriwether Lewis Principal Kimberly Cousins said. “Every member of our school community should be congratulated for making such a significant difference at our school.”

The Virginia Standards of Learning results released last week show Meriwether Lewis students’ scores surpassed state benchmarks. For the 2012-13 school year, 88 percent of the schools’ students passed in English, against a benchmark of 75 percent. In science, math, and history, pass rates ranged from 85 to 97, against a benchmark of 70.

Meriwether Lewis Elementary will be honored November 18-19 in Washington, D.C. with the rest of the nation’s Blue Ribbon Schools, including nine others from Virginia.

BULLETIN BOARD

Charlottesville school pictures: Johnson Elementary, Thursday October 3; Venable Elementary, Friday October 4.

Albemarle parent-teacher conferences: Albemarle High, October 2, 4:30-7:30pm; Monticello High, October 2, 4:30-7:30pm; Western Albemarle, October 2, 4:30-7:30pm; Murray High, October 3 from 3:45-7pm; Jackson P. Burley, October 3 from 4:30-8pm; Joseph T. Henley, October 3 from 4:30-8pm. Please call your school for more specific information.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR

Tamara Wilkerson Spanish Teacher, Jack Jouett Middle School

What has your classroom experience taught you that studying education could not have prepared you for?

The most important thing that I have learned in my classroom is to always expect the unexpected. When I decided to become an educator, I thought that as long as I planned engaging lessons and stayed organized, that my class would always flow smoothly. However, things don’t always go as planned, and even the most organized plans can shift and change. I’ve found that as long as I remain flexible and attentive to student needs, then learning will take place, despite schedule changes. I’m dedicated to making sure that my students learn, regardless of the small bumps in the road!

What teaching adjustments do you plan to make moving forward?

I truly believe in community involvement and I have a strong desire to teach my students how to become responsible teenagers as they grow to become community citizens. I plan to provide my students with opportunities to communicate with our English language learners, through an international food night and a lunch club. Not only will this allow the English language learners to feel  more comfortable at Jouett, but it develops my students’ cultural awareness inside and outside of the school. As much as I love teaching Spanish, I think that students should also learn life skills, and interacting with individuals with various backgrounds will help them in the future.

In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

I think that funding for education is one of the biggest obstacles that our nation is currently facing. It seems that every day we learn of a new budget cut or funding shortage for various student programs, as classrooms continue to get bigger. I am an advocate for ensuring that students and teachers have all of the resources that they need in order to make sure that learning happens, and financial shortages make it more difficult for teachers to provide that individual support that is necessary for student growth. I emphasize the quote that “teaching creates all other professions”, and if we place attention on more funding for education, then we continue to create leaders for tomorrow.

Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics.

Albemarle County Public Schools announced last week that the division has been reviewing its policy of reporting class rankings to college admissions offices. The review is the result of calls from parents who say it hurts gifted students who are not in the top 10 percent of their class.

Currently, Albemarle reports class ranks to colleges and universities in deciles, but former college admissions officer Fred Smyth said doing so gives selective colleges a reason to eliminate capable students who fall short of the mark.

Western Albemarle High School parent Elizabeth Ferrall argued that to stop reporting decile rankings would be unfair to those students who have earned them.

“They know the world is a competitive place and they are choosing to compete on the academic arena,” Ferrall said. “To take that away from them is really unfair for all the work that they’ve put in to get into the top 10 percent.”

University of Virginia Dean of Admissions Gregory Roberts said that while students are evaluated holistically, the rigor of their course load and how well they fared carries the most weight.

Staff are expected to make a recommendation on whether or not to stop reporting ranks and when that change would be implemented at the School Board’s first meeting in October.

Blue Ribbon Commission asks for population, tax projections

At the second meeting of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainable Schools Funding last week, commission member Steve Campbell wondered if future development in Charlottesville might cure some of the schools’ funding woes.

“Our ability to get a handle on [population projections] for the next five years either exacerbates our problems and makes this a more critical function or it actually by nature solves it,” Campbell said.

