Charlottesville City Schools will reopen virtually for all students, while Albemarle County will allow a limited selection of students to participate in in-person learning. PC: Eze Amos
After weeks of discussion and debate, the verdict is in: Charlottesville City Schools will reopen virtually for all students, while Albemarle County will allow a limited selection of students to participate in in-person learning. Both districts finalized their decisions at school board meetings on Thursday.
During the division’s virtual meeting, ACPS staff detailed the division’s five stages of reopening. Superintendent Matt Haas recommended the board approve the second stage for the first nine weeks of school. Most students will begin the year learning online only, but the plan makes an exception for students with inadequate internet access that cannot be improved, those with special needs who cannot fulfill their individual education plans at home, and English learners with low proficiency levels in fourth through 12th grades.
These students—an estimated 1,000 to 1,500—will be put into pods of 10 or fewer, and paired with a learning coach, who will assist them with their online coursework. Everyone will be required to wear masks and adhere to social distancing within the school buildings, which will be regularly cleaned and disinfected, among other mitigation measures. Bus service will be provided for families who request it.
All students and staff members coming into the school buildings will be doing so voluntarily, Haas emphasized throughout the meeting.
In the coming week, Albemarle will release more details on how it’s revamping virtual learning, which will include both asynchronous and synchronous coursework, and what actions it will take if a student or staff member involved in in-person instruction contracts COVID-19.
Ahead of Charlottesville’s virtual meeting, Superintendent Rosa Atkins recommended that the board approve an all-virtual model for the first nine weeks of school, pointing toward the rising cases and positivity rate in the area and many remaining unanswered safety questions. She emphasized that virtual learning in the fall would greatly differ from the experience offered in the spring, and would include a variety of new features, from social-emotional learning to peer engagement.
Both divisions will revisit their decisions in the middle of the first quarter to evaluate whether they will move forward with reopening, or stay in the same phase for the next school quarter.
Though all classes will be online, Charlottesville plans to host individual in-person, socially-distanced meet-and-greets with teachers, which students and their families will sign up for. Additionally, it is possible that a small number of students in great need of in-person instruction will be grouped into pods, and have classes in outdoor settings, said Atkins.
About 200 families in Charlottesville have indicated they need child care, she added. The division is working with community partners—including the Boys & Girls Club, Piedmont Family YMCA, and City of Promise—to figure out how to best provide assistance. Students could participate in virtual learning while at a child care center.
Feelings about virtual reopening were mixed in the county. Board members Judy Le and Ellen Osborne emphasized the various risks of in-person learning and lack of solid data on how the virus transmits between children, and preferred to start with stage one, or all-virtual classes.
“I just don’t feel like I can put our most vulnerable students into the middle of a grand experiment, and have them take that home to their communities,” said Osborne.
However, board member Katrina Callsen expressed concern for the families she has heard from who are unable to adequately participate in distance learning, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds.
The board initially did not agree to reopen under stage two, with members David Oberg and Graham Paige siding with Le and Osborne against the plan. However, Oberg changed his mind after a 10 minute break, and voted to approve it, along with Callsen, Jonno Alcaro, and Kate Acuff.
Albemarle parents and staff were also split on reopening plans, per the division’s latest surveys. Out of nearly 7,000 responses, 71 percent of parents ranged from “somewhat” to “extremely” concerned about sending their student to school for in-person learning in the fall, but 67 percent preferred that the division adopt a hybrid reopening model.
Meanwhile, 65 percent of staff respondents did not feel comfortable returning to the classroom.
If the pandemic worsens in the area—especially after UVA students return—Haas has the authority to revert the division all the way back to stage one without approval from the board.
While the Charlottesville School Board’s vote approving an all-virtual reopening was unanimous, results from a phone and web survey were split. A majority of staff (about 60 percent) preferred an all-virtual reopening, but families showed nearly equivalent support for face-to-face and online-only learning.
During public comment, most speakers advocated for a hybrid model, particularly for younger students and those from marginalized backgrounds.
“There is no clear consensus among families about the best path forward…I’m not sure why we are straying from the multipath system that was first designed,” said Richard Feero, who works for Abundant Life Ministries and lives in the Prospect community. “Choosing an all-virtual path to start the school year punishes working-class, predominantly Black and brown families in the city….Why not just give this small segment the option to have their children attend school in-person?”
During its school board meeting on August 6, Charlottesville staff will give a presentation with more details on how it will implement distance learning for students in special education, ESL, and preschool.
Albemarle’s next meeting is scheduled for August 13.
Volunteers pack bag lunches at the PB&J Fund on March 15. PC: Zack Wajsgras for CVILLE Weekly
In normal times, one in six Charlottesville residents—nearly 8,000 people—lack adequate access to affordable, healthy food. That’s 6 percent higher than the statewide food insecurity rate. And with thousands of citizens newly unemployed due to COVID-19, our food insecurity numbers have significantly increased, exacerbating underlying disparities.
Dozens of area nonprofits have been working for years to fight this complex, systemic issue, which disproportionately affects people of color, and when the coronavirus left many more residents in need of food assistance, these groups redoubled their efforts. What follows is a glimpse of a few of the local individuals and organizations that are feeding their friends and neighbors in need.
PB&J Fund
When COVID-19 shut down city schools, many students were at risk of going hungry because they’d lost access to their free (or reduced-price) breakfasts and lunches. The PB&J Fund, which teaches students how to make healthy, affordable recipes at home with their families, stepped in immediately, organizing volunteers to pack and hand out bag lunches on March 15.
The following day, city schools began distributing grab-and-go meals—but only on weekdays. To feed children on the weekends, the PB&J Fund set up a delivery program, dropping off bags of groceries on the doorsteps of more than 300 families every Friday.
