Tag: Planning & Development

From coronavirus outbreaks to school shootings, parents are more worried than ever about their children’s safety and well-being at school. While Gov. Glenn Youngkin continues to push for school resource officers in all public schools, both Charlottesville City Schools and Albemarle County Public Schools ended their contracts with local police departments in 2020, amid nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. Criminal justice reform advocates have long pointed to police in schools as fueling the school-to-prison pipeline—which Black and Latino students disproportionately fall victim to—and failing to prevent school shootings.

CCS and ACPS have replaced armed police officers with trained unarmed community members—referred to as “safety assistants” and “safety coaches,” respectively—tasked with building relationships with students, monitoring hallways, de-escalating conflicts, addressing mental health concerns, assisting with security issues, and upholding the school’s code of conduct. While the school divisions have not yet collected formal data on student arrests due to the new programs only being a year old, administrators say their initiatives have been well received by both students and parents.

When asked what goes into hiring a safety coach, Jesse Turner, director of student services for ACPS, stressed the importance of finding applicants who can build close relationships with students.

Jason Lee, supervisor of facilities, safety, and operations for CCS, echoed this sentiment. “We hire people who are from Charlottesville that love Charlottesville and just have a vested interest in seeing students grow, and keeping our students safe,” he says. 

Nate Kuehne, a safety coach at Monticello High School in Albemarle, noted that building trust with students takes time and effort.

“I’m fair and consistent and I speak to people the way I’d want to be spoken to,” Kuehne says. He also emphasized the importance of providing students with structure and ensuring that they attend all their classes.

Due to his consistent enforcement of the rules, Kuehne says students went from seeing him as a “jerk” telling them to go to class, to someone who cared about them. He soon earned the affectionate nickname “stairway wizard” for his ability to seemingly appear out of the blue and find students hiding out in one of the school’s many staircases. By the end of the school year, he says, many of the students he had reprimanded the most became the closest to him.

When it comes to stopping physical altercations among students, CCS’ new safety model focuses much of its effort on preventive measures. “You create a relationship, you learn how to identify situations that may look like they could become a crisis,” explains Lee, “you learn how to identify students who had some kind of a level of trauma, and you try to understand how those things dictate or determine behaviors.”

Having someone in school who students trust is a significant advantage, adds Kuehne. Students often come to him when they hear rumors of potentially dangerous activity.

When safety assistants do have to physically intervene in a situation, the safety of students is always the number one priority. While assistants are trained to de-escalate and avoid physical intervention if they can, there are ground rules for intervention that are strictly followed. 

“If you are going to touch a student, you start by saying ‘excuse my touch,’ and explaining why you are intervening,” says Lee. “We do not teach any skills where a student is on the ground … you only restrain when they are upright.”

Last year, the Arlington County School Board also voted to remove SROs from schools, and the City of Alexandria briefly joined them before reinstating the SROs a few months later. While Youngkin’s proposal to require a cop in every public school was struck down in the General Assembly earlier this year, he continues to be a major advocate for SROs—in June, his administration awarded a $6.8 million grant to fund school resource officer programs across the state.

By Richard DiCicco, Carol Diggs, Brielle Entzminger, and Maeve Hayden

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: freshly sharpened No. 2 pencils, big boxes of crayons, and all the gel pens (erasable ones, please!). And we’re happy to report that schools in the city and county will look pretty much like they did pre-pandemic. Well, sort of. Charlottesville High has a new principal and orchestra director, while the county has a new director of equity, family, and community relations (hint: it’s the former CHS principal). Albemarle County has implemented antiracism and transgender support programs, and Chris Long’s EdZone was created to make sure city students have everything they need to hit the ground running when the first bell rings. And finally, three local students let us know what they’re looking forward to this year. So fasten your backpacks—we’re hoping for a less-bumpy ride in 2022!  

CHS orchestra director takes the baton from her mother

Life is coming full circle for Emily Waters, the new director of the Charlottesville High School orchestra. A CHS orchestra program graduate herself, Waters is taking over from her mother, Laura Thomas, who retired after 40 years with the award-winning orchestra. After three years of directing and teaching in Virginia Beach, Waters, who has degrees from VCU and JMU, returned home to Charlottesville in 2018 to direct the Walker Upper Elementary School orchestra. Teaching at the high school is a dream that’s been long in the making.