The Blue Ribbon Commission is a 13-member panel appointed by Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones to develop a sustainable funding model for the city’s schools.

Specifically, Campbell pointed to the nearly 1,100 housing units either under construction or under review in Charlottesville, and how the increased population could potentially increase the city’s tax base for schools.

Jones said staff would collect tax and population projections, but that it’s difficult to predict due to market fluctuations and the additional services the new population would require, which the city does not have to supply currently.

The commission hopes to deliver possible solutions to the City Council in December. The next meeting is on October 1.

BULLETIN BOARD

City schools accredited: All Charlottesville City Schools are fully accredited for the 2013-14 year based on last year’s testing scores, according to a press release sent out last week.

Buford Middle School parent-teacher conferences: On Thursday, September 26 from 3-7pm, Buford Middle School will hold parent-teacher conferences. For more information, please call BMS at 245-2411.

Albemarle parent-teacher conferences: Monticello High School, Tuesday, September 24 from 4:30-
7:30pm; Joseph T. Henley Middle School, Wednesday, September 25 from 4:30-8pm; Sutherland Middle School, Thursday, September 26, from 4:30-8pm; Western Albemarle High School, Thursday, September 26, from 4:30-7:30pm.

Charlottesville High School back-to-school night: On Tuesday, September 24 at 6pm, Charlottesville High School will hold back-to-school night for all grades.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR
Mark Cubbage, history teacher, Charlottesville High School

In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

How can you convince students that they are a gift, that they matter, and that they can create within this world great things when they are defined by a standardized test score? How can their creativity, innovations, and varied thoughts be embraced when standardized testing suffocates anything but rote learning? The challenge isn’t the test, but our apathy to do anything about it. The challenge is finding the motivation and courage to stand up and say, “I beg to differ,” to stand up and represent our students, in a world that does not often embrace change.

Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics.

Virginia’s public schools have two accountability systems that determine whether a school and division become accredited. Accreditation by the state reflects pass rates in math, history and social sciences, English, and science Standards of Learning tests. At the high school level, graduation rates are considered as well.

Albemarle County Public School officials are concerned about the second system, Annual Measurable Objectives, (AMO), which meets federal accreditation requirements. Designed to reduce gaps in student performance, AMO divides the student population into subgroups, establishing 36 benchmark pass rates that increase each year, and which all subgroups must meet in order for a school to make AMO.

In previous years, schools earned AMO by meeting benchmarks, reducing the previous year’s fail rates by 10 percent, or by using a three-year average of pass rates. Now, schools must meet benchmarks or be within 5 percent of the previous year’s score, whichever is higher, or reduce last year’s fail rate by 10 percent. Schools may still use the three-year average, but not if they met the benchmark the previous year.

This move could keep high-performing schools that score above benchmarks this year, but below their previous year’s score, from earning AMO. But it would allow lower-performing schools that score below benchmarks this year, but above the previous year’s score, to make AMO by using the three-year average.

“You try to believe that the state is trying to do what’s best,” Assistant Superintendent Billy Haun said. “But when you look at methodology like this, you have to think that they’re trying to fail people.”

AMO data is due out from the Virginia Department of Education on September 17.

CHS students receive top academic honors

Three Charlottesville students learned last week that they are among the top high school students in the country. Charlottesville High School seniors Samantha Brown, Malloy Owen, and Shaarada Srivatsa have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists—an honor that less than 1 percent of the nation’s pupils receive.

The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition through which students who earn top scores on the Preliminary SAT test can earn recognition and scholarships.

The students said they felt that the critical thinking skills CHS emphasized prepared them to do well.

“The way the classes have been conducted has been really good for me developing as a thinker,” Malloy Owen said. “The PSAT and SAT are supposed to measure reasoning ability, not knowledge, so I do think the texts I’ve been exposed to and the work I’ve had to do here has improved my reasoning abilities.”

Owen plans to study the social sciences, Srivatsa is interested in Spanish and medicine, and Brown wants to pursue engineering or computer programming.