“They are primarily shelf-stable items, with a little bit of fresh produce,” mainly from locally owned grocery stores, food banks, and farmers, says the fund’s Executive Director Alex London-Gross. “We want to ensure that people have options.”
While programs like this have been necessary in Charlottesville “for years and years,” says London-Gross, they are especially crucial now. With household staples flying off the shelves, it has been difficult for low-income families to get to stores in time to purchase all they need, often due to their work schedules. Charlottesville Area Transit’s reduced schedules have made shopping even tougher for those without access to a car.
“We have kids [waiting] at the front door who know what time their bag is going to be delivered,” says London-Gross. “They’re so appreciative.”
The PB&J Fund will continue to deliver groceries through the end of August, but plans after that are up in the air, says London-Gross. If city schools reopen (in some capacity), it may pivot to assist other community organizations with their food relief needs. It may also begin teaching cooking classes again, but in a virtual format.
We are really looking forward to “getting back to the educational piece of our work,” says London-Gross.
Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen
When local chef Harrison Keevil had to close down his family’s store, Keevil & Keevil Grocery and Kitchen, back in March, he immediately thought of his Belmont neighbors. What if they lost their jobs? How were they going to eat?
Right away, he began leaving 15 free lunches every day in front of the eatery for anyone who was hungry, no questions asked. But he wanted to do more.
By April, Keevil had forged partnerships with multiple area organizations that serve vulnerable populations—including PACEM, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, The Arc of the Piedmont, and The Haven—to provide freshly prepared meals, using ingredients purchased directly from local farmers.
And over the past few weeks, Keevil’s hunger relief program—called #FeedVirginia—has expanded its partnerships into rural areas like Goochland, Keevil’s hometown.
Chef Harrison Keevil has distributed about 24,000 meals through his #FeedVirginia program. PC: John Robinson
“We work with our partners to determine how many meals they would like, and either we or volunteers deliver it, or someone comes to pick it up from that group” every Tuesday through Thursday, says Keevil. “And Tuesday through Friday, we’re still putting out free meals in front of the shop.”
One-hundred percent of profits from Keevil & Keevil’s regular food and catering sales go toward funding the program, in addition to GoFundMe donations. While this new business model hasn’t been easy to adopt, says Keevil, the store has been able to stay self-sufficient, and currently has enough funds to get through the next few months.
“This has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done professionally, but it’s also been the most rewarding,” he says. Before starting #FeedVirginia, “I hadn’t realized how lost I truly was. It has definitely reset me, and opened my eyes to why I love cooking and why I got into it in the first place—to take care of people [and] put smiles on people’s faces.”
The program has distributed about 24,000 meals to date—and has no plans of stopping anytime soon. “We will do whatever we can to keep this going [and] make sure we’re always there, especially for the Belmont community,” Keevil says. “We are here to stay.”
Local Food Hub
As soon as the University of Virginia shut its doors in mid-March, Portia Boggs, communications director for the Local Food Hub, knew that things were about to get “really bad” for area farmers, who rely heavily on wholesale sales to schools, restaurants, and other institutions.
Her worst fears were soon confirmed: Following closures all over the city and surrounding counties, farmers reported a more than 90 percent drop in sales. They weren’t sure how, or if, they were going to make it through the pandemic.
At the same time, “grocery store shelves were empty, and people were freaking out about whether or not they would be able to get enough to eat,” says Boggs.
To both help farmers and meet consumer demand, the Local Food Hub created a drive-thru market, held every Wednesday and Friday in the former Kmart parking lot on Hydraulic Road.
The Local Food Hub hosts drive-thru markets twice a week in the former Kmart parking lot on Hydraulic Road. PC: Supplied photo
Because customers place their orders online, “there’s absolutely no contact between anyone,” says Boggs. They just have to show up at their designated pick-up time and put a sign with their name in their front car window, and employees will put their order in their trunk.
The model has been very successful, bringing in hundreds of thousands dollars in sales to date for its 20 vendors. More drive-thru markets have since popped up around town.
“We’ve been completely blown away by the support from the community,” says Boggs. “So many of our vendors tell us that we either played a huge role in or were responsible for keeping them in business, and making it possible for them to survive.”
To further help families facing economic hardship, Local Food Hub expanded its preexisting food relief program, Fresh Farmacy, which currently provides locally grown produce to 600 low-income families every week.
While there is no set end date for either of the programs, Boggs hopes that “once things normalize a little bit more, people will remember the benefits of local food systems, [as well as] everyone having access to equitable food,” she says. We need to “continue to invest in that and prioritize that as a long-term solution, and not just an emergency response.”
Cultivate Charlottesville
For years, the Food Justice Network, City Schoolyard Garden, and the Urban Agriculture Collective have fought together to create a healthy and equitable food system in Charlottesville. To better achieve their mission and amplify their impact, the three organizations decided in April to come together as one: Cultivate Charlottesville.
Since the start of the pandemic, each of Cultivate Charlottesville’s programs has been working to provide emergency food security response, tapping into partnerships to expand current initiatives and create new ones, thanks to “a huge swell in interest and support not only from donors but individuals,” says Cultivate Charlottesville’s Executive Director Jeanette Abi-Nader.
Every week, the Urban Agriculture Collective, which works with public housing residents to grow fresh food, has hosted a free community market for families in need, distributing produce from its Sixth Street farm.
In collaboration with nonprofits Charlottesville Frontline Foods and Charlottesville Community Cares, the Food Justice Network has given out freshly prepared meals from local restaurants—particularly those run by people of color—to public and subsidized housing residents, as part of its efforts toward racial equity.
Food Justice Network associate Gabby Levet believes the pandemic has strengthened Cultivate Charlottesville’s partnerships, helping it to better respond to future community issues. PC: Marley Nichelle
During Charlottesville City Schools’ spring break, volunteers from City Schoolyard Garden and the Chris Long Foundation teamed up to deliver 4,000 meals from Pearl Island Catering and Mochiko Cville to students living in neighborhoods with high enrollments in the free and reduced-price meal program.