“When I came to Charlottesville to teach at Walker, it was my hope that I could move to the high school when my mom retired, so I’ve been planning this for a while,” says Waters. “I’ve been dreaming up all the things that we could do with the amazing support of the community and school system. With how the arts are valued in this community, the possibilities are really endless.”

Full of excitement and a healthy dose of nerves, Waters is looking forward to continuing her mother’s legacy, while also doing things a little differently. At Walker, Waters was known for blending strings with hip-hop beats in her classes and on her TikTok account, @thestringqueen, where she duets and accompanies modern beats with her violin.

“I started [TikTok] during the pandemic when I was looking for a way to connect with students,” Waters says. “It’s about using the instrument created hundreds of years ago to play the music we like today. I love to model that for my students.”

Making music more accessible for everyone is a huge part of Waters’ mission as a teacher. “I think it’s important for there not to be a bold line between the music that’s taught in school and the music that kids listen to outside of school,” she says. “The more students see that the music they love is valued in school, the more ownership they’ll take over what they’re learning.”

In addition to incorporating more genres of popular music into learning, Waters will teach a music appreciation class with a focus on music production. She also hopes to introduce electric instruments, and involve a variety of guest artists through masterclasses.

Keep up to date with the CHS orchestra at @blackknightorchestra on Instagram and chsorchestra.org.—M.H.

What are you most looking forward  to this school year?’   

Charlottesville High welcomes new principal

Earlier this month, Charlottesville High School welcomed Rashaad Pitt as its new principal, following Eric Irizarry’s move to a new job with Albemarle County Public Schools. With nearly two decades of experience in education, Pitt most recently served as assistant principal at George Wythe High School in Richmond.

After graduating from Virginia State University in 2006, Pitt was inspired to become an educator by Virginia Berry, then-principal of Peabody Middle School (which Pitt attended)—and the mother of one of his football teammates. He began his career as a history teacher in Petersburg City Public Schools, and went on to serve as a teacher, middle school success coordinator, high school dean of students, and career academy principal for a number of school districts, including Chesterfield County Public Schools and Hampton City Schools.

As CHS principal, Pitt hopes to build strong relationships with students, parents, and the community at large, drawing from his expertise in restorative justice, community outreach, professional development, and instructional leadership. Pitt has already begun making introductory calls to families, “so that parents have a sense of the expectations [and] feel like there’s a means of support in the classroom,” he says.

“All the curriculum and pedagogy is great, but if I want to have a relationship with that student, and I don’t understand their learning style, there could be a potential barrier there,” he says. “If I know what the triggers are for my students, how I can best teach them, and check in with them daily with a morning greeting at the door, and do some informal check-ins … [that] creates a more welcoming and warm environment in the classroom, which opens up opportunities for learning.” 

Using the “wealth of resources” already available at CHS, Pitt also aims to continue the school’s support and wraparound services, like counseling and case management, and increase student engagement across all grades. “If students see themselves within the curriculum and see that they have a voice in their education, it promotes more buy-in in the classroom,” he says.

Pitt received a master’s degree in education from Walden University, and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Regent University. He is a contributing author for volume 2 of Next in Line to Lead: The Voice of the Assistant Principal, and is the father of three children.—B.E.

Former CHS principal joins Albemarle County Public Schools

After six years as principal, Eric Irizarry said a bittersweet good-bye to Charlottesville High School this summer—but he hasn’t traveled far. The new director of equity, family, and community relations for Albemarle County Public Schools, Irizarry will strive to build strong, meaningful relationships with students, families, and community partners, ultimately ensuring all of the division’s stakeholders have “a place at the table when we make important decisions,” he says.

By going directly into neighborhoods, Irizarry aims to foster connections with and receive input from families across the county, especially those “we have not heard from,” he says. ACPS recently hosted a back to school event at Southwood Mobile Home Park, where division staff met over 300 families, provided class schedule and bus information, and signed students up for library cards at Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. 

