Tag: Walton Middle School

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News

New view?

Mountain View Elementary. Photo: Albemarle County Schools

Earlier this month, Jennifer McArtor went online to enroll her kids in Mountain View Elementary’s after-school program for the upcoming school year, only to find out she could not register her rising fifth grader. Through another parent, she was surprised to learn that her daughter might be transferred to Walton Middle School, 10 minutes down the road.

Due to overcrowding at the elementary school, around 115 fifth graders could be sent to Walton in the fall. They’d be taught by Mountain View teachers, but would ride buses with middle schoolers and follow a middle school schedule, which is two hours longer than an elementary school day. 

Over the past two weeks, many parents in Albemarle County have called out the school district for its lack of communication and transparency, and registered disapproval about the potential transfer to Walton.

“I don’t think 10-year-olds are [mature] enough to be in a school with middle school kids,” says McArtor, who is the president of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization. “Their conversations are going to be vastly different from what a 10-year-old may be talking about.”

At Walton, parents fear their students will not have access to a playground or after-school care. They also may not have elementary-level guidance counselors, librarians, or teachers for electives like music and PE.

“[Families] are going to be forced to decide, ‘Is my child mature enough to get themselves to the bus stop in the morning and get themselves home from the bus stop?’” says McArtor. 

The students will also miss out on being “leaders of their school,” says parent Justin Alicea, pointing to the various leadership positions available to fifth graders.

Additionally, some students would have to move again after just a year because they are zoned for Burley Middle School for sixth grade. 

According to district spokesman Phil Giaramita, Walton principal Josh Walton is “in discussions” about adding recreational equipment and after-school programming for the young students.

Families have invoked equity concerns as well. Mountain View is the second-largest and among the most diverse schools in the county, serving many low-income Latino students from the Southwood Mobile Home Park.

“Fifth graders, wherever they live in Albemarle County, should be given access to the same resources and experiences,” says parent Karl Shuve. “How is this equitable?”

Parents also accused the school district of intentionally shutting them out of the decision-making process. During a parent meeting with Mountain View’s principal on May 18, a discussion about the fifth graders was the last thing on the agenda. And during last Wednesday’s community meeting about plans for the upcoming school year, parents claim the administration did little to ease their concerns.

“The county put together a propaganda piece,” says one teacher. “There is an absolute pattern of dismissive behavior for the parents here.”

Administrators have emphasized that the move would just be for one year, and a final decision will not be made until at least the end of June, when the district will have a better picture of what enrollment numbers look like for the fall.

“The school now is approaching 100 students over capacity [and] enrollment for the fall will be over projections once again,” explains Giaramita. “The other factor is the number of families that will select in person as opposed to virtual school.”

The district has set aside $6.2 million to add six classrooms to Mountain View, and plans to look into long-term solutions, like redistricting or building another school. Parents say overcrowding has been an issue for a long time at the school as developments have grown across the county, and the district has been slow to act. They urge the school to consider adding trailers to the elementary school or moving the preschool to a different facility. 

Parents would like superintendent Dr. Matt Haas and the rest of the administration to take responsibility for their mishandling of the situation too.

“They should at least say this is our mistake, and we’re asking fifth graders to pay for [it],” adds Shuve.

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Opinion

Mr. T: A son’s tribute to his father, a teacher who struck the right note

Greg Thomas, right, directed Albemarle High's jazz band, as well as every other band at AHS. Gloria Londono

By Price Thomas

Ask around Charlottesville and everyone (I mean it, everyone) knows Greg Thomas some way, somehow. They’ve had him as a teacher, their mom had him as a teacher (he’s been at this a while), or they’ve seen him perform with Big Ray and the Kool Kats and various other groups over the years. He was their YMCA basketball coach, their wedding officiant, or they saw his audition tape for Ghostbusters as a stunt double for Egon in the mid ’80s.

Suffice to say, he’s made an impression.

I’ve heard stories of his early days at Walton Middle School, a young educator passionate about teaching and engaging with students through music, and equally enthusiastic about skipping staff meetings.

I’ve heard about the renaissance of the Albemarle High School band program. Sure, they played harder music and continue to be the gold standard around the state and nationally. But the notes on the page pale in comparison to one of the most remarkable cultural phenomenons to take place at a public school: Band became cool.

Greg Thomas, center top, who retired this year after more than three decades in Albemarle public schools, made band cool for thousands of students. Ash Daniel

Where else do you find a band room full of athletes, “cool kids,” anime enthusiasts, and drama kids? And no, they don’t all share a love for the Dorian mode.

They’re together because Mr. T, as he’s affectionately called, created a place where young people, at arguably the most uncertain and tumultuous time of their lives socially, feel like they belong regardless of race, gender, fashion preferences, or perceived social standing.

