Happy Friday, Everyone, and thank you for a great week of school in Albemarle County! It is hard for me to believe that in just seven school days, I’ll be attending the first graduation event of the school year for ACPS with the CATEC completer’s ceremony at 7:00 PM at the Martin Luther King Junior Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School.

 

Speaking of CATEC, I had a terrific visit on Monday with Director Stephanie Carter and the CATEC staff and students. And I had a special guest, School Board Member Kate Acuff, joining me for the visit. Thank you, Office Associate Liz Wood, for welcoming me to the school!

I enjoyed spending time with Cosmetology Instructors Karen Brown and Jacqueline Waller and their Cosmetology I and II students. In the classroom space of the Cosmetology Lab,  Ms. Brown’s students were just getting started with studying color pallets and how to create colors. This reminded me a lot of Frankie Ahrens’ activity in Art class at Henley last week. Relaxing jazz music was playing softly throughout the lab, giving it a salon feel.

In the studio area, Ms. Waller’s students were readying their stations and equipment to practice for practical exams. Everything a hairdresser does, the students are learning through practice with their clients: mannequins. Each mannequin has a name and personality! It was such a pleasure to talk with students as they methodically worked their way through their rubrics and steps to create a chemical wave.

 

As I entered Kimberly Smyth’s Veterinary Science class, students were completing a do-now to - as Dr. Smyth explained - activate their prior knowledge in preparation for their upcoming certification exams. After that, to introduce a conversation about internal organs and x-rays, Dr. Smyth showed a series of x-ray photos during which students were asked to identify the species in the photo, the ingested object causing a blockage for the animal, and the location of the blockage. Spoiler alert: nearly all of the animals guilty of eating foreign objects were…dogs. 

After visiting CATEC on Monday during the day, I came back in the evening on Wednesday for a CATEC Board meeting and to witness signing day for 20 CATEC students who were completing their credentialing either as high school students or as graduates who had come back during the adult program hours in the evening. Completers were celebrated as they signed on for jobs in nursing, auto technology and auto body, culinary arts, building trades, electricity, and military service. What a positive event orchestrated by Career Development Counselor Amanda Jay! Proud families were in attendance with employers and instructors who lauded each student and appreciated each young person’s commitment to the next step in life. 

I thank Ms. Carter and the whole CATEC staff for the wonderful time I had this week at your school and for the excellent work you all do with our students and families! 

 

Here are a few media links for your consideration! 

Our support for mental health awareness month, including the lighting of our county office building in green all week, was the subject of television coverage that included School Board member, Dr. Kate Acuff:

NBC 29 Community Conversation

Albemarle County Leaders Light Up County Office Building Green for Mental Health Awareness Month

Our third high school spring musical, Tuck Everlasting, had its opening performance last evening and will perform tonight, Saturday, and Sunday and then next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Evening performances are at 7 p.m. with matinees added for Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.  Here's a look at the show:

Tuck Everlasting

Congratulations to Samson McCune, an Albemarle High School senior who found time during the pandemic to write and publish a novel and to invent a new language to support his novel.  Samson's work was the subject of a recent Daily Progress article:

High School Senior Pens and Publishes a Novel

A separate Daily Progress story reported strong community support for keeping the name of Greer Elementary School in honor of Mary Carr Greer:

Greer School's Name Has Community Recognition

 

Upcoming Observances

• May 30 is Memorial Day.
• June 10 is the last day of school for students.