“It’s those types of connections where we are actually going into the community, and actually listening, and then taking that information back to inform our decision-making process that has worked in the past,” says Irizarry. “If we work diligently, [we] can have that same success.”

As schools continue to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, Irizarry plans to put equity at the center of his work at ACPS, which serves families from over 90 different countries. He’ll be particularly “looking for areas where we’ve lost connection, meeting with those families and those stakeholders, and figuring out how we can repair what we have.”

Reflecting on his time at CHS, the former principal is most proud of the school’s persevering, supportive community.

“Navigating the high school through a very tumultuous six years, [starting] with the Unite the Right rally in 2017 … all the way to COVID,” was a challenge, he says. “[But] because of the relationships we built with students, we were able to close some of the academic gaps, and also increase our graduation rates. … [It was] one of the best experiences I’ve had in education.”

Irizarry earned a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctor of education from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In 2002, he began his career as an educator at New Hanover County Schools, later teaching at Gregory School of Science, Mathematics and Technology, and serving as assistant principal at The Roger Bacon Academy’s Charter Day School. In 2012, he led the reopening of D.C. Virgo Preparatory Middle School, where he served as principal until 2016.—B.E.

Chris Long’s Edzone makes sure students are ‘suited up’

Trust Chris Long to find a football analogy: You wouldn’t ask a football player to take the field without a helmet or shoulder pads. Yet when it’s time to go to school, says the former UVA and NFL star, “a lot of kids here in Charlottesville don’t have [their equipment]”—the basics like school supplies, socks, jackets, scrunchies, even toothbrushes.

Making sure kids are ready to play is the idea behind EdZone, the Chris Long Foundation’s educational equity initiative. Nancy Hopkins, the foundation’s executive director, described it this way: “We’re working to make sure kids can walk into the classroom confident, cared for, and ready to learn.” 

Last May, EdZone and Charlottesville City Schools partnered with education nonprofit First Books to add 2,000 books to the Burnley-Moran Elementary School library. First Books gives teachers vouchers so they can select books geared to the needs of their children based on age, reading level, and representation.

This fall, EdZone is outfitting Essential Needs Closets for all six Charlottesville elementary schools. Each school will receive $25,000 to purchase the supplies too many children lack, from school materials to basic hygiene products like soap, shampoo, toothpaste and clothing items like socks, gloves, or coats. 

The idea grew out of an event CCS held during the pandemic—a drive-through where families could pick up a bag of school supplies and other materials.

Each school’s Essential Needs Closet should be fully stocked by November 1, says Bianca Johnson, family engagement coordinator for CCS. Students are welcome to ask for items—but teachers, social workers, and counselors can also draw on those supplies when they see a child who needs something. “We’re all about empowerment,” says Johnson, “but sometimes the teachers see the need first-hand.” 

More EdZone programs are in the works, says Hopkins—not only in Charlottesville, Long’s hometown, but also in Philadelphia and St. Louis, the cities where Long was an NFL player.

Individuals or businesses that want to help with donations (or in any other way) can go to the foundation’s website at chrislongfoundation.org or contact Bianca Johnson at familyengagement@charlottesvilleschools.org.­—C.D.

Equitable education is a core value of ACPS

As students prepare for their next level of education this year, they’re also—whether they know it or not—gearing up for a significant period of personal growth. School plays an important part in how students see themselves and their place in the world, and Albemarle County Public Schools is renewing its commitment to ensuring it fosters a culture of equity and inclusion, so everyone feels welcome and ready to learn. 

This means telling a wider, truer story in history and social studies classes, and acknowledging contributions to the sciences that may have been overlooked due to various biases. And this year, with students returning to a more typical classroom environment, new accommodations and protections are in place for transgender learners. But ACPS’s anti-racism and gender-inclusive policies are more than just adjustments to the syllabus. They’re part of a wider “Learning for All” strategic plan that puts empathy, communication, adaptability, and inclusion at the forefront.

“When we think about looking at curriculum from a 360 standpoint,” says Ayanna Mitchell, director of equity education at ACPS, the goal is to “really uplift communities that are usually not uplifted around curriculum, even in math … [and] letting every student see themselves as a success in the future.”

