Happy Friday, Everyone! I hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a great day with students and colleagues! I am looking forward to substituting at the Community Lab School today. 

I want to thank Principal Darah Bonham and the AHS staff for allowing me to visit AHS on Monday morning. Before walking about the school, Mr. Bonham and I talked for a bit about a big change he and the AHS staff have rolled out with the second semester. They have moved their intervention period to the morning, creating a “homeroom” approach for the first part of the day. 

It is no secret that nationally schools have been grappling with increased attendance problems, upsets, and failing grades during the instability created by COVID-19.  These kinds of issues lead to school climate concerns that impact all students and their learning opportunities. In Albemarle, we have been

 Rather than sticking with the status quo, the AHS staff has changed the school schedule to accommodate late arrivals, cut down on student stress over arriving and heading straight into an academic class first thing in the morning, and providing a safe place with an adult mentor at the outset of the day. The whole staff is pitching in, so the number of students assigned to each teacher averages 17, and both teachers and students had the opportunity to request one another. Students were hand-scheduled. In addition to having time first thing in the morning to be ready to learn, students will be able to request to go see other teachers for extra time and support.

Based on these changes, Mr. Bonham expects to see better class period attendance, less disruption, and improved student learning. I realize that AHS is just one example of what all of our schools are doing to adjust at midyear so that we can adapt our strategies to meet the learning and social-emotional needs of students. Using time as a variable rather than a constraint not only supports students, but it creates a more supportive environment for staff. When we ask educators to provide extra time and support for students, it is only fair to provide predictable time during the work day to do so. 

I thank all of our educators and support staff for your focused monitoring of our student’s learning results as well as their learning conditions and more importantly - based on what you see - making changes to collectively impact their success. Great work! 

Here are three recent media links for consideration. The first is a Daily Progress story on the ACPS Community Lab School's collaboration with the 21st Century Learning Project that involves UVA and Penn's Howard Blumenthal. Also, an NBC clip about the parent volunteers who visited all of our schools this week with appreciation gifts. Finally, a story about our work with a local non-profit to support an Afghan family that relocated to our school division after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer.

Community Lab Students Help Rethink Education

ACPS Parents Show Appreciation to School Nurses

Afghan Family Receives a Car

Check out this video about the upcoming ACPS food drive. It is the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank's largest campaign of the year, headed this year by two of our students!

Blue Ridge Area Food Bank School Food Drive

 

Upcoming Observances

• February is Black History Month.
• February is Career and Technical Education Month.
• February is National Children’s Dental Month.
• February is Virginia School Board Appreciation Month. 
• February 14th is Valentine’s Day. 
• The week of February 17th is the National PTA’s Take Your Family to School Week.
• February 17th is PTA Founders’ Day.
• February 21st is Presidents Day. 
• March 7 through 25 is the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank School Food Drive.