He gave them a vocabulary to safely explore what they are yet unable to fully vocalize. He ventured beyond his remit as an educator year after year to meet students where they were, invest in them, and make them feel valued, from the piano prodigy to the kid who just needed an elective.

I sat in Mr. T’s class every day of high school (except for the two I was suspended—shout-out to Mrs. Stokes) as a bassoonist in the wind ensemble. Third row, far right, right next to his successor, Andrew LaPrade.

I watched Mr. T demonstrate articulation techniques by throwing food at a chalkboard (an egg makes one distinct sound upon impact, a ham sandwich makes multiple), and celebrate every student’s birthday with a “gift”—anything from a dented soccer medal to a sausage link to a used oboe reed—from the birthday box.

But I also know him as dad.

And there’s something that his tens of thousands of students can’t attest to. It doesn’t show up in Golden Apple Awards or superior district band ratings.

It’s the relationship between a young man and his father.

I spent the early years of my life wanting to be exactly like my dad. As many of us with great fathers can attest, they’re our models, our mentors, and you want to do everything just like them. I looked up to him, and I still do. Because he’s significantly taller than me.

As you move into those brace-faced, hormonally-unpredictable, rebellious teenage years, you’re supposed to recede, forge your own path, and become, you know, “your own man.”

I was supposed to get tired of being known as “Greg Thomas’ son.”

But I never did. And it’s a mantle that, 31 years and counting, I carry with unbridled pride.

I do so because Greg Thomas is the man who taught me that you don’t fail—you win or you learn. He showed me how to be an exceptional father, husband, and teacher, without sacrificing a shred of happiness. He taught me the power of being humble and the strength of conviction. He taught me that mashed potatoes look suspiciously like vanilla ice cream when put into a waffle cone, and that your socks technically can’t be on the wrong feet.

Now that he’s retired after 34 years of teaching, countless people have thanked me for “sharing my father” with them. Kids who have never so much as picked up an instrument have told me that he’s been a mentor to them and that it must be “so cool” to be his kid.

Spoiler alert. It is.

That’s the legacy of Greg Thomas.

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News

Some county residents have strong opinions about what’s appropriate for Black History Month

Walton Middle School is under fire for including City Councilor Wes Bellamy’s photo in a Black History Month display. Photo by Eze Amos

Controversy erupted recently over including a local politician and activist in a Black History Month display at Walton Middle School—and we bet you can guess who it is.

City Councilor Wes Bellamy had some community members clutching their metaphorical pearls when his photo appeared alongside those of historical black figures such as Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, and Barack Obama, in an exhibit of approximately 50 photos that lined several hallways of the school.

“It was a desire to slip a very non-deserving person over on the teachers, community, and, most horribly, the students,” says Tom Stargell, a retired Walton teacher of nearly 40 years, who helped open the school in 1975.

Stargell’s concerns also appeared in the Scottsville Weekly, where he asked a representative from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to respond.

Supervisor Rick Randolph, who represents Scottsville, said in a written note to the paper that the school board would be a more appropriate group from which to solicit a response, but he also offered a few of his own thoughts.

“As a former middle school teacher, my strong suspicion is that not a single student at Walton, unprompted by an adult, has taken offense to this photo of the Bellamy family,” said Randolph. “Even if a student did notice this inoffensive picture, Dr. Bellamy deserves consideration as a positive role model for all youth.”

County resident Denise Davis, in an email to ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas, disagrees. “I am trying to comprehend how and why anyone of you could arrive at such twisted logic that it is appropriate to place Wes Bellamy’s picture alongside of the distinguished African Americans in the hall at Walton Middle School. This is a man who is a known racist, has verbally made it clear he absolutely has no use for white people, and, as you may recall, made the statement ‘it is not rape if she moans.’”

Middle school principal Josh Walton said in a statement that Bellamy is among the local black leaders who volunteered to work with students in the M-Cubed program at the school, which was developed to help male African American students improve in math. His wife also works at Walton.

“The use of Mr. Bellamy’s photo, nonetheless, was inappropriate,” said the principal, because Bellamy is up for re-election this year, and Walton says the school wouldn’t want it to appear as a political endorsement.

“More important,” the principal added, “I do not believe his inclusion in the exhibit fit with the theme of recognizing African American role models down through history who have had a lasting and positive influence upon our nation.”

Says Stargell, “No doubt there are persons at Walton who wish to further Mr. Bellamy’s political agenda…They got caught. They now say Bellamy was not deserving.”

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, is [Walton] that far out into left field shooting marbles, or does he honest to God think that Wes Bellamy is some shining star?” asks Davis.

All of the leaders’ photos were taken down at the end of the month. According to county schools spokesperson Phil Giaramita, next year students will have a role in deciding how to celebrate Black History Month.

Bellamy declined to comment.