Matthew Haas
Visiting the Community Lab School

Happy Friday, Everyone! And welcome to almost-November! 

 

On Monday morning, I had a wonderful visit to the Community Lab School, where I was joined by Scottsville School Board Representative Ellen Osborne, as well as County Executive Jeff Richardson. All of us joined Principal and Assistant Principal Chad Ratliff and Josh Flaherty to walk about the building and visit classes in progress. The whole middle school’s current project is “Space Settlement.” Students are engaged in an ongoing set of learning experiences and projects geared toward the Standards of Learning for Social Studies, Science, Fine Arts, and Language Arts. We learned about a recent competition for sustainable shelters among the middle school students. Three students explained their windmill shelter to me; the shelter survived the earthquake tests, but as the students pointed out it didn’t generate much electricity. They also let me know that it scored well on aesthetics! 

We visited teachers including Julie Stavitski, Marcella Brideson, Tal Thompson, Don Barnes, Becca Hostetter, Rebecca Martinez, Jake Bryant, and Destiny Reimers. Courses included advisory periods, Spanish, Design Your Future, IB Language Arts, Maker Space, and Drivers Education. 

 

 

We observed students debating over their least favorite Halloween treat; putting together laser-cut jigsaw pieces with the theme of kindness; designing shelters and picturing interplanetary life forms on planets created by the students’ imaginations; learning to using Fusion 360 to design 3D structures; driving dollies on a “road” in the gym; providing peer reviews of one-another’s essays; and making plans for their future careers. 

Thank you to all the students and staff of Community Lab  School for having Ellen, Jeff, and  me for a visit. This was an inspiring way to start the week! 

 

Wednesday afternoon and yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to participate in the first meeting of the achievement gap task force at Center 1 as well as a root cause analysis session with middle school Reading Interventionists at Lakeside. I enjoyed the conversation with Interventionists  Mary McIntire, Debbie baker, Amanda Vogel, Patricia Mariscal, Tina Goode, LaNell Rakness, Elizabeth Sweatman, Amanda Martin, and Director of Instruction - Tiered Services - Craig Dommer. I learned a lot, and it was an engaging way for me to start the day; thank you! And speaking of Lakeside, as I arrived at the school, Jeff Matriccino, middle school teacher and bus driver, and Starr Hill Pathways Operations Program Manager Deric Childress were just about to leave for a bus ride with several students who were on their way to a day at UVA. 

 

Media links for you! 

 

The school division's interest in acquiring a full interest in CATEC was the subject of two Daily Progress stories: Albemarle County Public Schools Wants to Buy CATEC 

Charlottesville Schools Question Albemarle's Desire to Buy CATEC 

Devon Stephens, one of our highly talented Learning Technology Integrators appeared on NBC 29 to talk about digital citizenship and Adam Mohr's class at Agnor-Hurt showcased what they have learned in class about Internet safety:

NBC Community Conversation  

ACPS Elementary Students Learn Internet Safety 

Albemarle High School students were among those new drivers practicing safe habits in cooperation with local businesses: AHS Students Click Their Seatbelts  

Meriwether Lewis is our latest school to appoint a community advisory committee to review its school name: Committee Launches Survey on Meriwether Lewis Name 

 

Upcoming Events and Observances: