Author: Charlottesville 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. 

Walton Middle School fills assistant principal vacancy

The county school division has hired Rick Vrhovac as the new assistant principal at Walton Middle School. Vrhovac’s arrival, announced last week, comes on the heels of numerous leadership and student conduct complaints at the school.

Vrhovac comes to Walton from Albemarle High School, where he served as assistant principal since 2009.

Prior to working in Albemarle, Vrhovac taught, coached, and directed athletics in Louisa County for eight years. He has taught science at Burley Middle School and in 1996 joined the staff at Albemarle High School, where he’s led the anti-bullying program “Stop One, Save One” since 2011. Walton principal Alison Dwier-Selden plans for Vrhovac to develop a similar program at the middle school and said Vrhovac’s experience working with eighth graders transitioning to high school will be a benefit.

Walton’s new administrator is a graduate of David Lipscomb University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education, and James Madison University, where he completed a Master’s degree in physical education

Foreign tongues for elementary kids

The Albemarle County School Board continues to update its Strategic Plan—the division’s main policy guidance document—and last week elementary foreign language instruction was named one of the board’s main priorities going forward.

New funding from the Board of Supervisors would be required to launch the new language program, which board member Diantha McKeel said county parents have been requesting for years.

Assistant Superintendent Billy Haun said cost, the grades included, and languages taught will depend on the program’s purpose, which can range from cultural awareness to fluency. Haun said as elementary students master world languages, the division will also have to adjust middle school language instruction, and the initiative would require hiring new teachers and central office staff. Staff will include the program in the upcoming budget approval process, which begins this winter. If approved, Haun said instruction could begin as soon as the 2015-16 school year.

The board adopted the current Strategic Plan in 2005, and reassess the plan’s priorities every two years.

M-Cubed: a partnership for math and life skills

Last week, members of the national African-American education advocacy group 100 Black Men offered local middle school students a lesson in why math matters.

The presentation at J.P. Burley Middle School was part of M-Cubed (Math, Men, and Mission), a year-long mentoring program with a two-week summer component designed to increase male African-American enrollment and performance in middle school mathematics. Twenty-one local professionals impressed upon the fifth- through eighth-graders in attendance the importance of education and self-confidence, as well as fostering an interest in completing advanced mathematics courses, such as Algebra I and Geometry, in middle school, saying doing so will help them start preparing for college early.

Other M-Cubed activities consist of reading about prominent African-Americans, mentoring sessions focused on homework, personal issues, and life goals, as well as mandatory workshops for the participants parents to reinforce these principles within the home.

UVA Health System Physician Dr. Ayotunde Dokun stresses the importance of mathematics to students during M-Cubed, a summer math-readiness program at J.P. Burley Middle School.—Tim Shea and Andrew Quarles

C-VILLE is partnering with Charlottesville Tomorrow to bring you the latest local education news—briefs from school board meetings, updates from the classroom, and interviews with educators. Look for our first Education Beat in Tuesday’s paper.

Price tag of Buford’s science labs doubles

City staff told the Charlottesville School Board last week that the price tag for new science labs at Buford Middle School had increased by more than $700,000. The project, which includes renovations to four labs and the adjacent corridor, was originally slated to cost $692,000, part of a $3.6 million, multi-phase project to build new and upgraded labs at Buford and Charlottesville High School. City Council allocated $3 million for the build in January. The expected cost of the Buford project alone is now at $1.42 million.

Staff members said the price increase is due to necessary updates to the school’s electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems, and increased prices due to the rebound in the construction market. They added that it’s likely construction companies passed on the project due to the short bidding period and quick turnaround time, resulting in a lack of competition in the bidding pool.

Richmond-based Caspian Construction won the bid for the project. Students are scheduled to be in the new Buford labs when they return to school in August.

County students gain a seat on School Board

Starting this fall, members of the County Student Advisory Council, a group of 9th–12th graders who represent the students from all of the county’s high schools, will represent their peers at the Albemarle School Board’s business meetings.

The result of a May 23 request to improve communication with the Board, the new dialogue will include a rotating CSAC member weighing in on agenda items of interest at the Board’s business meetings and rotating Board members attending CSAC’s monthly meetings. Student representatives will not have the power to vote.

The new relationship is being written into policy and it will be presented to the Board later this summer. Learn more at www.cvilletomorrow.org/topics/education.

Acuff enters county School Board race

Katherine Acuff, vice president of the board of Mental Health America Albemarle/Charlottesville, announced her candidacy last week for the Jack Jouett District’s seat on the Albemarle County School Board. Running on a platform of “science and health-related education,” Acuff said that all community members are stakeholders in our public schools, which provide for “cultural health,” and which draw economic development to a community.

The candidate holds a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, a PhD from the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, and an MS from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

School Board elections will be held on November 5, 2013.

MEET YOUR EDUCATOR: Zoe Padron, Clark  Elementary School

Q: What’s your favorite part of classroom teaching?

A: My favorite part is the excitement children get when they make connections between ideas and their own lives. It’s like they have learned there is a new color in the world, and they never saw it before. I love being a part of that.

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

The biggest reward in teaching is watching the growth that my students make from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I always have them set a goal at the beginning of the year and then at the end of the year we check to see if they made that goal. Invariably, they make it. That is reward enough.

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

I think one of the largest issues has to do with whether or not high-stakes testing is really an indicator of student learning, and if so, whether the learning it assesses is the kind of learning needed in the 21st century, given the incredible poverty and disparity our students have when they come into the schools.