I thank the students and staff at  Ivy Creek School  for a terrific visit first thing Monday morning! 

 

I appreciate Natalie Wright, Michelle Graves, and Melissa Thompson greeting me when I entered the school. Principal Gary Wintersgill and Piedmont Regional Education Program (PREP) Executive Director Angela Neely gave me a brief tour and overview of programs happening at Ivy Creek right now. 

We visited students and teachers, including Grace Gerges and Amy Jennings’s high school space and Liza-Marie Griebenauw and Liz Wood’s middle school class. During our time in the high school class, students were doing independent work at their own pace with facilitation from Ms. Gerges and Ms. Jennings. Students were logged into Edgenuity to study various courses. I enjoyed talking with them about their work.  

In the middle school class, students were learning how to calculate the surface area and volume of rectangular cuboids. Dr. Griebenauw provided examples and walked her students through the process to first determine which formula is appropriate and then how to do the calculations. In addition, students were given materials and directions to cut and piece together their own 3-D cuboids from which to work on problem solving. Several of the students encouraged me as I put my cuboid together, although secretly I’m not sure they were impressed with my final product 🙂.

I am always happy to see PREP’s Parent Resource Center Coordinator Stephanie Hicks. Hi Stephanie!

Visiting Ivy Creek School on Monday made my week! Everyone - students and staff - was working hard in a positive climate. Thank you again for taking me in for the morning! 

 

High School Schedules and Student Voice were combined for insightful conversations as students from all four high schools shared their experiences and ideas with their teachers, counselors, and instructional coaches at Center I yesterday.

 

Speaking of High Schools, I received this message from AHS Principal Darah Bonham on Wednesday evening. Our mission statement in action!

Sorry for the long text, but I just wanted to share this with you.

Last year we tested 236 Juniors for our in-school SAT day. We made it a point this year to “expect “ ALL of our Juniors to test and encouraged them to do so.

Meghan Parsons reported that we had 352 test-takers today. 

At 3:00 PM, I learned of one group that had just finished testing, and I ended up finding lunch for these 20 of our Spanish speaking students, who had spent all day using translation dictionaries to take the SATS.

I know our students taking the SAT this year will be more diverse than ever and that our AHS Patriot Staff have opened up some doors for these students.

Thanks to Meghan and her team 👊🏼.

 

Media Links for You! 

Fifth-grader Leah Salzburg from Brownsville Elementary School won a statewide art contest sponsored by the Virginia Lottery.  Leah's artwork will be featured on postcards that will be sent to teachers in the state during Teacher Appreciation Week.  State Senator Creigh Deeds was among those who joined a recent celebration at the school:

Local Fifth Graders Art going on Postcards for 40-Thousand Virginia Teachers 

Fifth Grade Art at Brownsville 

 

Center 1 student Laveen Hiranandani recently hosted Meriwether Lewis students for some hands-on robotics learning:

Hands-on Robotics Learning at Center 1 

 

Albemarle High School's Vidya Ambati is a Grand Award winner in this year's Piedmont Regional Science Fair.  She studied treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that affects millions of people around the world.  Vidya is working with UVA on her research, which already has resulted in two patents and was the subject of a NBC-29 interview:

NBC 29 Community Conversation 

 

Last week, students at Western Albemarle conducted their annual Model Congress, which provides students with an up-close look at what it means to be a legislator and design and develop solutions to important issues in the country:

WAHS Model Congress 

 

We're now in the process of working with outside consultants to enhance our instructional practices to more vigorously close achievement gaps.  This week, our consultants began a series of focus group sessions, leading to this story on NBC-29 and our news release:

Albemarle County Public Schools Bringing in Third Party to Help Address the Achievement Gap 

Division-wide Instructional Audit Now Underway 

 

Among our more innovative and successful partnerships programs is a collaboration with UVA's Equity Center on their Starr Hills Pathway Program.  The program is a college and career preparation experience for middle school students in the area as reported by CBS-19:

Starr Hill Pathway Program Explores UVA Nursing School 

 

Although the 2023-24 school year still is five months away, applications are now being accepted for our pre-k program. NBC-29 reported on why it's important to get applications in as soon as possible:

Pre-School Applications Open for Albemarle County Public Schools 

 

Upcoming Events and Observances:

• March is Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) Equity in Education Month; Music in our Schools Month; Youth Art Month; Women’s History Month; Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month; American Red Cross Month; National Middle Level Education Month; National Nutrition Month; National Reading Month; and Social Work Month. 
• March 13 – April 15 is National Deaf History Month.
• March 19-25 is National Poison Prevention Week.