Finalists and winners are announced in February and March 2014, respectively.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR 
Kiersten Luther, German teacher, Albemarle High School

In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

One of the biggest challenges facing education currently is the necessity to differentiate instruction for all students. Students come to school with different background knowledge, learn in different ways and at different speeds, have different strengths and weaknesses, yet they often receive the same instruction and are expected to produce the same result. Many teachers find it challenging (time-wise, at least) to plan and incorporate individualized instruction for each student. Successful differentiation strategies have been implemented by some teachers, but I believe this issue remains a challenge for many.

I expect that the tablets that we will be implementing into the German classes this year will allow us to better differentiate for students, whether it’s by simply changing the size of the font for some students or by allowing students to choose how many times they listen to an audio clip. I look forward to facing this challenge in the 2013-2014 school year and in the future.

What teaching adjustments do you plan to make moving forward?

Moving forward, I’m looking to incorporate much more technology into my instruction. This year is an exciting year for the AHS German department because my colleague, Ruth Trice, and I will be incorporating tablets into the classroom experience daily. I’m hoping to engage students even more through the use of technology in the classroom. As I plan lessons for this year, I will be thinking carefully about how these technologies can enhance instruction as well as expedite the language learning process for students.

I also hope to differentiate for students better this year and to give students more choices. I’d like to give students the option of using technology to do activities, assignments, and projects. The tablets will be helpful in differentiating for students due to the personalization opportunities they offer.

In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

One of the biggest challenges facing education currently is the necessity to differentiate instruction for all students. Students come to school with different background knowledge, learn in different ways and at different speeds, have different strengths and weaknesses, yet they often receive the same instruction and are expected to produce the same result. Many teachers find it challenging (time-wise, at least) to plan and incorporate individualized instruction for each student. Successful differentiation strategies have been implemented by some teachers, but I believe this issue remains a challenge for many.

I expect that the tablets that we will be implementing into the German classes this year will allow us to better differentiate for students, whether it’s by simply changing the size of the font for some students or by allowing students to choose how many times they listen to an audio clip.  I look forward to facing this challenge in the 2013-2014 school year and in the future.

 

BULLETIN BOARD

Charlottesville back-to-school nights: On Tuesday, September 17, the following Charlottesville schools will hold back-to-school nights: Clark Elementary, 5:30pm; Greenbrier Elementary, 6-8pm; Jackson-Via Elementary will hold a family dinner from 5:30-7:30pm and a PTO meeting at 6pm; Johnson Elementary, 6pm; Venable Elementary, 5:30pm. Burnley-Moran Elementary School’s back-to-school night will be on Thursday, September 19, from 5:30-7:30pm.

Albemarle back-to-school nights: On Tuesday, September 17, the following Albemarle schools will hold back-to-school nights: Cale Elementary, 6-7:30pm; Red Hill Elementary, 6:30-8pm; Scottsville Elementary, 6:30-8pm. Stony Point Elementary School will hold 3 events: Pre-K, 5:30-6pm; State of the School Address, 6-6:30pm; Grades K-5, 6:30-7:45.

ACPS Parent Council Meeting: The Albemarle Parent Council will hold its first meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 18, from 7-9pm in room 320 of the County Office Building. The group meets on the third Wednesday of each month, from September-May, and community members are welcome to attend. Wednesday’s meeting will focus on Council procedures and updates on school happenings since the last meeting.

Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics. 

Both Charlottesville and Albemarle schools saw pass rates drop on Standards of Learning exams in English and science, according to reports from the Virginia Department of Education.

Albemarle County students’ reading pass rate fell from 90 percent last year to 78 percent this year, while their writing pass rate went from 91 to 82 percent. Among Charlottesville students, reading pass rates dipped from 86 to 71 percent and writing from 81 to 68 percent.

Science pass rates declined from 92 to 84 percent in Albemarle and 87 to 76 percent in Charlottesville.