Mitchell has been in education for nearly 30 years, and became an equity specialist a few years ago after a career as a K-12 teacher and administrator. Together with Eric Irizarry, director of equity, family, and community relations, they have used 2019’s anti-racism policy as a framework for expanding and redefining ACPS’s core values.

“Because of the work that we’ve done as a county around the anti-racism policy, a lot of what we are looking at with our transgender, gender-expansive policy just lies in anti-racist, anti-bias action steps,” says Mitchell.

According to the strategic plan, those steps include speaking out and challenging acts of racism, and maintaining “healthy cross-racial relationships.” Taking an active role in creating an inclusive learning environment is encouraged, and, Irizarry adds, ACPS even provides resources like an “equity decision-making tool” to make assessing unique situations in the classroom easier.

“It gives a framework and a process for leaders to take a look at a specific situation and make changes,” says Irizarry. “And it really causes them to think through, ‘How will this impact all students?’”—R.D.

When I got to Pen Park, the sky was threatening to open up and pour, as it had just hours before. Kara McClurken was keeping a close eye on the rain clouds as she zipped from person to person gathered at the playground. She was eager to get things started before the weather decided otherwise. This was a monumental occasion.

Here, planted in front of the slides and monkey bars, was McClurken’s latest project waiting to be unveiled: a grid of symbols printed on a large white sign. This new interactive element wasn’t there to be spun or climbed on, but to be used as a tool and reference for all children and caregivers to point at and better communicate with each other—a communication board. All the expected symbols are there: “Yes,” “No,” “Friend,” “Play,” “Swing,” “Slide.” But the board also includes more abstract terms, with prepositions (“In,” “Out,” “On,” “Off”), questions (“What?” “Where?”), and verbs (“Sit,” “Run,” “Catch”).

When the time came to present the installation to the public, McClurken stood proudly beside the board. “Communication boards not only provide tools for our nonverbal neighbors to communicate their desires,” she said to the crowd, “but just as important, they send a message to the rest of us that this space is an inclusive and welcoming place for everyone.”

There’s a lot of weight in McClurken’s words about “this space.” The 3.2 acres surrounding the existing play area are reserved by Charlottesville Parks & Recreation for the eventual development of a yearslong, more than $5 million accessible and inclusive playground. In a way, the communication board is a statement of intent for the park—the first completed project by local nonprofit Bennett’s Village, of which McClurken is co-founder and president. The organization is named for McClurken’s son, who lived with spinal muscular atrophy and used a powered wheelchair to get around. Her experience searching for an accessible park for him inspired her to found the nonprofit the day after Bennett died in 2018. The board signals to parkgoers that Bennett’s Village isn’t just an elaborate concept: It’s coming to fruition right here in Pen Park. And that, hopefully, will encourage contributions to their effort.

“As a nonprofit, you need to raise money,” says Riaan Anthony, deputy director of Parks & Recreation. “And in order to raise money, you have to put something in the ground.”

The genesis of the Pen Park communication board was in a Google search. Emily Hillaker, a chief resident physician in physical medicine and rehabilitation at UVA, wanted to secure grant funding for accessible playground equipment in Charlottesville. When looking for someone to partner with, Bennett’s Village popped up. 

“Their idea was a thousand times bigger than mine,” says Hillaker. “So I reached out to Kara, and they said, ‘Sure, go for it,’ to apply on their behalf.” When Hillaker became the first ever to win the $1,500 Rob Gotlin Community Leadership grant, they both agreed to put the money toward something that could be completed and installed in just a few months.

The design of the board itself was led by Margaret Hess and Susan Reed, who are assistive technology facilitators at the Piedmont Regional Education Program, which offers a variety of services for students with disabilities.

“A lot of people hear the word ‘technology’ and they think very hi-tech, and that is a lot of what we do,” says Reed. “But the definition of assistive technology is any item, whether it’s specialized or just off the shelf—could be from Walmart—that helps a person with a disability achieve a goal.”

Reed says that she and Hess have had to become “really good detectives” in problem-solving for student needs. And for the communication board, which they’ve previously developed for local schools, they worked with McClurken to determine exactly what symbols (drawn from an elaborate program called Boardmaker) would be best suited to kids of all abilities and backgrounds. That meant being considerate of pronouns, the depiction of people in the images, and sign language gestures for certain terms.