And as a collective, Cultivate Charlottesville has partnered with the local health department, plus other community organizations, to sponsor free COVID-19 testing in Black and Latino communities, which have been disproportionately impacted by the virus. It’s also worked to provide wraparound services, including groceries, medication, cleaning products, and PPE.
“Working with so many people across sectors and coming up with solutions in short spans of time…unlocks so much potential moving forward to respond to other community needs and broader issues that arise,” adds Charlottesville Food Justice Network associate Gabby Levet. “Those relationships will not be lost.”
However, these relief programs, among others, aren’t intended to become the “norm” for achieving food equity, says Abi-Nader. “We still want to develop principles and practices to build towards that longer-term food security,” she says, such as by securing more land for urban gardens. We want this to be “a part of what the community sees as necessary for being a healthy and better Charlottesville.”
Blue Ridge Area Food Bank
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank—which provides food assistance to 25 counties and eight cities in central and western Virginia—was faced with a big challenge. With thousands of residents out of a job, a lot more food needed to be distributed to its community partners, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters. But BRAFB had a drastic reduction in volunteers, and needed to limit the amount of people allowed to work during a shift to 10.
Fortunately, it immediately received “a historic outpouring of support,” says Community Relations Manager Abena Foreman-Trice, “allowing us to spend more than $2.7 million in response to the crisis, with nearly all of that going toward food purchases.” When the food bank put out a call for healthy, low-risk volunteers, around 700 people signed up to give out food to their neighbors in need.
A volunteer from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank hands out bags filled with household staples. PC: Supplied photo
Thanks to this substantial backing from the community, BRAFB has been able to keep nearly all of its partner food pantries open. Using low and no-touch food distribution practices, like curbside pickup and home deliveries, it has safely served 15 percent more people than it did at this time in 2019—roughly 115,000 in May alone, according to its latest stats.
In collaboration with community partners, BRAFB has increased its outreach efforts to vulnerable populations. With the help of volunteers from the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, it has distributed and delivered food boxes to senior citizens in need in Charlottesville and surrounding counties.
“We can’t predict when things will go back to the way they were before COVID-19….our response to the pandemic could go on for many more months,” says Foreman-Trice. Nonetheless, “we can remain ready to help individuals and families when they need us.”
The Charlottesville School Board convened virtually on Monday. PC: Staff photo
As new cases of the novel coronavirus pop up each day, it’s become increasingly difficult for area schools to decide how and when to reopen. And after over five hours of discussion and debate on Monday night, the Charlottesville School Board got no closer to a definite answer.
Last week, the district rolled out a proposal for reopening, which would send students in kindergarten through sixth grade to school for in-person classes—with social distancing guidelines and safety measures—four times a week. Seventh through 12th graders would be split into two groups and alternate between in-person and virtual classes throughout the week, but would work from home on Fridays. All students could opt in to online-only learning, ahead of September 8, the first day of school.
A number of parents, teachers, and other community members raised concerns about this model during public comment at Monday’s meeting, pointing to a variety of ways in-person classes could go awry.
“I believe that people will get sick,” said Tess Krovetz, a second grade teacher at Jackson-Via Elementary. “Right now we can say with some confidence that COVID-19 does not affect children the same way it affects adults. But that’s because for the most part since March we’ve kept our children home and safe. Sending them back to school is a science experiment that can—and will—lead to trauma and loss.”
Krovetz and kindergarten teacher Shannon Gillikin penned an open letter to Superintendent Rosa Atkins and the school board in support of a virtual reopening, citing case spikes due to the state reopening, among many other concerns. To date, more than 150 staff members from across the district have signed it.
Instead of putting a large amount of time and effort into planning for in-person classes, they encouraged the board to focus on training teachers and parents for equitable distance learning.
Lashundra Bryson Morsberger was the only board member who fully supported an all-digital reopening. She believes there are “too many unknowns” about the virus, and that the community isn’t safe enough for in-person classes. She also thinks the proposed plan spreads staff too thin and does not adequately address concerns about contracting the virus, which could put them out of work “for months,” making it even more difficult to implement distance learning if schools had to shut down.
“We need to take this time to do the best plan that we can for virtual learning, instead of losing time now talking about a plan that probably in September will just be a distant memory,” she said.
Last week, more than 70 parents signed an open letter to the school district, asking for it to offer in-person classes five days a week.
Multiple speakers during public comment were strongly in favor of face-to-face classes, particularly for younger students, mentioning the equity and learning gaps exacerbated by distance learning in the spring. A significant number of parents in the district are unable to work from home, they said, and would be forced to find child care, which could lead to more risk of contracting and spreading the virus.
The board will make its final decision on either July 23 or 30.
“No matter what we do, we’re going to have someone upset with us,” concluded board member Juandiego Wade.
Adrienne Oliver, an instructional coach for Albemarle County Public Schools, believes all students will be able to see themselves in the history of the United States, once the Reframing the Narrative program is implemented. PC: John Robinson
As protests against police brutality continue around the country, school districts are tackling another form of systemic racism and oppression: whitewashed history. Since last year, Albemarle County Public Schools has been working to create an anti-racist social studies curriculum, elevating the voices and stories of marginalized people and groups, which are often misrepresented by (or entirely excluded from) textbooks. And now, the district is one step closer to implementing the curriculum—called Reframing the Narrative.
Last week, the district’s history teachers—joined by over a dozen partner organizations and more than 100 educators from Charlottesville City Schools, Virginia Beach City Public Schools, and other districts across the state—met virtually to begin constructing a more comprehensive and inclusive U.S. history curriculum as part of the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative.