State and local education officials said they expected the declines due to changes in test format and rigor. The most significant change, Albemarle Assistant Superintendent Billy Haun said, is the change from test questions having a single correct answer, to possibly having two, three, or four right answers, all of which must be selected. Haun said that it usually takes two to three years to see pass rates rebound after changes.

Updates to the the social studies and math SOLs took place in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. This year, math pass rates registered 75 percent in Albemarle and 69 in Charlottesville, and social studies pass rates for both local divisions held steady in the mid- to upper-80s.

CATEC board funds firefighter training

CATEC’s firefighting course will live for another year, thanks to the technical education center’s Board of Directors, which voted last week to fund the class.

The Charlottesville Fire Department has supported the approximately $21,000 per year part-time instructor position in the past, but cut the funding for the coming year. The Fire Department will, however, continue to support the program by donating equipment and offering training in areas such as hazardous materials cleanup, amongst others.

School officials said that due to English and pharmacy technician staff, CATEC can absorb the cost for the coming year. Moving forward, the Board will include the firefighting program into its regular evaluation of programs, a step CATEC didn’t have to take when the program was funded externally, CATEC Director Adam Hastings said.

During the course, which has an anticipated enrollment of 15 for the fall semester, students are introduced to equipment use, as well as live firefighting and search-and-rescue procedures.

Walton implements improvement measures

Walton Middle School Principal Alison Dwier-Selden last week told the Albemarle County School Board that after a summer of focused effort, Walton is headed in the right direction. The report is the result of complaints about discipline, school leadership, and educational quality.

“My work is to preserve what’s going well at Walton, and take care of the things that need to be improved,” Dwier-Selden said.

The principal divided her efforts between academics, discipline, and communication.

To address parent and student frustration with a repetition of electives, Dwier-Selden said, staff worked with students and parents over the summer to place students in their first-choice electives—a move she said reduced the number of schedule changes in the first week of school. Additionally, staff split sixth-grade language arts into standard and advanced sections to mirror the seventh- and eighth-grade structures.

Walton staff also developed a student code of conduct in response to complaints about unclear discipline procedures and consequences. Staff published the code on the school’s website, shared it with students, and sent it home to parents.

Aimed at improving communication with both students and parents, the principal said she will be e-mailing all parents each Friday and will be holding regular lunch meetings with students to gather feedback.

“Part of our job at the central office level is making sure we’re working in a continuous improvement role,” Albemarle Superintendent Pam Moran said. “We go in and do a full assessment. Walton is a great example of us looking at the full picture.”

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR: Susan Northington, 3rd Grade Teacher, Jackson-Via Elementary School

Q: What has your classroom experience taught you that studying education could not have prepared you for?

A: Education cannot prepare you for what each student brings with them each day to school–the good and the bad. Knowing how to adjust your daily plan to these situations is what classroom experience teaches you.

Q: What teaching adjustments do you plan to make moving forward?

A: I will continue to build my relationships with my students and their parents. Our technology tools allow more instantaneous feedback than in the past and this helps with those relationships.

Q: In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

A: I believe that keeping the students focused on using education as a tool to better themselves is, and has been, a big challenge. Engaging the student on a daily basis can be taxing, but simply must be done to enable the student’s long-term success.

Through a recent request for proposals, Albemarle County Public Schools staff announced the division is looking to “rebrand” Walton Middle School. The request comes on the heels of numerous leadership and student conduct complaints, and the hiring of a new assistant principal, Rick Vrhovac, who came to Walton from Albemarle High School earlier this summer after parents’ concerns over discipline issues escalated.

The RFP cites a “wider perception that there are special problems at Walton that need to be resolved.”

Spokesman Phil Giaramita said the division is seeking the benefits of an outside perspective of the school’s climate, and told a reporter the effort was initiated by former Chief Operating Officer Josh Davis, who left the division in July.