“Accessibility … requires a team,” says Hess. “It cannot be done just by one person alone. You have to be in it with people who really want to make the environment around us—whether it be digital or a playspace—accessible to all people.”

As the catastrophic effects of climate change continue to worsen every year, the City of Charlottes­ville has vowed to reduce its carbon emissions to 45 percent below 2011 levels by 2030, and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Last week, the city hosted a listening session to gather input from the community on its plan to address climate change.

Susan Elliott, Charlottesville’s climate protection program manager, told attendees that the city “has a commitment to addressing equity as part of their climate action plan” and knows there are “some voices that have not necessarily been a part of these conversations before.” 

“We are hosting these listening sessions to specifically try to bring those voices and those perspectives to the forefront so that we can bring all that input and have that as part of what we end up putting forward,” she added.

To ensure these new voices were given a platform, first-time participants were told to put an “n” next to their name as well as what group they were associated with. While many were associated with climate change nonprofits, such as Taproot Earth and the Sierra Club, some concerned residents with no particular affiliation also participated.

When polled on what climate issues were most important, there were a wide range of answers, from climate justice and natural disasters to public transportation and minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.

Elliott emphasized that the city’s climate plan, instituted in 2006, focuses not just on reducing greenhouse gas emissions but also on “climate adoption,” which recognizes “that climate change is happening, is going to continue happening, and the effects we feel are going to be getting worse.” 

When asked for their ideas on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Charlottesville, attendees suggested a range of potential solutions, from switching to more sustainable energy sources to making composting more accessible. Transportation, however, was an area that was brought up consistently, with one person suggesting the University of Virginia set up the proper infrastructure to bus in all its employees.

Kirk Dower, conservation chair of the Sierra Club, echoed these concerns. “We really need to reduce transportation needs around here and figure out a way to help people use buses and commute instead of driving,” he said.

Jeanette Abi-Nader, executive director of Cultivate Charlottesville, emphasized the importance of setting up public transportation in ways that can build food equity. “We should ensure that these routes are going directly to grocery stores, especially in low-wealth neighborhoods that might not have access to that,” she said.

Unfortunately, Charlottesville is just one city, and greenhouse gas reduction can only be solved through worldwide efforts, as many people pointed out.

“It’s nice to talk about reducing greenhouse gases around here but that’s not going to do anything on a global scale,” noted one participant, who stressed that Charlottesville should strive to set an example for other cities.

When asked what the main challenges would be to reduce greenhouse gases, funding, education, and convincing people to make major lifestyle changes topped the list.

“We really need to think about the way that the climate crisis is going to affect global migration patterns,” said Kendall Dix, national policy director of Taproot Earth. “There are creative ways that the city could look towards being really proactive in terms of developing public and affordable housing.”

The city will be having another virtual listening session on August 10 at 7pm, as well as a virtual town hall community workshop on August 17 at 6pm. To stay up to date on Charlottesville’s climate action events, visit charlottesville.gov/notifyme and sign up for alerts. 

Shortly after the pandemic hit, Mable Christian’s daughter’s work hours were drastically cut. Christian, who has lived with her daughter at Mallside Forest Apartments—a low-income housing complex in Albemarle County—since 2015, has been unable to work for years due to workplace injury, and currently lives on Social Security benefits. The mother and daughter eventually fell behind on their rent, and applied to the Virginia Rent Relief Program in February 2022.

“We provided everything—pay stubs, employment history, the first rent of the first lease…[But] everything just kept saying ‘pending,’” explains Christian. “We kept calling the [VRRP] to see what we needed, so we made sure that we did everything they required of us, [but] they said the rest was on the landlord.”

Mallside Forest, which is managed by Security Properties, never completed the landlord’s part of the rent relief application, Christian claims. The VRRP contacted the complex’s management multiple times, “but they just didn’t follow through,” she says. Still, Christian had hopes that their application would be processed soon, and they would receive enough money to pay off their past-due rent—until they woke up to a five-day pay-or-quit notice on their door on July 19. 

“We thought we were fine,” says Christian. “I thought everything would be going through.”