Fully addressing our country’s legacy of slavery, racism, and inequity is not an easy task, and “dependency on textbooks of any kind will only preserve the status quo and dominant narratives,” says Adrienne Oliver, an ACPS instructional coach who participated in the virtual workshops. “The current state standards continue to uphold such narratives, and so a heavy reliance upon outsourced materials is, in my view, antithetical to our work.”
Rather than find new textbooks (Oliver says she has yet to see an anti-racist one), the curriculum will rely on relevant texts and resources, primary source materials, and classroom discussions and activities—all working to “resist a retelling of dominant narratives and put learning into students’ hands,” says Oliver.
After a team of editors reviews and refines the results of last week’s workshops, inquiry-based U.S. history units, containing learning plans and assessment tools, will be uploaded onto an online platform for ACPS teachers, along with those from CCS and other districts, to use starting this fall.
Under the anti-racist curriculum, all students will be able to see themselves in the history of the United States, examining it from a variety of non-traditional perspectives, says Oliver. Black and brown students, along with others from marginalized backgrounds, may feel more acknowledged and empowered, as they study untold stories of resilience and resistance.
The revamped history courses will also better prepare students, especially those who are white, to deal with uncomfortable issues in our country, points out Bethany Bazemore, who graduated from Charlottesville High School this year.
“The only way as a society we’re going to get past this is if white people learn to be uncomfortable,” says Bazemore, who is Black. “Black people have been uncomfortable for 400 years and counting.”
“You need to understand and reckon with your history to really address the problems of the present,” adds program leader John Hobson. “It’s all connected.”
Last summer, ACPS partnered with the Montpelier Foundation to jump-start the Reframing the Narrative program. With the support of a $299,500 grant from the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, history teachers from the division participated in professional development workshops at Montpelier, along with other field experiences and learning opportunities, during the school year.
Through these initiatives, educators “are able to understand possibly their own bias, and reflect and grow from there,” says Virginia Beach social studies instructor Nick Dzendzel, a participant in the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative. “It provides a whole new atmosphere inside of a school [or] department for those educators to start pushing for what they know and want to be right for the students—and not just adhering to what’s been done before.”
The CACF grant also helps to pay teachers as they develop the new curriculum outside of school hours, and funds student field trips to Montpelier, “centering the voices and experiences of enslaved people and the descendant community” at the former plantation, says Oliver.
Next year, the process will start over again, as Albemarle teachers update the division’s world geography curriculum for freshmen and world history for sophomores. The following year, the eighth grade civics and 12th grade government curriculums will also get an anti-racist makeover.
In partnership with ACPS and other state school districts, Charlottesville City Schools also began updating its social studies curriculum last summer. Participating teachers (who receive a stipend) have taken professional development courses at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center focused on local Black history, as well as curriculum-writing workshops and field excursions around Charlottesville.
Last year, CCS Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins was among those appointed to the Commission on African American History Education, which is currently reviewing the history standards and practices for the entire state. By September 1, the commission will offer recommendations for enriched standards related to African American history, as well as cultural competency among teachers.
The white supremacist violence of August 11 and 12 was a catalyst, says Oliver, but these massive curriculum overhauls were years in the making. Grassroots organizers and activists, along with individual educators, have been advocating for and implementing anti-racist curriculums across Virginia for some time.
“If you’re doing this [alone] in your own classroom, it’s easy to get weighed down by barriers, by administrators, and by parents for working against the grain. It’s hard to do that every day,” says Virginia Initiative participant Sarah Clark, who teaches U.S. history in Virginia Beach. “But when you’re involved in projects like this, it’s like a rejuvenation…I’m not doing it alone.”
Ahead of Thursday night’s meeting, city school board member Lashundra Bryson Morsberger tweeted her support for kicking cops out of schools. PC: Eze Amos
In light of the ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism, school districts across the country have cut ties with police—including here in Charlottesville.
On June 11, Charlottesville City Schools announced it was discontinuing its memorandum of understanding with the Charlottesville Police Department, ending its current school resource officer program. Instead, the district says it will put the $300,000 allocated for its four SROs toward a new “school safety model.” Albemarle County Public Schools will also reexamine its relationship with police.
The decision was a hot topic during the city’s school board meeting, held later that evening. Many parents, teachers, and other community members hopped on the Zoom call, and all but one voiced their support of the decision to end the memorandum.
“The removal of SROs is an evidence-based decision,” said Christa Bennett, who has two children in the school district. “There is no evidence that they prevent more violence than they cause, and in some cases, [they] are contributing to a school-to-prison pipeline:” higher rates of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests for students of color (though they do not misbehave more than their white peers).
When her child attended Jackson-Via Elementary, Robin Francis claimed she witnessed this violence firsthand, when an SRO got physical with a small black child unnecessarily on two occasions. As a person of color, the incidents were “terrifying” for Francis to watch, and reinforced her belief that SROs “do not encourage a sense of community—[but] create a sense of fear.”
Putting police in schools has had a “direct effect on [the] educational progress, and mental and physical health” of black students, added Amy Woolard, an attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Studies show police presence causes a drop in test scores, high school graduation rates, and college attendance rates for young African Americans, among other negative consequences.
Over the summer, the school board plans to host several feedback sessions, during which it will get input from the community, and the new program will be implemented by August 19, when the new school year begins.
While it remains unclear what the program will look like, CCS school board member Lashundra Bryson Morsberger hopes it will be supportive, rather than punitive, and thinks a lot more black counselors, social workers, and other support staff should be hired.
“Police in schools only serves to expose black children to the criminal justice system at a time when they should be able to make mistakes and learn from them, instead of being put into the system,” she says. “Security and safety can be accomplished in many ways, but it has to start with people from this community who know our kids and live in the same communities and neighborhoods.”