“It’s an opportunity to examine what resources an agency could bring that we don’t have,” Giaramita said, adding that the division’s decision on whether to hire a consultant will depend on the proposals received and on cost.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR: Whitney Bullock, Kindergarten Teacher, Stony Point Elementary School

Q: What has your classroom experience taught you that studying education could not have prepared you for?

A: My first year experience taught me the importance of fostering a learning community. Creating a warm physical and emotional environment made the students feel comfortable in their learning space. As a result, my students became passionate learners who felt comfortable taking academic risks.

Q: What teaching adjustments do you plan to make moving forward?

This upcoming school year, I will focus on classroom learning spaces that foster independence. I have invested in designated learning spaces (e.g. math corner, reading jungle, etc.). In doing so, the students can take ownership of their space and develop as independent learners.

Q: In your eyes, what is the biggest challenge facing education currently?

We need more emphasis on making multiculturalism a more mainstream concept. Providing strong communication and engagement will better support multicultural families.

Our regular Education Beat reporting is the result of a partnership with the nonprofit community news platform Charlottesville Tomorrow, which covers growth, development, public education, and local politics. 

Fourth Albemarle high school in the works

The Albemarle County School Board last week rejected recommendations to focus resources on expanding existing schools to satisfy an expanding student population, leaving the possibility of a fourth high school in the county on the table.

During their discussion of the division’s capital improvement program, school board members unanimously agreed to continue the planning process for a new high school, despite the recommendation from the Long Range Planning Advisory Committee to build additions on Western and Monticello high schools. The committee had said the expansions would be a more cost-effective way to accommodate the growth in enrollment.

Also discussed were planned additions to Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, where construction is slated to begin next year as planned, and Henley Middle School, which could see a new auxiliary gym and modernizations to its media center. Other near-term improvements will include technology upgrades and security at county schools.

County board supports addition of student position

The proposal to add a non-voting student member to the Albemarle County School Board got further support last week, as board members took time at their Thursday meeting to discuss general requirements and duties of the future student representative position.

Also up for discussion was whether one student will take the seat or whether a rotational schedule would be adopted in order to increase student exposure to the school board.

The board members and the three County Student Advisory Council students present said they were excited about the student member cooperation. All preferred the rotational model for student participation in board meetings.

“We are looking for these students to speak up and become a part of the conversation,” said board member Pamela Moynihan.

The board was unanimous in its support of a student member, and directed staff to draft a detailed proposal on student rotation schedules and duties.

 Leadership program offers summer opportunities to county kids  

The second-annual Leadership Academy, a summer enrichment program for local high schoolers, is currently underway for Albemarle County students.

Students will explore and discuss the topic and skills of leadership such as goal-setting, strategy, and public speaking. They will also be free to follow and develop their own interests.

“Currently there are many fee-based opportunities for students in this area,” said Jennifer Sublette-Williamson, head of the County Student Advisory Council. “This program is free and county-led, allowing more students to participate.”

Sublette-Williamson said students from every county high school are participating in the program this year (attendance tripled from last year), and there are plans to expand in the future. She said she hopes the 30 participating students take what they learn during the summer and apply it during the year, as well as engage in discussion with their fellow academy members and other students.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR: Michael Thornton, kindergarten teacher at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School

Q: What is your favorite part of classroom teaching?

A: My favorite part of teaching is helping students understand that learning goes beyond school. I love it when a student comes to me and wants to teach the class about something that they studied and/or investigated.

Q: What is your favorite example of a rewarding experience you’ve had in the field of education?

A: Two years ago, I was asked to present at a conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I asked the organizer if my third graders could present instead of me. He loved that idea. My third grade students developed a one-hour presentation on using Twitter, Livebinders, and Skype in the classroom, and presented to over 300 educators via Skype.

Q: If you had to pick one, what do you think is the single most important issue facing the public schools today?

A: As a whole, the educational system is behind. Public schools settle on the status quo too much. The system needs to be more progressive. We have to teach to the 21st century. In fact, we should be thinking 10 years in advance. I ask myself, “What will my students need to be able to do in 10 years? What skills do they need to learn now to prepare them for an ever-changing future?”