Christian’s situation is not unique—nearly half of Mallside Forest’s 160 units possibly received pay-or-quit notices on July 19, according to Legal Aid Justice Center. Residents—who must earn 60 percent or less of the area median income to live at the complex—have told LAJC lawyers that they applied for rent relief, but Mallside Forest refused to fill out its part of the application, preventing them from receiving any financial assistance. 

A Mallside Forest leasing office employee declined to comment for this story.

After lawyers from Legal Aid Justice Center visited Mallside Forest to inform tenants of their legal rights last month, Christian reached out to the nonprofit to take on her case. LAJC believes the complex refused to comply with the VRRP process because it was waiting until Virginia’s eviction protections expired on July 1 to proceed with evicting Christian and her daughter, along with other residents who were behind on rent.

Until June 30, landlords were required under state law to give tenants a written 14-day notice to pay what they owe before proceeding with an eviction, and were prohibited from evicting those who applied to the VRRP, unless they were not approved to receive relief within 45 days. Landlords who owned at least four units also had to offer a payment plan for past-due rent. But as of July 1, landlords only have to give tenants a five-day pay-or-quit notice before filing an unlawful detainer, and do not need to offer a repayment plan or wait for rent relief to arrive.

“We just didn’t know why they were just putting us on hold, and we were waiting, and everything was pending,” says Christian. “And now I know why—they were waiting for July to come.”

As local residents continue to struggle to find affordable housing, Mallside Forest could become one less option—the apartment complex is for sale. In a confidential offering memorandum provided to C-VILLE by LAJC, seller CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment firm, touts the “opportunity for conversion to market [rate] upon expiration of [Low-Income Housing Tax Credit] restrictions in 2028” as an investment highlight. Without these restrictions, rent for a one-bedroom apartment could go from the current price of $1,016 to $1,783 per month in 2028, while a two bedroom could go from $1,217 to $2,152 per month. Most, if not all, Mallside residents would be unable to afford such a large rent spike, and be forced to leave their homes—nearly 60 percent of the units are occupied by residents using Section 8 vouchers, according to the memorandum.

CBRE did not respond to C-VILLE’s requests for comment. 

Christian is currently working with LAJC to receive VRRP funding, and fight her eviction. For months, she and her daughter have been charged “excessive” late fees at Mallside Forest, trapping them in a cycle of debt, she claims. And every year since they’ve moved in, she says their rent has increased by more than $100, a hefty burden for people who live on a fixed income.

“It just seems like the only thing that I’m paying for is the fees, and it’s just putting me more and more in default as far as rent,” says Christian.

From 2012 to 2016, Mallside Forest filed around 120 unlawful detainers against its residents in Albemarle General District Court, according to online records. While a judge ruled in favor of Mallside Forest in about half of these cases, the other half were either dismissed, or resulted in a non-suit, which means the complex dismissed or withdrew the case.

As of August 2, the apartment complex has not filed an unlawful detainer since 2016. However, it has filed four garnishment cases against residents since 2015, including one in June 2022. 

Since last week, LAJC has knocked on doors at Mallside Forest, and taken on several more clients. It has also “received optimistic-sounding news from the property manager’s office to the effect that they are (now, at least) actively working with gov2go to get people’s balances paid. From the court website, it does not appear that anyone who received a notice on 7/19 is being sued as of yet … but we are prepared to defend these evictions in court if need be,” said LAJC attorney Carrie Klosko in an email to C-VILLE on Friday.

LAJC encourages all tenants facing eviction at Mallside Forest—or any other property in the Charlottesville area—to contact them, and know their rights. Despite the five-day deadline for a pay-or-quit notice, tenants do not have to leave their home until the entire eviction process is completed, which could take two to three months, or even longer.

“The five-day notice kind of scares a lot of people. A lot of people see it and say, ‘Oh my god, I have to leave after five days,’ [and] do what we call ‘self-evicting,’” says Klosko. “But really it’s just a legal formality that the landlord has to send before they can file an eviction case in court.”

After a landlord files an unlawful detainer, a judge must hear the case and award the landlord possession of the property in order to evict a tenant. The tenant then has 10 days to appeal the judge’s decision before the sheriff serves a writ of eviction.