Leading up to its decision to dump the memorandum of understanding, CCS received hundreds of emails from students, parents, teachers, activists, and other community members calling for the removal of SROs, according to CCS Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins. Its equity committee, along with individual school board members, also reached out to many people and organizations to get their thoughts, both positive and negative.
Supporters of SRO programs argue that they keep schools safe, and help build relationships between students and law enforcement, which can prevent crime and acts of violence.
“On several occasions, the school resource officers were enlisted to ensure [my daughter’s] safety,” said Laura Brown, the only person who spoke against CCS’ removal of SROs during Thursday’s meeting. As Brown and the staff at Burnley-Moran Elementary worked to develop a treatment plan for her daughter, who is mixed race and has special needs, “the SROs were nothing but positive with her and provided her with much-needed security and reassurance.”
Others see the programs as a waste of money, among other criticisms. According to the Justice Policy Institute, most situations involving SROs can be handled by school officials. Though SROs have been ushered into nearly half of the nation’s schools to prevent mass shootings, they’ve also been present at many of the schools where shootings have occurred.
Many, including the Charlottesville Black Lives Matter chapter, have called on CCS to use the extra $300,000 to hire more teachers and counselors—particularly those of color. It could also fund the recently eliminated elementary Spanish program and other positions that were cut, suggested several parents.
After receiving numerous messages from the community calling for the removal of cops from schools, the Albemarle County School Board discussed its SRO program during its meeting Thursday evening. But ACPS plans to finish revising its memorandum of understanding with the Albemarle County Police Department, and may conduct an independent review of the program before moving forward with a decision, as suggested by the district’s Superintendent Matt Haas.
While the county school board agreed to discuss the issue again during its June 18 meeting, most of its members, including Judy Le and Katrina Callsen, supported removing the district’s five SROs, and funding mental health resources.
“I hear our black brothers and sisters, some of whom have been risking their lives in the streets for weeks to protest the generations of trauma from overpolicing and brutality,” said Le, who represents the Rivanna District. “How can being faced with the embodiment of that trauma every day make for a safe and positive learning environment?”
“When I’ve asked questions about it in our division, I’ve been assured that there are infrequent arrests made in our schools, which is great,” she added. “But it leads me to ask: ‘Why do we have the SROs at all? Why are we paying $265,000 for them each year?’”
____________
How much do cops cost kids?
By Ben Hitchcock
Charlottesville City Schools and the Charlottesville Police Department have discontinued the school resource officer program, which means that the $300,000 the schools were paying the police department can now be put toward other ends.
The school district’s total budget is well over $80 million, so $300,000 for cops in schools might not seem like much. But vast portions of those millions are tied up in fixed costs like real estate and building maintenance. The actual, everyday experience of students is determined, in large part, by budget decisions made on the margins.
For example, earlier this year, when the coronavirus’ economic downturn forced the district to tighten its budget by $1.16 million, CCS decided to cut, among other things, the entire elementary school Spanish program. Eliminating Spanish for elementary schoolers saved city schools $500,340.
The school district’s preliminary funding request for the 2020-21 fiscal year, released in January, gives a loose sense of the district’s aspirations, and also how much those aspirations might cost. CCS and the city spent the ensuing months haggling over whether these additions would be possible. This isn’t meant to suggest that the elimination of the SRO program means these positions will be filled, but the numbers below show the scale of the SRO program in comparison to the district’s other unfulfilled needs.
$300,000
School resource officers program
$97,076
Engineering teacher for Buford
$97,076
English language learners teacher
$75,820
Specialist for annual giving to solicit donations from affluent town residents
$43,470
Part-time orchestra teacher for Walker Upper Elementary
$41,525
Support for social-emotional learning program at Clark Elementary
Richard Shackelford—known as “Shack” to his friends—was a driving force behind the redevelopment of Crescent Halls. PC: Eze Amos
Beloved public housing advocate Richard Shackelford passed away in his Crescent Halls apartment on the morning of May 21, after a heart attack. He was 66 years old.
Shackelford—known as “Shack” to his friends—grew up in Charlottesville, on the corner of Fifth and Harris streets. For many years, he worked as a gym instructor for Charlottesville City Schools, and was heavily involved in his church, Mount Zion First African Baptist Church.
In 2014, he moved to Crescent Halls, a public housing complex for the eldery and disabled, with his wife, Sandy, after they lost their house.
For years, Crescent Halls residents protested against the 105-unit building’s poor maintenance, including broken air conditioners, sweltering heat, sewage flooding, broken-down elevators, and cockroaches. Plans to renovate the complex, as well as other public housing facilities, were made as early as 2010, but action had been notoriously slow.
Wanting to join the fight for change, Shackelford enrolled in the Public Housing Association of Residents’ six-month internship program, which trained him to be an advocate. After completing the internship in 2016, he went on to serve as vice president and president of the Crescent Halls Tenant Association, as well as vice chair of PHAR’s board of directors and a member of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority redevelopment committee.
While Shackelford advocated for public housing residents across the city, he was an especially strong champion for the redevelopment of Crescent Halls, says CRHA redevelopment coordinator (and former mayor) Dave Norris. Last January, CRHA finally approved a partnership with Riverbend Development and PHAR, along with two other developers, to completely renovate the more than 40-year-old building. Construction is set to begin this fall.
“He thought it was very unfair that people who had spent…and worked their whole lives in Charlottesville, in many cases, were having to live in such unfortunate conditions,” says Norris. “His advocacy for his neighbors was largely responsible for the fact that the city…and others have ultimately agreed to put about $19 million into renovating that building from top to bottom.”
Shackelford made sure his voice was not the only one heard, Norris points out. He helped to include more Crescent Halls residents in conversations about the building’s renovations, as well as other public housing issues.
“He really believed passionately that even if you were extremely low-income, you still deserved a voice and…a seat at the table,”says Norris.
Both inside and outside of meetings, Shackelford was friendly and encouraging, but “when he had something to say, he would be very firm about it,” says PHAR Lead Organizer Brandon Collins. “He’d been in Charlottesville his whole life and had a real perspective on things. He called [the city] out for not doing enough for poor folks, not giving people enough of a chance, [and] not using resources the right way to help people with homeownership…He was just really dumbfounded by the lack of help that poor people get.”
“He brought his personal experiences and family knowledge to the table with policy makers,” adds Legal Aid Justice Center Outreach Director Emily Dreyfus, who serves on PHAR’s advisory council. “He made a real difference in helping people understand some of the intentional wrongs that were inflicted on black people in Charlottesville over the decades.”
When not advocating for housing rights at meetings and community events, Shackelford could be seen helping his neighbors. He would often carry groceries for people and give out extra canned goods, says resident Alice Washington, who is now president of the tenant association.
“Not only did he love to cook—he could cook! He was always sharing food with people,” she says.
Shackelford ultimately touched many lives, and left a lasting legacy on our town. “He was a committed guy. He put in the work,” says Collins.
“All in all he was just a good person,”adds Washington. “We are going to miss him a lot.”
Since distance learning began in March, Marybeth Clarke has discovered many new things about her 14-year-old daughter, Elle, who is in seventh grade at the Virginia Institute of Autism’s James C. Hormel School. PC: Zack Wajsgras
To the relief of local teachers, parents, and students, this school year is almost at an end. The sudden transition to distance learning back in March posed a challenge to schools across the country, but it’s been especially tricky for special education and English as a Second Language students, along with their teachers and families. These students require individualized, hands-on assistance and care, something that does not lend itself easily to at-home learning.
When schools first shut down, many parents of special ed students did not know the specific strategies and practices that their children’s teachers used in the classroom, says Jessica Doucette, director of education services at Virginia Institute of Autism’s James C. Hormel School. Learning how to work with their student has been even more difficult for parents with full-time jobs, and single-parent households. Distance learning also removed those children from their much-needed classroom routines, which help them to manage behaviors and emotions, says Becca Irvine, a special education teacher at Baker-Butler Elementary.
When ESL students were taken out of the classroom, they lost a crucial learning tool: peer interactions. “English learners, in particular, learn by listening to their peers,” says Albemarle High School ESL teacher Renata Germino. That’s an especially big loss for students whose parents have limited English skills. In Albemarle County alone, there are kids from 96 different countries, speaking more than 80 different languages, according to Germino.
One of the biggest distance-learning challenges for ESL students, teachers say, is one many families have faced: internet access. Schools have provided Wi-Fi hot spots and laptops, among other resources. But some students still do not have adequate internet access. From ACPS’ Check and Connect program, which requires teachers and counselors to contact every student at least once a week, “we know there are 685 students, about 4.7 percent [of the division], who do not have home access to the internet,” says spokesman Phil Giaramita.
To accommodate them, teachers have sent learning materials through the mail, as well as delivered items in person.
And special education and ESL teachers have found a variety of other ways to meet their students’ needs.
Teachers at the James C. Hormel School have provided one-on-one training to parents of students with autism, teaching them how to work on specific skills with their children the same way they would at school, says Doucette.
These trainings and resources have helped Marybeth Clarke learn more about her 14-year-old daughter, Elle, who is in seventh grade at the James C. Hormel School.
“Obviously, I know my daughter inside and out, but I didn’t know her academically. As we approach new subjects and content every week, I have to gauge almost right away [if] there’s a skill missing that she needs in order to understand something else,” says Clarke, who is a stay-at-home mom. “Sometimes I see her do things I had no idea that she could do, and other times…[struggle with] things I had no idea she couldn’t do. It’s definitely a learning curve for me.”
While it was “very rough” for Elle when her school first moved online, she and her mother (with teachers’ support) have been able to establish their own routine at home, which helps Elle complete her work and feel at ease. Every school day, Elle writes in her journal, does online assignments, and receives one-on-one occupational and speech therapy through video chat—all at set times, and with plenty of breaks.
To best help their students, ESL teachers have been translating assignments into the students’ native languages, says Germino. They’ve also provided students with online articles designed for ESL, allowing them to change the reading level and have words read out loud.
But the biggest priority for both special ed and ESL teachers has been maintaining strong relationships and consistent communication with kids and their families, they say.
Like many teachers, Molly Feazel-Orr conducts daily virtual one-on-one meetings with each of her special education students at Burnley-Moran, during which she sets behavioral expectations and gives them a structured schedule for the day.
Teachers have also been videoconferencing regularly with parents, working with them to develop plans for every student that align with their individualized education programs, as required by federal law.
To regularly check in with students and their families, ESL teachers (who don’t already speak their language) use tools like Interpretalk, which puts an interpreter directly on the line, and TalkingPoints, which translates text messages in 100-plus languages. They’ve also used Zoom, Google Meet, and similar platforms to have one-on-one lessons, as well as bring everyone together to practice their English.
It currently remains unclear when students will return to their classrooms. According to Giaramita, the Virginia Department of Education will release a report this month “on timing and various scenarios for the reopening of schools,” which will have a “highly significant influence” on the decisions each school division makes—whether classes will be face-to-face, online only, or a hybrid of the two.
But for now, “we all need to offer grace to ourselves across the board—families, students, administrators, everybody,” says Germino. “This is all brand new for us, and we’re all working really hard to do the best we can.”
Rebecca Hill is the executive director of the Better Future Foundation, which is currently providing college counseling to a group of low-income students at Charlottesville High School. PC: John Robinson
While schools are closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, districts across the country have adopted alternative grading policies for the remainder of the academic year. Charlottesville City Schools’ middle and high schoolers who had a passing grade when schools closed on March 13 will automatically receive an A for each course, while those who weren’t on track to pass have been given online learning modules. Albemarle County has taken a different route, allowing high schoolers to choose between receiving a pass/fail/ incomplete or a letter grade.
For rising seniors applying to college this fall, these changes could make an already stressful process more challenging. How will colleges judge their academic performance during this unprecedented time? Will grades from this school year even matter?
According to college counselor Rebecca Hill, the answer is yes and no. It’s “still going to be necessary” for rising seniors applying to college to pass this school year. However, “because a lot of the school systems…have agreed to give students passes or A’s just for being able to complete work through March 13, final grades [won’t] have as much weight.”
While colleges will still take a critical look at students’ grades from before the pandemic, as well as the ones they receive in the fall (assuming schools are back in session then), they may place a heavier weight on other parts of their applications—including personal essays, extracurricular activities, and letters of recommendation—that demonstrate not just their work ethic, but their character as well.
Essay prompts, for instance, may ask students to describe what challenges they faced during the pandemic, and how they worked to address them, explains Hill. And students who found ways to help their community, such as grocery shopping for immunocompromised neighbors, might stand out among other applicants.
Colleges may also look for more ways students challenged themselves academically, both during the pandemic and throughout their high school careers,“whether that’s taking an online community college class [or] doing research for their own personal project,” says Hill.
But Hill acknowledges these changes may create more barriers for low-income students, who may not have the time or resources to be involved in their community or take on additional academic work.
Instead, they may have to work a part-time job, in addition to other responsibilities, in order to support their families.
“The jobs that work for them…don’t typically lend towards a lot of professional growth,” she adds. “But that doesn’t mean that…their essays won’t compel colleges to really think critically about what the particular circumstances were that they had to live through.”
Longtime counselor Parke Muth worries that college budget cuts could also put low-income applicants at a greater disadvantage. With universities currently “losing millions or, in some cases, billions from their endowment,” they may reduce their admissions staff, as well as offer less financial aid.
“If you say you’re going to look at [applications] holistically, but you have a smaller staff and resources, how do you do that?” says Muth, who worked in the UVA admissions office for over 30 years.
And at the many colleges that have gone test-optional for the next academic year (due to the ACTs and SATs being pushed back to June and August, respectively), it’s also unclear how schools will compare applicants with test scores to those without them, Muth points out. He encourages rising seniors to still take one, or both, of the tests—if they don’t get a good score, they can choose not to include it with their applications.
According to Adam Southall, a college counselor at Monticello High School, colleges have said that they aren’t going to hold students’ circumstances against them. While he is hopeful that admissions offices “will continue to do the same holistic practices they always have,” he remains concerned for marginalized kids.
“I have a feeling that it won’t be for another year that we see the educational fallout,” he adds. “Who got left behind?”
Jack Jouett teacher Heather Dow sits in her car outside the middle school to utilize the public WiFi. Dow lives in Greene County, and does not have a fast enough internet connection to take Zoom calls for work. PC: Zack Wajsgras
With Virginia’s K-12 schools shuttered for the remainder of the academic year, our city and county districts have moved into uncharted territory: figuring out not only how to teach thousands of students outside of the classroom, but also making distance learning accessible and equitable for all.
The districts say they are still developing formal distance learning programs, which will be rolled out after spring break, on April 13. In the meantime, some teachers in both the city and county have provided students with optional online modules and activities, reviewing previously taught material. Educators have also been using video conference services like Zoom and Google Hangouts to bring kids together.
Accessing these resources, however, is more difficult for some than others. Up to 30 percent of Albemarle County Public Schools students don’t have adequate access to the internet at home. And while Charlottesville City Schools do not have division-wide data on students’ internet access, its most recent CHS student survey indicated that 6 percent of households have no internet.
To bridge this digital divide, ACPS has boosted the WiFi signal at all of its schools, as well the Yancey School Community Center, allowing anyone to get onto the internet from parking lots. Several hundred cars have already been spotted taking advantage of this crucial resource, according to ACPS spokesman Phil Giaramita.
ACPS has also leased part of its broadband spectrum to Shentel, enabling the company to expand internet to more rural, underserved households in the area. With the lease revenue, it’s ordered about 100 Kajeet Smart Spots, which are “devices you can install in your house that will access the network of local carriers in your area,” explains Giaramita. Once they’re delivered, “we’re going to start distributing those to teachers [and students] who don’t have internet access at home,” and will order more as needed.
In the city, CCS recommends that students who have inadequate internet access connect to an AT&T or Xfinity hot spot, as both companies have recently opened up all of their U.S. hot spots to non-customers. The district is also distributing hot spots to students who are unable to use those publicly available.
Both city and county school districts are giving laptops to students in grades two and up who need them. ACPS also plans to distribute iPads to kindergarteners through second graders.
At CCS, learning guides are available online for pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students with suggested activities that do not require access to the internet.
Despite these efforts, CHS senior Jack Dreesen-Higginbotham remains concerned about the city’s transition to distance learning. “I know they’ve been working on trying to set up hot spots for students, but I don’t know if it will be accessible to everybody. And [still], not everyone has a school-provided laptop,” he says. “My brother, who is in sixth grade, wasn’t provided one, so he’s had to use mine to do his work.”
However, Dreesen-Higginbotham’s CHS teachers, who currently use Zoom, are doing a “very good job at instructing their classes and organizing lessons, so that they can be inclusive to everybody,” he says.
After spring break, both CCS and ACPS will provide more formal online—and offline—academic instruction and enrichment for each grade level.
“We’re looking at finding specific solutions for individual families, whether online, offline, or a combination,” says CCS spokeswoman Beth Cheuk.
“Offline could simply mean working with kids by telephone, by regular mail. We’ve asked teachers to be creative, so that there isn’t any student who is disadvantaged by their access to technology,” adds Giaramita.
While students will learn new material through distance learning, there will be no grading (or SOLs). Instead, teachers will provide feedback on a regular basis.
To former CHS teacher Margaret Thornton, now a Ph.D. candidate in educational leadership at UVA, this is an opportunity for local schools to explore different types of evaluation systems.
“I hope that we can make lemonade out of these lemons, and re-evaluate a lot of our policies—grading is certainly one of them,” she says.
“We’ve [also] known for a long time that our standardized testing system has created a lot of inequality,” Thornton adds. “We can be rethinking assessments at this time, and how we can make it more formative and more useful in instruction.”
Both school divisions want to ensure that as many students as possible graduate or are promoted to the next grade level. Per guidance from the Virginia Department of Education, students who were on track to pass before schools closed will do so. But on April 6, ACPS announced that if distance learning is not “the best fit” for a student, they will have the option to complete the school year by attending classes in July, or (excluding seniors) during the next school year.
While ACPS’ lesson plans will not go into effect until April 13, Giaramita says one of its distance-learning initiatives has already been implemented: Check and Connect. Students will now be contacted at least once a week by a teacher, counselor, administrator, or principal to talk about their distance learning experience, what assistance they need, and what their internet access is like. So that no student is left out, this contact can take place by phone, email, video call, or even snail mail.
CCS has also asked teachers to connect with each of their students to identify which ones need additional support, regarding WiFi or other issues.
Such practices may be particularly beneficial to those who do not have parents at home to help and support them throughout the day.
“So many service workers are being considered essential, and are doing essential work. But that means often that their kids are going to be home alone without adult interaction,” Thornton says. “The relationships between teachers and students are [going to be] key.”
Other teachers, parents, and community members have expressed similar concerns for students with limited access to adult instruction and interaction, such as those from refugee or ESOL families. And with a significant amount of students without adequate internet access, some fear students won’t be prepared for the next school year.
“It is really hard to live in the county and not have reliable [internet] access. We don’t even have cellular service so we can’t utilize a hot spot,” says Jessiah Mansfield, who has a senior at Western Albemarle High School. “If we need something important, we have to go to Charlottesville to download it. I’m sure we aren’t the only ones with this issue, but it will impact our children.”
However, others remain hopeful that teachers will be able to help their students make it through the rest of the semester.
“As the crisis continues and escalates, so does anxiety for all. Learning should be suggested. Remember we are at home trying to work not working from home. Connecting with my students is just as important for them as it is for me,” says Libby Nicholson, a fourth-grade teacher at Broadus Wood Elementary School. “We are in this together! We got this!”
Many local grocery stores have taken steps to protect customers from contracting COVID-19, but some have been more aggressive than others. PC: Staff Photo
Shielding up
While many businesses have been forced to close due to the coronavirus, grocery stores are busier than ever—and their employees have had to continue showing up for work, potentially putting themselves at risk. On March 31, some Whole Foods workers stayed home in a nationwide “sick out” to protest a lack of protections, and call for benefits like paid leave and hazard pay.
In response, the company has made some changes, but conditions for both employees and shoppers still vary widely among grocery chains. We checked in over the weekend to see how Charlottesville’s stores stack up.
Plexiglass shields have been installed in front of the registers at most stores (Wegmans and Reid Super-Save Market say they are coming soon).
Cashiers wear masks and gloves at Whole Foods, while those at Trader Joe’s, the Barracks Road Kroger, and Reid’s currently wear only gloves. Employees at Wegmans and the Food Lion on Pantops have neither.
Social distancing markers have been installed to keep customers six feet apart in check-out lines in all stores, and most cashiers wipe down registers between transactions.
Of the places we visited, Trader Joe’s seemed to be taking the most stringent precautions, limiting customers to 20 at a time in the store. Employees wearing face masks and gloves sanitize each cart before handing it off to a customer, and cashiers have no physical contact with customers.
______________________
For the record
As the virus has shuttered the economy, a record-breaking number of Americans and Virginians have filed unemployment claims. For one on-the-nose example of how bad things have gotten, head to the Virginia Employment Commission’s website—or don’t, because it has shut down, overwhelmed by the amount of new traffic.
Number of unemployment claims last week nationwide: 6.6 million
Number of unemployment claims last week in Virginia: 112,497
______________________
Quote of the Week
“Voters should not be forced to choose between exercising their Constitutional rights and preserving their own health and that of their community.”
—Allison Robbins, president of the Voter Registrars Association of Virginia, in a letter urging the state to cancel in-person voting in favor of mail-in ballots for upcoming elections
______________________
In Brief
Better late than never?
UVA announced on Monday that it will create a $2 million emergency fund for contract employees laid off during the university’s closure. The decision comes after student activists circulated a petition demanding action and C-VILLE Weekly published a cover story about workers laid off by Aramark, UVA’s dining services contractor. The article prompted two GoFundMe campaigns, which raised a combined $71,000 for the employees in a matter of days. UVA is also donating $1 million to the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.
Booze news
The Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority has begun allowing Virginia-based distilleries to deliver their products directly to customers. The state claims the new rule is aimed at helping distilleries maintain some income during the current economic freeze. While the policy will surely help the distilleries, it’ll likely be even more beneficial for the thousands of Virginians currently trapped inside with their families.
Spring (break) into action
This week would have been spring break for Charlottesville City Schools, so the district didn’t plan to offer grab-and-go breakfast and lunch for its neediest students. But City Schoolyard Garden and The Chris Long Foundation have picked up the slack by partnering with local restaurants Pearl Island and Mochiko Cville to provide 4,000 meals throughout the week.
Moving out
UVA will clear out three student residential buildings to make space for temporary housing for health care workers, the university announced this week. Students who left belongings when they were told not to return to school will have their things shipped and stored off-site by UVA. Students objected to the plan because anyone who wants to retrieve items before the end of the Virginia-wide state of emergency will be charged up to $100.
